Customer Reviews

Saitek (DM03U) A-250 Wireless 2.1 Speakers

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First the limitations: You cannot get sound out of both your desktop speakers and the A-250 at the same time, and the wireless connection is only about 85% reliable, even within its advertised range of 30 meters. Sound cuts out if there are too many thick walls between the transmitter and the speakers. Also, other electronics, microwaves, and my 2.5 GHz cordless telephones can interfere with the signal to the A-250.

If you can tolerate these limitations, then you can consider the great pleasures of the A-250:
-- Easy set-up. It honestly took me three minutes to get sound from my XP system using RealPlayer to the A-250. You plug in the transmitter to a USB port, press the blue button on top of the transmitter for two seconds, put batteries into the speaker unit, and then turn it on.
-- Very good sound. For a wireless system, the A-250 produces very good, albeit not very loud, sound. When the signal is strong, the sound is better than FM though not as good as wired, of course.
-- Simple controls. From the A-250 you can pause, play, skip a track forwards or backwards, and control the volume.
-- Works with my Palm Zire71. Saitek includes a 3.5mm jack, which when plugged into my Palm, played sound well through the A-250.
-- Fast support. I emailed Saitek regarding the limitations, and someone wrote back within a day to tell me that the limitations are not surmountable.

Summary: If you don't mind playing sound only out of the A-250 in a different room with few walls between it and your system, and if you don't mind imperfect sound, then the A-250 is for you. I will keep mine, since I can tolerate these limitations and I love my music on the deck and in the kitchen.

First the good stuff:
- I think the idea's great, and the design is really cool
- The setup was amazingly simple - no software to load or anything
- The sound quality (when it works - see below) is great for a 2.4GHz wireless
- The speakers are very good for the size - surprisingly deep and rich

However,
- The range is EXTREMELY limited (we're talking 15 feet and one or two walls)
- All kinds of devices seem to interfere with the reception
- Sound drop-outs/skips are extremely annoying
- Hard to carry - please provide a handle on the next one?

I'm returning my unit and waiting for the next generation. Give these engineers another chance and they'll get it right!

I have had this item for about a month now and I love it...but it's not for everyone. I am a sound freak and find this item to have pretty good sound for the size. Let's face it, you are not going to get the best sound in the world out of something this size.
Positives:
-Fast and Easy to set up
-Sound is good enough if you are using it for the bathroom, bedroom, garge, kids room, etc.
-Flexible. You can take it with you and use it as a portable speaker system for your iPod because it has a jack to plug in the iPod. You can use it wirelessly on batteries or with an AC Adapter.
-Attractive. The thing is pretty cool looking.
Negatives:
-You cannot play music out of your computer and the Saitek at the same time.
-The sound is not audiophile, but not bad.
-Retail $129.99 is a little steep. I think $99.00 is probably a better price point.
-It's quirky. I live in a loft and sometimes I will get interference because one of my neighbors is doing something.

Overall, if this is something that seems to fit your lifestyle and needs and if you don't need it to sound like a Bose Sounddock or Klipsch iGroove and you also could use a pair of portable speakers for roadtrips too, you should buy this nifty item.

Yes, this product does have some limitations as far as range and clarity. And, I suppose using a 2.5 gigahertz phone could cause interference as it's very close to the same operating range as the unit. However, the main reason that I purchased this product was to be able to listen to internet radio stations away from my pc. And for this purpose, this unit works wonderfully. It also works well as external speakers for portable devices. And the best thing of all, it looks like the head of a praying mantis, which is just perfect for all decors.

This really is the easiest computer item you'll find in terms of ease of installation. I think I could teach my grandma how to install this in under a minute. They did a great job there.

Transportability: a real no brainer here. It's relatively small and very slick looking. Very simple to move from room to room if that's important to you.

Sound quality: if you're looking for something that has the quality of a home stereo, look elsewhere. This has the sound quality of a $30 alarm clock. This is fine if you're looking for casual use in your office cubicle or while you work in the garage. Or maybe you're hooking it to your iPod or something.

But if you're looking for something with real stereo sound quality, this won't be the solution. Instead, I'd recommend that you buy an airport express from apple (picks up the wireless signal and converts to 3.5mm jack), use a converter to split it into RCA signal and then input it into a real stereo.

So, if you want something you can tote from room to room and you can sacrafice great sound quality, this unit is perfect. If you want a solution that will broadcast your PC music to stationary places in the house and you want nice sound quality, buy an airport express as mentioned above.

This is an AWESOME little device.

Let me start with the pros:

1) EASY: Incredibly easy setup (literally press one button - never believed it, but it's true. Plug in the usb transmitter, press the blue button & voila.)

2) GOOD SOUND: For a small set of speakers, these things sound great. They are not going to compare to speakers hooked up to your rack stereo system, but sound very good and comparable to a $45 two-speaker set of monitor-side speakers. There's a built in sub-woofer that helps as well.

3) WIRELESS RANGE: With 4 AA batteries, you can carry this little guy around your whole house - and outside your house. Reception is great. I am used to bluetooth headsets that don't really work much further than 10 feet from the phone - I had doubts about bluetooth speakers, but I am amazed with reception these guys have.

4) CONTROLS: the Forward, Reverse & Pause buttons on the speaker work fine with both Media Player or Yahoo Music Engine running on the laptop(the only two I tried). Again, I was surprised, but they worked flawlessly.

5) COOL: As far as cool factor, this little guy is definitely that.

Cons:

1) NO REMOTE: It would be nice if there was a remote control for the unit that would allow you to control the sound, FF, RW, Pause, Play controls.

2) NO CONTROL FROM PC: You can't control the sound (or mute) from the laptop - only from the speakers.

3) SOUND: Above I said the sound was good - and it is considering the size of this system. However, these are small speakers and a mini-sub and the sound is thus somewhat small too. It's good, but it's not going to compare to a quality set of speakers hooked up to your rack stereo system. There is base but not a great deal - you definitely won't feel the music with these speakers.

4) VOLUME: Volume is limited - it's enough to fill a mid-sized room, but not much more.

For $100, this is an outstanding little speaker system that does an amazing job with NO WIRES. Carry it to your kid's room. To the garage. To the basement. No wires, nothing.

If convenience is and portability is important to you, and if medium sound quality is ok, then I would HIGHLY recommend this speaker system. It's great.

Personally, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep them because I would really like fuller sound (this was an attempt at easy speakers for my living room) and more base - but they're so cool and convenient, that I doubt I'll be able to give them up!


FOR OTHER BLUETOOTH IDEAS AND WI-FI NETWORK OPTIONS, see my post at the Hydrogen Audio forum: [...]

Just bought them. Took 30 seconds to get them going. Sound quality is better than my stereo or TV. No static or noise at all. Very cool looking too!

This is a unique product. Look around and you won't find a unit that has the functionality that this does. The sound is good - what you would expect for this dollar amount. The range of this product is very limited but I offer a few tips that worked for me.
A) I bought a USB extension to get the broadcast puck as far away from my PC as USB would allow.
B) The higher the better. I increased range and performance by broadcasting from my second floor as compared to the basement.
C) Accept the fact that some dwellings will never support wireless audio. Some building are simply too big, have atypical construction, or are enveloped with interference.

If you're looking for high-fidelity, this isn't the product for you but if your expectations of the product are realistic, it's actually not bad. I was looking for something that would allow me to listen remotely to music or talk radio that I stream from the internet. This unit is perfect for that.

The sound quality is comparable to a good clock radio or small boombox and certainly suits my purposes. What I like about it is that it's easy to use, compact, and sounds as good as something that is hardwired. I've had no problems whatsoever with the signal. You can also plug an Ipod directly into it if you choose not to use it in wireless mode. It would be better if it had tone controls and a handle so that it could be easily carried when used in battery mode, but I consider these "nice to have" features. Overall, I'm very happy with this product.

After contemplating a range of wireless speaker options, I stumbled upon this little marvel. The sound fidelity is crisp and clean, and far superior to any other wireless speakers I have experienced (none of that annoying hiss with this gem). The range pierces through my 2 story 3200 sq ft house, providing clarity from end to end (only when I venture outside do I lose signal, and then only when the transmitter is connected to my computer at the opposite remote side of my house on the second level no less; when I move the transmitter downstairs the sound is projected deep into my backyard). Even walls with significant wiring do not attenuate the signal sufficiently to drop the range beyond my need. The set up couldn't be simpler: plug and chug (and, again, "chug" means you can run quite a bit in the opposite direction and still receive the blessing of clear music). The playlist control is a feature I certainly wouldn't expect for <$70 (with rebate) and I love it. It IS rudimentary, only back/forward (no FFW/REW), vol UP/DOWN, and PAUSE, but at this price just having any kind of LCD display is quite an unexpected bonus. And the battery life: 20 hrs on 4 AA's? Wow. Don't want to use batteries? No problem, it comes with an AC adapter. Want to use it as an external speaker for your mp3 player? No problem, inside the box is a headphone line out cable. Heck, why buy a dedicated mp3 tin-box speaker for $40 when you can have this versatile powerhouse with excellent volume dynamic range for $66 (with rebate)?

Of course, the product isn't perfect: A handle would sure be nice, the sleek glossy finish is a magnet for fingerprints, and you can't sync two speakers to one transmitter because each is codified to the mated speaker that is purchased with it. No matter, I'm still going to buy another one. It is that good, and one of the best values I've seen in a long time in the general i-life space.