A bookshelf speaker with integrated ambient light | Token Tech

There aren’t sufficient wall shops to deal with every thing we preserve putting in round our televisions at this time. All the things was advantageous after we simply needed to plug within the TV, then add the cable field, sound bar and/or audio system, varied cable packing containers, gaming consoles, and high it off with ambient lighting. However not everybody wants probably the most intensive and sophisticated setup. Generally you simply need a easy product that ticks a number of packing containers, and that is what the brand new Philips Fidelio FS1 speaker does.

Skipping the technical particulars a bit, the FS1 is a backlit LED bookshelf speaker that integrates with Philips Ambilight TVs to create an ambient gentle expertise round your content material. It is nearly as for those who’ve additionally put in a pair of Hue Play invisible gentle bars.

Clearly this isn’t the identical as a correct Hue Play expertise. The LED lights are weak and there are solely eight. They are often managed with a button on the speaker (a number of modes and brightness ranges), however they don’t seem to be voice activated and can’t be built-in into a wise residence setup.

Nonetheless, they work with Philips’ Ambilight sequence of TVs with out a lot of an issue. Merely pair them to your TV, then comply with the consumer interface prompts to combine together with your sound and lighting setups, even selecting the place precisely the speaker is positioned in relation to the TV. Protecting the audio system subsequent to the TV will clearly lead to completely different lighting results than in the event that they had been dealing with it.

It is a easy concept, however it works very effectively in actuality. Two audio system on both sides of the TV can ship nice encompass sound, plus ambient lighting that follows something on the TV with out interfering with hubs, apps, HDMI cables, or cameras pointed on the display. For individuals who simply need to modernize their leisure setup with out spending further money and time on standalone lighting tools, the Fidelio FS1 will get the job achieved, so long as you may have a Philips Ambilight TV.

You would be forgiven for those who had been considering this actually ought to have been a correct Philips Hue Play gentle. However this Philips is completely different from that Philips. See, the model is now run by separate firms: TP Imaginative and prescient handles the video and audio lineup, whereas Signify is the one behind Hue and Wiz lighting merchandise. I would not maintain my breath on a collaboration between the 2.

Going again to the FS1, it’s a easy however very versatile speaker. It features a 1-inch entrance tweeter, a top-mounted 2.5-inch driver, a bottom-firing 3.5-inch woofer (with twin passive radiators), and accommodates quite a lot of setups. It may be used as a stand-alone mono speaker or as a part of a stereo setup when paired with a second FS1 unit. It might additionally perform as a satellite tv for pc speaker for a Dolby Atmos setup or morph into the left and proper channels of an Ambilight TV.

Our demo with the FS1 was very quick, so we could not measure its sound high quality as a stand-alone speaker. Nonetheless, we are able to say that for those who set it up with the remainder of the Fidelio vary (FB1 soundbar and FW1 subwoofer) in a 7.2.4 configuration, you possibly can threat blowing the roof off your home. The sound is without doubt one of the clearest I’ve personally heard and the instrument separation is excellent.

A single Philips Fidelio FS1 speaker prices €349 and is already out there from some small retailers in Europe. We anticipate it to look on Amazon within the EU sooner or later. Sadly, we do not know when or if it is coming to the US.