Pulse Plus ACTIVE40PRO-WH 5 Inches Active Speakers (Pair), 40W RMS, White

Product Information

Key specs – Drivers: 2; Wireless: Wi-Fi, Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast built-in, Bluetooth; Voice Assistant: Google Assistant; Remote: No; Companion App: No; Dimensions: 140 x 140 x 193mm; Weight: 1.43kg

There’s a flip-side to this arrangement, though - and that’s the slightly vague nature of the (admittedly very large) soundstage it creates. It’s just not the most explicitly defined - different instrumental strands or occurrences in a recording don’t stay in their lane quite as strictly as they should, and there can be some overlap and smearing. It’s not especially pronounced, you understand, and far from fatal - but it’s a factor nevertheless. What’s most striking is the improvement in this streamer’s organisation, timing and dynamic expression. There is greater life to the performance as well; the Node 2i shows not only an increased level of expression but also enthusiasm. This also extends to the soundstage. Now, this is a thorny area because ultimately, as a single chassis product, the Pulse 2i isn’t really capable of generating a stereo image. It does, however, manage to avoid the most obvious perception of the sound coming from a single place. The louder you can run it, the better this effect gets although it does start to harden up a little once you’re really pushing it. It might be best to view the Pulse 2i as a room filling sounding speaker though - it will always lose out to a stereo pair but sat off axis in a lounge it will ensure that every occupant receives a reasonable facsimile of the music being played. Meanwhile, the Virtualizer is said to simulate more substantive speaker layouts, giving the listener a wider soundstage and the ‘effect’ of height. It’s a little disconcerting that if the Virtualizer isn’t engaged, then Dolby Atmos content will not be decoded as such. We’d prefer Atmos be supported by default rather than requiring activation in a frustratingly located sub-menu. In fact, we'd really like to see a 'pure' or 'native' option added so that stereo plays in stereo, surround plays in surround, and Atmos plays in Atmos.

Sound Quality

Swapping to The Social Network in 5.1, we try out the upmixing modes and find that they have little effect individually. Engage them both together, though, and a degree of extra spaciousness and atmosphere is added to the opening bar scene without the rapid-fire dialogue between the actors losing much in the way of clarity.

Wiring it into our reference system, it is clear that this is a different animal altogether to its predecessor. While its richness across the frequencies is retained, the soundstage appears more open, with even more granular detail fed in. Alexa works very well and there’s support for Qualcomm’s high-resolution aptX adaptive Bluetooth codec but the Zeppelin’s big draws are how it looks and how it sounds. Its size will prove prohibitive for some but those with the space for it will likely love the airship-inspired design. Though it will divide opinion aesthetically, there’s no questioning the Symfonisk picture frame speaker’s merit as a wireless streaming device. The Gen 2 model listed here added increased memory and updated the speaker’s processor but it’s otherwise identical to the original, which sounds great wherever you position it thanks to Sonos’ TruePlay feature, which tunes the EQ automatically according to the resonances of your room. The effects aren’t always dramatic but Trueplay always manages to improve the Sonos One’s already impressive audio output.

This recess at the rear includes inputs for HDMI eARC, optical, 3.5mm analogue and USB A, as well as an ethernet port and RCA output for an external sub. The Bluesound Pulse Soundbar+ can also connect wirelessly, via a dedicated wi-fi module, to a pair of Pulse Flex 2i speakers for surround sound and/or a Pulse Sub+ for extra bass.