 "Artis S111/FM 2.1 Speaker System")
The device I’m reviewing today is probably the most humble candidate to grace the Tech2.0 labs in a long time. The model name is S111/FM, and it’s a 2.1 FM speaker system from Artis. Many of you might have heard of the brand, which has become fairly popular. It’s manufactured in China, and distributed in India by Kunhar Peripherals.
Design and Features
The product is lightweight and easy to lug around, and very simple to connect. It consists of two small bookshelf speakers that connect to the (not-too-large) subwoofer. All speakers have simple rectangular cabinets made of wood, which I suspect is not too thick. Color is black matte for the cabinets, while the front panels of the sub and speakers are laced with a metallic trim and nicely carved metallic face plates.
Speaker drivers are what make the sound, and for the S111, the material isn’t mentioned. There are 2.5-inch drivers for the bookshelf, and a single 5-inch driver for the subwoofer. They seem to be of decent quality, made from paper cones (though I’m sure they are doped with plastic or some other inorganic substance). The sub is downward-firing, so the front is clean – there’s a single reflex port on the top half.
Interestingly, the unit is an FM radio too, so the sub also has an extensible antenna attached to the top panel, with three buttons on the right panel (when you face the front) that control the mode from CD/FM and tuning. The buttons are tiny, black, push-button style, and do not really add much to the aesthetic scheme of things.
As for the stated specs, the power output is measured in PMPO, so there’s no point mentioning it. Frequency response is 35 Hz - 20 KHz, while signal-to-noise ratio is 75dB.
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Performance
Considering the price and type of this model, it makes no real sense to subject the piece through very hi-fi tests, as it would mostly fail. All I really wanted to see was whether the sound creates fatigue in the ears, and the distortion levels. I plugged it into my PC at work and ‘playlisted’ away, ranging from jazz flacs to rock MP3s and, of course, the inbuilt FM radio.
The frequency response seemed highly skewed at the lower end, with a lot of bass oozing out in mammoth proportions. Before anything else I would like to state that this unit is for bass lovers trapped in a small room. The sound is loud enough, but very heavy on the low end. I had to lower the bass knob to below ‘half’, and then normalcy returned.
The mids were quite present and not too bad, though the highs were tapering away, and fast. This was expected, as there is no real separate tweeter in this speaker unit, so I wasn’t too inspired to check high frequencies. The unit did distort at max level, though a little below that it was fine. It yielded a pounding, thick sound. Positioning these speakers correctly is vital, as the sound is a little planar. If you sit anywhere away from bang center, you only hear bass.
Conclusion
This unit costs Rs 1800, which is surely value for money. True, there’s nothing spectacular about the sound. It gets an above-average rating from us thanks to the presence of a market that will like this unit: young bassheads such as gamers or multimedia buffs. Purists and other audio enthusiasts will cringe, so they should stay away.
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