Soundkraft Enigma Speaker Review
How many audio products do you know come from the little island of Singapore?
The last I recall were the Roberton Audio speakers, from almost two decades ago. They were pretty good, but were not well known outside of the island.
Now we have another company that has begun selling speakers, and whilst they are actually made in Thailand, the company is from Singapore and the product is pretty interesting.
This is their website https://soundkraftaudio.com/ and the blurb says:
This Soundkraft Enigma is their first project and it comes in single, a stereo pair, passive and active options. There is also a mini version too.
Exquisite Works of Art
We are a manufacturer of compact Hifi Bluetooth speaker. Our story begins with a Indiegogo project back in March 2021. All our speakers are designed and built in Singapore. The spherical cabinets are handcarved in Thailand by local artisan, making each one of our products unique piece of art.
Their product is called the Enigma, and even in a crowded sea of speakers, this is something that stands out.
The technical details are pretty impressive, with a DSP, 50W of power no less and most important, some very pretty speaker enclosures that make them rather fetching. The round bowl is about the size of a balling bowl, and has some heft too.
It comes in a variety of very nice finishes, and I chose the blue and green marble finish and as it says in their site, if you didn't look too closely, you will really think it's made from marble. The rap test is fine too, and the spherical enclosure helps to give more rigidity. You will not want to hide this speaker, and for many it will become a centrepiece of their living room.
Compared to my Dynaudio and Monitor Audio speakers, which are renowned for their cabinet finishes, it does not need to hide it's head. It's impressive to look at and also not bad to touch too. There are some fit and finish refinements, but it is really not bad at all.
Some key features:
- Bluetooth 5.0 with APTX
- 3.5mm aux in
- no built in volume control
- rear firing tweeter
- power button (you can't dim the LED light)
- no remote control
- stereo pair comes with one passive with banana ports and one active with the power module and banana outputs
As for coupling, you look for the device, and just connect to it. The maker will ask you if you wish to have a specific name, and I simple chose Enigma, but you can choose a more funky name.
The makers did not drop the ball when it comes to the sound either. The bass is the more impressive part, with a bass that does go pretty low, and remains tight and articulate. The treble does run a bit hot, perhaps to compensate for the rear firing position and that was meant to distribute the sound all round in a reflective fashion. It plays very loud without distortion, and does well for almost any genre. Playing my usual couple of songs - Budapest and Sunflower, the bass was meaty and enjoyable.
Running in the speakers also allows a more tamed treble. There is enough volume to fill a whole room easily, and the sound spreads nicely with the rear placed tweeter. Range wise, in a small apartment you shouldn't run into issues.
I've even used it as a speaker for zoom and there is no issue following dialogue, but do note, there's no microphone.
Bear in mind there's no volume adjustment, it relies entirely on your source to do that, and the base is stuck to the speaker, and there's no tilt or swivel function.
It worked well playing in the background and if your system allows APT-X, the sound quality is pretty good. Lag is not bad either, so you won't feel the dialogue lags.
With Baby Driver - the dialogue was clear, the bass and dynamics were good and one can seriously use a pair of them in place of a soundbar for your TV.
Are there any downsides?
Well at this price it's hard to criticise, you can see they spent the money on the speakers and the enclosure, so you won't find Airplay, wifi or streaming. The treble might be a bit hot if you listen close up, so do let it spread around the room. Sit a bit further away and the treble feels smoother. It also works well for movies and pop music.
There are stereo passive and powered options, but no wall mount accessories. Even so the Engima uses a M6 screw, so you can jury-rig up something yourself too.
At it's SRP of under USD 300 for a single speaker, the Soundkraft Enigma is a mystery that should be revealed to the world.
I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.
Comments
Post a Comment