Philips AD7000W/37 Fidelio SoundAvia Wireless Speaker with AirPlay

by Philips

Product Features

• Stream music with AirPlay wireless technology
• Play and charge your iPod/iPhone/iPad simultaneously
• Dedicated app available on the App Store for more functions

› See more product details

Product Description

Amazon.com

Enjoy rich, balanced sound with the Philips Fidelio SoundAvia AirPlay speaker. The Fidelio SoundAvia lets you wirelessly stream music from your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, or your computer's iTunes library, and conveniently charges your device via an integrated USB port. This AirPlay speaker features SoundAvia technology for rich, balanced sound and includes an aux-in jack that makes it easy to connect to almost any electronic device. This speaker's streamlined, compact design won't clutter up your space. To expand your entertainment options, the Fidelio SoundAvia works with Philips's free Fidelio app for access to a range of music and other features.

Philips Fidelio SoundAvia AirPlay Speaker AD7000W/37

At a Glance:

• Plays your favorite iTunes songs from your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, or computer wirelessly
• SoundAvia for balanced sound and deep, tight bass reproduction
• Compact design complements any space
• Free Fidelio app for access to over 7,000 free Internet radio stations
• Aux-in jack connects almost any electronic device
• One-year warranty

Elegantly and compactly designed to fill your home with sound, not clutter.
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About AirPlay:

• Stream your entire iTunes library via your existing wi-fi network
• Fill any room with rich, balanced sound
• Compatible with your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad or wi-fi enabled PC or Mac
• Connect multiple speakers and enjoy music anywhere in your home

Use Apple's free Remote app to access your iTunes library and play your favorite music from your iPod touch, iPhone or iPad.

Stream Music with AirPlay Wireless Technology

AirPlay technology lets you stream your entire iTunes music collection from the iTunes program on your computer, or your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, to the Fidelio SoundAvia AirPlay speaker using your existing Wi-Fi connection. AirPlay also lets you enjoy enhanced sound from games, music-making apps, YouTube videos, Internet TV, and iTunes movies.

Whether you're hosting a party or simply want to enjoy a full-on sound experience, this technology will play sound simultaneously on every AirPlay-enabled speaker in every room so rich, full sound can fill your home.

SoundAvia for Premium Sound Quality

The Fidelio SoundAvia AirPlay speaker makes a great addition to any room. Its contemporary, sleek design and compact size lets you enjoy your music virtually anywhere--wirelessly.

This speaker provides 10 watts RMS total output power and features SoundAvia and a curved front panel design for full, rich, and balanced sound. Full-range front speakers and back bass pipes are positioned to optimize sound balance and emit sound waves that encircle the music system, filling your room with sound.

Simultaneous Playing and Charging

The Fidelio SoundAvia speaker gives you the option of hooking up a range of devices so you can enjoy your entire song library. When you connect your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad via the USB port, you can charge your device while also playing music. An aux-in jack makes for easy connecting to virtually any other electronic device, including MP3 players and stereo components.

Compact, Space-Saving Design

Unlike bulky speakers that can take over your space, the Fidelio SoundAvia is compact and easy to move around.
It has a streamlined, modern design that looks stylish on a countertop, nightstand, or bookshelf.

Free Fidelio App for Music, Alarm, and Other Fun Features

If you own an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, you can unlock even more features for this wireless speaker using the complementary Fidelio app. The Philips Fidelio app gives you access to over 7,000 free Internet radio stations. It also lets you share your favorite music with friends via Facebook and Twitter, set customized alarms to wake up to your favorite music, and enjoy detailed weather reports.

Compatibility Information

The Fidelio SoundAvia is compatible with iPod touch; iPod touch 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation; iPhone; iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4; iPad, and iPad 2nd generation. The Fidelio app requires a Fidelio speaker and iPod touch, iPhone, iPad iOS 4.3 or later.

Dimensions and Warranty

The Fidelio SoundAvia measures 6.61 by 11.7 by 4.17 inches (H x W x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box

Philips Fidelio SoundAvia AirPlay speaker AD7000W/37, AC power adapter, 3.5-millimeter aux-in cable, CD-ROM user manual, warranty information, and quick start guide.

Fidelio AirPlay Speakers: Obsessed with Sound	SoundSphere AirPlay Speakers DS9800W/37	SoundCurve AirPlay Speaker DS8800W/37	SoundRing AirPlay Speaker DS3881W/37	SoundAvia AirPlay Speaker AD7000W/37
Sound Technology
SoundSphere	•
SoundAvia				•
SoundRing			•
SoundCurve	•	•
FullSound	•			•
Compatibility
Free Philips Fidelio App	•	•	•	•
AirPlay	•	•	•	•
iPod/iPhone/iPad Compatible	•	•	•	•
Built-in Rechargeable Battery			•
USB Charging	•	•	•	•
Aux-In Jack	•	•	•	•
Accessories
iPod/iPhone/iPad Charging Stand	•
Remote Control	•	•
3.5 mm Aux-In Cable	•	•	•	•

Product Description

Philips AD7000W/37 Fidelio SoundScape Wireless Speaker with AirPlay

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 83 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A few kinks, average sound quality December 20, 2011

By J. York TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This speaker is a handsome "wireless" speaker with good sound and support for Apple's AirPlay technology. The reason that I refer to it as "wireless" is that it does have a power cable so you'll still have one wire no matter what!

SETUP
While AirPlay couldn't be easier to configure, before you can have AirPlay, you'll need to get this speaker configured onto your wireless network. The AD7000W comes with a huge color getting started guide to help you add it to your wireless network. One complaint about the getting started guide is that the instructions were cluttered up with 6 different languages so it was hard to figure out where the English text for the next step was without hunting around a bit.

I tried both mechanisms for configuring my wireless support and had mixed results. When I tried following the wifi configuration using my iPhone, it could not connect to my wireless network. The unit doesn't give you any good feedback as to what went wrong so I repeated the setup instructions a second time and got the same result- it didn't work.

Fortunately, when I tried the second method, using the WPS feature, it worked on the first try. Truly, anyone with WPS support on their wireless network should have tried that first as it is by far the easiest way to join a wireless network. You simply push a button on the back of the speaker and then push a button on your wireless router. The rest is automatic.

Once you have wifi working, the Philips speaker shows up on your AirPlay list without any additional configuration. This is the beauty of Apple.

SOUND QUALITY
Sound quality is about average for a speaker of this size. I do not use the word "average" as a compliment or a complaint. It is very loud but as you turn it up, the already-paltry bass disappears. At about the 50% volume setting, bass is somewhat well balanced with the rest of the sounds. Highs are not terribly crisp but they're not too mushy either. As with many speakers, positioning the speaker against a wall or in a corner noticeably improves the bass performance.

Sound quality was significantly better when the iPhone was connected directly which makes me wonder if the AirPlay protocol is doing a bunch of extra compression.

OPERATION
AirPlay worked great from my iPhone running iOS 5. Immediately after configuring wifi on the speaker, it showed up in my AirPlay list. I selected it and sounds started soon thereafter. In a couple of hours of listening, I have yet to have any hiccups or disconnects in the audio; it's worked flawlessly. Right now I have the speaker in my home office in close proximity to my wireless network but when I try other locations, if I find problems, I'll update this portion of my review.

One neat feature of all AirPlay devices is that you can control the volume from your iOS device. This speaker is no different. Although it has voume +/- buttons on the back, you won't want to use them because they're hard to find and are right next to the power button (easy to turn it off). To adjust volume, simply adjust the volume slider on your iOS device. Very slick.

Unlike some other personal speakers, this one does not have a built-in rechargeable battery. That somewhat limits the ability to just pick it up and carry it off into the back yard with you. I'd appreciate a rechargeable battery, even if it was only good for an hour or two.

I tried to listen to this through the auxiliary "mp3-link" port but it never worked. Honestly, I'm not too concerned about this since who would buy an expensive speaker like this only to hook it to the headphone jack of their phone? But I am curious why it doesn't work!

FIDELIO iOS APP
I liked the idea of being able to adjust the speaker sound profile (I wanted to turn up the bass!) so I installed the Fidelio app from the app store. It is a total piece of garbage and really tainted my view of this product. It crashed a couple of times and crashed/rebooted the speaker twice. I never did get the app to work in any way and eventually gave up after 20 minutes of experimenting. What a joke. This feature took the speaker from 4 stars down to 3 stars.

If they update the app and it starts working, I'll update my review.

APPEARANCE
I usually wouldn't dedicate an entire section to "appearance" but this thing is really nice looking.

The speaker is about 12 inches wide by 7 inches tall. It has a curved front and curved back so it should fit pretty nicely in a corner.

It has a brushed metal cover on the top that looks very high end. The rest of the speaker is understated. Even the rear is nice looking- a glossy black with two bass ports. The main detractor from the appearance is the power cord with fairly large (and ugly) black power brick. I guess you can't have it all!

MISCELLANEOUS
The AD7000W consumes no power when turned off and 3 watts when on but idle. Only in the "on" state does the AD7000W appear in the AirPlay list. This means that you have to leave it powered on all the time unless you're willing to go press the power button on it before you start playing your tunes.

When playing AirPlay music at maximum volume up to 10 watts are consumed. Playing the same music through the USB port (which simultaneously charged my iPhone) consumed 15 watts.

Overall I think 3 watts is very reasonable for on/standby performance. I wish it was closer to 1 watt but the speaker has to keep participating on the wifi network which surely consumes a good portion of that 3 watts. 4-10 watts when listening to LOUD music is very good.

There are two errors on the product specifications as of December 2011. First, Amazon's listing states that this unit is "battery powered". That is not the case- this unit does not have a battery. Second, this unit states that this product comes with a remote control. That is incorrect, no remote control is included (nor does one make sense since AirPlay is the remote!)

SUMMARY
Most AirPlay speakers cost more than this one by at least $50 to $100. I know that B&W and Klispch makes an AirPlay speaker for about triple the cost and I suspect they both have much better sound.

I would have given this product 4 stars for its feature set and sound quality if everything had worked perfectly. I'm fatigued by companies releasing not quite ready products and requiring customers to suffer for months while they work out the kinks. In the case of the Fidelio app, that appears to be exactly what happened. The sad thing is that the Fidelio app is not even integral to the usage of this speaker. But the miserable experience with the Fidelio app combined with the inability to get it to join my wireless network without using WPS has me giving this 3 stars.

If anything important changes, I will update my review. I'm optimistic that with a firmware update and an app-store update, this will become a solid 4-star product by early 2012.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use, sounds pretty good: great value for money November 18, 2011

By Victor Eijkhout

I was looking for a speaker that would connect to the wireless net in my home, not a dock for an iPhone or something. I didn't want to spend a fortune on an Airplay speaker so B&W and such were out. That limits the choice right now to the iHome and this Philips unit. The Philips was $100 cheaper, and is from a reputable brand, so that's what I got.

The unit looks very nice. Not cheap at all.

There is a quickstart guide, which unfortunately does not cover my use case: it covers the cases of streaming from iPhone and such, and connecting to certain routers. No matter, in the manual it says to connect your browser to 196.168.you.know.what and specify your home network. Didn't work the first time, but try again, and there it was in my iTunes speakers list.

After this easy setup, the network connectivity is problemless. Take the speaker to a different room, plug it in, it blinks its blue light for a little bit, beep, and it's on your network. Really great.

I was pleasantly surprised by the sound. I was expecting something tinny, but it actually has a very decent bass. On the other hand the highs are lacking a bit. On the other other hand, it can go quite loud; nothing is rattling or so.

On the whole: not perfect but given the price I'm very happy with what I got.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent Functionality and Sound For Its Size January 2, 2012

By R. Ferguson TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Summary: I'm happy with this small speaker. I think it is a very good solution for people looking to supplement their existing sound systems and for people with modest audio demands.

Update 1/13/12: Some people are reporting significant problems joining WiFi networks or getting various devices to control this speaker. Others are reporting quality control issues. Save for the minor issues listed below, none of these large problems have occurred with our unit. I am sorry if you purchase this speaker and it does not perform as it has for us. I can only report our actual experience.

Sound
-As I wrote regarding another small speaker system, there is no point complaining about how this speaker doesn't provide full sound. Show me a 10 watt system that is 12x7x3 inches that can compete with any decent traditional speaker arrangement. Yes, there are some amazing little boxes out there, but ultimately there is a tradeoff when you lower the power and physical volume.
-That said, I think Philips has managed pretty good sound given these limitations. I'm not sure who the target audience is for these speakers. They are great as a second speaker to expand a sound system to additional rooms in your house/office. This speaker provides pretty good sound for, say, rocking out in the kitchen while you cook dinner or wash the dishes. I would be reluctant to recommend this, or any small, self-contained speaker system, to anyone as a primary sound system UNLESS they just wanted quiet listening in a small size room. Would this be appropriate for a teenager? Only if said teenager has been happy with little iPod/iPhone docking stations or small PC-style speakers.

WiFi
-This speaker has endured some criticism for dropping out. In all the radio-frequency speaker systems I've tried, you've got to expect drop-outs. And they are going to happen more frequently if you use the speakers in a location with lots of radio and physical interference (e.g., apartment buildings). While others are reporting that this Philips unit is more prone to drop-outs than other devices, my experience is that it drops out at the same time as the speakers connected to my Apple Airport Express. After three weeks of testing, I've had only one or two drop-outs, and the whole system went down for about ten seconds before it recovered. So I have not found the Philips AD7000 to be any more prone to drop-outs and I'm willing to live with the occasional WiFi burp. Your mileage may vary.
-Of the various RF technologies, I prefer WiFi because of its range and ubiquity. There are some proprietary systems out there that work well, but then you're locked into that system.
-I had no trouble adding this to a closed WiFi network using WPA2 security. My base station is an Apple Airport Extreme.
-The main stumbling block to WiFi is that setup will flummox some people. I had no problems. The system was up and running quickly and I've been able to forget about it. I actually think Philips' directions were more complicated than they needed to be, since the process is fairly simple. If my parents were trying to install this, then I would expect about a half-hour's worth of over-the-phone coaching.
-The speaker is compatible with Apple's Bonjour protocol, which in this case means that it shows up in Safari's Bonjour list and allows for quick access to the speaker's network settings and firmware update page.
-I have one complaint with the speaker so far: when the speaker's WiFi connection times-out and the TKIP key is rotated, the speaker beeps once as it connects to the WiFi base station again. This can happen a few times a day and it is most annoying in the middle of the night. If this speaker were in my bedroom, it would drive me up the wall. Hopefully there will be a firmware fix for this, or perhaps someone can leave a fix for me in the comments (thanks in advance!).

Airplay
-Eventually there will be someone who buys this speaker and says, "What?! I have to port my sound through iTunes/iOS?!" Yes. Airplay is the software and communication protocol behind the streaming, and it is a function of iOS and iTunes. If you want to hear a soundtrack from a DVD movie playing on your computer (even within iTunes), you need a different speaker system (or do a hard connect to your computer audio port). A movie playing on an iOS device, however, can port the movie's audio to Airplay speakers.
-I've found nothing unique about this speaker and its use of Airplay. That is to say, to our various devices in the house, the AD7000 is just another speaker on the speaker list.
-As to Airplay itself, I've been happy with the technology. By sharing iTunes accounts within the house, we are able to access each other's music and port it to various speakers remotely. We're able to adjust sound levels in different rooms quickly and easily. We're able to move some of our speakers about the house without fiddling with cabling. On the whole, Airplay and Wifi speakers have simplified things for us and expanded our ability to provide music in more places.
-If you have multiple Airplay speakers and multiple iOS or iTunes accounts, you can broadcast two different streams simultaneously (i.e., playlist A for the living room; playlist B for the den).
-We have had no trouble using Airplay and this speaker with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 3Gs, iMac and iBook. All devices are using the latest OS/iOS. We are able to access the speaker directly from all devices, and using the Apple Remote app, we can control the computer-based iTunes accounts and indirectly access the speaker.
-With an iOS device (iPhone...), you can only play one speaker at at time over Airplay. If you are using the iOS device to control an iTunes account on a computer (via Apple's Remote app) then you can port to multiple speakers.

Miscellaneous
-I find the physical design to be merely okay. I don't like the power and volume buttons on the rear. I can't remember which button is which (because I fiddle with it only infrequently), so I end up having to turn the unit around to look.
-I find the unit to be solidly constructed. The materials and lines are good. I have it sitting on good antique furniture and it does not look out of place.
-I have not made use of the Philips Fidelio software. It is not necessary and it has received a large number of complaints in various forums.
-Someone commented that their unit did not come with a power cord. Mine did. It is not battery powered and there is no remote, though you can use the free Apple Remote iOS app to control iTunes.

Cheers