The Music Star 5 is a gorgeous-looking speaker. The sliced sphere is made from aluminum and covered ... [+] in piano lacquer in a variety of colors.
As a longtime Bang & Olufsen fan, I love beautifully designed audio equipment, especially if they sound great. The new OEPLAY Music Star 5 Bluetooth speaker looks like a cool piece of modern design from the swinging 1960s or early 1970s. However, this is an entirely new product and is currently being offered as a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
Recently, I’ve had a chance to try out a Music Star 5. The version I auditioned didn’t have the optical, 3.5mm and USB A inputs, but I understand that this is a stretch goal of the campaign. The speaker I used was purely Bluetooth with support for aptX and aptX HD codecs, but the model with a USB A port will be able to handle FLAC, APE, WAV, WMA, MP3 and AAC audio files. The optical input could connect with TV, while the 3.5mm stereo jack would be perfect for hitching up almost any analog source.
The OEPLAY Music Star 5 is a sphere with a flattened face and substantial metal threads sunk into its base for attaching a trio of wooden legs. The overall build quality feels excellent. Also included in the box is a Bluetooth antenna and a beautifully made remote control for adjusting volume, skipping tracks, pausing music, etc. This cool-looking speaker would look stunning in almost any interior and it will surely be a talking point when anyone comes to visit.
It takes five minutes to set up the OEPLAY Magic Star 5... and most of that time is for screwing in the three wooden legs. Then it’s just a case of attaching the speaker’s Bluetooth antenna and plugging it into a power socket using a regular figure-of-eight cable. You can even link two speakers together using TWS for a wide stereo soundstage.
The Music Star 5 uses an Air-Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter instead of a the more usual dome ... [+] design.
The Music Star 5 is about the size of a medicine ball and the sphere houses a high-performance Air-Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter. This high-frequency driver works differently from the usual dome tweeter design and looks a little like a ribbon tweeter with its louvered design.
An AMT tweeter is an electro-transducer initially developed by Dr. Oskar Heil. It has a pleated diaphragm that looks like a pair of bellows. The driver moves air laterally in a perpendicular motion through a folded sheet made of PET film. The circuit path etched on the membrane works like a voice coil.
Although the AMT is a tweeter, it can also cover frequencies down to 650Hz, which means it fills in more midrange than a regular dome tweeter. And when paired with the 5.25-inch woofer, the result is a rich sound that produces a far more significant effect than you might expect from such a relatively small sphere. The bass level is substantial, largely thanks to a reflex vent at the rear of the globe.
The Music Star 5 is available in Jet Black, Pearl White, Ferrari Red, Mclaren Orange colorways.
The Music Star 5 sphere is made from aluminum which is then covered in a high-quality piano lacquer finish. The finished product looks and feels high quality. Connecting a smartphone or computer takes just a few seconds and the overall sound is impressive, thanks to the amount of air the AMT and the woofer can shift. Despite its relatively small size, this sphere can fill a room up to 69 sq ft with soundwaves dissipated over a wide soundstage.
The Music Star 5 is the brainchild of Ansion Wong, who had a mission to design and develop a unique speaker that would stand out from the crowd. Wong compared several Bluetooth speakers on the market and was inspired to create the Music Star 5 using the AMT tweeter and 5.25-inch woofer backed up by 2 x 50W of power.
Creating the speaker was challenging because of the difficulty of housing a pneumatic AMT tweeter in a spheroid shape. The engineering team behind the Music Star 5 finally solved the puzzle, resulting in a unique-looking product with a sound that’s far larger than expected.
Pricing & Availability: The crowdfunding campaign for OEPLAY Music Star 5 is currently on Indiegogo. The speaker has a starting price of $469, which the company says will rise to $899 once the campaign ends. As with any crowdfunding product, ensure you do your due diligence when ordering, as it’s different from buying a product at a retail store.
More info: www.indiegogo.com