Neil Poulton is known for some jaw dropping industrial design, so when they once again teamed up with Lacie to bring us the Sound² Speakers I was more than pleased with outcome, aesthetically speaking of course. But, as they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.  So do the LaCie Sound² Speakers live up to all their meant to be?

Place these speakers next to any computer or on any desktop and you’ll sure to adhere some European cache.  Aesthetically the rounded speaker design complemented my desktop’s rather square facade – square desk, square monitor, square laptop – you get the point. The bottom of the speakers are fitted with two rubber feet to prevent them from rolling around. One small jostle though and they tend to overcome their rubber threshold and go into a roll; I almost dropped mine onto my floor a few times.

On the back of the control speaker – the one with the amp – there is a volume knob that reminds me of a truck driver’s steering wheel or a salad spinner. Turn on the speakers and a hidden LED emits a blue hue from inside. The range of the turning circle of the volume knob is pretty short as are the speaker’s amplitude, but more on that later.

Since the LaCie Sound² Speakers lack a sub, one speakers plugs into the other and the master speaker plugs into the computer or MP3 player. As for inputs you’ve got your choice of 3.5mm headphone jack (they’ve included a cord) or USB. While the 3.5mm headphone jack is a nice option for iPhone’s and player’s alike, using the USB port produced more normalized audio that didn’t distort as much and sounded more balanced overall. If you so opt you can power the LaCie Sound² Speakers off the USB plug alone, but adding the external AC adapter results in much more power (i.e. volume).

And this is where the review goes a bit south. The LaCie Sound² Speakers lack significant amplitude. Sure there only 30 watts, but I’ve used other 30 watt speakers before and they were louder and sounded better. At high volumes the the Sound² speakers tend to distort and lack the bass and fidelity for any music genre. At lower volumes, though, they’re relatively dynamic and can probably best be described or suited for those in an office environment – you know, where you can’t crank your tunes.

Oh and another thing: the AC plug is short, like awkward short. Anyone who has plans to place these on a desktop will have to strategically place them close to an AC outlet. While I appreciate the built in USB plug, a removable version would be nice to help me declutter my already rats nest of a desktop.

At $100 I can hardly recommend the LaCie Sound² Speakers as a resolve to your desktop audio needs. Aesthetically they score some big points but at the end of the day they’re all looks and no brawn.

Pros:

• Cool design
• Volume knob doubles as a cord spindle

Cons:

• Just ok sound quality
• Poor frequency range – no bass
• Tend to roll off the table if slightly jostled

You can grab them from here for $83 before shipping.