Philips Fidelio SoundRing wireless speaker DS3880W with AirPlay
4
5
8
8
Terrible
This is a terrible product. Will not connect to wifi. CANNOT connect unless u have an iphone. No support for this. Struggles to even connect wired! Its going back!
31 January 2013
Excellent
An excellent Airplay speaker - it looks good and sounds good. It just does what it says on the box. I have also plugged some MP3 Players in the 3.5 mm jack, which also works a treat.
For an Airplay novice, wanting quality without the price tag that some of the higher end speakers go for, this is just the job. It wouldn't look out of place anywhere you put it and the price tag doesn't compromise on sound either.
23 September 2012
Excellent - need to set equaliser though
At first I thought that the sound was a bit tinny for such an expensive unit. It sounded fine when listening to Duffy, Amy Winehouse etc., buy very poor on older music - Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed etc. I then found if you set the Equaliser (Settings, Music, EQ) to Classical the whole sound experience drastically improved. There is no equaliser on the unit itself – you have to do it on the iphone/ipad etc. So all in all I am very happy with the purchase – just don’t expect to get the sound experience you like without a few tweaks.
17 October 2012
Love my new toy!
I wanted an airplay speaker even before they'd invented airplay! The ground floor of my house is 'speaker-cabled' to within an inch of its life ... and I've been waiting for airplay for about 5 years (not having the 'will' to lay the same amount of cabling upstairs - knowing that 'someone soon has to make this possible wirelessly'. So I researched, agonised, saved up and finally bought "the doughnut" (DS3880W) in July. ... and I love it!.
Set-up, a little daunting (am a bit techno=phobic) but it worked, so can't complain. Airplay itself - nice features, it can synch this speaker with others on the network, works pretty well, but has occasionally got itself confused resulting in speaker, mac and iPad reboots to get everything talking again. Sound quality - OK, its not my 'Rega 7's' (Oh Pete - you name-dropper!), but its loud, proud, a decent bass/treble mix and just nice to listen too.
... and anyway - I'm 45 years old ... and just get a kick out of listening to music from my CD and Vinyl collection, stored on my mac, playing on my 'doughnut, controlled by my iPad! This was kind of the geek heaven I dreamt about as a kid - and when these things work together so seamlessly (most of time) ... whats not to love.
In summary - expensive for a small speaker (but I guess thats the airplay licence), but sounds good, looks fabulous and is just really cool and fun to own! Well done Philips :)
6 August 2012
Keeps cutting out
The unit keeps cutting out and since I bought it (Nov 2011) I'm still waiting for a software upgrade. I own more AirPlay enabled devices and they initially all had similar problems that got solved with firmware upgrades.
Unfortunately support could a) not tell me if and when a software upgrade will be available and b) were not able to tell me what revision the latest and greatest software actually is.
6 August 2012
Does exactly what is says on the tin +++
I already had a B&W Zeppelin so was not worried about how to set up airPlay products. The set up on this was as expected, easy peasy, and took less than five minutes from opening the box to listening to my 'daughters' tunes - well it was a present for her 20th birthday!
The system looks great, is quite weighty, very well put together and most importantly makes a great quality sound.
If the budget can stretch, buy it. Don't be tempted by other 'similar' airPlay products saving you £50. They just don't match up to this one!
31 December 2011
Brilliant Wireless Speaker
At last I have a wireless speaker that lives up to the hype. Great design and performance, the wireless set up was a little complicated, but once running, it fulfilled all my hopes of a quality speaker that can be used anywhere in the house without restrictions. Not convinced yet about the performance of the app supplied for the i-Phone and i-Pad but hopefully this will improve with future updates. Well done Phillips, a superb speaker.
31 December 2011
Impressive, but lacking in bass and clairty
A great idea, that hits the mark in most areas, but not quite all. Set-up was easy, and the performance is generally very good. The portability is what drew me to this product, and the internal battery has outperformed my expectations. However, at higher volumes, the sounds lacks clarity, and the bass is not punch enough.
29 December 2011
