In mid-April, I visited AXPONA in Chicago, the biggest yearly audio expo in North America. There were many state-of-the-art hifi systems there that cost half a million dollars or more. Those are fantastic of course, but for this article, I was on the lookout for great audio that you can travel with — and easily afford. What’s new that’s small enough to fit in a pocket or a bag, yet sounds good enough to help you find your groove? I selected three extraordinary products that are among the best in new travel tech.
Devialet Mania
The upscale French company Devialet launched a spherical wifi and Bluetooth speaker called the Mania. It knows some neat tricks. About the size of a large grapefruit, the Mania employs something called “cross-stereo architecture.” That means it constantly measures its surroundings and, on the fly, adjusts the music to give you spacious, accurate stereo sound.
The mighty little speaker is capable of 30Hz-deep bass, meaning you can hear the lowest note of a bass guitar at almost full force. Sure, It’s on the pricey side — $880 including a charging dock. But the Mania is so good that you’ll actually want to play music through it for 10 hours straight (which is how long the battery lasts). Carrying it is easy: the li’l speaker has an elegant, built-in handle so you can dangle it nonchalantly from a couple of fingers.
Apple AirPod Pro IIs
Even for a fussy audiophile like myself, the $250 Apple’s AirPods Pro IIs, launched last fall, hit the spot. As a lover of new travel tech, I’ve purchased five sets of quality IEMs (in-ear monitors) over the past four years, and none sound quite as good — or fit as well — as the Pro IIs do. Compared to the first-gen AirPods Pro from 2019, battery life has gone up by a third, to six hours total. The battery in the small carrying case holds enough power to charge depleted buds five times. Also, noise cancellation is now on a par with the best Sony and Bose headsets: excellent.
If you listen to a movie or TV show via the Apple buds and you turn your head, the sound becomes louder in the ear closest to the action, just like in real life. But my favorite feature is the on-board spatial-audio technology, which overcomes the biggest drawback of earbuds and headphones. It neatly tricks your brain into believing that the sound is out there in front of you, rather than stuck in your head. Try it, it’s awesome.
Sonus faber Omnia
Sonus faber, an Italian company famous for bespoke loudspeaker systems, recently introduced an all-in-one wireless speaker that’s a real head-turner. It reminds me of one of those insanely gorgeous wooden Chris-Craft motor sloops from the 1950s.
The $2,000 Omnia is very different from Devialet’s Mania. It’s much bigger, for one — about the length of two side-by-side shoeboxes. That means it’s capable of better, more convincing stereo, because of two side-firing drivers that spread the music six, seven feet wide.
To be honest, I wouldn’t call the Omnia a portable speaker per se, so it’s kind of on the edge of what I’d call travel tech. It’s too big to air-travel with it, and you have to plug it in to use it — there’s no battery. But if you drive to your destination, no sweat. Throw it in the trunk and enjoy your tunes when you arrive. I did just that. The Omnia performed magnificently on my trip, giving my music real depth and presence.
Who says you can’t take it with you?
