Review: Libratone Zipp

You've probably seen Libratone's speakers on display in Apple's retail stores. They're the visually striking, fabric-covered things that look like little sculptures.

The Danish company's lineup of AirPlay wireless speakers offer a big sound with a decidedly Euro-upscale styling – and a very high price to match. The Libratone Live ($700) and the Libratone Lounge ($1,300) arrived first, and now the company brings us the $400 Zipp. It's clear from my testing that it's a very nice-sounding speaker, but that several concessions went into the design that make it slightly less capable than its competitors. Still, it has enough exceptional qualities to recommend it, but only if you're OK with the high cost.

Like several newer AirPlay devices currently making the rounds, the Zipp features a way to connect directly to the speaker from an iOS device, much like a Bluetooth speaker. Normally, AirPlay requires that both your source device and your speaker be connected to the same larger Wi-Fi network. But this doesn't work very well at the beach, the park or anywhere without Wi-Fi, and since the Zipp speaker has a battery that makes it portable, it wouldn't be much fun without some sort of direct-connect capability.

Libratone's implementation is called "PlayDirect," and it involves pressing a button on the Zipp, then linking your device directly to the speaker over an ad hoc Wi-Fi connection. While it has the advantage of keeping audio quality from being lost in the transfer of sound to the speaker (like what happens with Bluetooth), you pay the price of losing your Wi-Fi network connection.

Something else weird happens when you link up an iOS device to the speaker with PlayDirect – you lose your internet data connection, so you can't stream from Rdio or Spotify, and you're limited to listening to music you have stored on the device. It's a quirk inherent to AirPlay, and there is a workaround, but it involves switching to a static-IP configuration (instructions are here). Once you've done that extra 30 seconds of work, you can stream using Rdio and Spotify apps over 3G, then beam the output to the speaker over Wi-Fi.

It's a bit of a hassle, but it works. Also a hassle: You'll then need to cancel out this configuration when you're done by tapping "Forget This Network" in your device settings. Of course, if you're always in your home, or at least within range of a solid Wi-Fi network, you won't need to set up the PlayDirect network, and you can just use the speaker as a normal AirPlay device.

It also works as a DLNA speaker if you have the most recent firmware update, and there's a mini-jack in it as well, so those extra steps aren't required. They're only a necessity if you want to use AirPlay away from a Wi-Fi router.

With those grievances aired, there's plenty of quality to speak of in the Zipp. Inside are two 1-inch ribbon tweeters and a single 4-inch bass driver, all of which fire in different directions. The Zipp can't match the midrange nuances, bass response or stereo image of the company's flagship Lounge speaker, but the Zipp does sound better than average in a small room. It also sounds best at modest volume levels. Crank it up and the sound starts to suffer. Distortion and hiss kick in sooner than they should on a speaker this expensive.

However, when weighed against Bluetooth systems, this AirPlay speaker kicks the hell out of anyone else in terms of fidelity. The active bass driver stands in contrast to the passive bass radiator found in similar-size battery-powered speakers like Jawbone's Big Jambox. It gives the Zipp a fullness that other small speakers lack. Libratone's companion iOS app also gives you the ability to tweak the speaker's output, so you can optimize it to sound better in different situations or rooms. And as long as you don't want to turn it up too loud, it sounds great.

The cylindrical Zipp is about 10 inches tall and just under 5 inches in diameter. It weighs around 4 pounds, and the leather strap on top makes it easy to carry. At the base price of $400, you get one wool sleeve. For $450, you get the base unit and three wool sleeves, each a different color. If you want to pick another color, extra sleeves run $50 each. There are eight colors available, ranging from subtle to vibrant.

It has a deliberately minimalist design, so there are few buttons. On the glossy white top, an LED flashes colors to indicate battery life and connection status, and a simple plus and minus let you change the volume – not the volume of the speaker itself, but, through AirPlay, the digital volume in the music player.

On the back, underneath a leather carrying strap, there's a battery meter light, and two buttons that let you change between the local Wi-Fi network mode and the PlayDirect mode. There's an option to plug an auxiliary cable or USB cable straight into the speaker, too. The battery will give you, depending on use, between four and eight hours of playback. My results were closer to the four-hour mark, which was still enough to provide a full afternoon of music on my porch. Still, that's less than what you'll get from most Bluetooth speakers.

So the sound is solid, standard AirPlay operation is as simple as it comes, the PlayDirect stuff isn't too complicated, and it's very pleasant to look at. All good, but not cheap. If you're looking for a portable AirPlay speaker, it would be difficult (but not impossible) to find something that sounds this good for under $400. But if you're not an absolute stickler for audio fidelity, you'd be better off going with Bluetooth and buying something like the $300 Big Jambox, which sounds almost as good, works with any OS and doesn't require any extra dance steps to get a connection working outside the home.

Also, keep in mind that AirPlay still isn't perfect. During my testing of the Zipp, it was hard to ignore the two- to three-second delay between pressing a button on my iPhone's screen and the playback responding. That precious gap can be a mood killer, and it's a problem that Bluetooth speakers don't have.

WIRED Best example so far of Libratone's design chops. Sound is great for modest parties in medium-size rooms. AirPlay setup and use is as easy as it gets on an established Wi-Fi connection. Decent battery life.

TIRED The cost is a put-off. PlayDirect works, but setting up internet streaming is an annoyance. If you rely on Spotify or Pandora and plan to take the Zipp to the beach, consider carefully.