If like me you treated yourself to a Bluetooth turntable for Black Friday, or if you just want a nice pair of bookshelf speakers you can stream to over Bluetooth or connect to your computer, Majority's new D40X active bookshelf speakers may be just what your ears have been waiting for. They're good looking, affordably priced and offer a pretty good specification too.
The star here is the rigid Kevlar cone, which responds more quickly than the plastic cones you often find in affordable speakers and which the Cambridge-based firm says delivers a "livelier tone". And the speakers have been designed to work with a wide range of audio sources, wired and wireless. If you're looking for bedroom or small study speakers that won't break the bank these are worth considering.
Majority D40X active speakers: key features
The drivers here are four-inch models, powered by a built-in amplifier delivering a total power output of 70W. Bluetooth is 5.3, and you can also connect sound sources via RCA, optical, Aux or USB. There's also an SD card slot, built-in transport controls and a headphone out too (the speakers support wired headphones but not Bluetooth ones), and the package includes a remote control that enables you to switch modes as well as control the volume, bass, treble and, with USB, Bluetooth and SD card sources, the playback.
For digital music the supported file types are MP3, WMA, FLAC, MAV and APE, and SD card sizes of up to 64GB are supported.
The physical controls here are kept to a minimum, with just three buttons in a recessed section on the side of the right speaker: a mode button and then two transport buttons. Everything else is handled via the remote.
These speakers aren't going to be giving Bowers & Wilkins any sleepless nights. But they're not supposed to: they're affordable, capable and flexible audio options for small spaces and relatively small budgets, and with a three-year warranty as standard they're a safe buy. The RRP is £89.95, but Amazon is currently offering them for £69.95 with a further 5% off via a coupon deal.
Sign up to the T3 newsletter for smarter living straight to your inbox
Get all the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products from the T3 experts
Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).
-
When is Black Friday 2024 – this Friday or next? Here's the official answer
Black Friday is on 29 November in 2024 – a week later than the year previous. But that's not stopped retailers putting on their sales...
By Mike Lowe Published
-
Forget Black Friday, F1 24 is completely free for a limited time
This top racing game has a free weekend
By Max Freeman-Mills Published