I’ve been testing the Vers 2x iPod speaker system. This system is one of the most energy efficient and sustainable products I’ve come across. The casing is crafted out of wood (either cherry, bamboo or walnut). The wood comes only from plantation forests, and each speaker system is hand-finished. This is a refreshing change from the usual dull plastic that is used to house electronics.
The Vers 2x is also RoHS compliant, which indicates that the electronics are free from particually hazardous components (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants).
The Vers 2x uses energy efficient components, such as a low-draw class D amplifier (see Class D Amplifiers Are Shrinking and Greening Your Electronics). I’ve tested it with a Kill-A-Watt electrical usage monitor, and the speakers draw 2-3 watts while playing music, while idle it draws virtually zero watts.
The Vers says the system uses 50% less than comparable products.
The sounds performance is good — the wood casing helps to produce bass tones, and the system can easily fill a room with music.
It also comes in 100% recycled packaging.
It’ss available from Amazon for $149 - 179.
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Actually solid wood is not the best material for speaker cabinets. You want MDF.
All the best speakers are made out of MDF engineered wood than have a veneer.
But this is cool that its made out of something not plastic.
Not to be a buzz kill but I have a pair of small (maybe 6×3x10″ high) old speakers from a now defunct stereo system that I use a mini to RCA adapter to plug them right into my ipod and they can fill a room with sound. They’ve got to be more energy efficient than this thing since they don’t plug into the wall at all…
I could use something like this in my home office.