Simple wireless audio with Apple AirPlay®

The big news about the JBL On Air powered speaker system is its compatibility with Apple's AirPlay. So what does that mean? Simply this — through a wireless connection I could stream audio from either a computer, an iPod touch®, an iPhone®, or an iPad® to the On Air.

The On Air has a pretty simple menu in its color display. Navigation is done primarily through the three buttons on top of the display, with additional control from the buttons on the right and left of the display. It may sound a little complicated just reading about it — I found the actual operation to be pretty simple and intuitive. Within minutes I had full control of the system, and could even do basic troubleshooting without referring to the manual.

To setup AirPlay, I just selected the Network menu, and the On Air showed which wireless systems it found. I chose our home network, and setup was done. Our network is open, so I didn't have to enter a password or use a WEP key, although I could have done so through the On Air if necessary.

From the iTunes window on my laptop I saw the On Air appear as one of my options for AirPlay. I selected it from the pop-up menu, and started playing music.

The sound came through the On Air, and the album art appeared in the display. The artist and song title began scrolling across the bottom of the display in white letters (more about that below). I was done. I could just sit back and enjoy the music. With AirPlay, the On Air was just one of my audio options. I could also have the same audio play through my laptop's speakers, or another AirPlay speaker system such as the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air. The popup menu in iTunes let me adjust the volume individually for each linked speaker system, so I could change the On Air's volume from my laptop. I could also do so from the On Air's remote, too.

I could also use AirPlay to stream wirelessly from an iPod touch to the On Air. The process was pretty much the same.

The only problem I had with the system was when someone else in the house (I'm not naming names) checked their email on the laptop, and closed it after they were done. That immediately broke the AirPlay connection. Because it wasn't disconnected properly, I usually had to reselect the connection through the On Air after I had got the laptop open again (Yes, I said "usually." This happened more than once.)

About that design — good for sound

The unusual shape of the On Air does serve a purpose. Embedded in the ring are two full-range speakers (plus an additional tweeter). The ring angles the speakers in such a way that the sound is thrown out to create a pretty spacious sound field. Even sitting on one side of our large family room, the On Air could fill the space with sound (without going to full volume).

It's important to recognize what the On Air is — and isn't. You probably won't experience the same in-depth, active listening experience you enjoy with a high-end audio system. But for casual listening or background music, the On Air performed beautifully.

It did a good job reproducing the sound accurately, regardless of the source. The built-in FM tuner sounded pretty good — the audio was rounded off at the top and bottom, but I think that was an issue with the source.

I placed my iPod on the system's dock, and played a track through the On Air. I then played the same track through the system via AirPlay from my laptop. I didn't hear a significant difference. Regardless of where the songs came from, they generally had a nice spread between the stereo channels and a good musical detail. Unlike the music from the radio, my digital music (primarily lossless files) retained most of its sonic detail.

Detailed sound, but light on the lows

The On Air reproduced the highs with accuracy and clarity. The strings on my classical tracks sounded convincingly realistic, without the metallic edge I've heard with lesser iPod speaker systems. This was a definite plus for more subtle recordings, such as the Paganini violin and guitar duets (played by Gil Shaham and Goran Sollshcer). I could hear the initial attack of the bow on the strings, as well as Sollshcer's fingers lightly trip across the guitar strings in the softer passages.

For rock and soul, I'd say that the On Air did an adequate job. AC/DC had the sonic edge that makes their music work, but the bass was a little muted. The same was true with the nasty lo-fi retro sound of King Khan and the Shrines. The grittiness was there, but the low end didn't quite have the oomph it needed.

Electronica and rap tracks also seemed to need a bit more bass than the On Air could deliver. The Black-Eyed Peas sounded somewhat sedate as a result, as did 2ManyDJs remix albums (and that's saying something). Would the On Air be a bad choice for a party, then? Not at all — at least for me. At our house, the purpose of party music isn't to turn our home into a club (I'd use the Dr. Dre BeatBox for that), but to set the mood and encourage conversation. And for that, the On Air worked great.

The louder the music, the more presence it had. And even at full volume, I didn't hear any distortion — the speakers seemed to handle what was being thrown at them just fine. And although it could get pretty loud, since I wanted music that wouldn't drown out conversation, three-quarters volume worked just fine for me (and a good time was had by all).

A colorful display that's actually pretty useful

The On Air's screen displayed graphics with bright, crisp colors. Before I tried out the system, I thought the screen pointless — but it proved to be quite helpful. With a large library like mine (26,000 songs and counting), I often can't identify what's playing right away. Seeing the cover art — even from a distance — usually jogged my memory enough to bring the artist's name to mind.

There was a nifty display option that I liked. I could either have the On Air show the album art and scroll song info across the bottom, or just have the album art fill the screen. The former option was useful when I sat close to the system, but the latter option worked best for identifying songs from across the room.

The display worked as promised for both AirPlay-connected devices and with docked iPods/iPhones with one exception. When I docked my older 5th generation iPod, it played just fine through the system, and it charged automatically, but the album art and artist info didn't show on the display. I've had this problem before with similar speaker systems released in the past year or so — the iPod classic models (6th generation iPods) are usually fully compatible, but the previous iterations usually have limited functionality, as was the case with the On Air.

Digital clock and alarm functions — a partial experience

The On Air comes with a built-in digital clock and dual alarms. It has a large snooze button that practically covers the top of the speaker ring, but really. I don't know about you, but space on my nightstand is at a premium. It's not that big, and already has a small table lamp and a pile of need-to-read-as-soon-as-can-get-around-to-it books. Personally, to replace my current very small digital alarm clock with the On Air would mean something else would also have to go.

That's not to say that the digital clock display didn't come in handy. I had the On Air set up on an end table in my family room where there weren't any clocks. The big, white numerals were easy to see, even across the room. I never used the alarm (or the snooze button), but I checked the clock quite often.

Overall impressions

The sound quality of the On Air was on par or better than the other comparably priced iPod speaker systems I've tried out. But that's just part of the story. If you use iTunes then the convenience of AirPlay can make the On Air worth the price of admission. It didn't replace my primary audio system, but — given that I could access my entire iTunes library — for casual, everyday listening the On Air became my system of choice.