James Vesey is impressed by a high-tech solution with a fascinating background

The Epoz Aktimate Maxi is the second product from a company based in New South Wales, Australia – the first, not surprisingly, was the smaller Akimate Mini. And the name of the company gives a hint of its background: Epoz was originally set up to distribute the products of British audio companies Creek and Epos in Oz – sorry, Australia –, and the two have a very close working relationship.

Creek/Epos international sales and marketing manager Jacki Pugh divides her time between the UK and her native Australia, where she is heavily involved in Epoz.

So, too, is Creek/Epos boss and designer Mike Creek, who is responsible for the Akimate speaker designs, and uses in them elements from both of his brands. As was clear from the arrival of the Aktimate Minis a while back – they first went on sale in Australia late in 2007 –, these are very superior powered iPod speakers, and a cut above most of the similar-looking products on the market.

The Minis are relatively a relatively simple design: there’s a concealed iPod dock on the top, a couple of inputs for external analogue sources, a video output to feed iPod displays to a TV, a stereo subwoofer output, 40W per channel amplification, remote control and a USB socket to charge portable players. They’re all yours for £350 a pair.

The £600 Maxis we have here, however, are a rather different prospect, despite sharing lineage. Obviously, they’re larger, and use a 16.5cm polypropylene mid/bass unit in place of the Mini’s 13cm driver, along with a 25mm metal-dome tweeter. All the Aktimate drivers are used under licence from Epos.

The power is higher, too: the amplifier here is 2x60W, though it’s worth noting that these aren’t strictly active speakers: the crossovers are passive, and the amplification for both speakers is built into one enclosure, which connects to the other using conventional two-core cable.

This master speaker also has all the features of the Mini’s, but its USB socket can also accept music from portable devices, and there’s an additional line input. Other connections are provided for Ethernet network hook-up, the Wi-Fi antenna, and an FM radio aerial, and there’s even an alarm clock function built in

An LCD panel allows access to all the functions and as with the Minis, the speakers come with connecting cables – a 3m speaker cable and 3.5mm stereo interconnect – and a range of iPod dock adapters.

The speakers are available in gloss red or black, or walnut veneer.

PERFORMANCE
The Maxis come with rubber feet to allow them to be used on a desk or shelf, and are rear-ported: this, and the rear-panel heatsink for the internal electronics, means a bit of breathing-space between them and a wall is advisable.

I tried them both on my desk and on some hefty Atacama speaker stands, and while the latter positioning gave the tightest bass and the best stereo focus, the sacrifices when using them as desktop speakers are minimal.

Access to the many thousands of Internet radio stations is simplified by setting up favourites via the www.reciva.com website. Once the Epoz is established on your home network, you simply enter a code from its settings menu on the website, and then you can choose favourite stations to appear in the Maxi’s ‘My Stuff’ menu.

Streaming is just as simple, provided you have an UPnP server installed on the device where your music is stored, and the radio and iPod connectivity work smoothly.

As already mentioned, these speakers are more accomplished than most similar products, and that, combined with the flexibility on offer, makes them something of a bargain at the price. Using the Maxis, it would be easy to set up a second room system streaming from music stored on a central server – and that could be as simple as a NAS device attached to the household Wi-Fi router, as I have – with the additional convenience of local device connectivity.

The Akimate Maxis give away nothing to more conventional multi-box speaker systems, producing a big, mature sound across a wide range of musical styles and speech, and having more than sufficient bass for all but the largest of rooms. They’re beautifully detailed, can create a credible, well-focused soundstage, and have a room-filling sound that’s anything but shut-in, even though in larger spaces you may need some extra speaker cable to get the enclosures a bit further apart.

They’re rewarding as a close-up listen, too, making them eminently suitable as a superior desktop speaker choice, and giving a real sense of hearing the music played on monitor-quality speakers.

Even the FM tuner is pretty good, reinforcing the idea of this as a complete audio package disguised as a pair of speakers. Whether you feel the need to cut down your audio box-count, or just want a fine system for study or second room, the Aktimate Maxis could be just the ticket.

I could quite happily live with a nice black gloss pair, were I to be forced to have it as my only system.

Epoz Aktimate Maxi
Type Powered speaker system with iPod dock, FM/internet radio and music streaming
Drive units 25mm metal-dome tweeter, 16cm polypropylene-cone mid/bass
Amplifier 2x60W
Claimed frequency response 48Hz-28kHz
Inputs iPod dock, 3 line-in (2 on RCA phonos, one 3.5mm stereo), USB
Outputs Stereo line for subwoofer or second pair of speakers
Other connections Ethernet, FM and Wi-Fi antennae
Accessories supplied Remote control handset, 3.5mm interconnect, 3m speaker cable, Wi-Fi/FM antennae
www.aktimate.com