"It sounds terrible. I'm going to have to go to another room."
So it does have potentially good side effects?
It's not often these days that you are disappointed by a product. Websites with online ratings and amateur reviews have made it so easy and fast for people to share experiences of new gizmos that you can instantly tell a hit from a dud – and avoid the duds. What makes the Sengled lightbulbs all the more disappointing is that I …
Sorry to hear you say that. I guess not all is well in the house of Tomislav? The last thing I want is my wife to leave the room: she is very comely and one of my main pleasure is resting my eyes on her. Also, she is the wittiest person I know, so I am always having fun.
I guess these speakers are for you.
And it has the added bonus of doing two things at once, so not only can you not turn the bulb off if you want any noise out of it, but once the bulb itself blows (and presuming that doesn't take the speaker out as well) then you've got the dilemma of keeping a non-functional bulb in your light socket just to keep the speaker functionality, or chucking away a fair chunk of investment in something which is still actually at least partially functional.
Someone in IoT marketing definitely had a lightbulb moment, at the expense of any practical sense.
"Someone in IoT marketing definitely had a lightbulb moment, hoping to profit at the expense of punters lacking in any practical common sense."
FTFY!
And in answer to the three possible explanations at the end of the article, my money's on #3: Punters too embarrassed to admit their mistake.
The light is LED, so, approximately immortal and possibly replaceable, although the manual I'm looking at online indicates that "qualified SENGLED service technician" would have to do it. There also are WEEE instructions for disposal.
It says don't poke things into it, and if your sample has been sent to other reviewers before then they may have done that to find out why.
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"It'snotoften these days that you are disappointed by a product."
TFTFY 0:-)
WTF has the author been snorting? Methinks an exhaustive group review of "IoT" shit is in order for edification&contrition purposes. Don't forget to include "smart" (the new word for fugly?) watches and every other "wearable" ...and $300 thermometers... and CO2 sensors... and lamps which allow your neighbours to spy on your children... and so on.
...and then dump the lot into the nearest landfill...
Did you read the article? He clearly stated he wasn't expecting super quality sound, just something on a par with your typical bluetooth speaker you'd plug your phone into in the kitchen. That level of sound is more than adequate for music in the background or while you're cooking, or listening to the cricket.
4) Sengled have a load of "brand angels"[1] out there and actively producing reviews.
This seems quite likely as, with an impressively smarmy manager, PR sounds (hah!) like the one thing they are good at.
Incidently, when it comes to speaker design, rich base and treble detail are the province of the case design. Oddly enough, the shape of the household lightbulb was never designed for its acoustic properties.
[1] I believe that's the correct PR term for "shill".
Beat me to it.
I have become VERY suspicious of anyone who gives anything 5 stars on any review. You only have to visit a premier inn and then read the reviews of it to conclude that either people are too indiscriminating to be allowed the use of their own credit card, doing it for a laugh, or are paid to do it.
Must admit, that was my thought...surely dangling from a wire is going to absorb a lot of the energy. Maybe even nuke some frequencies completely if the wire does harmonic stuff. Could be where the tinniness comes from.
Maybe Mr. McCarthy can try a few other light sockets...the less bouncy the better.
Kieren - Try them in a desk lamp with a heavy base. It's not possible to reproduce low frequencies or maintain phase if the mount for your speaker moves. I think there'll still be a problem with the shape of the enclosure but it might improve things a little.
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Little Mouse,
No. No. No. What a stupid idea! I don't think you've understood this internet of things malarkey at all!
You need to create lightbulb microwave which you can shine on anything you want to destroy, and then connect it to the internet. Then random teenagers all over the world will be able to burn your house down.
Right, now to pick some random letters out of a scrabble bag to come up with my company name. Not forgetting to remove most of the vowels first of course.
BuRnR
I think the icon to use is obvious...
A speaker is a sound device. It mechanically couples to anything it's firmly attached to.... in this case, the LIGHT BULB SOCKET. Meaning, that the SOCKET and LIGHT FIXTURE is an integral part of the sound-creating system. There are so many different types of light fixtures that ... who can predict how it's gonna sound?
To get best results, I think you will need deoxygenated ultra high quality degaussed gold-titanium-carbon fibre mounts fitted by our engineers, after a survey to establish whether your ceiling is suitable. Prices start at $15000 per instance. There is a long waiting list. All orders are delivered with a free green sharpie for improving the performance of your CDs
Is a pair of normal speakers in a room THAT much of a problem?
Depends on your wallet, your room size, your partner, your landlord, and your masonry.
Speakers: large doesn't always imply good (there are crap big ones for poseurs with defective hearing). However, given the best at any particular price, the smaller it is the more restricted its bass output will be.
If you're willing to accept studio monitor speakers, you can get them out of your normal living space by wall-mounting them several feet up. Except, the location on the wall has considerable effect on the sound. You may have to try several different locations for your speaker brackets, each requring the drilling of several holes into the masonry, plugs, big screws .... So allow a day for audio experiments, and another one to fill and paint over the holes that were in the wrong places.
If your walls are single layer plasterboard, they may not be strong enough ....
( If you don't understand why simple corner shelves from B&Q aren't the answer, and can't hear the reason after installing them, then there's something wrong with your ears! )
Still overkill for what the reviewer was looking for. For the price buy a normal bulb, and a bluetooth speaker that can sit on a shelf. Sounds better, and is easy to move to a different room. It's still not going to match proper speakers connected to a proper amp, it's more of a table radio sound, but if that's all your looking for it's fine.
Is a pair of normal speakers in a room THAT much of a problem?
Problems are like a new fiat currency that is redistributed for economic stability, or something. When you have a solution looking for one, it may be exactly enough. Now gimme something that makes the lights flicker when my phone is processing an incoming call so I know ahead of time and people don't have to hear my horrid ringtone for more than a half second.
What, like the ceiling tile speakers we've had for quite some time now? Not sure of quality, but you could always spend the extra and spring for something like this stuff
http://www.proacousticsusa.com/category.php?cId=34
At least with a sub as an option there should be the ability to push some bass...
1. Take two items never designed to go together; the more idiotic the combination, the better. The level of naivety displayed must be staggering.
2. Put them together. Never forget what a genius you are.
3. Add Bluetooth or, better still, insecure WiFi. There must be stupid restrictions, e.g. Your network SSID must only contain punctuation symbols. These restrictions must never be documented.
4. Create in at least two colours, both garish. Release publicity 'renders' to fawning press.
5. Get a code sweat shop to throw together laughably buggy iPhone and Android apps. These must never quite work and must be delivered well after the first actual product release.
6. Get funding from Hoxton-based trust fund or Kickstarter if you can write a page of BS. Use 95% on marketing and a silly name, e.g. PurpleMoo.
7. Finally release to indifferent public and a now sceptical press, and BGR (who will love it unseen).
8. Lack of profit!
9. Repeat while count(idiots_with_money) > 0.
We get through quite a lot of nappies in our house at the moment, and I'm thinking that the regular dose of electrolyte to all these could be exploited by means of some electrodes and regarded as a source of free energy. So WiFi repeaters, Bluetooth speakers, hands-frees, weather telemetry, covert listening devices could all be built in and just waiting for an IOT brave new world. And it's really green because you can't see all the batteries you're chucking away.
(NB I know reactive and expensive metals will be involved. We'll gloss over that detail.)
1. Take two items never designed to go together; the more idiotic the combination, the better. The level of naivety displayed must be staggering.
Don't forget that at least one of the items must be a time-limited one (in this case the bulb illumination itself), so that when it does go TITSUP it renders the whole device non-useful and destined only for the recycling bin, even if the other abilities are still arguably usable.
On the contrary moiety: your HD Video Spin - centrifuge/video projector - will definitely get kick started. If you've planned it well all your friends should trouser a fair amount of money from it, before returning the favour. You might not sell any, but I wouldn't worry about that.....
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I can't help but feel that it would have been better to add light output to loudspeakers, rather than vice versa.
It's not about the combination of light and sound, it's about the universal form factor. Everywhere has a light socket, the light socket supplies power. So building devices into lightbulbs is a good idea.
Unfortunately, it seems building a speaker into a lightbulb is not such a good idea (which most people with a minimal understanding of audio could probably have guessed)