Monitor Audio Quality: But Smaller! NEW Airstream S200 Wi-Fi Speaker

We talk a lot about connectivity in the car but what about easy home connectionfor EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF? Because most of our kit indoors is a bit behind the times. This is worthy. It is by Monitor Audio, UK HiFi aristocracy. And I am SO going to have a go on one. Meanwhile, here is their press release about this new speaker, the Monitor Audio Airstream S200, that is going to bite its own piece out of a busy market on its sound quality, I would wager, let alone its ability to eat just about anything.

What HiFi are impressed

Magical Miniature S200 Makes Big Stereo A Singular Pleasure
Ultra-Compact and Connected, the New Airstream S200 Wi-Fi speaker adds great sound and utility to home entertainment
Home entertainment systems are getting smaller and smarter. Anyone with an eye for design will love the idea of sound with a tiny footprint, but inevitably there’s a compromise. Even though minimised all-in-one devices may be easy to place around the home, they cannot compete with the wide audio dispersion of traditional twin speaker set-ups.

Squaring the circle is Monitor Audio’s new Airstream S200 Wi-Fi speaker. It’s an inspirational answer to the stereo dilemma, concentrating state-of-the-art connectivity, advanced digital processing and powerful amplification within a diminutive speaker design, smaller than the average one-box system but endowed with the latest tech to generate a deceptively big stereo sound from every conceivable audio source.

In black or white

Compact, Cool, Clever And Very Connected
With Apple Airplay, Airstream Direct, Bluetooth, Bluetooth aptX® and DLNA on board, the definitively bijou S200 system will deliver amazing stereo sound from stored or online music libraries via PC, MAC, NAS, and Apple, Android or Windows mobiles. Away from a Wi-Fi router, use Bluetooth or Monitor Audio’s proprietary Airstream Direct to stream files effortlessly to the S200. The system’s superior audio architecture is designed to resolve higher quality streams from uncompressed Bluetooth Apt-X, ALAC (Apple lossless) and FLAC file formats as well.

iOS devices can be plugged in to the S200 directly using the USB/charge input for playback, charging requirements and simple Wi-Fi sharing. Not forgetting analogue, a plethora of devices can connect through a 3.5mm stereo jack.

Design For Sound
Applying over forty years of audio design innovation, we’ve miniaturised our flagship technologies for the super-compact S200. Each speaker is crafted from a high tech mineral-filled polymer with excellent rigidity and damping properties to create the ideal acoustic environment for a complement of four specialised drivers. The material quality of Monitor Audio’s acclaimed hi-fi speaker ranges is expertly configured in a high-tech cluster comprising a proprietary gold dome C-CAM tweeter flanked on angled baffles by dual 3in-CAM metal cone bass drivers, which are augmented by a rear-firing Auxiliary Bass Radiator (ABR). The signature C-CAM drivers are directly powered by three separate class-D amplifiers optimised by intelligent digital processing to ensure the ideal balance of detail, dynamics and dispersion in all but the largest of rooms.

Perfectly Proportioned And Easy-To-Use
With a footprint barely bigger than a media disc, the curvaceous S200 reflects the precision shared by all Monitor Audio designs, blending durability with superlative engineering. Slender and stylish in a choice of white or black finishes with toughened glass end trims, the S200 will exude quality from shelf or table-top, or from a wall via one of our optional MASM (MA Speaker Mount) ¼in UNC mounting kits.
Beautifully conceived and brilliantly specified, the smart, space-efficient Airstream S200 reconciles the perennial conflict between space-saving utility and great sound, combining ease-of-use with unrivalled functionality to add another gear to high performance home entertainment.

Features At A Glance
Multi-Zone wire-less stereo speaker system: Apple AirPlay®/Airstream Direct stream music directly without a Wi-Fi router: Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX® – adds high performance ‘˜CD like quality’ audio playback; Fuss-free installation: Cleverly angled drivers create a larger listening area: High resolution DAC: 65 watts of total power amplification: Inputs: USB input for charging, music playback and Wi-Fi set up (Apple iOS); 3.5mm auxiliary input for TV, radio or other portable devices: Wall-mounting option: Monitor Audio designed DSP (Digital Signal Processing): Automatic firmware upgrades via Wi-Fi.

Specifications
Frequency Response: 80Hz 25kHz
Maximum SPL: 101dBA (both channels driven at 1W@1m)
Power Output: Bass 2 x 25 watts / Tweeter 15 watts
Driver Complement: 2 x 3in bass drivers with C-CAM metal cone technology
1 x 20mm Gold C-CAM dome tweeter
System Configuration: ‘˜race-track’ profile ABR (Auxiliary Bass Radiator) rear-mounted auxiliary Input
Impedance/Sensitivity: 10 kohms/ 300mV
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 94dB
AC Input Voltage: 90-264V (auto-range)
Amplifier Category: Class D
Power Consumption: 0.3 watts (standby); 70 watts maximum
Works with: iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPod touch (1st – 5th generation), iPod nano (2nd – 7th generation)*, PC or MAC running iTunes 10.2.2 or greater
Supported file formats: AAC, ALAC, MP3 AAC, ALAC, MP3, FLAC
Bluetooth version: 4.0 with aptX support.
Wireless network protocol: 802.11 b/g
Colour/Finish: charcoal grey with black grille cloth; white with light grey grille cloth
Weight: 2.26kgs (5lbs)
Approvals ETL/CE/FCC/CB/ERP/Wi-Fi/Wi-Fi WMM/Bluetooth/Apple MFi Certified.
Monitor Audio S200
Approx. retail price (inc VAT): £200
Availability: October 2014

For more Monitor Audio Goodness see here: link