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  • The Philips Fidelio Speaker: Not the Average
Technology Articles > Photo, Video & Audio > Audio & Speakers > The Philips Fidelio Speaker: Not the Average

Most home speaker systems are square (or some rendition of square), but Philips has decided to create a home speaker system that looks different than all the rest. The Philips Fidelio SoundRing is round – like a donut. This speaker is also slim, fits nicely with almost any dГ©cor, can be placed on a shelf or other small space, and comes with Air Play. So, why hasn’t the Fidelio SoundRing received more attention? This home speaker system has largely flown under the radar, though it’s every bid as good (maybe even better?) than other speakers in its class.

First Comes the Sound

No home theater speaker is worth mentioning if the sound coming from that speaker isn’t top-notch. When tested, the Fidelio speaker performed very well. As far as wattages go, this speaker hits the 16 watts mark, and has surprisingly great bass and clear sounds for a speaker of this wattage. The Fidelio won’t be the one speaker that will fill your entire home up with sound, but it will certainly pull its weight as far as creating great ambiance sound in your living room or other small to medium sized room.

Essentially, the Fidelio speaker was built to play arias and concertos, though pop and hip hop also sound decent when piped through the round circle that creates Philips’ latest speaker invention. As mentioned above, this speaker is also Air Play compatible, which means that you can hook it up to your iPhone and listen to songs that you current have downloaded – a great and useful feature.

Is It Worth the Price?

More often than not, speakers that are meant to work with Air Play aren’t on the cheap side. The Fidelio speaker retails for around $299.95, which is, granted, a large price to pay for one speaker that will only fill a medium sized room with sound. However, this speaker largely blows other Air Play offerings out of the water based on the crystal clear sound that comes from the Fidelio speaker. Is this the one home entertainment speaker you’ve been looking for? Maybe; if you have a smaller home. Will this speaker replace that massive stereo system you have in your house? Probably not.

Still, it’s fun to look at the Fidelio and I have to give Philips props for creating a speaker that doesn’t look and sound like all the rest. As far as availability goes, the Fidelio was actually released a few months ago, so you won’t have any trouble finding this speaker online through a retail site like Amazon or you can order directly from the Philips site. But with any speaker (this one included), it’s a good idea to test it out in-store prior to purchase. The Fidelio does come with a nice silver-plated charging dock as well. One small word of caution, though: this speaker comes with an internal battery, which means that the speaker will no longer work if the battery dies (internal batteries aren’t worth replacing). Then again, the included battery should last for a few years to come, and you’ll be hard pressed to find an Air Play speaker that doesn’t have an internal battery (this allows manufacturers to make smaller and lighter speakers).