Audio Week: Audyssey's Lower East Side Speakers

We're coming to the end of audio week here at TrulyNet. We've seen some great stuff, at a variety of price points, suitable for most anyone. But one thing we haven't yet covered in the recent set is a set of speakers. We remedy that today, with a cute, fairly small pair of bookshelf-size models, perfect for use with a computer or for anyone with a smaller apartment that desires decent sound in a compact package.

Make sure you check out the coverage from the last few days: we explored a briefcase record player that can digitally backup your records, but play them back as well thanks to onboard speakers, and posted a piece on an interesting new set of sub-$100 headphones. And for those in need of an iPhone or iPod dock, we covered one of the biggest and newest.

But today we turn to Audyssey's Lower East Side Speakers. These are a two-piece system and look great, though the precise reason for the name probably isn't readily visible. The stands help direct the sound more effectively in most set-ups, though they aren't too adjustable. Like many competitor's models, the LES system offers an on-board volume knob which also serves as the power control- unlike some, there isn't a remote or dongle unfortunately.

One major difference: the inputs. Most every set supports typical 3.5mm minijack, the connector used on your iPod and most headphones, and this is what your computer will likely output. But for those who want to use digital optical, you're in luck! Connections between the speakers are handled via normal speaker wire, which is a bit unusual for PC-size speakers. It means that you can easily adjust the distance if you need with different cables, but the clips are a bit cheap. There aren't any controls for tone (no treble or bass adjustments), which was a shame, but thanks to Audyssey's proprietary sound technologies, we were impressed by the output. The only serious issue we had was that to save power, the speakers automatically shut down after a period of silence, but don't automatically resume- a bit annoying, but mostly just an inconvenience. Build quality could have been higher- they're a bit light and plasticky.

For most cases, we'd still recommend and our listeners preferred a true 2.1 speaker set, with a separate subwoofer. Sure, that's a bit more cabling and a much larger footprint, but the sound on the Lower East Sides does suffer in the lower register. On middle and higher tones, performance was solid. We could hear a bit of noise, unfortunately, when we cut a source volume to 0, but there wasn't much distortion when we pumped the volume. And these are plenty loud for an dorm room or small living room, offering 60 watts of power. Pop and rock sounded best, crisp and with an excellent soundstage. Electronic music didn't score as well- it felt a bit too warm and loss some presence, but acoustic tracks and even low-quality blues songs sounded rich and lovely. They sound expensive, but that's because they are- our only major hesitation comes from the high pricetag on these.

The MSRP of $249 feels significantly too high, but the current online pricing of $199 gets into the level where we're more comfortable. Ultimately, we weren't completely convinced by these- audio was solid, and for a small and compact pair certain sacrifices have to be made. And much like the last Audyssey product we saw, the SOMA Dock, it pushes for style but doesn't hit all of the right notes.