NuForce Cube Mobile Audio Center Preview

Like every true Audioholic, we love reading and looking at big speakers. Those multi-thousand dollar monstrosities constructed out of military-grade aluminum, magnesium alloys, and titanium with diamond tweeters, enough bracing to hold up a two story home, and require the use of a forklift to move them into place. But we can't exactly bring home one of those every day (or ever) so we often are required to sate our audio addiction with other items.

Like gadgets.

Portable audio is both the bane and the boon of our modern times. If you love to have all 20,000 songs in your pocket and think the earbuds that came with your iPod are just fine...well, go away. We don't like you around here. The first thing we did after buying our iDevice was upgrade our headphones...but sometimes that is just not enough.

NuForce has a new offering that looks to scratch numerous audiophile-based itches. Their Cube is billed as a "Mobile Audio Center". This device is not only a portable (and rechargeable) speaker, but also a headphone amp and audiophile-grade USB DAC. All this in one box? Color us intrigued.

The NuForce Cube is ~2.3" cubed. It is powered by a lithium battery and will run for around 8 hours on a charge. The Cube is charged via USB. It will need to be connected to your computer to do this (unless you buy the optional wall adapter). There is also an optional iPod nano connector (iPod Nano connected with the adapter in the picture at the top of this article). Included with the NuForce Cube is a 3.5mm stereo cable for connection from your player to the Cube and a USB cable.

The front of the NuForce Cube sports a single driver. The back has two 3.5mm ports (one input and one output) plus a USB port. When connected to a USB source (your computer), the Cube acts as a USB DAC. NuForce says that they have used an "audiophile-grade" DAC but don't list which. They also haven't listed much about the frequency response of the speaker or even the materials involved.

Also included is a headphone amp promising to have enough "power to drive even the most power-hungry set of "cans"". Again, no mention is made of the amount of power or any of the specifics of the amplifier section. We are also curious as to if you can connect your phone or iDevice directly to the Cube via USB for a direct digital connection. The iPod Nano adapter only provides a 3.5mm connection which means you are using the DACs in your iPod Nano.

Conclusion

You may be wondering why we would be interested in the NuForce Cube Mobile Audio Center when it has so little information about it available. Frankly, anything with such versatility and potential excites us. Even if the speaker isn't great, it is sure to be better than what is in our laptops. A portable speaker is always interesting but adding the headphone amp and USB DAC functionality just takes it to the next level. We have high hopes for the NuForce Cube. At a $119 MSRP, we may have to pick one up just to see what it is all about.

For more information, please visit www.nuforce.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.