Krator is a relatively new player to the market and wants to shake things up with striking designs, decent quality at a reasonable price.

The Krator Neso 4 is a 2.0 channel speaker on the lower end of the Krator speakers and the features include:

• USB speakers deliver brilliant sound performance
• 5 watts R.M.S. output
• Easy-to-Go. Tiny size with wonderful sound
• Detachable Satellite Design
• An 3.5mm Stereo phone jack for audio output
• Adjustable Volume and Bass control provide maximum convenience
• Elegant design best fits for your living room and personal space
• Specifications:
• Power output: 5 Watts RMS output
• Frequency Response: 80~18Khz
• Connector: 3.5mm Stereo Audio Cable
• Controller: Volume, Bass controller
• Headphones Jack: Stereo 3.5mm Audio Jack
• Speaker Unit Driver: 2.75 inch paper dome unit driver
• Size of Satellite: W95 x H132 x D75 mm
• Power Requirement: USB Power

When we opened the box we were quite pleased with the looks of the Neso 4s which are based around a rain drop, though they are a tad light and plasticy. the rest of the contents were pretty basic, but lets face it the only thing you need are the speakers!

The speakers use USB for power and then a 3.5mm port for the sound, which is good or bad depending on how you look at it, you are restricted to a device with USB, but at the same time you didn’t have to faff around with another plug. Alternatively some speakers use USB for everything, which is convenient for a laptop but not so convenient if you want to use you iPod or whatever.

The sound quality of the sound quality of the speakers was a little tinny and certainly lacking base, they also didn’t go very loud. However for £15 you will always have questionable sound quality and for the price these speakers are a great upgrade for a laptop.

For occasional use, and mainly for laptops these are great speakers, however if you want some speakers for your desktop and have a bit more money we would suggest something with a little more oomph and possibly 2.1 for example the  Neso 4 Avante Garde 26Watt 2.1ch Speakers.

Thanks to Bitmore for providing the speakers to review.

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Krator Neso 4 5Watt 2.0ch ‘Droplet’ USB Speaker Review

When iOS 4.2 came out to update your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch it opened the ability for AirPlay functionality. Basically AirPlay was Apple re-branding its AirTunes feature allowing compatible products to stream your media from iTunes through your home network whether it be photos, video or your music from any thing running the supporting operating system. There hasn’t been a mass amount of supporting products but today we have two new docking stations. One is the probably “reasonably priced” JBL On Air and the other a rather odd-looking and expensive Philips Fidelio Soundphere.

The JBL is ring shaped to distribute sound and the AirPlay tech allows you to stream your goods to it directly from your iPod/iPad/iPhone or any computer on your network running iTunes. It also has the traditional docking port for people without the AirPlay function and a colour LCD to tell you what’s going on as well as showing Album art too. It also has an FM radio Tuner and alarm clock options too. Sadly JBL haven’t put any release dates or prices as of yet but most of their other products are reasonably priced.

Yes they’re speakers. Looking like something out of a sci-fi movie these certainly are the future of iPod docking stations. Again using the AirPlay function you can hook up your compatible device and stream away. The odd shape isn’t just aesthetic though and has been designed to increase the quality of sound. The little speakers that stick out the top like antennae are tweeters. No not something to do with social networking but a loudspeaker designed to produce high audio frequencies. The difference between these and the JBL ones will most certainly be the price as these are being pencilled in at €799 or £687.

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AirPlay Compatible iPod/iPhone/iPad Speakers

Those guys at Creative sure are nice to let us at MightyGadget test their stuff. No honest that’s the truth. I’ve been a big fan of the company since the days when PCs were getting into our homes. Yes i was a young whipper snapper but I loved taking my PC apart and upgrading components and Creative Sound Cards were always the best and when I got my first SoundBlaster Live card way back when I loved it (in other words I have a bit of a soft spot for them). My colleague recently reviewed their ZiiSound D5 Bluetooth speakers, and boy were they good. The price tag matched them however and what Creative are obviously aiming for here is a more affordable, suitable for everyone speaker dock. Anyway enough about that, what about the Creative D200’s capabilities. Click on for more.

Firstly the D200 isn’t a dedicated iPod speaker dock. Anything that has a bluetooth output can be connected to them whether it be a phone, laptop or iPod (however if your device doesn’t have Bluetooth there is a 3.5mm Aux In socket or you can buy a bluetooth adaptor from Creative for your iPod or PC. I used my iPhone to connect via Bluetooth and connected my Archos 605 Wifi to use the Aux port.)

Despite the obvious benefits of Bluetooth connectivity being “wireless”, these speakers aren’t completely portable. They require a mains supply and don’t have a battery option so sadly they’re housebound, but I did enjoy walking from room to room, iPhone in hand changing the tunes. Size wise, the dimension 40.6cm x 10.1cm x 9.3cm aren’t too bulky to move around with you, take to another room in the house or even if you’re taking them to a friends house, however to take them on holiday, un less packed in a suitcase, these aren’t totally suitable.

Personally i like the rounded “sound bar” design of the D200. However despite the glossy, shiny exterior which is great, it picks up dust and fingerprints like no other and i found myself cleaning it regularly (as I do my PS3 and HDTV on one of those black glass stands, anyway……) The front itself is a standard speaker mesh affair with the Creative logo embossed at the bottom. On the rear you have the Power button as well as the 3.5mm AUX jack. Also on the rear is a bass port a must really for any speakers this size so that your bass output is decent, something a lot of small speaker sets don’t have and as a result sound a bit rubbish.

The top of the speaker is the controls, 3 to be precise. Your first is the Bluetooth connect. Press it once and the Bluetooth switches on, allowing already paired devices (that also have their Bluetooth enabled) to connect to the speaker. If you hold the Bluetooth button for a few seconds the blue light flashes faster, this is the speaker is discovery mode so you can connect to “searching” devices and then pair the two. This was pretty easy to pair up with the iPhone, pretty much the same as when you pair any Bluetooth devices together. The other two buttons are your volume controls, they errrr, change the volume.

Now that we’ve paired our device, how do the speakers fair. Creative are experienced masters in their game of sound and the D200, for it’s size and price doesn’t disappoint. Certainly more than capable are the speakers to play in your house whether you’re listening to some music while you work, do chores or anything, the volume levels are great. Even if you have a few friends over for a shindig (that’s a party) the D200 is more than capable of playing at a high enough level to keep everyone entertained without dropping in quality of sound.

Now obviously as we thought with the ZiiSound D5 “does bluetooth really have a good enough bandwidth to supply good quality sound?” Well Creative have proved us wrong again here. I could have the speakers in the kitchen and me stood in the furthest point away in the house upstairs in the bedroom and the sound didn’t drop (around 30 feet away) nor did it effect the quality. Now if you read our review on the D5, the D200 also has the ability to improve sound with the apt-X codec, provided you’re using the official Bluetooth adaptor from Creative. apt-X basically improves the sound quality from a transmitted source to “near CD quality” provided the sound being output is of that quality. I however wasn’t using the adaptor and to be honest although the sound quality on the D5 was great for the audiophile in us, the D200 is more than capable of good quality sound for general use, however if you want a top of the range speaker set then this might not be quite good enough.

Basically the sound quality was good throughout. Playback at what I constitute as a normal volume was great in the mid-range frequencies, the bass was nice for the Rock music sounds I was playing and even at high volumes didn’t lose out too much. The only downer was very bassy music like Dance or Hip-Hop at high volumes the bass lacked a bit but at no point made me think it was “terrible”. The same applied to high end frequencies for classical music. Great up to a certain point then it lost the edge at high volumes. At the end of the day though for the price and it’s size I wouldn’t hold it against the D200 as I’d certainly say it’s better than most if not all speakers of the same size and price in it’s capabilities.

To conclude I’d certainly buy one of these if I was looking for a general use speaker set to play my tunes in the house with. Obviously lacking in true portability and the ability to say charge your iPod/iPhone whatever, it is just a simple 2.1 speaker system. However the wireless technology from Bluetooth means there’s less messy wires etc. Another drawback is that you may need to get the extra adaptor from Creative(£40) to get the full benefit of the speakers. All in all though I thought they were great and is certainly up there at the top of the speakers I’ve come across in the same range, Bluetooth or non-Bluetooth. Another job well done Creative.

The Creative D200 is available now and should set you back around £80

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Creative D200 Bluetooth Speaker : Review

If you’re into music or at least musical instruments Marshall should be a brand you all recognise with its lovely black and gold colouring and Spinal Tap admired amplifiers that went “up to 11”.

Pure, the DAB radio experts teamed up with them a couple of years back (Evoke Marshall 1-XT) and made a DAB radio branded with Marshall and adopted it’s unique designs but this was at a time when DAB was still quite expensive and not as popular. Well Pure have decided to resurrect it again only this time it’s called the Pure Evoke 1S Marshall. It’s pretty much the same, now packing portability in the form of being able to be battery powered as well as mains, an FM tuner and an input for you to plug your iPod in too. There’s also an option to pick up an extra Marshall stack shaped speaker to add that extra volume to your digital music fest.

Not only that but this time it’s heading to the masses. Firstly though one will only be able to pick it up at HMV stores or at HMV.com in the coming weeks as an exclusive thing until the rest of the world picks it up some time in September. The Evoke 1S will be priced at £120, still a bit pricey for a DAB but it certainly looks great and the first incarnation became quite the collectors item, and the extra speaker will set you back £34.99.

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Pure Evoke 1S : Marshall Branded DAB radio

Home Cinema is a big market now, I guess mainly due to the fact it’s so expensive to go to the cinema and with the development of HD video and sound it’s just as good to watch at home that it is to go out and spend a fortune on tickets and sweets. Panasonic have just revealed two new models of Blu-Ray home cinema kit, neither top end or indeed bottom end they certainly are pleasing to the eye and have a couple of nifty features.

Firstly what’s interesting is they are both 2.1 setups (incorporating 2 front speakers and a subwoofer) yet Panasonic say the sound output from them will sound pretty much like a 7.1 setup. How? Apparently it’s all due to the technology inside the speakers and their construction. Even the small subwoofer, which is on the small side in comparison to most Panasonic claims gives “powerful, reverberating bass”.

What’s great aesthetically pleasing is the design and use. The front of the unit has a sliding door which when opened allows the user to insert a disc or dock an iPod. When an iPod is docked, you can play any content from it onto your telly. Other features of both models are “High Precision 4:4:4 and PHL Chroma Processor Plus technology”. In English that basically means it boosts picture quality of your content. The only difference between the two models is the SC-BTX77 model has Pure Direct Sound speakers, in other words they’re better . Another feature is the Panasonic Viera cast. This allows YouTube video access and playback and there’s also a USB port and SD card access for even more content playback.

Available now the RRP for the kit starts from £450.

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Panasonic SC-BTX77 and BTX75 : Blu-Ray Home Cinema

The BRAVIA Theatre BDV-IT1000 is an all-in-one home cinema system with an integrated Blu-ray Disc drive. It features super-slim speakers with full-range drive units just 16mm wide, wireless rear speakers, as well as DVD upscaling to 1080p.

BDV-IT1000 at a glance

• Super-slim speakers made possible by finger-sized full-range drive units
• All-in-one home cinema system with integrated Blu-ray Disc drive
• Full HD 1080/24p picture quality with Deep Color and x.v.Colour
• Wireless rear speakers for great surround effects without cables
• BD-Live Ready: upgradable to Profile 2.0 for extra content and downloads via Ethernet port
• DVD upscaling to 1080p
• Two HDMI input terminals for connection of games consoles, HD TV decoder boxes or other sources, and one HDMI output
• Optical digital and analogue stereo inputs. Also composite/component video in
• Upconversion to HDMI for analogue sources
• Fast, perfect ‘one-touch’ set-up with Digital Cinema Auto Calibration
• BRAVIA Sync for integrated operation with other Sony components
• XrossMediaBar onscreen display for simple, logical operation of all functions
• Connectivity with Network WALKMAN® and iPod® players, Bluetooth devices and home Wi-Fi networks via DIGITAL MEDIA PORT, plus Portable Audio Enhancer
• 700W total power: 5x100W plus 2x100W for subwoofer, using efficient, high-quality 32-bit S-Master digital amplification

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BRAVIA Theatre BDV-IT1000: Blu-ray Disc and Super-Slim Speakers Make a Sweet Combination