UK-based Ashdown Engineering is the company that makes the bass guitar amplifiers used by bands including U2, The Who, Black Sabbath, Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Bloc Party, or The 1975, among many others. Expanding the power of its music related marketing endorsements, Ashdown had the clever idea of expanding its market to new product categories, first with studio monitors and musician-oriented headphones, and more recently with wireless speakers and wireless headphones for the consumer space. In common, all Ashdown products feature the brand logo and the distinctive VU meter, which is also a hallmark on all its products.
This year, Ashdown is taking the concept even further with a an expanded range of headphones, which includes the new Meters Linx combined wireless earbuds and desktop speakers, designed to keep the music flowing, indoors and out. The concept is centered on a central Charging Case for the TWS earbuds, which also features Ashdown’s vintage illuminated VU meter moving in real time to the music. A pair of compact, IPX-rated wireless speakers can be positioned up to 10m apart, and feature custom-tuned 2.5-inch full range drivers - good enough to have sound on a desktop or offer music to the whole room if there's nothing else available.
Essentially, the Meters Linx true wireless earbuds and speakers are a well-designed Bluetooth 5.0 set that is able to switch the Bluetooth sink mode when the earbuds are placed in the charging case. The earbuds design is evocative of custom-mold IEMs used by musicians, featuring a custom-designed balanced armature driver coupled with a 7mm dynamic driver. When removed from the charging case they're all powered up for 6 hours of continuous use, while the case itself can be used to provide an additional 24 hours of charge.
Inside the earbuds, the Linx TWS use the Qualcomm QCC3020 chip, supporting aptX Adaptive for ultra-low latency audio and high-resolution audio codecs from source devices that also offer aptX support - meaning mostly Android devices. Unfortunately, apart from that, the earbuds only offer SBC, which means that these are not recommended for use with all the source devices that use AAC for Bluetooth audio (the vast majority). For manufacturers, this seems to be too large of a compromise for the convenience of using the Qualcomm platform, but we've already noticed a few new products that have accepted this imposition.
Apart from that unfortunate trade-off, the Meters Linx have an internal 24-bit end-to-end audio pipeline with high-performance DACs, designed to deliver high resolution audio. The QCC chip set also enables cVc (clear voice capture) noise echo cancelling and noise suppression technology for calls. And intuitive, touch-sensitive controls on the left and right earbuds offer control over Play/Pause, Volume Up/Down, Skip Track and more.
A built-in motion sensor detects when the earbuds are in use, optimizing battery charge. When users place the Linx earbuds back into the USB-C charging case, the QCC3020-equipped Linx speakers take over, providing a seamless music switchover. These speakers have the same Bluetooth range as the earbuds (10 meters) and can also be charged via USB-C. The built-in 600 mAh battery offers 3 hours or playback after a 1 hour charge.
According to the company, the Ashdown Meters Linx wireless earbuds and speakers are available separately at an MSRP of $175 and $116 respectively, and as a complete system at an MSRP of $289.
www.metersmusic.com
