Friday, December 7, 2012

On Amazon (Yes Really) Parrot Design Zikmu Wireless Hi-Fi Speakers by Philippe Starck (Classic Black, Pair)

Parrot Design Zikmu Wireless Hi-Fi Speakers by Philippe Starck (Classic Black, Pair)

Parrot Design Zikmu Wireless Hi-Fi Speakers by Philippe Starck (Classic Black, Pair)

Code : B002NKZ83E
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Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #75201 in Speakers
  • Brand: Parrot
  • Model: PF550030AA
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 13.80" h x
    13.80" w x
    40.00" l,
    24.00 pounds

Features

  • Sleek, wireless hi-fi stereo speakers with a combined power of 100 watts RMS
  • Docks, plays, and charges all Apple iPod and iPhone devices
  • Supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g connections for wireless music streaming from your computer
  • Supports Bluetooth v1.2 and v2.1 EDR, A2DP, and AVRCP profiles for wireless music streaming from compatible mobile phones
  • Includes RF remote control





Parrot Design Zikmu Wireless Hi-Fi Speakers by Philippe Starck (Classic Black, Pair)









Product Description

Philippe Starck has created speakers reflecting his genius and personality, exclusively for Parrot. Their stunning, ultra-modern sculpted shape incorporates advanced technology that delivers and intense and poerful sound with spectacular clarity. The speakers have been designed for compatibility with your iPhone or latest generation of iPod/Touch. Bluetooth technology allows you to enjoy the speakers without the fuss of messy speaker wire. Along with Wi-Fi technology, it allows you to stream your music directly from your computer to the speakers.





   



Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
4Awsome Sounding !!
By Ken Spiegeland
I purchased these speakers from Amazon a few days ago. The sound is nothing less than spectacular. When I setup the speakers there is not a lot to do. Just plug each speaker into the electric outlet, touch the power button and you are ready to go. I tried playing from my ipod using the Bluetooth connection, but it sounded delayed, stopped and started over and over, I couldn't take it anymore, so I just set it in the dock on the speaker and it works and sounds like a champ. The remote control is simple enough use. The sound is soft, I hear more instruments and sounds in the music, I can't tell you why, but it is great. and you can feel the air move when the volume is high. Bottom line, I would buy these ipod speakers again without hesitation.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
2Good looking, but buggy
By D. Liu
I was quite excited upon purchasing these great looking speakers as they go well with my modern decor. However, it wasn't long after receiving them, that I wished I hadn't been suckered by its beauty. The sound quality is what you would expect. It's not audiophile quality, but acceptable. However, what is disappointing is the quirky, buggy nature of the speakers.After installing all the software updates, I was able to stream music from my Mac laptop to the speakers via Wi-Fi, but it was short lived. Every time I turned off the speakers and fired them back up, streaming music from my laptop via Wi-Fi would stop working. I've managed to get it functional again, but it was after performing a whole bunch of maneuvers, and I'm not sure which one specifically worked. I would unplug the speakers and plug them back in (there really should be a reset button), as the Wi-Fi button on the speakers would stop responding unless I did and upload all the software updates again....and then maybe it'll work.Also once in a while, I wouldn't be able to turn on the speakers, either using the remote or the speaker's "On" button, and would have to unplug and plug the speakers back in.But what's worse is the customer service which is non-existent. I have yet to get a response from them and it's been 2 months now.If I'm going to pay that much for speakers, I expect it to work flawlessly and get better customer service if I have problems.Don't buy these speakers. It's not worth the hassle!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
3Too expensive for given performance
By oluv
Well well, i hesitated quite a bit before buying the Zikmu speakers (Zikmu stands for "Musique" in a twisted form). In fact i went to a local dealer and asked him if i could take them home for several days of testing before actually buying them. I was mostly interested in the wireless streaming features and of course the sound quality the speakers were providing.The sound is not bad by any means, but it is not really top-quality either. For this price one would expect a more refined sound. Bass is quite powerful for the size, it is a bit flabby, but it makes music sound quite powerful and smooth. What really put me off was the treble which is pretty dull and undetailed out of the box. You can improve this with the built in EQ, but then treble can already start sounding a bit artificial. What's good is the broad sound dispersion. The speakers even emit to the rear and put up in the middle of the room, you really get a huge sound-stage without being limited to a narrow sweet-spot. I found placement to be really unproblematic. Putting them about half a meter from any wall enables them to fill a whole room with sound.Wireless streaming possibilities are great. I didn't try bluetooth, as it compromises audio-quality. But streaming through Wifi should give you an uncompressed audio. After a bit of a hassle with the Wlan-router setup i finally got the speakers to work and was able to stream my music from the laptop directly to the speakers. You are not bound to Apple's Itunes or whatever like it's the case with Airplay. The Parrot Audio Suite works like a kind of audio-driver where you can choose if you want the internal speakers or the Zikmu to play your music. Whatever sound you play from your computer will automatically come through the Zikmu, so you are not limited to MP3, but can also stream FLAC, OGG, etc... The other way of streaming through Wifi is if using the speakers as Upnp Renderer. You can open an online interface with any internet-browser, and the zikmu should automatically find any Upnp mediaserver in your network. In my case i have an Iomega NAS with activated mediaserver, and i was able to select this through the Zikmu-interface and listen to all my stored music, even without my computer. You can manage the online-interface even through an Iphone or Ipod-Touch. The interface also enables you to set various EQ-presets besides defining your own. Here you can also swap between left/right speaker, do some room compensation adjustments, which seemed to brighten up the treble a bit more, when set to "dampened room".Unfortunately wireless streaming was not without problems. Sometimes the stream just stopped for a couple of seconds but then continued again. Another problem was when streaming directly from a computer and using this computer for some heavy internet-browsing at the same time, the audio driver could get out of sync and create drop outs which resulted in some crackling and distorted sound. The only way to improve this was to disable streaming to the Zikmu and enabling it again. But if you continued with your browsing, it could get out of sync again. I already contacted European support and even got a response that they are aware of this problem, but they are still looking for a solution.The most unproblematic way of listening to music with the Zikmu was with a docked Ipod or Iphone. A docked Ipod is also seen as Mediaserver within Zikmu's interface, so you can even remote control your Ipod through any internet browser to your liking.The infrared remote control is really minimalistic. You can only jump to the next/previous track and control volume. There is also a source-button but it didn't seem to do anything in my case. Usually the speakers automatically change to the latest attached device. So if you have only an Ipod docked, you will not be able to select any other source.Apart from all the streaming issues i even had some crashes where the speakers won't respond or output any sound. Although there are several ways to reset them, the easiest and quickest way was to pull the plug. Then they behaved as they should.I really like the design and the streaming features of the Zikmu speakers. The white ones would even match our furniture perfectly. But because of the high price and rather buggy implementation i decided not to buy them and returned them to the dealer instead. If the sound was really high-end i would still consider them. But the sound just didn't wow me that much to justify the high price. I even prefer the output of a much cheaper Harman Kardon go+play boombox, although it won't create such a wide stereo-field of course and doesn't have any of the streaming-features.

See all 6 customer reviews...



Parrot Design Zikmu Wireless Hi-Fi Speakers by Philippe Starck (Classic Black, Pair). Reviewed by Perry S. Rating: 4.4

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