Libratone Live AirPlay speaker review

Libratone offers attractive features in its Live AirPlay speaker system – style, sound quality, ease of use and a handle to carry it from room to room.

Designed to blend into your home’s décor thanks to its minimalist design, the Libratone Live comes in your choice of a number of coloured cloth coverings.

And being an Airplay speaker means you can forget the cables. The only cable required is for power.

All you need is a wireless network and an iOS device or computer with music on it.

DESIGN

One of the things that appealed to us about the Libratone Live was the fact that it doesn’t even look like your traditional speaker.

Not everyone’s going to want a masculine looking, grill-covered, hard-edged box in their living space.

The Libratone has a triangular shape and has a small footprint.

But what it also has is a handle which makes it even more portable and easy to carry from one part of your house to the other.

Or you can choose to have more than one Libratone Live speaker which can play separately or together simultaneously.

The device is 47cm tall and 19.5cm wide and built-in active speakers with DSP (Digital Signal Processing) and digital amplification.

It has 150W of power in total which is divided between one 50W subwoofer, two 25W tweeters and 2 25 mid-range speakers.

PERFORMANCE

Setting up the Libratone Live was incredibly easy thanks to the very clear included illustrated instructions.

The button at the top right corner of the device features the Libratone logo and glows a different colour to indicate the speaker’s status.

We had the device connected to our network and playing music in less than five minutes.

Now we could stream the music from our computers, iPad and iPhone using Apple’s AirPlay technology.

Volume can be adjusted using the iOS device or the computer itself.

And of course navigating the music is just as easy because it’s in your hand instead of sitting in a dock or being physically connected with a cable.

But what about the sound quality?

The Libratone Live speakers deliver a solid sound across all levels. High and mid range is very well represented and the bass has a surprising amount of authority.

And no matter what type of music you like to listen to – whether there’s the tinkle of piano keys, the strain of violin strings or the thrashing guitars and beating drums the Libratone Live has the ability to handle it all.

It has a patented FullRoom technology to allow the device to adapt to the room and there’s even an iPhone app which allows users to optimise the sound experience.

These are high-end speakers and that is reflected in the price. You can take comfort in the fact you’re paying for quality.

There are cheaper speakers that also offer AirPlay, quality audio and also come with a dock for those who choose to physically connect their device.

But they don’t offer the 360 degree sound and extra onboard room-adapting technology that puts it slightly above the competition.

Libratone Live

Price: $899