If you’re short on time and just want the highlights of this article, here it is:
The Airpulse A200 Bluetooth Speaker System is a decent mid-range speaker system that offers good sound quality and solid connectivity options. The system comes with a 5.5″ mid-woofer and an aluminum ribbon tweeter, both of which work together to provide full-range audio at up to 65W per channel. The cabinet construction is solid and the amplifier section is composed of three TAS5754 Class D amplifiers with hybrid-flow digital processing. The system offers two analog inputs and two digital inputs supporting up to 192 kHz sample rates, plus Bluetooth with aptX connectivity.
Overall, the sound quality is good but not exceptional. The sound is balanced, clear, and dynamic, but the soundstage could benefit from greater separation and more depth. The Bluetooth connection is solid, but could benefit from better range. The Airpulse A200 is a great choice for casual listeners who want something that is easy to set up and use, and can deliver good sound quality without breaking the bank. However, it might not be the best choice for serious music enthusiasts who expect the highest level of sound quality.
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Now let’s get to its bolts and nuts.
Airpulse A200 Review: Sound quality
Let me tell you something right off the bat.
The sound quality performance you'll end up getting from a speaker will always depend on your room acoustics - particularly room dimensions and speaker positions.
The impact of the combination of these two is actually so strong that in most cases, it doesn't even make sense to utter a single word on sound quality without speaking of them.
This is also why it's not unusual to see completely different reviews of the same speaker.
In one case the speaker might be placed in a sweet spot inside the room and hence the user might be satisfied. In other cases the same speaker might be ill placed and hence user might even have returned it.
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The point most people miss here is that it mostly isn't even about the engineering behind the speaker itself. It's about where you place the speaker inside which room.
So, in order to solve this problem, I've partnered with Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD Andrea Cicero from AC Acustica and created Soundton - a simple, 2D, browser accessible online speaker placement calculator.
With Soundton, now there's a way to figure the sound quality of most speakers before you buy them.
Read more about its working principles at soundton.com.
The end colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) acoustics.