What Hi-Fi? Verdict
Compact, clever and with a big, detailed sound, all without batteries or a mains adaptor
Pros
- +
Excellent sound for their size
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neat design
- +
portable
- +
inexpensive
Cons
- -
Not for big rooms
- -
treble can get bright
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.
There’s a boom in speakers designed to improve on the units in most laptops, but while the neatest answer is to connect them via USB, there is one problem: power.
The solution adopted by SoundScience for the QSB desktop speakers is the DyadUSB package from NXT (or HiWave as the company has just rebranded itself).
It combines efficient flat balanced-mode-radiator drivers with an amp able to deliver up to 15W on USB power.
Reet petite and reet good sounding, too
It’s a neat package: the speakers themselves are around 8.5cm on each side, have metal grilles and come in a rubberised case complete with both USB and interconnecting cables.
And it works really well. The sound won’t fill huge rooms, but for desk-based listening it’s clean, well-weighted and open, with excellent stereo imaging and focus (if sometimes bright at the top end).
We played everything from rock to the Radio 3 320kbps stream, and every time we came up smiling.
These are ideal travel speakers – our pair has already been halfway round the world – and we reckon they’ll be a hit with students, or anyone wanting a second room solution.
