Customer Reviews

Yamaha NX-A01BL Compact Cube Shaped Powered Speaker (Black)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Yamaha NX-A01BL Cube Speaker has a certain cool-factor about it. It is small, about the size and weight of a coffee mug (albeit square) but can surprising bass for its size. The top circle lights up green and controls vol/mute-on/off (no treble/bass controls). There are two inputs in back: one for the adapter, one for an earplug size audio input so you can plug in any audio device with an earphone plug. I use mine for my laptop and the sound is great. I can crank it up loud without distortion: very impressive for the size. There are two speakers on either side that produce high to mid-tones and a hidden bass booster inside in the front. So, sound is not aimed at a central forward point like a system with two separate speakers. However, you avoid more wires. I'd like to see a portable model not house bound to a wall plug. That said, this cool little speaker fills the room with satisfying sound.

Getting it out of the way: the tiny cube form factor is cool. For what I wanted it for - a bedside speaker for audiobooks, it's just right. It's unobtrusive, unassuming.

That said, the sound quality is fairly poor. It's quite dead below 90Hz, making deep male voices sound somewhat muted. Females sound fine. Music is unpleasant. The grill is also a thin and cheap plastic mesh that resonates at some medium-high frequency that female voices hit pretty often, but only at higher volume levels.

The unit is also lightweight enough that it's easy to drag it around just by moving the cable, so you'll find yourself repositioning it constantly. This design really needed a weighted base.

Basically, it's identical to cheap $10 PC speakers, though it has a really nice profile. Don't confuse this with Yamaha's mainstream audio gear, which is generally superb.

Also of note - the included 1/8" cable for hooking this up to an iPod or similar is short, only about a foot long. Be sure to pick up an extra cable if you don't mean to use the device right next to the speaker.

When it comes to speakers, size counts. Well, mass counts. This little box is just 3.25" on a side and quite light. Do not expect floor-shaking bass. But the midrange and highs are very clean; classical, jazz and acoustic music sounds great. Pop/rock is good but dance/techno isn't going to impress anyone. I think $50 is a bit high so the rating lost a star but I don't feel bad because the styling compensates somewhat.

The NX-A01BL is a perfect size for a desk (office or home) and is portable enough to toss in a backpack or laptop bag to carry around. I'm using it for my iPod and laptop at home and plan to use it for classroom presentations, too. Just for curiosity's sake, I used this in the kitchen while cooking and also in the garage while doing laundry. It filled up the rooms as an FM radio would, though this radio would have to be much larger than 3" on a side, however!

One more thing and I hope Yamaha reads this. The packaging is top notch. This was the cleanest and tightest packing I have seen in years and I wish that more companies would take this much care in designing the package.

Clever speaker that yields satisfying sound if used within its limits. It struggles to fill more than a small space without distorting but is surprisingly engaging at close range, e.g. as a computer speaker, and especially with small ensemble music that is not bass heavy. The side-by-side outward facing driver design means you lose imaging; on the other hand you can walk around it without losing musical information. Place on hard floor (not carpet) or against a wall to augment bass and get a fuller sound; jazz bass comes through fine. Lowering it also reduces its slightly tinny quality if you hear it closer to ear level, though it may color the midrange a little. Also this way you can use your foot as a natural remote control.

This cube-shaped speaker is perfect for my purposes. I wanted a small, simple speaker system that I could take to hotels and use to play music from my mp3 player. It plays music clearly at volumes much higher than I feel comfortable blasting in a hotel room. It could do a great job in a single-room house party as well. I haven't noticed any distortion, buzzing or any undesireable sounds and the clarity is great. If you need to fill a medium-sized space with clear sound, this is well worth the money. If you need to blast music that can be heard several rooms or houses away, I'd look for a bigger system. Other than the volume and sound quality, I appreciate the simplicity: it requires only a cord for power and one for sound input. Multiple speaker systems are a little annoying to transport and set up because they have so many cords. This seemed a little expensive, but I'm very happy with my choice and I would buy it again.

The Yamaha NX-A01 provides decent, basic PC audio in a very small, elegant and un-obtrusive package. If you are looking for basic PC audio and want to minimize the cabling and space on your desk this may be a good solution for you. However if you are looking for higher quality audio for music play-back this is probably NOT the solution for you. Mainly due to the small physical size, the bass response and stereo imaging are not great. I primarily use this speaker when I am doing basic web-surfing, You-Tubing and previewing tunes from sites such as iTunes or Amazon; in this capacity I am very pleased with the performance/size trade-off. When listening to my music library, though, I use a different speaker set.

Just as advertised. Doesn't take up much room, but delivers on sound for a reasonable price. Bought it for my daughter for her dorm room. She really likes it. Will use it for computer and her iPod.

Play it soft hooked to your laptop and hang your ears in close. If you do, the sound is worth every penny - fantastic! Caveat - be sure you are listening to something better than a puny sized MP3 file.

I originally purchased the Yamaha Speaker Cube to serve as both an external audio for my weak (and FAR too quiet) Dell laptop AND as an convenient little MP3 player speaker - mostly for listening to podcasts without needing to launch my PC. As it is quite small and was fairly inexpensive I really wasn't expecting all that much. Much to my amazement it has served both purposes VERY well and has the most astonishing sound quality for such a tiny little device! I have actually listened to not only podcasts and internet radio with it but music, videos and even Netflix movies! It sounds AMAZING!

There are stereo speakers to either side of the black, piano-finish cube plus a bass speaker under it's base, an illuminated (green) top click ring for volume controls, power and even mute - best of all you can plug it into any standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone or speaker mini-jack on a laptop, MP3 player or any other device! It's also small enough to carry to any room (or cheap enough to have one in every room). If I had to have one complaint it would be that it runs on AC only, so no option for USB or batteries (for use outside or away from an outlet).

After using it for a couple of years now I have to give credit where it's due and say that I am quite impressed!

Just received the speaker tonight and tested it with music--the bass and clarity overall were fantastic--honestly blew me away because it was a much higher quality than I had hoped to get from such a compact system. The old set of speakers I had took up a lot of space and were a pain to set up. This speaker is small, compact and, quite frankly, sounds MUCH better than the pair of speakers I have used the past year. I strongly recommend this speaker--both for presentation volume requirements and for personal entertainment where musical fidelity considerations are important. I couldn't be happier with this speaker! (Addendum: 21 Dec 2009)--just used the little magic box again for an interior work project and my co-workers were amazed at how this thing works. Music was clearly heard rooms away and the quality was better than any of my co-workers' small multi-speaker systems. I'm going to have to buy another one of these~!