But hold on. This time is different. Because now it’s late November, so we’re not trying to get you to buy one for yourself. Instead, we’re trying to get you to buy one so you can give it as a gift to a family member or loved one.
But… but if I thought it was too much to buy one for myself… Why would I… carry the one… still confused.
I bought the zip during the mehathon (thinking it was the zip 2) and I was pleasantly surprised:
I own (or have owned) a fair number of portable Bluetooth speakers and freestanding speakers as well and this is better than most of what I have AT THIS PRICE POINT. Is the zip as good as my B&W DM602’s? Of course not. Is it as good as an AirPod? Not quite, the mids are a little muddled compared to both of these examples. Does it blow the crap out of my JBL flip 4 and pulse 3? You had better believe it does.
I haven’t tested this out in stereo, so I can’t attest to its stereo performance but this is an omnidirectional speaker and does a pretty good job at what it does.
Would I buy this at full price? Nope since there are better in the highly competitive $250 price range; it’s a good speaker but there are better at its full price. Is it better than anything in the $80-100 range? It’s not even a contest.
@seraphimcaduto I forgot to mention: the sound signature is neutral overall, with a bit of warmth in the mid range and no distortion up to the 80% max volume that I tested. I stopped the test due to one of my employees coming in after hearing it through two walls and a door. This not so little guy is staying in the office and the JBL pulse 3 is getting moved to the kids room.
@haydesigner I’m glad I could help; it’s hard to go out on a limb but I took a chance on it and figured I could always gift it to someone if I didn’t like it. I will say that the portability level is like a JBL Charge or Pulse, that being semi portable.
@seraphimcaduto I have the Zipp 2, but I would agree 100%. It has some serious competition at its original price, but if you’re talking speakers $100 and below, you really can’t beat it.
@wishlish I bought a Zipp 2 and love it. However it’s got a crappy old implementation of Alexa. I’d advise getting the Zipp and pairing it with a cheap Echo. I’m getting a Zipp to try the stereo.
@wishlish I bought the Zipp 2 the first time Meh put em up, and honestly I have not regretted it. The sound quality and battery life are outstanding. I kind of want to buy another, to be completely honest.
@wishlish Mine just arrived yesterday from MorningSave which means I suck at this and paid $20 too much. Believe the reviews, the sound is good and louder than you’d expect with little distortion at higher volumes. Alexa integration seems to work fine but sometimes doesn’t seem to hear you.
@swarthytype@wishlish I’ve found that for Alexa to work on it, you have to say “Alexa,” then wait until it makes a sound indicating it’s heard you. Then you can continue with the command. It seems to be rather an obsolete version, too, as it simply won’t recognize newer music sources and/or skills. It can’t play anything from Apple Music, for instance, even if you’ve set up Apple Music as your primary music source in the (godawful) Alexa app. I ended up using it as a Bluetooth speaker for one of the many Echo Dots I have lying around, and it’s worked great. My advice would be save $20 here and put it towards a real Alexa input device. I’m going to buy a Zipp, not another Zipp 2.
@manhattnik@swarthytype@wishlish just to let you guys know, I did some research and I found out that the zipp 2 has a subwoofer and lower frequency rate as opposed to the original zipp. I could be wrong, but I would imagine the zipp 2 sounds considerably better than the original.
@manhattnik@nathanjwilson@swarthytype@wishlish If you check the specs at the Libratone site that’s not true. Both have 4" subwoofers that go down to 20kHz. The real difference is that the Zipp 1 (I guess you could call it that) has 2 x 1" tweeters whereas the Zipp 2 has only 1 tweeter but it’s 1.5". Also, the Zipp 1’s allow you to charge a device from the USB port while the Zipp 2’s don’t per the specs. In short, the Zipp 2 adds Alexa and 6 mics but replaces two 1" tweeters with a single 1.5" one and loses USB charging capability at $20 more.
@PooltoyWolf I wish they would have ended up in the previous round, I could have saved $63…then again I might have bought another one to try out stereo. Dammit meh, taking my money lately.
@PooltoyWolf@seraphimcaduto Yeah these are actually pretty nice products so I wouldn’t expect any to show up in an IRK until they maybe just have a few odds n’ ends left.
Though the continued re-appearance of these in various forms does make us question exactly how many truckloads, containers, shiploads(?) of these they have. It does seem they have a shipload of 'em.
Ya know, what was missing this November was the return of a Libratone speaker of some kind, so I’m glad we got that over with. As these questions always come up, there have been 4 models available at various times:
Zipp Mini
Zipp Mini 2
Zipp (not mini and not 2)
Zipp2 (not mini)
This offer gives you a choice of the last 2; both are the bigger size ones. As I recall, this new price is $20 less than the price we have seen here before for these models.
While I have never been tempted to buy these, I have burning questions:
Does the zipper unzip? If so, what does it reveal? Why has Meh never shown us? What are they hiding? If it doesn’t unzip, why is there a zipper? Is it because they couldn’t think of a name? Why not Snap?
@NapkinEater@Sardinicus I imagine there was some plan afoot to sell zip on/off covers separately, so you could change the speaker’s color on a whim. Stupid idea.
@butchworley Yes, allegedly. There is definitely support for setting it up in the very flaky app. How well this works in practice I couldn’t tell you but I will be giving it a shot soon. My Zipp 2 works fine as an Airplay 2 speaker, and I’m assuming if you pair two for stereo they’ll both show up as a single AirPlay 2 speaker. But who knows?
@butchworley Bought two of the Zipps a while ago on meh, paired them up and yes - you can have wireless stereo sound. Husband had issues getting them to pair up with his record player (I married a diry, dirty hipster), but he did get it working. Its nice having a speaker in the kitchen and dining room, and being able to adjust the volume independently of one another is nice. So I can blast it in the kitchen and have it quieter in the dining room. Have not synched more than 2, amazon reviews are… Mixed on that.
not worth it, I bought it last time, it’s a hunk of junk and a pain to pair with each time you want to use it. spend $99 on an airpod mini or something
Don’t know if anyone will read this, but so far, using an Echo to drive my Zipp 2 has worked pretty well. (The crappy Alexa on the Zipp 2 is very limited, can’t play Apple Music or other newer sources, so, using an Echo.) First I paired with Bluetooth from an Echo Dot. Nice, but a teeny bit muddy? Then tried using the AUX out from the Dot plugged into the Zipp 2’s AUX in. Wow. Much better! Since with Prime you can get an Echo Flex for $10 (or maybe that’s the new low?), and the Flex has an AUX out, they make a compact and affordable Alexa interface for the Zipp. I’ll try that next. My Zipp doesn’t seem very smart about switching between AUX and Airplay, but still working on it. My second Zipp 2 has arrived. I’m thinking if I use an Echo with each via AUX, I can use the Alexa app to make each one half of a stereo. Or at least try.
Suddenly pairing them in stereo works great with Airplay 2. They sound fantastic. At Morningsave the Zipp is down to $79 and boy am I tempted. Only drawback is Alexa can’t access Airport 2. I’d have to wire each into its own Echo. I don’t know. I guess I should try it.
Specs
Zipp 2 360° Bluetooth/WiFi Speaker with Airplay 2 & Alexa
Libratone Zipp 360° Bluetooth/WiFi Speaker with Airplay 2
What’s in the Box?
OR
Price Comparison
$244.67 at Amazon for Zipp
$249 at Amazon for Zipp 2
Instructional Videos
Zipp 2 360° Bluetooth/WiFi Speaker with Airplay 2 & Alexa
Libratone Zipp 360° Bluetooth/WiFi Speaker with Airplay 2
Apps:
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Friday, Sep 17 - Tuesday, Sep 21
Stop it
@Stallion no?
@RogerWilco No X 2. Maybe at 1/2 the price, maybe. This is Meh after all.
@Stallion no x3. I’d buy at 1/3 of the price & have no regrets.
@RogerWilco Now you are talking! Make it No x4 and I’d gift a few this holiday season.
I can’t hear you.
Again??!
Good grief, these again? Cut the price in half and I might buy one.
But… but if I thought it was too much to buy one for myself… Why would I… carry the one… still confused.
/giphy carry the one
I did finally bite and grab some insanely cheap wines on casemates, though.
Geez… how many of these do you have Meh?
@RogerWilco All of them.
I have a Sonos household and just bought a Move. Should I return it and get the Zipp 2?
@Fe2_O3 Only if you would like to contemplate poor decision making in the not too distant future.
Show me the tweeters!
@heartny Yogi Mehrra!
Librapocalypse Meh ReZipp2
Stop with this crap meh. It’s time for some different crap!
Hope no one mentions that they sold these speakers in the past.
I bought the zip during the mehathon (thinking it was the zip 2) and I was pleasantly surprised:
I own (or have owned) a fair number of portable Bluetooth speakers and freestanding speakers as well and this is better than most of what I have AT THIS PRICE POINT. Is the zip as good as my B&W DM602’s? Of course not. Is it as good as an AirPod? Not quite, the mids are a little muddled compared to both of these examples. Does it blow the crap out of my JBL flip 4 and pulse 3? You had better believe it does.
I haven’t tested this out in stereo, so I can’t attest to its stereo performance but this is an omnidirectional speaker and does a pretty good job at what it does.
Would I buy this at full price? Nope since there are better in the highly competitive $250 price range; it’s a good speaker but there are better at its full price. Is it better than anything in the $80-100 range? It’s not even a contest.
This is very helpful.
@seraphimcaduto I forgot to mention: the sound signature is neutral overall, with a bit of warmth in the mid range and no distortion up to the 80% max volume that I tested. I stopped the test due to one of my employees coming in after hearing it through two walls and a door. This not so little guy is staying in the office and the JBL pulse 3 is getting moved to the kids room.
@haydesigner I’m glad I could help; it’s hard to go out on a limb but I took a chance on it and figured I could always gift it to someone if I didn’t like it. I will say that the portability level is like a JBL Charge or Pulse, that being semi portable.
@seraphimcaduto I have the Zipp 2, but I would agree 100%. It has some serious competition at its original price, but if you’re talking speakers $100 and below, you really can’t beat it.
I don’t understand how “price point” replaced “price” in the common vernacular.
So who bought them and gasp liked them?
@wishlish Actually I did, surprisingly.
@wishlish I did, too! My coworkers are all so jealous. I was asked recently if I could get one for them so I will.
@wishlish I bought a Zipp 2 and love it. However it’s got a crappy old implementation of Alexa. I’d advise getting the Zipp and pairing it with a cheap Echo. I’m getting a Zipp to try the stereo.
@wishlish I bought the Zipp 2 the first time Meh put em up, and honestly I have not regretted it. The sound quality and battery life are outstanding. I kind of want to buy another, to be completely honest.
@wishlish Mine just arrived yesterday from MorningSave which means I suck at this and paid $20 too much. Believe the reviews, the sound is good and louder than you’d expect with little distortion at higher volumes. Alexa integration seems to work fine but sometimes doesn’t seem to hear you.
@swarthytype @wishlish I’ve found that for Alexa to work on it, you have to say “Alexa,” then wait until it makes a sound indicating it’s heard you. Then you can continue with the command. It seems to be rather an obsolete version, too, as it simply won’t recognize newer music sources and/or skills. It can’t play anything from Apple Music, for instance, even if you’ve set up Apple Music as your primary music source in the (godawful) Alexa app. I ended up using it as a Bluetooth speaker for one of the many Echo Dots I have lying around, and it’s worked great. My advice would be save $20 here and put it towards a real Alexa input device. I’m going to buy a Zipp, not another Zipp 2.
@manhattnik @swarthytype @wishlish just to let you guys know, I did some research and I found out that the zipp 2 has a subwoofer and lower frequency rate as opposed to the original zipp. I could be wrong, but I would imagine the zipp 2 sounds considerably better than the original.
@nathanjwilson @swarthytype @wishlish Argh. OK, cancelled my Zipp order; getting another Zipp 2. What’s $20, anyway?
@manhattnik @nathanjwilson @swarthytype @wishlish If you check the specs at the Libratone site that’s not true. Both have 4" subwoofers that go down to 20kHz. The real difference is that the Zipp 1 (I guess you could call it that) has 2 x 1" tweeters whereas the Zipp 2 has only 1 tweeter but it’s 1.5". Also, the Zipp 1’s allow you to charge a device from the USB port while the Zipp 2’s don’t per the specs. In short, the Zipp 2 adds Alexa and 6 mics but replaces two 1" tweeters with a single 1.5" one and loses USB charging capability at $20 more.
@iggy71 @nathanjwilson @swarthytype @wishlish
Darn. Should just got the Zipp 1. Oh well. Since the Alexa sucks on the Zipp 2 there is no reason to prefer it to the Zipp.
I wonder how many of these ended up in the last round of IRKs.
@PooltoyWolf I wish they would have ended up in the previous round, I could have saved $63…then again I might have bought another one to try out stereo. Dammit meh, taking my money lately.
@PooltoyWolf @seraphimcaduto Yeah these are actually pretty nice products so I wouldn’t expect any to show up in an IRK until they maybe just have a few odds n’ ends left.
Though the continued re-appearance of these in various forms does make us question exactly how many truckloads, containers, shiploads(?) of these they have. It does seem they have a shipload of 'em.
At least we know these strippers are legal to play in California.
Ya know, what was missing this November was the return of a Libratone speaker of some kind, so I’m glad we got that over with. As these questions always come up, there have been 4 models available at various times:
Zipp Mini
Zipp Mini 2
Zipp (not mini and not 2)
Zipp2 (not mini)
This offer gives you a choice of the last 2; both are the bigger size ones. As I recall, this new price is $20 less than the price we have seen here before for these models.
While I have never been tempted to buy these, I have burning questions:
Does the zipper unzip? If so, what does it reveal? Why has Meh never shown us? What are they hiding? If it doesn’t unzip, why is there a zipper? Is it because they couldn’t think of a name? Why not Snap?
@NapkinEater It can be unzipped, but only by those who are worthy.
@NapkinEater Came here to ask this. If it’s purely decorative, what an odd way to add cost and make it harder to keep clean.
@NapkinEater @Sardinicus I imagine there was some plan afoot to sell zip on/off covers separately, so you could change the speaker’s color on a whim. Stupid idea.
@manhattnik @NapkinEater @Sardinicus You can actually buy the cover in other colors. I debated buying one but the one it came with is my favorite.
cover at amazon
I like that light blue one but I bought a mini.
Since I already have 2 HomePods and a HomePod Mini on the way, I’ll stick to my current ecosystem. But I’d consider it if it was say around $59.
@katsuronishi I’m sure you’ll be able to get a Mini for that here soon.
Something new! How refreshing! USB C?
So you can pair 2 of these and have wireless stereo sound? I see that in some comments but don’t see it in the description.
@butchworley Yes, allegedly. There is definitely support for setting it up in the very flaky app. How well this works in practice I couldn’t tell you but I will be giving it a shot soon. My Zipp 2 works fine as an Airplay 2 speaker, and I’m assuming if you pair two for stereo they’ll both show up as a single AirPlay 2 speaker. But who knows?
@butchworley Bought two of the Zipps a while ago on meh, paired them up and yes - you can have wireless stereo sound. Husband had issues getting them to pair up with his record player (I married a diry, dirty hipster), but he did get it working. Its nice having a speaker in the kitchen and dining room, and being able to adjust the volume independently of one another is nice. So I can blast it in the kitchen and have it quieter in the dining room. Have not synched more than 2, amazon reviews are… Mixed on that.
Zipp just showed up on morningsave for the same money. That means 10 percent off is available to some… Just a goatly PSA.
You need to start selling naked speakers.
not worth it, I bought it last time, it’s a hunk of junk and a pain to pair with each time you want to use it. spend $99 on an airpod mini or something
Don’t know if anyone will read this, but so far, using an Echo to drive my Zipp 2 has worked pretty well. (The crappy Alexa on the Zipp 2 is very limited, can’t play Apple Music or other newer sources, so, using an Echo.) First I paired with Bluetooth from an Echo Dot. Nice, but a teeny bit muddy? Then tried using the AUX out from the Dot plugged into the Zipp 2’s AUX in. Wow. Much better! Since with Prime you can get an Echo Flex for $10 (or maybe that’s the new low?), and the Flex has an AUX out, they make a compact and affordable Alexa interface for the Zipp. I’ll try that next. My Zipp doesn’t seem very smart about switching between AUX and Airplay, but still working on it. My second Zipp 2 has arrived. I’m thinking if I use an Echo with each via AUX, I can use the Alexa app to make each one half of a stereo. Or at least try.
Suddenly pairing them in stereo works great with Airplay 2. They sound fantastic. At Morningsave the Zipp is down to $79 and boy am I tempted. Only drawback is Alexa can’t access Airport 2. I’d have to wire each into its own Echo. I don’t know. I guess I should try it.