Parrot Zikmu by Starck Review

The Parrot Zikmu, or Parrot by Starck as they’re more commonly referred to as, are a pair of wireless stereo loudspeakers that you can connect to via Bluetooth and WiFi. Designed to be used primarily for your iPhone and iPods, the Zikmu can be connected to any Bluetooth capable smartphone using A2DP, as well as Macs and PCs through WiFi. Don’t get scared by the price yet, let me tell you why they’re actually worth it.

The Zikmu speakers look decidedly stylish, and will go nicely in any home with a modern décor. I will strongly advise that you choose the color best suited to the environment it’ll be kept in, and also avoid the Pearl grey if possible. That color just takes the life away from these speakers. The good news is that you have the colors white, black, red and lime to choose from.

Moving along the curves, the Zikmu has a flat panel top, designed specifically to house the NXT powered speakers for a 360° sound experience. And by 360° I don’t mean a surround sound experience, but sound that is carried across the room from all angles. It basically means that there’s no one “sweet spot” to keep the Zikmu, as sound is carried over the air from all angles.

The base of the speakers is just a casing for the woofers and bass-reflex system. This is also where the DSP amplifiers are housed as well. As with the speakers on the top, the idea of a 360° sound follows at the bottom as well as the woofers are pointed downwards. Combines these speakers pump out 50W of total RMS.

Of course, all of that is half of what makes the Zikmu so great. Now let’s talk a bit about the connectivity options we’ve got. Bluetooth and WiFi are the order of the day. You can connect the Zikmu to any A2DP capable smartphone as well as Macs. WiFi works with 802.11b/g standards, “N” isn’t supported. Through WiFi you can easily connect your Zikmu to your Mac or PC, as long as you download the software from the main site. Through the software you can actually control the bass and treble, as well as make fine tunings in the EQ, along with having the ability to control the playback loudness of each song. There’s also the ability to compensate the sound based on your room size, but I didn’t see much difference when playing in my bedroom.