AirPulse A300 Active Bookshelf Bluetooth HiRes Audio Speaker System with Signature Phil Jones Design – Cherry Wood

These speakers are excellent quality with an impressive range of capabilities and pleasing aethetics.The first impression when unboxing is of low key, functional packaging, but lifting the speakers out of their individual cloth bags it is immediately apparent that these are very solid quality items, with good quality accessories. Assembly is simple and intuitive, but if necessary the accompanying instruction booklet answers any queries straightforwardly.Using the bluetooth connection was easy and the sound is very good, especially given that the source is a simple app on a mobile phone playing over a wireless connection. The tweeters create a crisp detail (rather than the harsh trebles of some systems) and this works well with the mid range woofer which provides a warm richness as well as surprisingly punchy bass. My wife described a track of acoustic guitar as sounding like the instrument ‘was being played in the room’ and my son who was skeptical that his Grime would sound any good, admitted that the Airpulses made the bass and synth sounds of his playlist work really well. I should say that I have left all the manual controls on the active speaker in the centre neutral position.  The real discovery however was hooking up the optical cable and playing movies. The speakers transform the viewing experience. Dialogue is clearer, metallic sounds and clicks of latches etc seem to be lifted out of the background, and explosions or dramatic music make the cinematic experience very immediate. Reverting to viewing without the optical connection seems very two-dimensional in comparison, and I can’t go back now.If I have any criticism of this system at all, it is the remote control, which in feel, slightly lacks the solid quality of the other elements. It doesn’t have any LEDs to give positive confirmation of an action on the remote, but the active speaker has an LED which blinks or changes colour in response. That said the remote is simple to use, sufficient to control the functions, and works.In a very short time the Airpulse speakers have become a key part of our entertainment system working with streamed tv, Xbox games, DVDs and any audio output from the family mobiles eg radio, Spotify, YouTube etc and switching between these activities easily with a click of the remote. They may be bookshelf speakers in size but they have the power, flexibility and connectivity to be the main speakers in your home.