The Star Malaysia

New speakers unveiled

- By TAN KIT HOONG bytz@thestar.com.my

CHANCES are you probably have not have heard of French high-end audio brand Focal, but it’s certainly heard of you — the company has just launched a number of speakers in Malaysia targeted at PC and ipod/iphone users.

This series of speakers is called Bird, which are small, full-range 2.1 speakers with the ability to wirelessly stream audio from ipods and IOS devices like the iphone and the ipad.

There are three models in the Bird range — the Littlebird, Bird and the Superbird.

As the names suggest, the Littlebird is the smallest, with the satellite speakers equipped with a 4in driver and a 19mm tweeter combinatio­n, while the Bird has a 5.5in driver and tweeter and the Superbird has the same 5.5in driver and tweeter but with a passiver driver for better bass response.

All three models come with an amplifier unit and integrated active subwoofer in one housing.

Focal claims that the subwoofer on the amplifier unit is the world’s flattest — the whole amp and woofer combinatio­n is not much bigger than most Blu-ray players.

However, the main attraction of the Bird speakers are that they support the Kleer wireless lossless audio transmissi­on technology.

One of the optional transmitte­rs is one that attaches to the iphone via the dock connector and allows wireless high- quality transmissi­on of audio to the Bird system.

Right now, the wireless units only attach to ipods and IOS devices, but Focal has plans to introduce transmitte­rs that will be able to attach to Android devices.

Prices are RM3,999 for the Littlebird, RM4,599 for the Bird and RM5,599 for the Superbird.

The wireless transmitte­r is RM488. ++++ www.focal.com www.dporangeco­mm.com.my

 ??  ??
 ??  ?? AFP
AFP

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Malaysia