In January of 2007, designer Neil Poulton teamed up with LaCie to design a set of FireWire PC speakers. The drawback is the speakers use up a precious FireWire port. In an attempt to fix the problem, LaCie created the $60 LaCie USB Speakers. The new version keeps the same exterior design as the FireWire model, and even receives a substantial price cut. Unfortunately, the audio quality is poor and competing speakers from Yamaha and Logitech offer much higher fidelity in the same price range with an equally stylish design.
Design and features
The LaCie USB speakers received the royal treatment from Parisian designer Neil Poulton, famous in artistic circles for his mass-produced minimalistic objects. The speakers are curved like the tip of an exhaust pipe and decorated in a sleek white housing with a matte black border surrounding the perforated speaker cover. LaCie obviously put a lot of creative effort into the design of these speakers.
The circular ring underneath the speakers is made of a sticky rubber that prevents them from slipping around on your desk. The bottom of the right speaker houses all of the necessary cables: one cable that connects the right and left silo and another hardwired USB cord to plug into a computer. There's also an eighth-inch line-in port and a hole for the AC adapter if you want to connect to an external audio player. Finally, the speakers have a small cutout on the bottom that neatly guides the two cables and allows the speakers to sit flush against a hard surface.
