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The Zipp is circular and 26cm tall while it is 12cm across, should you insert any cables these will increase the width by at least 3cm where they emerge. It is not light as it weighs 1900 grams. However once charged no cables – not even power – are required when you use Bluetooth.
Having a wool cover is as far as I know unique it is easy to remove and replace when the ‘lounge police’ say that colour is no longer correct. Mine was fitted with a black one, but blue and red ones were in the box.
The nearest I can say is like a carpet with a zip down one side and hole cut and padded down the other side to allow for the connections to be accessible.
Strip away the cover and you have a black cylinder with a white lid. At the top of the back is a leather strap fitted to facilitate easy carrying. Just below this are a battery state LED two small buttons a USB socket and a 3.5mm socket. The proprietary mains lead fits into the base via a small cut in the base so it fits flat.
An 8cm deep area just below the rim is heavily patterned in cut out squares to channel the sound almost all around the cylinder.
The top has a single button that is a dual on/off volume control. This has a coloured LED and the manual explains what the LED colours mean.
While the box has three sets of instructions none were in English but I was able to download a PDF copy from the Libratone web site.
Libratone call their speaker a ‘Full Room’ unit simply because sound is delivered in all directions via the pattened squares cut in the top 8cm of the unit.
Air Play is something that Apple users will know and now it is available for those of us with PCs it allows the user to stream from a source within a Wi-Fi network or direct from iTunes. However in non Wi-Fi areas you can stream music to your Libratone direct from your device.
The manual also explains what the LEDs below the leather strap on the back are for but I suspect most would work it out for themselves. It also explains the various colours of the battery LED to denote its state.
The manual then explains how to set up Air Play for IOS devices. It then explains how to get Wi-Fi via Play Direct (no Wi-Fi required). If you have an iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone there is a free App available from the Apple store.
For those of us mere mortals with PCs it then explains how to set it up using Play Direct all the illustrations are very clear and easy to follow. So far I have not mentioned DLNA and here even if you have an Android device you can configure it to work with the Libratone. This should also work with Windows 7 or 8.
Sound quality is good the unit has a 60watt total speaker output split between a 4inch bass and two 1inch ribbon tweeters. It matters not where you place it in the room, sound quality is good.
Quality of course has a price and the Libraton Zipp is available from the link below for £369.
https://shop.libratone.com/en-gb/row-1/libratone-zipp/c-51/c-191/p-213
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