Audio Pro LV33 review
The Good – Effortless floor standing loudspeaker that is both digital and wireless and delivers a high-end audio solution
The Bad – The transmitter/dongle is ‘functional’ to put it politely, but its ease of use makes this a bit picky given the fact, in my case, I can’t even see the thing because it is at the back of my laptop. Have you ever seen a good looking dongle?
The Verdict – Unique digital floor standing CD quality wireless loudspeakers for multi-room and other solutions without many wireless competitors
Introduction
Here we have an excellent floor standing loudspeaker pair that is tailor made for multi room living and provides a higher end digital audio solution for any computer with the latest streaming services. These Audio Pro LV33 speakers come in a pair and are wireless from the source, requiring only a power supply. Because they are not interconnected they can be placed anywhere in a living or dining room, office or other space.
Quality and Design
The design side of these speakers is the USP (unique selling point). This is a pair of independent wirelessly connected stereo floor standing speakers that are very high quality. They can sit anywhere in a room in a range of 20 meters, my room is not big enough to test this to be honest. There is a built in bass equaliser which means each speaker can be adjusted for bass response (+- 1-dB) in the particular room or environment you are in. This is very neat; both speakers have a downward pointing bass driver which is where the excellent thump comes from.
The speakers are driven by two 35W amplifiers and a 100W amplifier from separate power sources. The digital sound is delivered by a unique Audio Pro wireless transmitter (basically a USB dongle) and converted at up to 48kHz thus providing a CD quality solution to streaming needs. Remember CD quality is 44.1kHz, however hi-res Audio goes up to 196kHz sample rate.
At the head of the Audio Pro LV33 speakers are three silk dome, wide array, tweeters and a separate mid-range driver creating an engaging sound-stage. A cleverly designed, snug fitting grille can be removed so that you can see these tweeters and the controls and thus create a talking point. Otherwise you can leave the grille on to maintain the understated anonymity of these excellent speakers. The speakers stand 75 cm high and 22 cm square and have an
appropriately heavy weight (approx. estimate 13kg each). As with many Audio Pro quality products, you are provided with a pair of white gloves in order to set-up the speakers without incident, particularly since the speakers are wrapped in a pleasant black leather finish with grey stitching that may be prone to long nails scratching the surface. The speakers and out-of-the-box experience is very satisfying as the leather feel leaves you with a return on your considerable investment.
Set-up is a breeze; I have previous experience of setting up the bookshelf LV2e speakers, so I decided to time the process out of the box. 7 minutes. Fire up your computer, plug in the speakers to a power socket (1 each), separated ideally by a few meters and position roughly to start with. Plug the dongle into your computer, wait for a bit of software updating and hit the continue button. There are several channels to select, the default from the box is Code 1, this did not connect with my speakers so I adjusted the dongle to channel 2, used the remote at the speakers to change to 2, choose ‘Pair’ and then the blue lights glow signifying connection. Fire up Tidal and you’re away. 7 minutes, excluding removal of white gloves and putting the box away. I gather that MAC set-up is even easier, though I have not tested this.
The USB dongle/transmitter is as mentioned, functional. It is not really very attractive but it is hard to think of how it could look much better considering its job. The remote however has a nice soft feel that sits nicely in the hand. The soft feel buttons are easy to press. They feel as if they should illuminate but I have thus far failed to make this happen or read how they may do this.
Performance
Each Audio Pro LV33 features three, one-inch silk dome tweeters; one, four and a half inch midrange driver and one, six and a half inch down-firing woofer. The performance from these speakers is very room filling, impressive and imposing even, at high volume. However at this price, it should be, shouldn’t it? As mentioned the tweeters are pointed in an array that is 90 degrees wide from the top of the speaker. The resultant sound stage is pleasant, deep and vocals are clear. The frequency range is wide, plenty for my ears. When I listen to range, I’m often in Metallica ‘Enter the Sandman’ territory and the width of delivery is excellent (I do listen to other stuff too!). In respect of rhythm the speakers are uncluttered with a quality source, I often listen to Skrillex’s ‘Bangarang’ and these speakers have huge bouncy rhythm, unfazed by volume or bass adjustment. I would describe the bass pleasantly soft when unadjusted which I like lot. Finally, I feel the resolution of these speakers, the detail, is very good indeed when listening to husky jazz for example or Ryan Adams’ live guitar playing (I’ll give you ‘Life after Deaf’ for free). If you are minded these particular ways, you are in for an absolute treat.
Alternative Solutions
I’ve been thinking to myself, based on my experience and past reviews where these digital speakers sit and who they compete with. To be honest I’m struggling. The Raumfeld Stereo Ls (recently reviewed here with their wireless system) are the most obvious although they are interconnected between each other, reducing their flexibility in
positioning. The only other wireless speaker currently on the market that springs to mind is the Naim Mu-so, currently all the rage and by all accounts, totally excellent. If you’re into a bit of wireless ‘speaker research’ the Dynaudio Xeo 4 require a look as well.
In Summary a superb performance, although at £1000+ there are many considerations, not least what you are trying to achieve; the room itself, your general or critical listening and value for money. However, if you have this sort of budget at your disposal and you are after a flexible aesthetic CD quality computer audio solution this is probably your answer.
UK standard retail price is £1299, the Audio Pro website is here – http://www.audiopro.com/
My husband bought a pair of the LV 33’s in white for me to match my white Roland “Behaviour Modeling” Digital Grand Piano. These speakers have turned my piano from sounding like a good digital piano into sounding like an 8ft “Steinway Model D” grand piano. I am a classically trained pianist. The sound from these speakers is just stunning. We also use them as studio monitors for the high quality classical music that we record. Studio monitors this good normally cost at least 3 times the price.
We are highly recommending these speakers to other clasical pianists to use with a “Behaviour Modeling Digital Piano” who want a real piano experience both mechanically and aurally.
Sounds like a really interesting application. They’re nice sounding for sure. Thanks for the comment.