If you’re short on time and just want the highlights of this article, here it is:
To wrap it up, I think the Airpulse A300Pro is a decent speaker with good sound quality and a host of features. Its 6.5-inch woofer and horn-loaded aluminum ribbon tweeter deliver sound well across a wide space and provide crisp high and low frequencies. Its cabinet is constructed with 1″ high-strength MDF and it has a wave-absorbing material to enhance the absorption of standing waves.
It also comes with a host of connectivity features like Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD, KleerNet wireless transmission technology, and a USB digital audio interface. The speaker also has a wireless remote control and an ASIO audio drive.
Overall, I’d say the Airpulse A300Pro is an above-average speaker that is suitable for casual listening and small gatherings. It’s not the best choice for serious audiophiles, but it can still give you decent sound quality and a range of features.
Quick link:
Now let’s get to its bolts and nuts.
Airpulse A300Pro Review: Sound quality
Have you ever noticed that there often tends to be quite the opposite opinions about a speaker?
I can understand this for more "personal taste" kinda products like clothing, for example.
But for engineering products like speakers? Personal tastes and preferences probably still play a role. But shouldn't it be less?
Why is it that we can't set a universal metric for sound quality?
First time I asked this question to myself has been a pivotal day.
Because it turns out that in the mid 90's, Electrical Engineer PhD Floyd Toole came up with a method called Spinorama. This is exactly what he accomplished with this. Turns out that his book Sound Reproduction is like the bible of audiophiles.
Put it simply, Spinorama is a set of measurements that gives a comprehensive overview of a speaker's performance from various angles.
It allows you to compare the performances of different speakers before even laying your ears hands on them.
Isn't that amazing?
This is why Spinorama was apparently groundbreaking news for audio industry. Hence in the mid-late 2010's, most brands and magazines began publishing Spinorama measurements, despite the challenges of making such measurements.
Fortunately, now we have the Spinorama data for a bunch of quite popular speakers. Pierre Aubert put all this untidy data together and put it into https://www.spinorama.org/. This is a stunning source. Pretty valuable stuff from him right there.
All good up to this point.
Now there comes a caveat.
Since the sound speakers propagate are in the form of omnidirectional waves, all measurements are obtained in anechoic or semi-anechoic chambers (a super-quiet room where soundwaves don't bounce back, here's how different that room sounds [a mind blowing time-adjusted video]).
This is a problem because it means that Spinorama alone, unfortunately, won't give us all we need. Placement and reflections play an equally important role there too.
This is why most A-class brands (like SVS, Bang & Olufsen, etc) often come up with room correction features, adjusted either manually or automatically. The EQ adapts itself to the placement (room, corner, center, etc) for a better (deeper and more accurate) sound. Which is great.
Additionally they often emphasize the importance of placement, here is an example: https://www.svsound.com/blogs/subwoofer-setup-and-tuning/75365187-the-art-of-subwoofer-placement
Anyways...
The source code under Pierre Aubert's work is licensed under GPL (General public license). He didn't perform any of the measurements himself, and instead he compiled all of them into one place, so that makes sense.
At this point, I thought that if there was a tool that combined both the Spinorama with the room acoustics data, it'd be extremely useful.
Unfortunately, it turns out that there wasn't any.
This is where I stepped in and partnered with an Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD in order to achieve this.
We combined Spinorama data with room acoustics and came up with Soundton. A very simple, 2D online tool that allows you to:
- Reveal optimal speaker positions in a room,
- Test with real speakers from real brands,
- Compare different speakers and different positions in the room.
It can be very valuable for the vast majority.
The colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) listening experience.
It works the best with subwoofers since Soundton processes low frequency response waves only.
- Soundton is going to be, say, 80% accurate. Not 100%.
- Because, other parameters such as the age/materials of the building, furniture/windows in place also have an impact on room acoustics.
- If you want absolutely the most detailed room analysis, then what you need is an acoustics consultant. Mind you that's going to require deep pockets and patience though... assuming you find the right person and they get the job done.
Anyways...
When it comes to sound quality, I’d give Airpulse A300Pro an above-average score. Its unique horn-loaded aluminum ribbon tweeter does a pretty good job of evenly distributing sound across a wide space. I’ve read that the high frequency notes it produces are very articulate and three-dimensional, and I tend to believe that. But, I wish it had a bit wider frequency range – maybe up to 40kHz.
The Airpulse A300Pro’s 6.5-inch woofer also does a good job of delivering clean low frequencies that are quite detailed and deeply extended. It has a strong magnetic circuit design, and it’s supported by a 2-inch diameter voice coil and an oversized, high-energy magnet. According to the brand, its heat dissipation mechanism is cleverly designed, so I’d expect the speaker to have a low distortion and high level of dynamics.
The cabinet construction is also quite solid. It’s made with a 1” thick high-strength fiberboard, and the interior is lined with a 1.4” thick professional wave-absorbing material which helps to absorb the excess standing waves.
The A300PRO speaker also features the Qualcomm QCC3031 series 5.0 Bluetooth chipset and supports the aptX HD high-fidelity codec, so that wireless playback can be done with minimal signal loss.
The speaker also has an internal 150W high-efficiency, low-ripple switching power supply and uses the high-quality Texas Instruments TPA3251 digital power amplifier. The woofer output power of each cabinet is no less than 120W, and the tweeter output at 10W. So, overall you can expect quite a crisp sound.
I think Airpulse did a good job making the A300Pro sound quite balanced. But, I believe the sound could have been even better if it had higher frequency range, a wider soundstage, and slightly better instrument separation. I also think the speaker could have been made using better materials to give a more luxurious look.
All in all, I’d say the Airpulse A300Pro is a decent speaker offering decent sound quality. It’s suitable for casual listening and small gatherings. But, it’s not really the best choice if you’re a serious audiophile or if you’re looking for an audiophile-grade speaker.
Airpulse A300Pro Review: Connectivity
When it comes to connectivity, I’d say the Airpulse A300Pro definitely has some great features to offer. It has a USB digital audio interface which supports the UAC2 digital audio application. It also provides an ASIO audio drive to enable Windows users to have a high-quality low latency signal path out.
The speaker also uses KleerNet wireless transmission technology for interconnecting the left and right speakers. This tech uses the 5.2 and 5.8 GHz spectrums and has a 22 MHz radio bandwidth to ensure lossless audio signal transmission. You can even use the speaker for a traditional monitor speaker setup with a mixing console in a recording studio.
The Bluetooth audio receiver is built using the QCC3031 from Qualcomm. It’s a Bluetooth 5.0 chipset with the aptX HD high-fidelity codec. So, you can enjoy an improved audio playback experience over traditional Bluetooth SBC audio.
Since Airpulse also selected Transparent brand internal connections. You can be sure that the maximum accuracy of signal transmission is ensured.
Lastly, the speaker comes with a wireless remote control to take control of your sound. You can easily switch between inputs from the comfort of your seat.
Overall, I’d say the Airpulse A300Pro is a decent speaker when it comes to connectivity. It has a decent variety of features and offers good sound quality over Bluetooth. It also has good signal transmission accuracy and a wireless remote control. But, I wish it had a few more features like Bluetooth multipoint or Wi-Fi connectivity.
Airpulse A300Pro Review: Most & least ideal user profiles
The Airpulse A300Pro is a decent speaker that delivers good sound quality, comes with a host of features, and is quite easy to setup. It’s an ideal choice for people who want a speaker for casual listening, small gatherings, and even recording studios with a mixing console.
The most ideal users for this product would be people who want a speaker system that is aesthetically pleasing and has good sound quality and connectivity options. They should also be ok with the fact that this speaker cannot really compete with more audiophile-grade products in terms of sound quality.
On the other hand, I don’t think the Airpulse A300Pro is the best choice for serious audiophiles or people who want a speaker that can compete with more high-end speakers. If you’re looking for something with a wider frequency range and a wider soundstage, then this isn’t the right speaker for you.
That being said, I think the Airpulse A300Pro is still a decent product that can give you good sound quality and a range of features in a compact form factor.
Airpulse A300Pro Review: Conclusion
To wrap it up, I think the Airpulse A300Pro is a decent speaker with good sound quality and a host of features. Its 6.5-inch woofer and horn-loaded aluminum ribbon tweeter deliver sound well across a wide space and provide crisp high and low frequencies. Its cabinet is constructed with 1″ high-strength MDF and it has a wave-absorbing material to enhance the absorption of standing waves.
It also comes with a host of connectivity features like Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD, KleerNet wireless transmission technology, and a USB digital audio interface. The speaker also has a wireless remote control and an ASIO audio drive.
Overall, I’d say the Airpulse A300Pro is an above-average speaker that is suitable for casual listening and small gatherings. It’s not the best choice for serious audiophiles, but it can still give you decent sound quality and a range of features.