Stripy Music Studio

From wall systems to PC speakers, we've come a long way over the past decade. We may take this progress for granted, but the fact is we owe a lot to technowizards who helped make the transition. The latest device to undergo upgrades is the portable speaker! It's not radically new, perhaps, but the advances are still encouraging.

Portable speakers need to be small and light enough to carry around, and powerful enough to be able to sustain the mood in a hotel room. I have seen some devices worth mentioning, but the one I'm talking about marks a comfortable equilibrium. Yes, the Stripy Music Studio speakers can be your perfect travel companion – they are small, stylish (very important) and offer great sound. They are ideal for your office computer too.

The speakers comprise two satellites and a volume hub. The satellites incorporate a cool swivel design that allows you to focus sound in any direction. Or you can just keep them upright. I like the compact form factor, but I don't like the fact that they can't be charged for remote playback. No electricity, no music. This sucks, so kindly look elsewhere if you plan to go camping.

Each satellite has room at the bottom to store the cables running out of them. Talking of cables, you may constantly run the risk of entangled wires. All the connections are hosted on the volume hub; three of them actually. This includes inputs from each speakers, and one DC slot for the power.

I like the cool purple ring that illuminates when the speakers are powered on. All you need to do is press and hold down the white dome on the volume hub until it turns purple. This also happens to be the volume knob: press it once and it will turn blue, and you can control the bass level. Green means treble.

That's all there is to these speakers really. A 3.5mm plug allows you to listen to music on MP3 players, your phone if it takes a 3.5mm jack, or, as I mentioned earlier, your computer. Both left and right speakers come with 1.5m cables.

As far as the performance is concerned, you may be impressed or not based on what you're looking for. The speakers are virtually incapable of driving a strong bass response; that's not what they're all about. For this purpose alone, I tested them with a loud bunch of friends out of the city. The speakers delivered more than what we bargained for.

The sound is loud, but jars when cranked up real high. Clarity is good, and mids are quite satisfactory. In a quiet neighborhood, you will find that the speakers can deliver better sound – the sound does seem to reproduce pretty well at moderate volumes. This is why I don't recommend that you take these speakers along to any event where plenty of loudmouths are invited.

The highs easily overshadow the lows, but you can control that, if only to a degree. To test the clarity on these small speakers, I played a movie on my iPod... and boy, did it rock! You can watch movies, listen to music... so what else would you need?
Stripy Music Studio is not only stylish, but functional as well. If you travel a lot, and miss listening to your music while staying in an assortment of hotel rooms, pick these up – you can let them play as you drift off to sleep. The speakers look good, are durable, deliver decent sound, and cost Rs 3,000. If this fits your budget, go for it.