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Eggs Benedict. The inbuilt speakers of five different computers—an older MacBook Pro with Amarra; my wife's all-in-one HP TouchSmart 610 with iTunes for Windows in her downstairs studio; my HP Z200 Work Station with HP 2710m monitor and iTunes for Windows in my work corner; my previous Apple iMac 21" music computer with PureMusic 1.82; and the new quad-core iMac 27" with 16GB RAM and 2TB/256GB SSD memory which replaced it as my big-rig source—they all had major egg on their sad pale faces when the Olasonic speakers took over in the kitchen. Similar to television speakers one suddenly liberates with free-standing monitor speakers but here more pronounced in the hifi basics, the most obvious benefits came from far more dimensional soundstaging, higher bandwidth particularly in the bass, greater tonal fullness as a result of the latter and an overall far more fleshed-out real as opposed to patently canned tinny sound.
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The eggs can obviously be overdriven if you play them too loud. Don't attempt to fill a big room whilst sitting far away. The first distress signals will occur in the bass. In the desktop nearfield or as ambient mood setters in a small to midsize room however—fully in their native habitat—they're surprisingly capable. They can't compete with Swans' M200 MkIII active 5.25" two-ways at $399/pr on raw output, extension and sophistication. But they can and do slaughter what comes built into computers and monitor screens. For $129 and music it makes them such no-brainers that it took a visiting friend with his MacBook only 30 seconds to confess to serious I wantz 'em hots. I did forget to ask what he had at home though. He simply gushed "they sound so much better than what I've got."
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As a non-gamer I am most happily unaware of the type of pounding serious gamers might subject their chosen computer speakers to. What type of explosions and synth effects do they expect to be reproduced at what levels? I thus can't vouch for the eggs' complete suitability in such applications. I can only reiterate that they're a major upgrade from inbuilt computer speakers. Watching movies in bed for a cozy rather than mindblowing experience—think MacBook on the knees above the sheets, TW-S7s on either side—is completely within their purview. Here minor mind benders will be bass and soundstaging. Instead of flat 2D sound pretending hard but failing miserably at depth layering, you'll have the 3rd dimension in all the ways you'd expect from tiny freestanding speakers à la Gallo spheres. What should still catch you by surprise is the robustness in the bass. The passive radiator scheme and blatant exploitation of 'floor' boundary reinforcement really does the business. It prevents the telltale hollowness and whitishness which lack of 60Hz coverage produces. Don't expect fine needle work and true timbre capture in the upper midbass but do expect a just-right amount of substance for proper anchoring.
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Top-end response is still directional of course. Because the eggs will likely sit well below ear height, you must lean them back in their silicon pads. Aimed up at your head the difference won't be subtle. The speaker with the USB lead is the right channel by the way. Where the eggs despite their low-brow pretensions hold quite the ace card is in the midband. Here a small driver has real advantages in speed and nuance. What the Olasonics manage to resolve despite their postage stamp digital amp is impressive. Take Adnan Karaduman's violin on his Meçhul album [Kalan], one of my most-played discoveries from this year's trip to Istanbul. Retrieving the scratchy and creamy aspects of his bow work simultaneously—what I call metal and wood—is more advanced than most Electric Avenue fi tends to be capable of. And the eggs clearly distinguish good from bad recordings too and manage to tease out vocals with more than just basic finesse. |
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| Nobody sane would expect slam beats from such a tiny speaker. There's no need then to pull out those albums and lament the obvious. On a lovely ambient track like "The Sheer Weight of Memory" from Bob Holroyd's A Different Space, the full effect of dreamy space goes missing without the bass groove. The eggs include enough to pull off the desired illusion. The real limiter here isn't so much reach. It's output. Sit one meter removed and prepare to be amazed. Sit five meters away, adjust the volume to make up and you'll be overdriving the minis on such fare. It's common sense. Still it merits saying. Keep it real. Align expectations properly. |
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There's another obvious application. If you're a regular Skypist who stays in touch via video chats, the Olasonics are a must. True, our remarkable brains recognize the voices of loved ones under remarkably compromised conditions. But it's so much more satisfying to hear them so far more intimately. As you will appreciate by now, the above was short hand for an only lightly qualified rave. Used as intended—to replace computer speakers without involving any AC power of their own—the Olasonic TW-S7s performed far better than their futuristic designer style and low price suggested. For me who admittedly isn't versed at all in this category, the encounter was quite the eye/ear opener - unexpected but very much appreciated. I'm thrilled that marketing manager Daniel Lintz didn't assume I'd be somehow 'beyond' such product to solicit this review. I'd not have met the eggs otherwise. It's not an area I've paid any attention to. Instead now I have a wonderful recommendation which anyone can afford and needs if they're still listening to their computer/laptop as is. Get egged on. How sweet is that? |
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