Most of the time this blog deals with the 50,000 foot view. What does the Sequestration mean for AV, Extended Advanced Replacements, and the AV Degree. This week, we are going to do something I’ve never done; write a review.
The title of the blog is a reference to the fact that I jumped rope… with a speaker. For those of you who have ever met me in person, the fact that I jumped rope is the amazing part of that statement. For the rest of you, let’s focus on the fact that I used a speaker to do so.
They call it the Anakonda. The K-array KAN200, distributed in the USA by Sennheiser, is a flexible array element speaker (that’s the official title). However, it is really eight speakers all in a line. The flexible part comes in casing for this powerful device. The covering is reminiscent of the outside of an audio snake and it is equally as flexible. At 2 meters (or 6.5 feet) this speaker can go into places that others are not able. That is also how I was able to skip rope with it. No, I really did.
In addition, you can chain together up to 16 of these speakers for a whopping 32 m (or 118 feet) of distributed coverage. The sound is better than I expected. There wasn’t a frequency meter present, but it could reproduce pretty much whatever we threw at it.
Let’s be honest, though, this is a speaker that has unique uses. You probably shouldn’t fly these at the front of house in your theatre or church. The frequency response is impressive but the SPL output is not meant for large venue sound reinforcement. In the right environment, they would work great.reproduce low human vocals up to higher violin parts. The price is right at well under $800 MSRP, which is less than I expected. They come with a cotton sock to put over the speakers in case you want to mix up the colors. There is one in black and one in white. Theoretically, you could die the white one whatever color you wanted. Even lavender.
Sennheiser USA should get their stock in around the time of InfoComm 2013. Be prepared to go by the demo room and take a listen. If you have a job where you need sound in a hard to get area, around unusual shapes and corners, this is probably the right speaker for you. Plus, it doubles as exercise equipment.