Friday, August 5, 2011

External speakers: Getting quality sound out of small devices, a review of the Bowers & Wilkins MM1 and the Jawbone Jambox

Whatever device you have, chances are, your stock speakers are underpowered and underwhelming. Speaker quality simply isn’t a high priority on cutting edge devices because typical consumers value portability and size over sound quality and bass; and unlike a display, that can be made both high quality and small (think Retina display, Super AMOLED), speakers can’t be made smaller without sacrificing quality and volume.  But external speakers give you the best of both worlds–they let you rely on small, portable internal speakers when portability is a primary concern, and let you plug in to some power when you have an itch for some bass.  Read on to find out more about two of the best options out there, the feature heavy and super portable Jawbone Jambox and the ear-meltingly awesome Bowers & Wilkins MM1 powered computer speakers.

What you came for–the Sound:The clarity of the sound that you are going to get from your speaker is going to be directly dependent on the size of the driver (the cone-like structure in the speaker).  A larger driver produces deeper sounds best, while a smaller driver produces higher sounds best. The larger B&W MM1 speakers are big enough for have larger and smaller drivers for distinct deep and high sounds.  The Jambox compensates for its small drivers by using a new system of producing deep bass–a flat structure called a moving-wall passive bass radiator.

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