French speaker maker Devialet[1] just announced a brand new speaker in partnership with British broadcasting company Sky[2]. The Sky Soundbox[3] is a single speaker designed for your TV. It’s roughly the size of a gaming console and it is supposed to produce surround-like sound.
This partnership is something brand new for the French startup. Most people know Devialet for its expensive, jaw-dropping Phantom speaker[4]. But building a speaker that costs thousands of dollars was just step one.
With the Sky Soundbox, Devialet is going after mass market for the first time. If you’re not a Sky customer, the device is going to cost $1,050 (£799). But if you’re a Sky customer, you’ll only pay $330 to $390 (£249 to £299). I haven’t tried the device yet and it’s going to be available later this year in the U.K. and Ireland.
You can use two HDMI cables to pass the video signal through the speaker before connecting it to the TV. The Sky Soundbox also supports optical cables and Bluetooth 4.1.
It’s a bit disappointing that it doesn’t connect to your Wi-Fi network to support AirPlay, Chromecast, Spotify Connect and more. The two companies suggest plugging the speaker to the Sky Q media player to enable AirPlay instead. And it’s a speaker for your TV after all.
If you pair the Sky Soundbox with the Sky Q, the system is going to adjust the sound equalizer depending on the content you’re watching. This way, you’ll get the best results if you’re watching a movie, soccer or a concert.
By default, the Sky Soundbox tries to normalize the sound so that you can hear the dialogs clearly without getting surprised...