14 DAY TRIAL // There are standard audio solutions like speakers and headphones, with various designs and performance ratings, and then there are things that stand apart though high specialization, like the Maxell Soundbar.
The thing about the audio market is that it is just as varied as any other segment of the IT industry, meaning that users will have different tastes in regards to sound quality, aesthetics, price and any combination thereof.
As such, headphones and speakers range from the ones made to suit the tastes of as many people as possible to those that are highly specialized.
The newest creation to leave Maxell's labs is one of the latter type, featuring a very unusual shape for an audio rendering product.
More specifically, instead of being shaped like a satellite or a sphere or anything else, it looks like a flat, thin surface.
Detailed on its official product page, the Maxell Soundbar, as it is called, is reserved for those consumers that don't have a lot of room for sophisticated audio systems.
For instance, should a user have a small TV in a dorm room or an office, the Soundbar, measuring 23 x 2 x 8.5 inches, will easily slip beneath it.
It is sturdy enough to support up to 55 pounds and weighs, itself, about 3.5 pounds, though the audio quality will, understandably, not be supreme.
Nonetheless, it will beat the integrated speakers of a TV or all-in-one (AiO) computer, what with the front speakers of 10W each, set up in 2.1 configuration (subwoofer is of the 30W, 6 ohm variety). Dynamic balance control is implemented as well.
What's more, as a final perk, Maxell threw in a pair of 3.5mm inputs, meaning that MP3 players or other audio sources, including computers, can be plugged directly into it. Unfortunately, the price has not been given yet.