Digital Trends

Niro 600

March 24th, 2005 | by Yongki Go

Features

The NIRO 600 system consists of a controller/amplifier, a speaker, a subwoofer, and a remote control. The obvious feature that differentiates the NIRO 600 with a conventional surround-sound system is the speaker. Instead of five or seven separate speakers for delivering the surround effects, the NIRO 600 utilizes a single-enclosure speaker that houses an array of five 2.5"-drivers in a unique configuration.  Basically, this speaker represents the front left and right, the center channel, and the surround speakers in one enclosure. The enclosure and the speaker grills are all made from metal (aluminum).  The speaker also is magnetically shielded. It's relatively small, and if you have one of the popular silver finish televisions, this speaker can sit relatively inconspicuously on the television top. Brackets for hanging the speaker on the wall also are provided.

NIRO 600 Main Speaker

Obviously, the regular surround-sound algorithms, such as Dolby Digital, DTS, or Dolby Prologic II, are not sufficient to create effective surround effects from these five drivers, as they are not positioned the way such algorithms require. To overcome this, the NIRO 600 controller/amplifier employs a special algorithm in addition to the standard surround processing to recreate the intended surround effects. Theoretically, with this special processing, the listener will experience surround sound from this single speaker enclosure, as if the speakers were distributed surrounding the listener: the very idea behind this NIRO system!

The controller/amplifier of the 600 system is about half of the common width of a full size component, but it is rather deep. Its front panel has a relatively clean appearance. Besides the display and six round buttons (for power, volume, mode, source and speaker selectors), the front panel also sports an optical digital input, a stereo analog input, and a headphone jack. Other inputs can be found on the rear panel, consisting of a pair of optical digital inputs, a coaxial digital input, and a stereo analog input. Special connectors for the NIRO 600's system speaker and subwoofer are also located on this rear panel. A separate connector for the MovieMouse is also provided.  (For those of you who don't know, the MovieMouse is a close-proximity surround-sound speaker, one of NIRO's innovations.)  The provision of the separate MovieMouse connector on the NIRO 600 system is a welcome addition, allowing both the speaker and the MovieMouse to be connected all of the time to the controller/amplifier; a user can select a speaker by pressing the selector on the controller/amplifier's front panel or from the remote control. In the earlier NIRO's products, simultaneous connection for both the speaker and MovieMouse is not possible.

NIRO 600 Controller and Amplifier