Reviews for Libratone Lounge Speaker with AirPlay Technology

The libratone Lounge is the only genuinely high end
AirPlay speaker available and it is absolutely awesome. So much so that I bought 2!

The sound quality is really good. I can only compare the sound directly to my pro audio recording system (genelec 8040a's + fireface audio interface) and although the quality isn't quite as high as that (it would be unreasonable to expect it to be as it is at a significantly lower price) the sound stage is much better. At higher volumes you can fill a large room. For lower volumes, I found that two units sounded much better in my lounge (9m by 5m). The airplay audio is in perfect sync between them.

The sound is balanced but you do not get the big thump at the bottom end, so if your main listening is hip hop you may wish to look elsewhere. I like the bass - it's refined and clear, and let's me listen at higher volumes without annoying the neighbours. The mid range is very good and the high end is fantastic - not exaggerated but just really crystal.

I had some issues with regular dropouts to start with but they have been resolved with the latest software. I rarely get dropouts now. Connection is fast - after you hit play, the music plays within 3 seconds or so. Pausing and volume changes are almost instant.

It's hard to review the Lounge without reviewing AirPlay too. There are limitations on the AirPlay system (that you don't have with Sonos) but that is Apple's fault not Libratone's - for example you can only stream to one speaker from an iDevice yet you can stream to as many as you like from iTunes. But on the plus side when using an iDevice you can use intelligent music apps like groove to get better mixes of your songs. And like everything Apple, it looks great and just works.

I highly, highly recommend this. Yes you can get a more expensive separates hi-fi system that will sound even better, and you can connect some device to get AirPlay working with it, but it will be a mess of wires and ugly. This is beautiful, simple and sounds fantastic to me - and I am generally very picky when it comes to sound quality.