Reviews for Libratone Live Speaker with AirPlay Technology

I have tested and tried multiple wireless speakers, and the speakers (I bought both the small and the large one) from Libratone are simply amazing - not only in design - but in sound! I was sick and tired of remote controls, and my wife of clumsy amplifiers and cables. This is why we went wireless. This sleek design matches our home perfectly (the cover is actually cashmere!!), and the fact that we can control the music with our iDevices is just.. need and _very_ simple! :)

My only issue is that I cant get the speakers in red. I really wanted that. I can see on the libratone website that they have speakers in other colors in other stores. Would have liked that.

When I bought a speaker late last year (wanted to test the technology before purchasing more), it had good sound quality and worked well over AirPlay except for dropping sound very occasionally. However, I have moved and bought a new wireless modem. When I tried to reconnect to AirPlay, I initially succeeded only to have the speaker go into endless search (yellowing blinking) mode after an unsuccessful attempt to download an update to the Libratone iPAD app. I have tried everything - even the factory reboot, and nothing will get the speaker working again. Not what one expects for speakers that cost this much.

Good:
I must admit that sound that comes out of this speaker is fantastic but this is where it stops for me

Bad:
Almost every single time I try to play music through it using AirPlay it disappears from the list and the only way to fix it is by turning it off and on again. Each time I switch from my iPod touch to streaming from my MacBook it does the same thing. In last couple of months I didn't even use it because when you are on a couch you don't expect getting up to reboot it because it wouldnt play and requires reboot so I just use my computer speakers or stream through apple tv and my tv speakers.

All my firmware is latest, my entire wifi network is latest apple airport extreme, I am all Mac but this thing won't Behave therefore I would call it the worst purchase of mine in past 10 years. Looks great though and I bet it wouldn't have issues connecting audio source by cable and also their site is terrible so not much help around ether, not even a good blog about how to fix this garbage

Purchased the Libratone in Dec 2011. Have had connectivity issues from day one with Apple's Airport Extreme 2nd and 5th Generation routers. I contacted Libratone and their Customer Service was quick to respond that there were known issues and that a firmware update was coming in Jan. It is now mid-February and there is still no update.

The workaround offered was to connect the unit with a minijack cable. I tried this today figuring that why not use it on my flatscreen TV (older Panasonic Viera Plasma). Unfortunately the Panasonic does not control the output level passing through the analog out and the Libratone has no volume controls on the unit. Net result a very loud volume output. According to the Libratone FAQ, the unit volume should be controllable from their iPhone app but that did not work from my iPhone4S. The app indicates that the speaker is not playing any sound.

I truly hope they can fix their problems but for now, it is not working as advertised. For me at least...

I would be very keen to learn what network configuration the other positive reviews had.

If by the end of the month, they have not resolved the problem, I will have to take Libratone up on their offer to refund the purchase of the product as I have now had a neat looking paper weight sitting in my dining room for almost 2 months.

Great idea but unfortunately not properly executed.

These integrate perfectly to Airplay: We have 2 setup, and will get a few more.

Sounds great, but need to be boosted a bit on the low end (using iTunes EQ)

Now running sound throughout the main floor, and controlling all using "remote" for the iPhone. Timing is perfect (No Lag between locations)

Libratone/Apple have finally entered the living room with a Phenomenal Solution

I'm not going to talk about the design, the look is beautiful and pictures speak well for it.
The audio features, however,, I feel, are overadvertised.
If you want to hear any kind of stereo separation, you actually have to stand behind the unit because this is where the main speakers are facing.
The 360-stereo probably doesn't mean much with such a small unit. No matter how hard you try The sound will never fill your room--it's just against physics.
The speaker is probably a wonderful fit for parties or in the settings where music serves a "being in the background" purpose. If you do want to concentrate on the music and truly enjoy the stereo image, you will be disappointed.
One last point. Please keep in mind this speaker does not come with built-in rechargeable battery. So, while it is being touted as a completely wireless experience, you will find yourself plugging and unplugging the power cable often! :)
I'll give this product 4 stars but only as a token of appreciation for all the creativity that the manufacturer put into it.

After days of research in looking for the best airplay speaker setup for a small room, I found these units. This is the best rated speakers I could find with great sound quality and design (they look amazing). However, the support structure at Libratone is horrendous. On their website they do not provide a phone number to contact support. They also don't provide detailed specs of their products. When I received my units (I bought 5), I found the packaging and instructions easy to follow. However, once I attempted to connect to my wireless network, the speaker showed and error. I tried three times and finally gave up and emailed support. It took them a week to respond to my initial email. The verdict.....
"The use of special characters such as #, &, %, or any national characters in your SPEAKER NAME, WIRELESS NETWORK NAME or WIRELESS NETWORK PASSWORD is not supported. If you use these characters please replace them with alphanumeric characters only." Libratone Support.
As an IT professional, I can tell you, special characters in a password line is a requirement. To find a device that does not support that is unacceptable. To have to wait an entire week to hear back from the support department at a company is unacceptable. While waiting for the reply I did get a chance to setup an un-secured wireless network and test this device. I will say, these speakers sound amazing. The amount of customization to the sound with the iOS app is amazing as well. All in all, these speakers are nice, but with poor support and faulty wireless coding.

This speaker produces great sound. It was easy to set up and works great across all my devices(iPhone, ipad, macbook, iMac). It also works great when friends are over and want to show you some new music they have on their phone, just select the speaker and they can play from their phone. Very clean sound, I found using the voicing optimization app actually makes a big difference depending on the speaker placement. Overall I'm very happy with this speaker, there have been about 4 times (over a year period) where I've had to reset it to make the connection work. I would give it 5 stars if this hadn't happened. To be fair though, it could have been a network problem and not the speakers fault.
Great speaker that has worked flawlessly 98.876404% of the time

Having a couple Airport Express units for connecting powered speakers I kept looking toward a neater solution in a small package and this Libratone got my attention. I absolutely dislike extra cords running between things, especially external power supplies lying about the floor. This unit has the simple power cord and nothing more. Adding to the simplicity is one multifunction logo-button on front and a recessed power switch on back.

Since I use a long password containing special characters for my Airport wireless I had to temporarily simplify it for the initial connection. One other speed bump is having to discover the MAC Address of the unit as it's not provided in labels nor in the internal setup page. That's due to my using Airport's managed access and I did not want to disable it even for a few minutes. I hope they add that to their setup.

After connecting, I immediately checked for the firmware update with the iPhone app which installed quickly and that allowed me to continue using the special characters for the wireless network. Connections from my iMac, Macbook Air, iPhones and iPads have been working fine, no disconnects.

I was surprised at the sound from this compact unit, better depth and definition than the separate power speakers I have, and stronger, healthier bass which is much less muddy. Very nice indeed.

Liking the overall esthetics (both design and technical) I intend on getting a couple more for the house, nothing else out there quite like it. Pricey - maybe, but when I forked out a small fortune for my first computer many decades ago a friend pointed out I had the best reason in the world to buy it: "It's because I wanted it." Haven't had buyers remorse then or now!

My friend bought a Libratone Beat abroad and it's so much better than the Live. I had so much trouble getting it to connect to my wifi router that I ended up returning it. And it doesn't come with the USB dongle that allows the Beat to play from a PC without Airplay.