Samsung’s Music Body Speaker is undeniably intriguing. I’ve been ready years for a speaker to come back alongside and elevate the artwork/speaker expertise Sonos and Ikea ignited a couple of years in the past, however the extra time I spend with framed audio system, the extra it looks as if a idiot’s errand.
A month after taking the Music Body out of its field, there’s little to like. It appears to be like improbable and sounds higher than Ikea’s try, however past that, it’s significantly extra of a trouble than most different good audio system. In the event you’re already a Samsung fan who regularly makes use of the SmartThings app, you may forgive a few of the annoyances, however for many, there are higher choices.
At this level, for those who’ve acquired $600 – $700 yeah, there are some hidden prices) and need a big photograph body to carry an 8×10 photograph, don’t learn anymore. This speaker is nice, and it does act as a photograph body. Do I feel that’s value it for most individuals? No, however for those who actually love the look, nothing will provide you with this identical impact for cheaper — and at the very least on the finish of the day, it sounds nice.
Framed
I’m an enormous fan of tech that goals to mix into your property, however at this worth level, the Music Body is fairly ludicrous. I’d be mendacity if I mentioned that this speaker regarded unhealthy, so I received’t maintain it towards you in order for you one. The minimal design is what initially piqued my curiosity, with the stark white matte and the strong black body. Admittedly, it’s a bit of primary, however that’s the purpose. A number of the models Samsung confirmed off at CES 2024 featured bigger artwork prints and optionally available bezels to vary the color of the body from black to brown or wood-like materials. Customization at all times appeals to me, however for the Music Body, it comes with some large prices.
There are two sorts of artwork you possibly can put within the Music Body. Smaller pictures with a big white border (19x19cm) or bigger artwork prints that take up the complete area (33x33cm). As of the time of writing, it looks as if Samsung doesn’t promote the smaller prints, however contained in the body, it’s designed to suit a normal 8×10 photograph, which you’ll print out for a couple of {dollars} at Staples or your native print store. Simply be cautious that solely a 7.5-inch sq. will probably be seen within the centre when you place it into the body.
Sadly, vinyl albums are a bit too small to work nicely as art work within the Music Body.
After wanting in all places on-line, I discovered a hyperlink written a single time on the small scrap of paper that consists of the handbook. It takes you to a South Korean model of a web site referred to as Marpple. After finding the English site, I found you can print the bigger body prints there. Nonetheless, they value $46, and I’m fairly positive that’s USD. Delivery prices one other $40, so this already remarkably costly speaker simply went up one other $100 when you add in tax.
Additionally, my unit got here with two units of holder plates for Artwork Prints, suggesting that the $100 image you simply shipped to your self is only a print with no mounting {hardware}.
I’m attempting to not be too upset by Samsung’s lack of communication on the scale of the photograph that matches inside or the pricing of the artwork prints. Nonetheless, it’s simply a variety of further hoops to undergo to truly make this speaker gel in your house, and that’s form of the entire level of the unit. Out of the field, it’s not precisely what’s promised. There ought to have been a couple of default small prints included with every unit in various colors and a free coupon to get a customized artwork print from Marpple. If individuals need to spend extra money to get different choices, that’s on them, however out of the field, at this worth, there must be extra choices than slide-in an 8×10, and hope it’s center-cropped.
Even Samsung’s advertising photographs present individuals getting cropped out of the bizarre sq. body.
I additionally would have preferred extra customization choices with the white border. The built-in matte covers a majority of the entrance and dominates the body. I’ve artwork prints 4x the scale of the Body with the identical sized matte. Just a few extra choices to suit differently-sized pictures and side ratios would have gone a great distance.
There’s wall mounting {hardware} within the field, however be warned, this speaker has a metallic body, and it’s comparatively giant, so it’s fairly heavy (9lbs). In the event you plan to mount it, you’ll want to make sure it’s in a stud or concrete wall. As soon as the speaker is up on the wall, there will even be a small silver cable dangling down from it. It’s much less noticeable than the Ikea/Sonos choice, however it’s nonetheless a cable dangling down out of your speaker. On the finish of the silver cable is a big black converter, which feeds into an extended black cable that plugs into the wall.
Whereas Samsung has put some effort into minimizing this, it’s going to look terrible for anybody not prepared to route the cable behind their drywall. You can make it work, however I feel you’d need to run the wires within the wall to get the complete minimal impact of a musical image body.
Throughout my testing, I saved mine on my front room mantle, which regarded commanding above the hearth. It match right here, however I needed to strive a couple of spots because it’s so giant. Once more, that is all as much as private choice, however what I’m attempting to say is that the Music Body is so giant it takes a little bit of trial and error to discover a spot in your home the place it suits in completely.
Samsung perks
In the event you’re already deep within the Samsung ecosystem, the Music Body has some perks. You may pair it with a 2024 Samsung TV for a encompass sound expertise with Q-Symphoney. Since that’s mainly nobody but, Samsung additionally permits choose variations of its TVs from 2017 and newer to connect with the Music Body and play sound through Wi-Fi, however that simply replaces your tv audio system with the Music Body, which is unlikely to be an awesome choice for many until you might have the Music Body positioned under or above your tv.
And, when you’ve got a Samsung cellphone, you possibly can faucet it to the speaker to get music to play over Bluetooth utilizing ‘Tap Sound,’ however the high quality over Wi-Fi appears higher to me, so it’s not likely well worth the trouble. I additionally discovered triggering it fairly inconsistent, particularly in comparison with Handoff between iPhones and HomePods.
Because it’s a Wi-Fi speaker, it additionally helps AirPlay 2, Google Forged, Tidal Join and Spotify Join. I’ll point out that AirPlay was additionally very inconsistent throughout my evaluation interval. There’s additionally Alexa built-in, and it appeared to grasp me superb after I was in the identical room because the speaker.
I’m not even positive if I ought to name this a perk, however for $35 extra,you should buy a Samsung Sensible Factor hub that plugs into the again of this speaker through USB. It permits you extra management and unification throughout quite a lot of good units like lights, locks, Samsung fridges and different dwelling home equipment.
Nice sound
The one space the Music Body excels at is sound high quality. It’s very clear and holds up even at loud volumes. A software program function additionally adjusts the speaker’s output to make sure it supplies the most effective sound high quality for its area. That is extra widespread in good audio system now, however it’s good to see right here. In follow, irrespective of the place I moved the Music Body, it at all times sounded nice and had no downside filling the room with sound.
The Music Body additionally joins the unique membership of Atmos-equipped audio system, which may play again music recorded in Spatial Audio. The Atmos recordings sound barely fuller and have a bit extra top, however the impact isn’t as sturdy as it might be with headphones on, or in an actual encompass sound setup. It’s additionally value declaring that Atmos audio system from Apple, Sonos and Amazon are all cheaper than the Music Body. You’ll additionally want a Tidal or Apple Music subscription to make use of this format.
As a speaker, it really works superb, however the quantity controls through Spotify Join (which I used probably the most) are poorly applied. 5 clicks up from the underside is just too loud, whereas 4 clicks is just too quiet. Which means that to dial within the quantity, I wanted to open the Samsung Sensible Issues app just about each time I exploit the speaker. I might use the bodily buttons on the unit, however these are tucked behind the sting of the body, so there’s no approach of hitting them with out memorizing their placement. Since I principally management the amount through software program, that by no means occurred for me. Due to this fact, at any time when I needed to alter the amount manually, I wanted to tug the body away from the wall and stick my head behind it. The buttons are additionally capacitive and small, so it’s laborious to inform them aside by contact.
There are some visuals within the type of 4 LED lights on the entrance that can flash whenever you’re controlling the amount. However since they’re tucked beneath the sting of the artwork print, it’s fairly laborious to see them when standing in entrance of the speaker if it’s on a desk or mantle. You may see them when it’s wall-mounted or from throughout the room, however up shut, their placement makes them mainly invisible.
There’s a single optical audio enter on the rear of the speaker close to the ability enter, however it might have been good to have a daily AUX jack for fast setup with trendy file gamers and different music sources that may not be high-end sufficient for optical connections.
