Thank you so much for this! I'm actually looking for an "upstairs" rig to use with my iPhone / iPad, and there are almost too many options these days. The new Peachtree deepblue, the Vanatoos . . . it really becomes a case of what is most convenient and sounds great. Sounds like these are another contender.

Thanks for the feedback. I do about 75% of my bedroom listening with an iPad, but I use it as a controller (via Apple's Remote.app) for an Apple TV set top box (without the actual TV, which we won't allow in the bedroom). This gives the option to use wireless airplay streaming from the iPad itself, from my main system, or as an independent "zone player" that sources my main system (the latter two using iTunes as a server). I actually never tried wiring in my iPad directly, except once with the USB camera adaptor to show that you could, at least in principle, use the iPad/USB route for direct digital playback from the iPad. I think if I were to use it that way under ordinary circumstances, I would probably invest in a proper digital iPad dock, but it is kind of cool that you can do it with the (now obsolete) USB adaptor.

(You could also do it with the much more user-friendly 3.5 mm analogue connection, but that defeats the direct digital coolness factor.)

"Digital coolness factor" is important

Amazing how much I enjoy slick gadgets, almost for their own sakes - and it's all for my own amusement / entertainment, as I don't have friends over to show them / make them jealous, etc. I just get a kick out of it, every time.

Heard these yesterday in Newport and have to agree that they are a bargain for the price and sound very nice.

I think any 24/96 gets down-ressed, pretty sure that's what they told me.

Good review!

I think any 24/96 gets down-ressed' date=' pretty sure that's what they told me.[/quote']

 

I didn't know that. What's the story with that?

The Stereophile review explains it well.

Thanks for writing this. It is a service to all involved.

The Zeppelin, on the other hand, pretends to be a subwoofer, with the net result that you have something rather more thick, muddy and inarticulate that can, nonetheless, dislodge the fillings from your teeth.

Your words accurately describe my experience with the Zeppelin Air. I had to set the bass to -3 to turn the Zeppelin into a device with which I can listen to acoustic music. But even so, I am only moderately pleased with the Zeppelin Air and much prefer the Libratone Zipp that I purchased later: less powerful, but much more natural-sounding. The only instance when I would prefer the Zeppelin is when listening to electronica or dance music.

New review: Vanatoo Transparent One are better than Bluetooth soundbars | Digital Audio Review by John Darko

My comments after listening to the Vanatoo for about 30 minutes connected to my DVD player via Toslink (so the source material was at the 48 KHz native sampling rate of the Vanatoo DSP):

The midrange and bass are amazingly good for such a small, inexpensive speaker. Both have excellent clarity and effortless power. The bass is seamlessly integrated with the midrange. However, to achieve this I had to turn the bass knob almost all the way down, to about 8-oclock. (This was listening to a DVD of the beginning of Act 3 of Siegfried.)

The treble is another story. The John Darko review linked in the preceding post said the treble was somewhat excessive. I think it has a more serious problem that is not addressed by simply turning down the treble control. Even with the treble control at 10-oclock, it has a conspicuous resonance or breakup mode that adds a spitting character to speech transients and adds what I describe as a “shattering” sound to treble in music.

Please don't assume my treble complaint is a deal-breaker because it may be as good as you can get for $500. I haven’t heard any other powered speakers in its price range.

A week ago I heard two speakers that were half the size and half the price ($250) of Vanatoo, and they were a definite step down: Audioengine 2+ (powered), and Orb satellite (passive). The Audioengine sounded muffled across the entire frequency range and had non-adjustable boomy upper bass. (Although the bass was better if you connected the passive half of the pair to a separate amp to avoid the bass boost of the internal EQ.) The Audioengine treble avoided the peakiness of the Vanatoo by being rolled off and indistinct. The Orb was a joke for the price. It had a very non-uniform midrange and treble, with apparent resonances at multiple frequencies.

I wonder if the toslink might be the source of the treble trouble? (I didn't hear anything like that.)

I just got a pair of these for my "home office" which is a rather small stand-alone structure with an iMac in it. These excel at near-field in a way that I was not previously aware of (I was reporting impressions from my bedroom). My best initial attempt at describing this is like having an exceptionally good pair of headphones on, but without the encumbrances and irritations that come with having little speakers clamped to your ears. The amount of detail is stunning.

For those who care, this is with a cheesy $2 USB cable and an old 2007 iMac, so who knows, maybe it could do even better.

Listening to this at the moment, no added sub, the bass is remarkably good. The sound effects are extremely realistic.

I'm a bit less thrilled about the delivery and packaging.

I decided I would order the speakers from the Vanatoo website itself, instead of through Amazon (I'm a prime member, and would have got two-day free delivery), so as to save the Vanatoo guys a few bucks by cutting out the middleman. Or so I thought. When I placed the order, I was a bit surprised to get an email saying Amazon was shipping the package and I would get it in a week or so. It came via FedExp Smartpost, which sort of combines the worst aspects of both organizations. Yesterday's "delivery" was a postcard in my mail box telling me to drive 15 miles to the post office the next day to pick it up. It was in a big old beat up cardboard Amazon box, and I almost tripped over a couple of our local heroin addicts passed out on the front steps while carrying it to my car.

I opened up the Amazon box to find the Vanatoo box inside, and it was immediately fairly clear it was an "open box item". (I had contemplated saving $50 by getting one of the "B" grade versions that had been returned, but I decided not to and ordered what I thought would be new at full price.) The top of the box had been re-taped, but the side was just split open:

The speakers were re-packaged with a similar approach:

The instructional quick-start card was water-stained too.

Fortunately there was nothing obviously wrong with the speakers that a bit of polish could not cure. (The USB connection seems a bit loose, but it might have been that way from the beginning, and it seems to work ok.)

This is a problem with Amazon I have had before. Their return policy is generous, but they have no qualms about sending you open-box stuff as if it is new.

I just did the Perfect Sense Q-Sound imaging test with the Vanatoos. The effect is better and more focused than with any other speakers I have tried this on (including my main system, where at the moment something is wrong and it isn't happening at all). This, among other things, suggests that the DSP is doing much more good than harm for phase coherence/imaging.

The dubbed voice of Hal (from the movie 2001) saying "Stop, Dave" gives the illusion of being 90 degrees to the left of the listening position. When something goes awry (as it apparently has on my main system), the image collapses to the center of the soundstage.

Hi wgscott,

I realize that you originally posted this blog entry back in June 2013, but I found it very helpful - thank you!

I am looking at these for use in a bedroom, using them with two digital sources: TV via the optical, and USB via a Nanopi Neo running DietPi/Roon Bridge.

After reading your review, I took a look at Amazon... there is a review that warns about using two digital sources... specifically that the USB port won't release without unplugging.  Have you seen this? The auto-sensing ability is pretty important to me ... first world problems and all. 

I would like to set the volume on the Vanatoo speakers once, then control the volume from TV or via Roon... do you think these would be a good match, or should I wait for the Transparent Zero to come back in stock, because of the remote control?

In any case, thanks again! Cheers...

@ds58 :  I think what was described in that review is correct.  I will bring an optical cable to work (where I have the speakers) and test it.  The lack of a remote control was my only significant gripe. I didn't realize they had a new version with a remote.  Maybe for your application it would make sense to hold out for that.

Thank you again!

The new model Transparent Zero is an upgrade in some ways, and a downgrade in others... They are $360, but had an introductory price of $300... of course, by the time I read about them, they were out of stock and availability is TBD.