Danish audio company AIAIAI has released the UNIT-4, presenting it as the world’s first professional-grade wireless studio monitor system. Battery-powered when needed and with a unique ultra low-latency wireless option, these could be one monitor speaker system for all purposes – home DJ practice, producing, taking on the road, on-location livestreaming, even for no-fuss booth monitoring.
What, wireless good enough for DJing with?
The big win for any DJ who feels wireless speakers may be for them is in the UNIT-4’s 16ms of latency, keeping audio syncing tight, and making the UNIT-4s a world apart from consumer wireless multi-speaker systems. For the DJ who moves around, perhaps switching between a home studio and casual gigs, this alone could be a game-changer.
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At 2.5kg per speaker, the UNIT-4s are indeed portable, especially with the separately available carry case, and the bass vent at the rear doubling as a carry handle. But despite their size, they are still full two-way active monitors, with a wide frequency response from 50Hz to 20kHz.
Additionally, the AIAIAI app’s five-band EQ offers the flexibility to tailor the sound to different room acoustics – a feature that home DJs, who may not have professionally treated spaces, should appreciate.
A modern approach to monitoring
They are sold as a set with a transmitter module but also can be bought individually, and can be placed vertically or horizontally, stage monitor-style, on their diagonal side so as to angle them upwards, something we’ve not seen in any studio monitor before.
How the transmitter works
We’ll be reviewing these properly and diving more into this, but basically the little provided transmitter needs USB power and can take audio from a minijack (ie from your DJ controller) or from a USB source, in the latter instance effectively acting as a DAC. That means you could DJ with iPad DJ software as an obvious use case – maybe AIAIAI should do a promo with Algoriddim on these!
While this solves the problem of ultra low-latency audio (good enough for DJing with), we think we might like to see some more flexible transmitter options to make these speakers more useful for DJs – but we’ll save our thoughts there for the forthcoming review once we’ve had time to have a play with these.
Connectivity is also flexible here: The low-latency W+ Link delivers wireless connectivity (much like the AIAIAI TMA-2 Studio Wireless+ headphones, reviewed here), for casual streaming there is Bluetooth 5.2, and of course you can still plug in directly, meaning less faffing around when using them in the home for multiple music sources.
With 20 hours of battery playback time, a sturdy removable steel grille (so yes, you could maybe even use them for small house parties too), and a choice of 3.5mm minijack and 6.3mm balanced TRS inputs on the wired side of things, these speakers offer a thoroughly modern take on the venerable old “pair of monitors” idea.
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Finally, as with all AIAIAI products, sustainability and repairability are upfront – the UNIT-4’s 100% recycled plastic design and the promise of easy disassembly should appeal to environmentally conscious DJs. Replaceable components also suggest a longer lifespan.
• The speakers are available now from the AIAIAI website priced at $800 per pair, and come complete with the transmitter module.
Phil Morse
