madbullram
Well-Known Member
Finally, we got to DEMO the coveted Violet which has got rave reviews AV Max and also from some of our members.
The start:
I had heard the Klipsch range of bulb/wireless speakers when in US and I was impressed by the idea but not by the audio quality of the product. Though I was fascinated I gave it a miss. Then I read about an Indian company which has come up with this break through product very similar to Klipsch but a complete HT 5.1 setup. It really piked my interest and I sent an email to Mr.Bhatia. I wasn't really looking forward for a quick reply (though I was hoping I would since HFV has now become a respected word in Hifi world). I got a prompt reply from him and courteous follow-up and we fixed up the date of the demo. I have total respect for his professionalism. We decided to do it my place as it will give us real feel of our home environment which is acoustically challenging.
The review team:
Since its my house, I decided to call a select few people who can give an objective review. I also posted an open invite in our forum to keep it open for any enthusiast. The final team:
HFV team:
1. Snap team - Pradeep
2. MBR
3. Sound Advice
4. Srinisundar
5. Capt Rajesh
6. venkat CR
7. Rajiv
The snap network team:
Pradeep (marketing) and his engineer (sorry I forgot his name
)
I also wanted couple of non-audio enthusiasts to give that un-biased opinion. They were:
1. Kavitha - A very good friend who does not understand too much gizmo language and is looking for a bose kind of setup with minimal fuzz and wireless interface. Has a budget of 50-60k.
2. My wifey - The no-nonsense, on my face, take it person whom I always rely on to cast the final vote in my hi fi purchases.
System: Since Violet speakers is not an high-end audiophile kind of HT system we decided the best competitor would be my 5+ years old Philips HTS 4750 HTiB (price - 22k).
Violet Speaker:
The system comprises of:
1. 5 beautiful and gorgeous speakers shaped like bulb with a flat end (size is similar to a 200W bulb). The speakers are active.
2. An active subwoofer
3. Central console until which takes in all the connections from the DVD or media player or any other source. It has a 5.1 analog pcm input, a digital coax input, and stereo input. The console has Dolby decoding ability which means you can directly connect your media player via digital coax and play a dolby audio movie file or use your DVDp coaxial output to play a Dolby DVD. BUT it does not decode DTS. So if you have a DTS DVD you need to have a DVDp which can decode DTS and also has 5.1 analog pcm output so it can be connected to the console (major irritant for me!). However, the violet team said that this might be enabled once they receive license from DTS as the console has the capability but it hasn't been enabled due to license from DTS.
4. A 3 mike calibration unit which calibrates the entire setup automatically.
5. A cute and functional remote
For more info on the specs pls read (avoid repeat):
http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/14260-watch-out-violet-speaker-unit-4.html
:: Violet ::
Some pics:
Neatly packed speakers, stands, and mike (you either get the floor stand to keep the speaker on floor or wall fitments)
Close-up of speakers (they come with screw type male bulb socket)
Calibration mike set (its got 3 mikes)
One more close up of the speakers
Some more close-ups:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
The setup:
The Snap networks (violet manufacturers) team of Pradeep and his technical developer landed at my house at 11 am. The setup took 27 minutes to be exact.
1. They surveyed my house and decided the placement - 8 mins
2. Setup the speakers - 10 mins
3. Calibrate the speakers - 9 mins
To be honest, my house was not challenging as I had right electrical points already made for a 7.1 system. Center speakers in the center, L and R speakers on either side but the Right side speakers were spaced at distance more than the left side speakers from the center (that is lets say if L speakers was 5 ft from center, the right side was 7 feet from the center and not in straight line.)
The surround speakers were placed behind the sofa at two corners.
The front setup (forgive us for the messy wires!), you can see that the Right speaker is not even in the pic. This was done to see how it sounds with mis aligned placement
Right speaker:
Left Speaker close up (This was not kept on floor to check again for sound in various speaker positions)
The central console (the indicator light indicates the input)
Rear view of the central console (see the 5.1 input for DTS)
The active subwoofer:
Rear view of sub:
Calibration mike (with Mr.Venkat):
The DEMO:
As I detailed earlier, we had decided to A/B Violet setup and my Philips HtiB 4750. We used the Philips DVDp the snap had brought and decided to try the DTS Demo discs. The following was used for comparison:
5.1 setup:
1. Eagles - Hotel California 5.1 live audio
2. U 571 - the submarine war scene
3. Kill Bill Vol 1 - the famous last fight scene
Stereo:
1. Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue - Ode to Billy Joe
2. Varanam Aiyiram - Nenjukkul Peithudum
My Impressions
To be brutally honest, the Philips HTiB was truly the winner by a larger margin when it came to 5.1 movie experience. The bass was tight, punchy, and clear. The bass in Violet was okay in fact my wife nudged and asked if the sub woofer was working. This was crystal clear in the U571 scene where the bombs were dropped and they explode under water. instead of the bomb making a deep impact it was more of a high pitch explosion. I am NOT referring to the volume but the impact of bass.
In the Eagles track, I felt the violet lacked body when compared to the Philips HtiB and vocals were little better in the HTiB and was more life like. The placement was also good but the violet placement was virtual and flowing
In the Kill Bill scene, the violet had the virtual placement and the surround effects were spot on but again it lacked the punch the Philips HTiB had. BUT i was really really impressed with the surround effect through the speakers were not aligned properly.
Coming to the stereo part, honestly I believe the Philips HTiB sucks. The violet was better when we compared it with the HTiB in stereo mode. The violet creates a very nice virtual stage. But the problem was placement of instruments which was totally missing, I just couldn't place the instruments anywhere. When the same song was played by the Philips HTiB in Dolby mode the placement was relatively better.
I will leave the concept of Sound Bubble and circle to be explained by Venkat C R. During the stereo session we experienced a strange thing. Irrespective of where we stood (myself and Venkat), Hariharan''s voice was always coming from in between Center and Left speakers. It was like everything was placed there. Then we asked the Violet team to place the L and R speakers at equi distance from the center speaker. They did that and re-calibrated the entire system again. Now when we played the same song, Hariharan was no more in between Left and Center rather he was traveling with us. If I stood on the extreme right we were able to hear him between Center and Right. This gives a clear impression that speaker is IMPORTANT even for Violet speakers to get the correct sound stage :indifferent14:.
That also reminds me the question me and Srini had initially asked after reading about these speakers which said placement is not very important. We asked the team
"Since speakers placement according to you doesn't impact your sound stage and algorithm takes care of it can we place all speakers say in the front?"
The clear reply was no, you need to place the 4 speakers at four corners creating a basic square for optimum sound stage and surround experience but they need not be in straight line or equi distance.
However, I feel even in this speaker placement matters a lot.
My Verdict
First and foremost, I am extremely proud to see such an innovative product made in India. Hats off to Snap Networks for this. It is a capable HT system with lots of buts and ifs. If you can install an HTiB with wires then you might want to give this a miss (I hope I will change this impression soon as snap makes improvement to their system after collecting all feedbacks). If you are in the market, where you are looking for an excellent wireless, non complicated, basic HT system with good sound capabilities, and you see BOSE, then this is your system throw BOSE out.
What I liked:
1. Fit and finish of the product. Its been ages since I saw a product made in India with this level of finish. KUDOSSSSS
2. True wireless with no wires (between the system). Off course you need electrical socket for each speaker to be connected. But this is far far more easy then getting wires
3. Anyone can do the setup and calibration in 30 mins
4. Portability is a major plus. Say, I have it my Living Room, I want to enjoy a nice movie cosy with my wife in my bedroom, just remove the 5 speakers and install in my bedroom in 30 min!
5. Life style product which will get rave view from friends
6. Beautiful contemporary design
7. Minimal controls and fuzz (but adequate)
8. Ability to add more speakers and make into 7.1 (future proof but not sure if the console will be upgraded via firmware)
What I don't like:
1. Just Dolby encoding. This is a major turn off for me. You need a DVDp with 5.1 PCM output and there aren't many DVDp in the market. Common snap, you make a product for minimal complexity and you expect the end user to have a DVDp with 5.1 PCM and connect 6 wires across etc????
2. Average sub-woofer. clearly needs more life and juice in it
3. Average to Good sound effects
4. Placement still matters and needs tweaking to find the right place. This needs more work and like Venkat suggested may be they can provide individual calibration option for each speakers but then it will add to complexity which is what the product is against.
My wish list:
1. Clear direction on future strategy for implementing DTS HD and Dolby HD
2. HDMI input
3. DTS decoding
4. Marketing strategy to sell it only through select dealers is a NO NO for me. In my opinion this needs a good channel partner. A guy walking into AV Specialist dealer is going to compare this with the Onkyo's, Denon's etc of the world and for thats its not good news. The market is for gadget or layman who want no complication and are more looking for WOW factor. They come to eZone or Croma's.
My Score:
(compared to my 5 yrs old Philips HTiB)
Movie Experience: 3/5
Stereo Experience: 3/5
Sound decoding options : 2/5
Simplicity : 4/5 (it lost one point bcos of DTS not available and need to connect via 5.1)
Aesthetics : 10/5 (I am blown over)
VFM: 2.5/5
VFM compared to BOSE: 5/5
My wifes take
Until and unless they improve the sound quality I prefer wires in my bedroom. Sorry, you dont have my approval to buy this now :sad:
Kavitha's take
May be if I had heard it alone I would have been impressed, but after hearing your HTiB I am not convinced. Though I love the concept and the simplicity it offers, I will give it a miss currently
There goes my short and sweet review on Violet speakers. I will let Rajiv, Venkat, Rajesh, Arjun, Srini to post their view.
I would like to thank Mr.Bhatia and his team for taking time and providing a home demo of their system. Also, my hats of to their team for coming out with an innovative system like this. I am 100% sure with some more research and improvement this can very well become an EXCELLENT wireless HT system but today it falls below my expectations.
Blooper:
Venkat trying Pole dancing
The start:
I had heard the Klipsch range of bulb/wireless speakers when in US and I was impressed by the idea but not by the audio quality of the product. Though I was fascinated I gave it a miss. Then I read about an Indian company which has come up with this break through product very similar to Klipsch but a complete HT 5.1 setup. It really piked my interest and I sent an email to Mr.Bhatia. I wasn't really looking forward for a quick reply (though I was hoping I would since HFV has now become a respected word in Hifi world). I got a prompt reply from him and courteous follow-up and we fixed up the date of the demo. I have total respect for his professionalism. We decided to do it my place as it will give us real feel of our home environment which is acoustically challenging.
The review team:
Since its my house, I decided to call a select few people who can give an objective review. I also posted an open invite in our forum to keep it open for any enthusiast. The final team:
HFV team:
1. Snap team - Pradeep
2. MBR
3. Sound Advice
4. Srinisundar
5. Capt Rajesh
6. venkat CR
7. Rajiv
The snap network team:
Pradeep (marketing) and his engineer (sorry I forgot his name
)I also wanted couple of non-audio enthusiasts to give that un-biased opinion. They were:
1. Kavitha - A very good friend who does not understand too much gizmo language and is looking for a bose kind of setup with minimal fuzz and wireless interface. Has a budget of 50-60k.
2. My wifey - The no-nonsense, on my face, take it person whom I always rely on to cast the final vote in my hi fi purchases.
System: Since Violet speakers is not an high-end audiophile kind of HT system we decided the best competitor would be my 5+ years old Philips HTS 4750 HTiB (price - 22k).
Violet Speaker:
The system comprises of:
1. 5 beautiful and gorgeous speakers shaped like bulb with a flat end (size is similar to a 200W bulb). The speakers are active.
2. An active subwoofer
3. Central console until which takes in all the connections from the DVD or media player or any other source. It has a 5.1 analog pcm input, a digital coax input, and stereo input. The console has Dolby decoding ability which means you can directly connect your media player via digital coax and play a dolby audio movie file or use your DVDp coaxial output to play a Dolby DVD. BUT it does not decode DTS. So if you have a DTS DVD you need to have a DVDp which can decode DTS and also has 5.1 analog pcm output so it can be connected to the console (major irritant for me!). However, the violet team said that this might be enabled once they receive license from DTS as the console has the capability but it hasn't been enabled due to license from DTS.
4. A 3 mike calibration unit which calibrates the entire setup automatically.
5. A cute and functional remote
For more info on the specs pls read (avoid repeat):
http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/14260-watch-out-violet-speaker-unit-4.html
:: Violet ::
Some pics:
Neatly packed speakers, stands, and mike (you either get the floor stand to keep the speaker on floor or wall fitments)
Close-up of speakers (they come with screw type male bulb socket)
Calibration mike set (its got 3 mikes)
One more close up of the speakers
Some more close-ups:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
The setup:
The Snap networks (violet manufacturers) team of Pradeep and his technical developer landed at my house at 11 am. The setup took 27 minutes to be exact.
1. They surveyed my house and decided the placement - 8 mins
2. Setup the speakers - 10 mins
3. Calibrate the speakers - 9 mins
To be honest, my house was not challenging as I had right electrical points already made for a 7.1 system. Center speakers in the center, L and R speakers on either side but the Right side speakers were spaced at distance more than the left side speakers from the center (that is lets say if L speakers was 5 ft from center, the right side was 7 feet from the center and not in straight line.)
The surround speakers were placed behind the sofa at two corners.
The front setup (forgive us for the messy wires!), you can see that the Right speaker is not even in the pic. This was done to see how it sounds with mis aligned placement
Right speaker:
Left Speaker close up (This was not kept on floor to check again for sound in various speaker positions)
The central console (the indicator light indicates the input)
Rear view of the central console (see the 5.1 input for DTS)
The active subwoofer:
Rear view of sub:
Calibration mike (with Mr.Venkat):
The DEMO:
As I detailed earlier, we had decided to A/B Violet setup and my Philips HtiB 4750. We used the Philips DVDp the snap had brought and decided to try the DTS Demo discs. The following was used for comparison:
5.1 setup:
1. Eagles - Hotel California 5.1 live audio
2. U 571 - the submarine war scene
3. Kill Bill Vol 1 - the famous last fight scene
Stereo:
1. Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue - Ode to Billy Joe
2. Varanam Aiyiram - Nenjukkul Peithudum
My Impressions
To be brutally honest, the Philips HTiB was truly the winner by a larger margin when it came to 5.1 movie experience. The bass was tight, punchy, and clear. The bass in Violet was okay in fact my wife nudged and asked if the sub woofer was working. This was crystal clear in the U571 scene where the bombs were dropped and they explode under water. instead of the bomb making a deep impact it was more of a high pitch explosion. I am NOT referring to the volume but the impact of bass.
In the Eagles track, I felt the violet lacked body when compared to the Philips HtiB and vocals were little better in the HTiB and was more life like. The placement was also good but the violet placement was virtual and flowing
In the Kill Bill scene, the violet had the virtual placement and the surround effects were spot on but again it lacked the punch the Philips HTiB had. BUT i was really really impressed with the surround effect through the speakers were not aligned properly.
Coming to the stereo part, honestly I believe the Philips HTiB sucks. The violet was better when we compared it with the HTiB in stereo mode. The violet creates a very nice virtual stage. But the problem was placement of instruments which was totally missing, I just couldn't place the instruments anywhere. When the same song was played by the Philips HTiB in Dolby mode the placement was relatively better.
I will leave the concept of Sound Bubble and circle to be explained by Venkat C R. During the stereo session we experienced a strange thing. Irrespective of where we stood (myself and Venkat), Hariharan''s voice was always coming from in between Center and Left speakers. It was like everything was placed there. Then we asked the Violet team to place the L and R speakers at equi distance from the center speaker. They did that and re-calibrated the entire system again. Now when we played the same song, Hariharan was no more in between Left and Center rather he was traveling with us. If I stood on the extreme right we were able to hear him between Center and Right. This gives a clear impression that speaker is IMPORTANT even for Violet speakers to get the correct sound stage :indifferent14:.
That also reminds me the question me and Srini had initially asked after reading about these speakers which said placement is not very important. We asked the team
"Since speakers placement according to you doesn't impact your sound stage and algorithm takes care of it can we place all speakers say in the front?"
The clear reply was no, you need to place the 4 speakers at four corners creating a basic square for optimum sound stage and surround experience but they need not be in straight line or equi distance.
However, I feel even in this speaker placement matters a lot.
My Verdict
First and foremost, I am extremely proud to see such an innovative product made in India. Hats off to Snap Networks for this. It is a capable HT system with lots of buts and ifs. If you can install an HTiB with wires then you might want to give this a miss (I hope I will change this impression soon as snap makes improvement to their system after collecting all feedbacks). If you are in the market, where you are looking for an excellent wireless, non complicated, basic HT system with good sound capabilities, and you see BOSE, then this is your system throw BOSE out.
What I liked:
1. Fit and finish of the product. Its been ages since I saw a product made in India with this level of finish. KUDOSSSSS
2. True wireless with no wires (between the system). Off course you need electrical socket for each speaker to be connected. But this is far far more easy then getting wires
3. Anyone can do the setup and calibration in 30 mins
4. Portability is a major plus. Say, I have it my Living Room, I want to enjoy a nice movie cosy with my wife in my bedroom, just remove the 5 speakers and install in my bedroom in 30 min!
5. Life style product which will get rave view from friends
6. Beautiful contemporary design
7. Minimal controls and fuzz (but adequate)
8. Ability to add more speakers and make into 7.1 (future proof but not sure if the console will be upgraded via firmware)
What I don't like:
1. Just Dolby encoding. This is a major turn off for me. You need a DVDp with 5.1 PCM output and there aren't many DVDp in the market. Common snap, you make a product for minimal complexity and you expect the end user to have a DVDp with 5.1 PCM and connect 6 wires across etc????
2. Average sub-woofer. clearly needs more life and juice in it
3. Average to Good sound effects
4. Placement still matters and needs tweaking to find the right place. This needs more work and like Venkat suggested may be they can provide individual calibration option for each speakers but then it will add to complexity which is what the product is against.
My wish list:
1. Clear direction on future strategy for implementing DTS HD and Dolby HD
2. HDMI input
3. DTS decoding
4. Marketing strategy to sell it only through select dealers is a NO NO for me. In my opinion this needs a good channel partner. A guy walking into AV Specialist dealer is going to compare this with the Onkyo's, Denon's etc of the world and for thats its not good news. The market is for gadget or layman who want no complication and are more looking for WOW factor. They come to eZone or Croma's.
My Score:
(compared to my 5 yrs old Philips HTiB)
Movie Experience: 3/5
Stereo Experience: 3/5
Sound decoding options : 2/5
Simplicity : 4/5 (it lost one point bcos of DTS not available and need to connect via 5.1)
Aesthetics : 10/5 (I am blown over)
VFM: 2.5/5
VFM compared to BOSE: 5/5
My wifes take
Until and unless they improve the sound quality I prefer wires in my bedroom. Sorry, you dont have my approval to buy this now :sad:
Kavitha's take
May be if I had heard it alone I would have been impressed, but after hearing your HTiB I am not convinced. Though I love the concept and the simplicity it offers, I will give it a miss currently
There goes my short and sweet review on Violet speakers. I will let Rajiv, Venkat, Rajesh, Arjun, Srini to post their view.
I would like to thank Mr.Bhatia and his team for taking time and providing a home demo of their system. Also, my hats of to their team for coming out with an innovative system like this. I am 100% sure with some more research and improvement this can very well become an EXCELLENT wireless HT system but today it falls below my expectations.
Blooper:
Venkat trying Pole dancing
Last edited:
