Niro… not “Robert de”, although, if the buzz continues at such viral pace, you will hear from them very soon. Niro Home Theater was founded 7 years ago by Niro Nakamichi, who had been previously working with… Nakamichi. He has quite a philosophy about sound systems, and is obsessed with the consumers’ ease of use. And he demonstrates. His company is a direct seller only, no distributors. They produce an entire range of compact, all-in-one surround systems that exactly reflects the founder’s views.
They recently introduced a new production that improves the overall quality. In this new line, the Niro 600 stands just below the “pro” series. It’s priced $750 in the USA.
For those who have seen Niro’s previous productions, the new 600 will look… similar, but different: Although its look is very familiar, every part is smaller, be it the speaker or the controller. Anyhow, small enough to fit in every standard size hotel room or town flat.
This one is not going to invade your space...
Niro’s 600 system comprises one speaker, one sub, one remote, and finally one controller/amplifier box. Point blank. The box comprises the cables and the wall-mounting brackets (a wide choice of quite cheap TV or wall mount options are available on their site as well).
As in other all-in-one productions, there is only one, instead of five or seven, speaker, plus the sub-woofer. The aluminium speaker box -which is magnetically shielded- contains five 2.5-in (6.35 cm) drivers: Each represents one of your classical 5.1 speakers, centre, left, right, and two surround. It's not deep (see measure in specs), so that it will not blow up the look of your sleek and slim flat screen.
Regarding Surround effects, well, Niro uses a trick, consisting in adding a special algorythm in the controller, in order to correct the Dolby Digital, DTS or Pro-Logic II algorythms that were not conceived for such enclosed systems. This is the basic behind every Niro system.
About the controller/amp, it's clean in appearance, with a minimalist set of buttons on the front, plus headphone jack, stereo analogue and optical digital inputs. The back panel features two optical digital, stereo analogue, and coaxial digital inputs, in addition to the speakers' connections. The famous MovieMouse (another Niro's invention, some sort of mini surround speaker) can also be connected there and played along with the speaker. Everything, in addition to the controller/amp itself, can be run from the remote -which is another clever story, coming with its critical buttons glowing, so you won't get lost in the dark. To set up the control, other than the controller/amp, just enter the codes provided in the manual.
Niro's MovieMouse is connected to the controller
The bass-reflex subwoofer is a 6.5-in (16.5 cm) has been conceived to be put against a wall, with a port that is located on the front.
The amplifier boasts 5X27 Watt for the speakers, and 45 Watt for the sub -all Root Mean Square (RMS) values, which produces enough of SPL (another acronym for Sound Pressure Level) for any small to medium sized room.
Niro systems are complex in conception, and simple in operation. A moment, and you're up and running. Easy glowing remote is a plus, nicely conceived and clear. A must in your bedroom, when you're half asleep. Another (very convenient and clever!) innovation is the memory card upgrade capacity. Every registered owner -and you will be registered, since you will purchase your Niro system online- is eligible to memory card upgrades. They ship them to the owners, who then have one simple thing to do only: insert the memory card in the provided slot, turn power On, and you're done! Cute!
The very clever and easy Memory Card: instant firmware upgrade
Unlike some off-the-beaten-track small all-in-one systems, the Niro sounds clear and good. It isn't a high-end millionaire buy, but is more than sufficient for laid-back, relax listening. And according to most reviews, it looks like it is also true for Home Cinema, DVD movie viewing as well; not your up-trend, multi-brand and cusom installed £30000 configuration, but it delivers more than many others promise (at lower prices though...). Again, think small room, and sparse space, where you definitely could not take advantage of big machines...
Specs (source: Niro):
Main unit:
Power source: 120V, 60Hz External dimensions: 7.9″(W) × 2.2″(H) × 11.7″(D) Weight: 4.8 lbs Input terminals: 4 digital (3 toslink, 1 coaxial), 2 analog Output terminals: speaker: 8Ω, MovieMouse speaker: 24Ω, subwoofer: 6Ω, headphone: 16-50Ω (Recommendation 32Ω) Amplifier: full digital, 27W RMS×5, subwoofer: 45W RMS×1 Supported audio formats: Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic IISpeaker unit:
Type: full range speaker system Drivers: 5x2.5 inch (6cm), cone type Impedance: 8Ω External dimensions: 9.3″(W) × 3.1″(H) × 6.4″(D) Weight: 5.1 lbs (excluding cables) Cable length: about 16.4 ftSubwoofer:
Type: bass reflect Driver: 6.5 inch (16cm), cone type Impedance: 6Ω External dimensions: 16.9″(W) × 12.6″(H) × 4.3″(D) Weight: 11 lbs (excluding cables) Cable length: about 14 ft.Remote controller:
Type: universal - preset capable External dimensions: 2.3″(W) × 8.1″(H) × 0.9″(D)Visit Niro here