Watch out for the VIOLET speaker unit!!!!!!!!!

[avidyarthy]

Got an audition for the Violet speaker unit at Lakozy New Delhi.

Manufactured by a Bangalore based company ... new venture. People behind it are ex Harmon Kardon, USA.

Now, the details, in layman's language:

1. It is a 5.1 system, which makes NO USE of an AVR. Direct connection with a DVD.

2. The speakers are WIRELESS. No wire connections for receiving the signals. The speakers look like light bulb assembly. Can easily fit into any light bulb power supply direct ... for the input 220V supply.

3. The speakers can be put ANYWHERE inside the room. No need to make sure of any accurate positioning.

4. Each speaker is provided with a 2" driver, has a 40 W D class amp (something that was'nt revealed on asking. Me thinks it is a 2040 / 2050 chip per speaker which is being fed by a step down SMPS ... quite similar in operation to the Topping TP20 2020 chip).

5. Very good sound output, both for movies as well as music. The supplied wireless sub-woofer does a 'good' job for the low down outputs.

6. The wireless 'thing' requires an initial calibration for a one time setting per room for a fixed speaker positioning. This exercise takes upto 3 minutes. Once done, then that set up is ready for action.

7. The 5 satellite speakers have a range from 160 hz to 22 khz, while the current sub-woofer goes down to 45 hz.

8. The cost indicated is @ 65 k all inclusive.

Others present during the audition were ... Kamalji, G Venu, Amit Noida, Tapan Das.

Maybe, they would add to what I have jotted down.

My feedback: Quite impressive

 

[iaudio]

You mean the all the 5 speakers are powered, and also have a assembly to slot into lightbulb holder?
Any link to the manufacturers website?

 

[avidyarthy]

Exactly ....

:: Violet ::

 

[madbullram]

Very interesting, might be the thing for my bedroom . Can you one of you post a detailed review of it?

Also, since it needs no AVR, does it mean I have a BDP with analog out, this should also be able to do a 7.1?

Also, any contact details? The website does not let me submit demo request!

 

[avidyarthy]

Damn MBR.

I have no place to put it. My house is already wired up ... sound source and output in every room. Should have gone slow in 'sound' procurement :sad:

 

[panditji]

Just missed it today but heard excellent feedback from all the other members present...Watch out for them...

 

[madbullram]

Damn MBR.

That credit goes to my wife who always put my purchases on Ultra Slow Motion Matrix style!

 

[avidyarthy]

Sound quality is near-about as good as TP20.
Bass is taken care of by the sub-woofer.

The two guys from the company are off to Mumbai today ... most probably for more auditions there.

[email protected] ..... chairman
[email protected] ........ CEO

 

[iaudio]

Thanks for the link, went through it. Great to know it sounds good as well.
As for me, I am really impressed by the light bulb idea!

 

[AMITNOIDA]

After listening to Violet 5.1 speaker set, we have listened to PSB Alpha based 5.1 in the same room with NAD 7.1 receiver. The sound of PSB Alfa system produced more dynamics than violet system, but of course the Alpha system with NAD 7.1 receiver is much more costly than Violet system.

Violet system has an unique convenience of being wireless and no requirement of connecting speaker wire etc. It requires only bulb holders and power connection. For movie, the sound is quite good. We have listened to Hotel California music video also and it was quite good.

I think it will attract attention of the mass people, even audiophiles as movie speakers due to convenience and good sound output.

Thanks to Lakozy Delhi for their very neat and attractive showroom and providing opportunity of listening to a very new and unique product like VIOLET speaker system. It is going to be commercially launched in Dec'10.

People of NCR should drop in Lakozy Delhi for listening to whole range of PSB, NAD and also this VIOLET system.

After setting up of my 2.0 Stereo system for audio, I am thinking now for a workable movie system. The main component will be most probably Panasonic Plasma 42V20D with Sony blu-ray player with a 5.1 system. The VIOLET system came at a very best time for me.

 

[sidvee]

Interesting - glad that someone adapted it to Indian setting - these have been around though:
Klipsch Puts Wireless Speakers in your Lightbulb Sockets | CraziestGadgets.com
I heard this earlier this year.
Cheers
Sid

 

[marsilians]

3. The speakers can be put ANYWHERE inside the room. No need to make sure of any accurate positioning.

7. The 5 satellite speakers have a range from 160 hz to 22 khz, while the current sub-woofer goes down to 45 hz.

Pt 3 does not make sense, any speaker for what its worth do require positioning. The more accurate the better.

Pt 7. seem to point to being shrill speakers. On comparison the KEF 3001 series the range is 70Hz - 55Khz. Has anyone done any measurements?

 

[avidyarthy]

@ Marsilian
Look at their website and try understand the speaker design. It works on the concept of a down-firing sub-woofer. Here, the sound waves emitted by the driver encounter a cone placed immediately ahead of the driver. This allows for the dispersion of the sound waves all around. This happens with all the 5 satellites.

Moreover, most probably, the signal strength is manipulated by the control box provided with the system. The system is deemed to be set-up once you have carried out the speakers calibration by a trpod mounted wireless contraption (which takes 3 minutes). I believe this locates the positions of the 5 speakers in the room and feeds the necessary info to the control box to later, feed the necessary signal strength accordingly as required. 'This is my guess'.

And, you got to hear it first before saying something ... such as, it is not possible! 3D sound imaging is what is happening with the above explained. There is no concept of any VANTAGE spot in here. You can choose to be anywhere in the room, and still get the same sound quality and strength.

I personally see this quality of NO VANTAGE spot to be its biggest achievement. Just the way it is in the movie theaters. MIGHT make the AVR a thing of the past if these guys market the product carefully .....

Did not find any shrillness @ 160 Hz-22 kHz. Shrillness has got nothing to do with this.

 

[anm]

sorry. missed the meet. was away for vaishno devi darshan

 

[dillihifi]

Hi all,

Well this is my take on the Violet speaker setup.

The Hardware:

It consists of

a) 5 speakers which can either be fitted to 220v light sockets or to brackets/stands and need a 220volts connection. These speakers are gorgeous to look at from the aesthetic point of view and with the brushed aluminum finish does indeed look appealing. The speakers are mounted on the top like the omnistats but they also conceal a 40w rms amp inside, a wireless receiver.

b) a subwoofer unit which also needs a 220v power connection. It is a very compact unit little rectangular bottom firing as well as a wireless receiver.

c) A mic to calibrate the system once it is set up which has 3 mics arranged in a circular fashion. This needs to be connected to the base unit during the calibration.

d) A transmitter unit which has the following inputs. 2 coax digital ins, 1 set of 5.1 analog inputs, 1 set of stereo inputs, 1 subwoofer out, 1 power in socket.

e) A remote which has the following buttons, (i) source, (ii) Vol up down, (iii) for adjusting Low, Mid and High frequencies, (iv) power on /off, (v) calibrate button for calibration.

The tech behind the same.

Well this system basically transmits the audio through the 2.4GHz band wirelessly and the speakers can be kept a little bit as per the rooms alignment but has a limitation that the satellites need to be fed power. The DVD player needs to be connected to the either the digital in or through the analog inputs to the transmitter. The transmitter then wirelessly transmits the sound to all the satellites as well as to the sub woofer which reproduce the range. There is no need of a receiver.

The sound.

The system was hooked up via a phillips DVD player. The video was routed through HDMI to Mits 3800 and the audio was through the 5.1 channel analog inputs to the base transmitter. This fed the audio to the satellites and the subwoofer. We all watched some demo clips from a dts disc including clips from Hero, Lord of the rings, jodha akbar, etc.

The sound was impressive coming from these units. There was no harshness or shrillness at all. At times I felt that the LF could have been turned down a little bit. Me thinks this can be done through the bass control on the remote. The sound from the speakers and surrounds was pretty good. One could move around in the room and still have the feel of the of the sound effects. The sound from this system was miles ahead from the htibs minus the the inconvenience of running wires to each speaker.

The conclusions

Well if anybody desires to have a HTIB this system outscores most of them with novel idea of wireless, which overcomes many limitations of the wired speaker setup. This is aimed at the mass market with a price of approx 65k. The comparable wired system being a entry level receiver and a set of 5.1 speakers would cost a little more than this. The convenience it introduces in the speaker placement for people living in apartments and houses is immense. The sound is pretty decent too.

I would have loved HDMI ins, HD audio decoding but this thing certainly is pretty interesting and might go on to be a big hit. My take that if you are looking for any HTIB with a budget of 50k do surely give this system a audition. Well these guys also promise a home demo in your own living room/bedroom where you can really hear the system without buying it first.

All these was made possible by Ashish and Shitij of Lakozy Delhi who had invited us to their showroom. They have the whole range of NAD + PSB which we listened to at leisure which I will post in a separate thread.

 

[sud98]

At the onset, let me say its a great concept and I really like the looks of it.

But I think there may be a few practical problems in implementing the same

1. The people who would want to go for a system like this would probably be a general buyer who is high on aesthetics. One typically may not have planned for five light bulb sockets in one room (which are unused). Doing civil work for this system or extending wires might cause the aesthetics to suffer.

2. 2.4 Ghz is generally considered a bad range as there are too many home devices which use the same frequency range.

 

[avidyarthy]

1. The people who would want to go for a system like this would probably be a general buyer who is high on aesthetics. One typically may not have planned for five light bulb sockets in one room (which are unused). Doing civil work for this system or extending wires might cause the aesthetics to suffer.

AGREE to this ......

 

[dillihifi]

Well a simple solution is to place the speakers as vases and have plug points to plug them in. You would not need to run speaker wires from front to back. You basically need two nos of plug points one at the front and one at the back.

This is positioned against the mass market HTIB with comparable sound. This is not for dedicated HT rooms.

There were two broad band routers as well as one cordless in the house where this was auditioned but no interference was noticed. The specs were based on hearsay.



Launch date is Dec'10 try to give this an audition guys principally being focussed in around Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai

 

[Ashish Aggarwal]

Hi Guys -

Firstly, thanks to the guys who came our demo in delhi and taking the time to post a wonderful write-up for the product.

We started on our drawing board 2.5 years ago with a very simple proposition: install a speaker system in a living room in five minutes or less, where we create a compelling and immersive surround sound effect with no pre-conditions to the consumer. The idea is to place the speakers where you have either a spare light bulb socket or a 230V power outlet in a way to have the least impact on your room and asthetics. The speakers are small (fit in standard US R40 can) and blend into your room decor without getting noticed as speakers. Using clever antenna design, phase synchronous and power adaptive wireless design we ensure transmission of better than wire-like quality of uncompressed 48kHz 16bit digital data with latency of under 13ms and timing accuracy of 200ps.

As far as quality of the acoustics experience is concerned, we have combined some unique concepts from wave field synthesis, ambisonics sound and binaural audio to tackle the goal of immersive effect with flexible placement, room acoustics and large sweet spot.

We believe that we have made significant progress towards this goal and, personally, I am glad to see that most of who have seen agree this to be so. For those who are interested in understanding the product and technology, we have white paper which can be downloaded at: here (white paper) . The white paper (and the contents on our website) should give you answers to some of the questions that a few members have expressed on this thread. I am also happy to also respond individually or collectively to forum members who want to understand more about the product and technology.

--Ashish

 

[dillihifi]

Tried a few times to download the white paper it is not opening. Can you repost it or something.