Home > Consumer Reviews > Yamaha NX-A01BL Compact Cube Shaped Powered Speaker (Black)

The Yamaha NX-A01BL Cube Speaker has a certain cool-factor about it. It is small, about the size and weight of a coffee mug (albeit square) but can surprising bass for its size. The top circle lights up green and controls vol/mute-on/off (no treble/bass controls). There are two inputs in back: one for the adapter, one for an earplug size audio input so you can plug in any audio device with an earphone plug. I use mine for my laptop and the sound is great. I can crank it up loud without distortion: very impressive for the size. There are two speakers on either side that produce high to mid-tones and a hidden bass booster inside in the front. So, sound is not aimed at a central forward point like a system with two separate speakers. However, you avoid more wires. I'd like to see a portable model not house bound to a wall plug. That said, this cool little speaker fills the room with satisfying sound.

Getting it out of the way: the tiny cube form factor is cool. For what I wanted it for - a bedside speaker for audiobooks, it's just right. It's unobtrusive, unassuming.

That said, the sound quality is fairly poor. It's quite dead below 90Hz, making deep male voices sound somewhat muted. Females sound fine. Music is unpleasant. The grill is also a thin and cheap plastic mesh that resonates at some medium-high frequency that female voices hit pretty often, but only at higher volume levels.

The unit is also lightweight enough that it's easy to drag it around just by moving the cable, so you'll find yourself repositioning it constantly. This design really needed a weighted base.

Basically, it's identical to cheap $10 PC speakers, though it has a really nice profile. Don't confuse this with Yamaha's mainstream audio gear, which is generally superb.

Also of note - the included 1/8" cable for hooking this up to an iPod or similar is short, only about a foot long. Be sure to pick up an extra cable if you don't mean to use the device right next to the speaker.

When it comes to speakers, size counts. Well, mass counts. This little box is just 3.25" on a side and quite light. Do not expect floor-shaking bass. But the midrange and highs are very clean; classical, jazz and acoustic music sounds great. Pop/rock is good but dance/techno isn't going to impress anyone. I think $50 is a bit high so the rating lost a star but I don't feel bad because the styling compensates somewhat.

The NX-A01BL is a perfect size for a desk (office or home) and is portable enough to toss in a backpack or laptop bag to carry around. I'm using it for my iPod and laptop at home and plan to use it for classroom presentations, too. Just for curiosity's sake, I used this in the kitchen while cooking and also in the garage while doing laundry. It filled up the rooms as an FM radio would, though this radio would have to be much larger than 3" on a side, however!

One more thing and I hope Yamaha reads this. The packaging is top notch. This was the cleanest and tightest packing I have seen in years and I wish that more companies would take this much care in designing the package.

I'm using this with an Apple AirPort Express for a remote speaker in my kitchen. It works great and the sound is very good, however I don't understand why they didn't include the option to be USB powered. As it is I have to waste a wall plug with it's little wall wart, when there's a USB plug on my AirPort Express sitting there empty.

The Yamaha NX-A01 provides decent, basic PC audio in a very small, elegant and un-obtrusive package. If you are looking for basic PC audio and want to minimize the cabling and space on your desk this may be a good solution for you. However if you are looking for higher quality audio for music play-back this is probably NOT the solution for you. Mainly due to the small physical size, the bass response and stereo imaging are not great. I primarily use this speaker when I am doing basic web-surfing, You-Tubing and previewing tunes from sites such as iTunes or Amazon; in this capacity I am very pleased with the performance/size trade-off. When listening to my music library, though, I use a different speaker set.