Here’s a new one. ONEAudio. Who I hear you say? They’re a newly established audio manufacturer who has just landed several successful Kickstarter campaigns for some truly magnificent products. The unique selling point of the ONEMicro is the fact it doesn’t use Bluetooth, NFC, or even your regular wireless capabilities to play your music. The technology of choice here is DECT, meaning Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications. In a nutshell without getting into too much science is it works very similarly to your cordless phone in your house.
Taking advantage of a 1.9GHz signal between the phone and included dongle means the speakers can produce a much more accurate sound recreation from the original source. There’s nothing like wireless dongle signals or even your home wireless router to get in the way of the signal. All in all, much better sound stability. That’s awesome. But just how practical is it? Well, it’s not. ONEAudio has opted for the use of a wireless dongle to connect your music device to the speakers. This could be a mobile phone, with the use of the USB adapter or even your PC or laptop. To be honest I can’t think of another way ONEAudio could do it. Using it on a more substantial bit of kit like your PC is cool, but attaching it to your mobile phone just makes it a little awkward.
ONEAudio has done a fantastic job of making these speakers as small as possible while still retaining a decent sound quality. This is down to the materials used and the actual style of speakers they’ve opted for. Both left and right audio units are cylindrical, with the speakers in the top. This creates a more audio room filling experience rather than music being fired directly at you. The speakers are an off white creamy colour with the ONEMicro logo on the front. The bottom of the speaker is covered in a rubbery surface giving them grip on a counter. Oh and another thing, they are pretty heavy for their size.
The buttons are on the bottom of the speakers so they’re hidden from display to add further to their smooth aesthetic. The blue LED ring is an indication light so you know how the speakers are performing or if they’re connected to the device. Each speaker features their own microUSB charing port as these are both wireless speakers after all and separate from each other. A full charge of each speaker will give you around 20 hours playback which is superb compared to other similarly sized music options.
The audio that was produced was pretty good, for a small set of speakers. There are several playback modes to choose from which for most tracks we kept it on the natural setting. This gave clarity to each instrument being pumped out. On bassier tracks however these speakers do lack a little bit, but not as much as expected. There is a huge frequency range here so the lower sub-bass is still noticeable, it just doesn’t have that powerful umpf that bass should produce. There is an optional subwoofer you can connect to the loop for more bass heads out there. Acoustic and classical tracks sounded pure and true to representation. To be honest, I couldn’t find much at fault in the audio reproduction the speakers delivered.
One question that may be poised by people into their music is the delay ad lag between the speakers over a wireless connection. As advertised these speakers are faster than WiFi and Bluetooth thanks to the 1.9GHz frequency these speakers use which I mentioned earlier. So don’t worry about that I assure you.
For newcomers to the audio market, the ONEMicro stereo wireless speakers are absolutely superb if you’re looking for a small form factor set of audio devices for maybe your laptop or even desktop PC. Using them with a mobile while great, the USB dongle needed to actually use them coming out the bottom of your mobile is a tad frustrating. However, if your tablet doesn’t move much in your home these could also be a fitting solution to a lack of decent audio. You can find more information on the ONEAudio ONEMicro speakers from their website.
