Longtime Apple Designer Christopher Stringer's Latest Project Is a High-Fidelity Speaker With AirPlay 2

[MacRumors]

Christopher Stringer, a key member of Jony Ive's design team who spent 21 years at Apple before departing in 2017, is resurfacing today with his new venture Syng, which seeks to make an impact in the high-end audio market.

Stringer, who contributed to many of the most iconic product designs in Apple's history, announced his plans roughly a year ago, and Syng is today introducing its flagship product, the Cell Alpha.

Priced at $1,799 with a table stand or $1,969 with a floor stand, Cell Alpha uses "Triphonic" audio technology to create a dynamic, immersive sound field, and multiple Cells can work together for even greater spatial control. Both wired and wireless connections are supported, and Cell Alpha includes support for AirPlay 2.

A Syng Space app is used to manage the Cell speakers from initial setup to customization of the audio experience, and will be flexible to add future capabilities. Spotify integration is also included along with an audio visualization component.

The Cell Alpha is available today through Syng's website.

Article Link: Longtime Apple Designer Christopher Stringer's Latest Project Is a High-Fidelity Speaker With AirPlay 2

 

[MBAir2010]

why is this very funny looking?
oh the jetsons' hanna or barbera (or their estate) is calling their lawyers.
cats would have a field day breaking this while confused birds attack the speakers looking for seeds.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I like it! It looks pretty cool.

 

[NPC Compliant]

Bet HomePod is looking far more reasonably priced now, huh?

 

[macman01101]

I thought this was a holographic projector at first ?

 

[zackkitzmiller]

I ordered one. I'm really interested to see what this sound quality is actually like plugged into a decent sound source. I'm running mostly McIntosh for my office HiFi, really excited to see how this works together with all of that

 

[Razorpit]

Gotta love the hipster turntable. My buddies use to give me a hard time for buying LP’s over cassettes before the CD. Now they’re all spending $20 and up for vinyls. ?

 

[ouimetnick]

If people thought the $350 HomePod sold poorly, hold my beer!

At $1700+ I would imagine any audiophile would put that towards real speakers, or an exotic interconnect cable?

The fast company article or whatever is a joke. This guy isn’t making speakers to compete with HomePod. The HomePod was a $299 consumer speaker, this is an exotic piece or art that rich people buy because they don’t know any better (about cheaper dedicated stereos that would sound better and give a real stereo image)

I happen to think it’s ugly and is definitely not something Apple would ever ship. The days of clear plastic left when the iMac G4 (lamp iMac) replaced the OG translucent design. Had this been announced in 2000-2002, I’d say it fits Apple’s design language and styling, but that was 20 years ago.

 

[thewhitedragon]

Anyone know what turntable that is with it?

 

[Freida]

I think the design is good but the material used in the middle is not. You can clearly see some Apple influence but I don't think its as polished as it could be.

 

[melchior]

Anyone know what turntable that is with it?

Stir It Up Wireless Turntable with Bluetooth

The House of Marley Wireless Turntable combines classic sound and timeless looks with Bluetooth connectivity. Meet your new favorite record player.

www.thehouseofmarley.com

 

[djeeyore25]

I'll hold out for the Cell Alpha Mini.

 

[usabart]

If their product works as well as their website...

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Computational Audio is going to be at least as big as Computational Imagery. As the compute hardware gets cheaper, it’s going to be found in more and more places/devices.

 

[progx]

Bet HomePod is looking far more reasonably priced now, huh?

Far and away reasonable ?

 

[abbstrack]

I ordered one. I'm really interested to see what this sound quality is actually like plugged into a decent sound source. I'm running mostly McIntosh for my office HiFi, really excited to see how this works together with all of that

Please report back. Looks very interesting.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Stir It Up Wireless Turntable with Bluetooth

The House of Marley Wireless Turntable combines classic sound and timeless looks with Bluetooth connectivity. Meet your new favorite record player.

www.thehouseofmarley.com

Odd combination of a junk turntable with a $1700 speaker. Your sound is only as good as your weakest link.

 

[doboy]

I like the look. I’ll wait until my HomePod dies

 

[AngerDanger]

Priced at $1,799 with a table stand or $1,969 with a floor stand

Don't have that kind of money to drop on a speaker, but I like the idea of people thinking I own one.

Guess I'll remove the tire from a wheel and put the wheel in a fishbowl.

 

[Braderunner]

If people thought the $350 HomePod sold poorly, hold my beer!

At $1700+ I would imagine any audiophile would put that towards real speakers, or an exotic interconnect cable?

Exactly! You know one speaker isn't really going to do the job. Yes, some will say that it sounds really good for what it is. But, that's not saying much. For what two would cost...you could have an amp with powered subs and passive speakers that would blow this away.

 

[kennyt72]

Simply a waste of money

 

[kkclstuff]

Their website is sparse with real details and specs. Wish companies would list complete specs and info on their sites instead of marketing and feel good catch phrases.

 

[gnipgnop]

Interesting sales concept: they promote three speakers as providing the best experience, not just two.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Nope. Not for me. I find that thing ugly.

 

[ouimetnick]

Exactly! You know one speaker isn't really going to do the job. Yes, some will say that it sounds really good for what it is. But, that's not saying much. For what two would cost...you could have an amp with powered subs and passive speakers that would blow this away.

Exactly, I love my HomePods (I have quite a few of them) they sound good by themselves and even better as a stereo pair. In fact for most every day people, a stereo pair is a good tradeoff. Just need to plug in 2 devices into the wall. No running speaker wire through the walls or anything. I use my HomePods for dedicated listening sometimes. But I can tell you my dedicated stereo with it’s music source, preamplifier, several power amps I rotate through sounds is much better. I have 10 different pairs of speakers to rotate though every once in a while. Some speakers are as old as 1950s the newest pair being early 2000s. Vintage audio gear is an excellent value, even more so if you can do basic electronic soldering to restore them, it’s also not dependent on a cloud server somewhere than can be taken offline 10 years from now.

Judging by the poor sales of the HomePod,
I’d argue than most people don’t care about good sound quality, stereo imaging or even sit and listen to music while relaxing. Everyone just wants music regardless of quality in every room. The HomePod mini is impressive for its size, but still sounds terrible. I have a Mini that I’ve disabled almost everything on, so it can just be used as a cheap $99 thread device