If you’re in the market for a great pair of bookshelf speakers to pair with that classy new turntable, you’re in luck: Fluance, the popular audio brand that has long made one of our favorite entry-level turntables and other affordable audio gear, has announced the Ai60, a pair of powered speakers that should help bring your favorite tunes to life.
With built-in 6.5-inch woofers and integrated 100-watt class D amplifiers, the compact speakers should provide a vivid full-frequency image of your music, and are aimed at those who are just getting into the world of high-end sound, but who don’t quite have the budget to leap into the deep end, where audio gear can quickly eat up their vacation (or even car) fund. The Ai60 will retail for just $300.
In addition to offering the ability to directly connect to a source device like a turntable, mp3 player, or CD player via RCA cables without the need for a separate amplifier, the Ai60 also feature built-in Bluetooth streaming with aptX, allowing you to wirelessly stream your favorite tunes in high fidelity. In addition, you can connect with optical and USB, and the speakers even have a subwoofer output port, should you want a bit more rumble.
The speakers also include a remote, not only allowing for convenient volume and input control from across the room, but also allowing them to easily double as TV speakers (via the optical port).
We also expect the speakers to offer great sound for the money, even without an added subwoofer. The Ai60 feature gorgeous wooden cabinets in numerous colors (our favorite is the natural bamboo look), with soft silk-dome tweeters designed to provide crisp, natural highs, and glass fiber woofers that the company claims provide vivid mids and deep bass.
We’ve loved many of the products we’ve seen from Fluance, and have always been impressed by the way the company is able to mix excellent sound with truly great value. We look forward to spending time with these new bookshelf speakers, as they seem like they could be a great all-in-one solution for the budding audiophile. After all, who doesn’t want a great-looking and great-sounding set of speakers that won’t cost an arm and a leg?
Updated on January 29, 2019: A previous version of this article stated that the speakers didn’t come with a remote. Updated to reflect that they do.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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