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Focal Creates Bird, a New Loudspeakers Line and 2.1 Packs

By Joy Hou - on 21 Jun 2011, 4:59pm

Focal Creates Bird, a New Loudspeakers Line and 2.1 Packs

SINGAPORE - Focal creates Bird, a new loudspeakers line and 2.1 packs. A new concept, dedicated to those who wish to come back to essentials, to use simplicity and sound quality; while remaining in phase with nowadays concerns. Extreme compactedness and wireless transmission are an integral part of the outline.

The way we listen to music is in constant evolution. Today, it’s dematerialized, that’s a fact, as it’s stored on hard disks or music players such as the iPod. This dematerialization is no longer synonymous with sound mediocrity. The size of these player and hard disk memories is such that the ultra-­?compressed audio formats have no more essential purpose. Besides, we can even afford to store non-­?compressed music! The music at the source, even dematerialized can now be found in very good quality. The question is: how can this music content be transmitted to an audio system, which could still be connected to classic sources such as CDs, DVDs, etc. The answer is...Bird!

Bird is a complete biotope

Bird is a complete line of products, innovative and affordable, in 2.1 packs or 2-way loudspeaker per unit in high-gloss Diamond White or Diamond Black finish. Three different speakers are available according to the required acoustic power, LittleBird, Bird and SuperBird. LittleBird is a micro loudspeaker with internal volume of only 1/2 liter, equipped with a 4-inch driver and a 19mm tweeter. It's supplied with two types of rotating stands, which permit on-wall or on-ceiling fixing: a "cocotte" tripod and another, more classic, the "tulip" base that's circular with a cable route for total integration. Bird takes up the same look as Little Bird with the same functionalities, but with a 5.5-inch driver and a 2.2-liter volume. SuperBird is a loudspeaker even more generous, still with a 5.5-inch driver, with a passive driver this time, same diameter for increased performance in the bass frequencies. This loudspeaker is supplied with a wall fixing kit, Polyfix type, which permits a vertical or horizontal use. A 90cm optional stand is available for each loudspeaker.

Bird, not tied down anymore

The most significant innovation is no doubt to have SuperBird, a 2.1 power unit, stereo amplifier and active subwoofer combined in one housing, which raises the Bird line to the concept range. Versatile, in flat, vertical or horizontal use, on the wall like a heater, it develops a 2x35W power for the drivers and 80W for its own 6-inch ported woofer. PowerBird can manage analog inputs and digital inputs, its use is as easy as in ABC (sound level, input selector, bass level setting and that’s all). Connected to a TV set, watching a film becomes easy for everybody. Speaker cables are supplied.

Music for everybody and music in my pocket

One of the main attractions of Bird is the wireless and lossless audio transmission. Focal chose the Kleer technology that guarantees a transmission without interference, so without sound break, contrary to the classic WiFi system, without any loss or compression, contrary to the Bluetooth system. An audio file in CD quality, WAV or AIFF type, can be transmitted from an Apple player or a computer to PowerBird. The transmission quality is simply identical to the one obtained with a CD player connected with wires to Bird (16 bits 44, 1KHz).

Three optional transmitters will be available: the first one to be connected to the 32 pins iPod plug (except shuffle), iPhone or even iPad and a USB connetced to the USB output of any PC or MAC, plus a Dock to keep on transmitting while recharging.

In any case, once the receiver inside the PowerBird is synchronized with the transmitter (which takes less than 10 seconds), the simplicity of use is absolute, that's a real Plug and Play.

New sound experience

Several transmitters can be synchronized with one receiver, several receivers can be connected with only one transmitter and of course, several transmitters can be synchronized with several receivers, without interacting with one another.

The transmission range is about 10m. The transmitter self-supplied by the Apple player consumes little energy (less than 30mWatt, that's to say 10 times less than WiFi) in order not to penalize the battery autonomy.

Compatible with high quality formats like WAV and AIFF, this wireless transmission system is also compatible with any other audio format used by iPod, iPhone and iPad. Actually, anything that comes from a music player will be simply transmitted to this system, a music track, the sound track of a film or a game that you’re watching on your iPad, or even Web radios. That’s a new experience with sensations.

The iPod transmitter offers new perspectives, for different kinds of users on different types of systems; everybody can manage his/her playlist, always within reach, in the different rooms of the house.

The USB transmitter permits to do exactly the same thing, using the computer hard disk capacity this time, to listen to your music, web radios, play games, etc.

Availability and Pricing

The Little Bird 2.1 System, Bird 2.1 System and Super Bird 2.1 System retails at $1,388, $1,588, and $1,788 respectively. The iTransmitter wireless transmission for iPod/iPhone or iPad retails at $168. The products are available at authorized Focal Bird resellers.

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