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with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 730 series SSD is an

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amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts now the goal for

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the simple audio listen was to design something that looks gorgeous sounds

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amazing and works seamlessly a bold goal for a relatively unknown brand the

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various inputs include USB for PC and Mac that's driverless 3/2 mm line in and

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Bluetooth the ID or industrial design is

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the result of months of collaboration with BMW design Works USA it uses

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premium materials including aluminium if you're European or aluminum if you're

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Canadian or American high quality polycarbonate and acoustic fabric with

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tight manufacturing tolerances the packaging is excellent I mean it's

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obvious that whoever is working over there knows a thing or two about a

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eco-friendly and B very very appealing

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looking packaging and everything is tucked away quite nicely so the cords

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are all wrapped up all nicely everything's you know packaged nicely I

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guess there's not really much else to say about it the listen has a pretty

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unique capacitive touch interface that is navigated using gestures and by

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pressing on icons around the corner so power to power it on duh volume is

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controlled by sliding your finger or touching the bar in the middle Bluetooth

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connectivity is controlled with the Bluetooth button so just press and hold

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to engage pairing mode and line in illuminates if it detects a source then

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then brightens it if it's the active input mute functionality is pretty

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self-explanatory you press that in order to mute it if touching things sounds

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like too much work we've also got an included IR remote control it won't

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allow track skipping or pausing and resuming Playback if you're using the

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line in but when listen is connected via USB to your PC or Mac which doesn't

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require any drivers by the way the remote can be used to control a variety

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of music playback programs including iTunes Windows Media Player and media

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monkey it also works when you're connected via Bluetooth

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now the last thing you want is something that's all show and no go and they

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absolutely are beautiful they do show

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but listen borrows many internal design cues from the audio file World it

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features two-way by Amplified speakers which is just it's just a fancy way of

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saying that it has two separate drivers each with separate amps to drive them

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there's a 3-in driver with rare earth magnets for the mid and low range and a

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silk Dome ferrofluid cooled Tweeter it also includes a compression driver to

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help with the load which you can see if you pull the unit

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apart although this is not something that is generally recommended so there's

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that passive pressure driver the benefit of separate amps to drive each of the

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main speakers is that it provides plenty of headro to reproduce sound correctly

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at both low volume and at Peak output and everywhere in between separate amps

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also enabl the system to use its finely tuned DSP based active crossovers to

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improve dynamic range reduce Distortion and generally give the system better

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control over each driver this is a great feature active crossovers are just plain

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better and the main reason less expensive systems use a passive crossover is simply to save on the cost

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now compression is a word that has a definite stigma associated with it when

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it comes to audio quality but the intelligent Dynamic compression method

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used by listen is not the same as the bit rate compression that MP3 audio

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files undergo this kind of compression is designed to control the audio output

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of the speakers so that at very high volume levels you don't encounter

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clipping or Distortion Dynamic compression will mostly affect the low

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frequency or base per performance of the system but simple Audi's got you covered

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there with a dedicated subwoofer outport you were able to add your own powered

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subwoofer to the listen to improve your listening experience listening tests

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were a bit tricky for these speakers because my initial impressions of them

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from back when I started this review almost 6 months ago were fairly negative

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given their price but when I told simple audio this they retorted that I simply

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hadn't experienced other speakers in this price range and lacked the

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appropriate context to do the review so I said okay fine then and I sheld the

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review now it would have been easy for me to just conclude that simple audio is

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a bunch of diluted buttheads and their speakers are fashion accessory crap and

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then just leave them collecting dust but that wouldn't be very professional and

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between simple audio statement and all the requests that I've gotten for

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speaker reviews over the years I figured maybe it's time to come at this category

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from a different angle I ran out and got Bose Companion 5ivs audio engine A2

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pluses A5 pluses and some Bowers and Wilkins mm1's for context and then set

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to work reviewing each and every one of them including taking another crack at

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the simple audio listens and you know what my conclusion actually changed it's

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easy to sit in front of speakers and say nah they don't really sound that great

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when your only point of reference is what your imagination figures $500

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speakers should sound like and you're not doing side by side AB listening or

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in this case ABCDE listening with other real products that actually exist it's

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much harder to find the faults in the listens when I can see the obvious

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faults in other similarly priced products as well compared to the mm1

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subjectively the listens don't look as good to me and they do not deliver the

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same crystal clear Highs but they do deliver strong stereo Imaging equally

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satisfying mids and more detailed bass and while either of them gets loud

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enough for most nearfield listening at a desk the listens get much louder than

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the mm1's without any distor although you still won't be hosting any

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parties with them compared to the audio engine A2 pluses which I was expecting

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to blow the doors off the premium you know fashion statement speakers in my

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Roundup from a price to Performance standpoint I'd say they perform

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similarly um but better with a touch more Bas without any tuning and while

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they do cost much more unlike the mm1's

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they're also delivering some additional functionality with the touch controls

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and the Bluetooth connectivity which is a pretty big point for these the A5 plus

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and the Bose Companion 5 both wreck the

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listens for movie watching and gaming in terms of base if you don't add a sub

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with the optional port at the back but of course they're both much larger and

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therefore not for everyone and I actually prefer the listens to the

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companion fives anyway for music listening so I guess it's overall

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conclusion time ultimately who is this product designed for and where is it

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designed to be used according to simple audio a variety of settings I mean the

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ability of the listens to sound good as a nearfield speaker on your PC desktop

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and to also perform well when you use the included cable extension and set

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them up further apart on a speaker stand as a room speaker is touted as a major

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selling point but for me I mean as someone who positions speakers in one

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place and doesn't move them much this versatility is of less value to me

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especially because it comes with so many cables and power bricks and stuff that

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they're not that convenient to move around and I also think that there are

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just plain better options at this price if I wanted rooms speakers but if I was

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going to use them in their wheelhouse near field listening at a desk where

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Aesthetics are an important factor and music listening is at a reasonable level

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is a priority with no desire to wake up my neighbors and having high quality

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Bluetooth is important then I've seen

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much stupider products than the listens and I'd rather you buy this than most of

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the other fancy Bluetooth speakers on the market since at least they look good

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and offer other op options for connectivity in the longer term thank

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you very much for watching guys like this video if you liked it dislike it if

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you disliked it leave a comment let me know what you thought about this review

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what you think about our videos in general if you think my hair sucks my teeth are too yellow or if there's any

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other just things that you really got to you know get out of your system about me

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because I do read the comments and I take them all very personally and uh if

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you did enjoy the video though and you don't have any personal attacks to hurl

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at me then of course there's a support us Link in the video description you can

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go head and give us a monthly contribution you can like buy T-shirts

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um uh you can give us a kickback whenever you buy stuff on Amazon by

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using our affiliate codes so all that stuff is super helpful thank you guys

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very much for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe I'm sure

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there's something else in my outro but I just forget it I'm really tired I was up

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to like 4 last night scripting my M8

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review

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he