Philips DS8800W/37 Fidelio SoundCurve Wireless Speaker with AirPlay

• SoundCurve for superb crystal-clear sound
• Precisely tuned bass pipes for deep, tight bass reproduction
• Optimal acoustic volume to match speakers' requirements
• Stream music with AirPlay wireless technology
• Compatible with: iPod touch, iPod touch 2nd generation, iPod touch 3rd generation, iPod touch 4th generation. Compatible with: iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4. Compatible with: iPad

I'm not an audiophile by any means, so take this review for what it's worth, but I purchased this model because I wanted a small/medium size speaker unit with built-in AirPlay and I had mid-range expectations for how it would sound. But (somewhat surprisingly to me) the sound is awesome -very full and loud with no distortion and with good bass. AirPlay set up to my wifi network was simple directions are straitforward and overall it's really quite an attractive and very good sounding piece of equipment. The design, curvy and elegant, is reminiscent of something Apple would create. The Fidelio App is good, though not a necessity by any means given the streaming capabilities of radio and news apps on the iPhone/iPad, etc. The only limitation to this unit is that the power cord isn't very long. But this is a small quibble. The sound on this unit is great.

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This was my first speaker with integrated AirPlay, which was exciting. However, I was a bit nervous that Philips manufactured it, because while they apparently market high-end A/V in Europe, they're more of a "value-brand" manufacturer stateside. Don't get me wrong, there's certainly nothing wrong with "value" in today's economy, but this speaker is creeping into high-end pricing, to the point where you expect it to deliver in terms of audio quality!

Did it? Well, yes and no. The good news is that it delivers volume without distortion, and I was especially impressed with the setup process (you connect to it as a WiFi router, then change its settings on a web page it serves up); it's much better than competing products' setup because it's easier to use an iPhone virutal keyboard to enter WiFi passwords than to, for example, use up/down arrows to tediously scroll through letters (like with a competing Panasonic AirPlay speaker I've also tried).

The bad news is that audio quality is only okay. Clarity isn't bad, but isn't great, bass underdelivers and it's certainly not as crisp as high-end speakers from Harmon Kardon or Bowers & Wilkens. That said, it's better audio quality than the similarly priced Panasonic AirPlay speaker I tried, and the Fidelio is hundreds cheaper than the Bowers & Wilkens Zepplin AirPlay speaker.

It also feels a bit more stable than using an AirPort Express as an AirPlay server, though I'll give fair warning that AirPlay in general can be a little flaky (which is Apple's fault, not Philips').

Not a bad purchase, all in all.

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Well, its been a year of fighting with this thing and I have thrown in the towel. The unit sounds great when i have it hard wired to my laptop, but it never really worked well with Airplay. I broke down and bought a Sonos setup today and am going to sell this at a loss. Oh well.

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I shopped around a good deal and read a lot of reviews on Amazon and elsewhere before settling on this solution for an AirPlay speaker for my iPad and iPhone in the bedroom. Found the setup easy to do. Like the quality of sound--my music preferences are jazz and classical. And it looks "cool". The only frustration I have is if I shut it down (red light) it oftentimes takes several attempts to get it to lock in on my network WiFi. I find it best to leave it on (green light) to avoid this. Also, I never got the apps from Philips to work but they are really not needed. This is the reason I gave it 4 stars.

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This unit looks sleek and very 21st century. It sounds great too. I was really amazed at what I was hearing from my iPhone over this unit. Subtle notes came through really well and distinguishable.

The remote control worked great for the most part. Had some issues here and there with it. Perhaps it was the 'airwaves.'

My biggest issue was set up. While I expected it to be a breeze it wasn't. Had one issue after another. Finally things clicked and I got connected. It shouldn't be this difficult to set up. On occasion it takes a few tries to reestablish the connection once I leave and then go back the next day and turn it on. This shouldn't be the case. And it gets a bit frustrating.

But that being said, once a connection has been accomplished, the speaker has performed well. And sounds great.