Home Theater Magazine, July 2012 – Streaming in Style
Simple, modern, elegant—the PS1 from Cue Acoustics is definitely not your father's speaker. Think of it as a forward-looking system for discriminating listeners who crave a simple setup that's free of wires, hulking speakers, and an ugly stack of components. Promising big sound and a vivid soundstage, the PS1 system is extremely compact and provides everything you need to pump up the volume. Spec hounds will be impressed by the rated frequency response of 27Hz - 22 KHz and amplifier distortion that's less than a tenth of a percent. Download a PDF
Fast Company – The Top 10 Most Innovative Consumer Electronics Companies
For reviving made-in-America audio technology. This maker of simple, easy-to-use, and great sounding audio components follows in the Massachusetts tradition of such firms as Bose and Tivoli Audio. "No one was carrying this torch," says Sam Millen, founder and industrial designer. The company builds its products in Somerville, Massachusetts, sourcing parts domestically. Last year, it added wireless speakers to its tabletop radio products, all of which harken back to the golden age of audio entertainment but with a decidedly modern spin. Read the entire article
The Boston Globe – Made in Somerville (Michael Fitzgerald)
Millen wants to make Cue the latest in a long line of great sound companies to come out of the Boston area. Cue is made in the United States and sounds better than many of its rivals.
These speakers (PS1s) are wireless, but Cue says they outperform bigger standard models, a technological advance likely to impress high-end audiophiles tired of running speaker wire. They can connect to and play sound from smartphones, computers, and televisions. Read More
Boston Herald– Making music right on Cue (Jessica Van Sack)
Each Cue-manufactured product is made by hand, carefully assembled by one person who ushers each module through painstaking testing, a process that Millen calls “the secret sauce” that separates its products from competitors.
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Boston Herald– Radio designer readies crisp, clear high-end speakers (Jessica Van Sack)
Audiophiles should eagerly await the release of Cue Acoustics’ PS1 speaker system... Without the aid of a separate subwoofer, without wires and without an external amplifier or receiver, you could hear the lowest of the low-frequency octaves with sumptuous clarity.
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Detroit Free Press – Cut the cord to send music wirelessly to home speakers (Mark W. Smith)
...incredibly beautiful and almost completely wireless. The only cord here is the power cord. The PS1 connects using DLNA, so music can be streamed to them from any device that supports that standard, such as an Android smartphone or tablet.
The Wall Street Journal – 2012 A Wireless Hi-fi Odyssey (Michael Hsu)
The Cue Acoustics PS1s are among the sleekest looking yet serious sounding speakers out there. Their integrated stands, which elevate the cabinets a few inches, serve two purposes: to lighten the look considerably (the speakers appear suspended in air) and to create space for the down-firing subwoofers to pump out the lows. Cue Acoustics make getting the speakers onto your wireless network—an often inelegant process—quick and foolproof: Plug a USB dongle into your Wi-Fi-connected computer, and enter your network password. Software takes care of the rest. Read More
Gizmodo – Cue Acoustics PS1 Hands-On (Adrian Covert)
Gizmodo checked out our upcoming PS1 Speaker System. Read what they had to say.
bitstream (Sound and Vision blog) – Cue Acoustics PS1 aims to rock your bookshelf (Michael Berk)
Cue Acoustics, whose r1 iPod dock we thought highly of back in 2009, has an interesting new set of bookshelf speakers in the works. The PS1 is based around a concentric 3/4" silk dome tweeter and 3 1/2" midrange driver, along with a 5" downward-firing subwoofer, rounded out by a pair of passive radiators. The primary application is expected to be wireless; with DNLA onboard; Cue is also developing a proprietary DNLA-compliant dongle to stream uncompressed audio to the speaker pair. Read More
engadget – Cue Acoustics PS1 wireless speakers do audio over DLNA, we go hands-on (Tim Stevens)
Speaker wire is expensive if you buy it at retail, cheap if you just use a spool of electrical cable, but always, always an eyesore. Sure, you can hide it behind some curtains -- or you can just go wireless. That's the option Cue Acoustics will enable with its PS1 bookshelf speakers, shipping this August. They're a high-end pair, each internally amplified and offering a 5-inch downward-firing woofer, 3.5-inch mid, and .75-inch tweeter, covering all the acoustic hotspots with fanfare. More important, though, is that each speaker can run with only one cable: power. Read More
The New York Times – The Cue r1 Alarm Clock Is a Time Machine (Roy Furchgott)
...the Cue is thoroughly modern... you can have its 3-inch screen display what is playing on your iPod, which is useful if you are using a small-screen Nano. Setup is easy, even without using the owner's manual. You dial through menus to set anything from the brightness of the screen, to equalization settings for your music, to your preferred wake-up time. Read More
The Boston Globe – The Cue, Born in Mass., Summons Quality Sound (Mark Baard)
It was a rare pleasure last week to drop my iPod into the cradle of the Cue Radio Model R1 and hear just how glorious Michael Giacchino’s score for the latest “Star Trek’’ film can sound on a compact system. The R1’s controls, for tuning in AM/FM radio stations and navigating through the menus on your iPod and iPhone, are intuitive. Through an auxiliary port, you can connect other music sources, such as an iPad. Read More
Bloomberg Businessweek – Gift Ideas for Every Gadget-Head on Your List (Rich Jaroslovsky)
(The Perfect Gift for) The Audiophile: Cue Acoustics’ Model R1 tabletop radio ($399) packs a lot of volume and beautiful sound into a handsome, compact box that also includes an integrated iPhone/iPod dock. If you can spend a little more, Cue’s $99 S1 satellite speaker provides extra stereo separation. It’s remarkably good — and even more remarkable, it’s hand-built in Massachusetts. Read More
Audio Video Revolution – Cue Radio Model r1 Radio and Model s1 Speaker Review (Todd Whitesel)
The goal was to take the traditional bedside/kitchen radio and give it the best sound possible in a small footprint. It's worth noting that every r1 is hand-assembled in Cue's Boston, Massachusetts warehouse and then tested and burned in for 24 hours before shipping to ensure everything works properly. The Cue Model r1 is a radio at heart but much more. I liked the r1 very much and found in it everything that I would want in a radio, clock and iPod dock. The design is stylish, the system worked flawlessly and has just the right blend of “built in” and “adjustable” to satisfy nearly any user. Read More
Entrepreneur – 10 Tech Tools Every Startup Needs (Jonathan Blum)
When it comes to quality desktop radios with a professional edge, we like Somerville, Mass.-based Cue Acoustics. Its Cue Radio Model r1 not only offers high-quality audio with impressive low-end sound quality, the system also has a great touch-based control system. Surprisingly slick looking, particularly for the retail shop, the unit is aimed mostly at iPod/iPhone users, but most standard audio inputs are supported, too. Read More
CNET – Finally, a great-sounding table radio (Steve Guttenberg)
It (The Cue Radio Model r1) is the best-sounding table radio I’ve tried at home. Cue’s 3/4-inch silk dome tweeter is mounted on a waveguide, strategically centered over a 3.5-inch woofer. The combined driver is a proprietary design, and it’s a honey. With the s1 speaker about four feet away from the Cue Radio the imaging was really nice, with a deep and wide soundstage. The tweeter's “air” and resolution are well ahead of what you get from other $300 table radios, that's for sure. Judged as a table radio, it's the new benchmark. Read More
E-Gear – Review: The Cue Radio Model r1 (Stephen Silver)
Aesthetically it's a strong match for Apple's own look. The sound on the device is also stellar, thanks to a CueSonic speaker which sports a D2 audio digital amplifier with built-in DSP. Another great thing about the Cue Radio Model r1 is that it displays song metadata on-screen when in iPod mode, something many docks in the category don't do. The Cue Radio Model r1 is one of the best products of its kind, performing virtually every one of its functions at a high level. Read More
Sound & Vision Magazine – Hands On With 5 New iPod Docks
The Cue Radio Model r1 definitely shares the iPod's design flair. With its external speaker attached, the r1 provides a warm sound. All in all, its sound quality is cuts above that of most table clock radios. It doesn't go crazy with unnecessary complexity, but has enough features to make it a practical option as the sole audio system for a bedroom or dorm room. With its sleek styling, warm sound, and tight integration with the iPod or iPhone, the Cue Radio Model r1 is a tidy package indeed.
Playboy Magazine – iPod Docks Hi Fi Gadget Review (Scott Alexander)
Though it's one of the smallest docks in this group, the r1 not only packs a wallop in volume, its reproductive fidelity is excellent, thanks to its digital signal-processing chip and optional second speaker. With all this plus a built-in FM radio, the r1 is a mighty handsome addition to your nightstand. Read More
Electronic House – Gift Ideas for Every Gadget-Head on Your List
The Cue Radio Model r1 does it all in style, with clean lines,and a high-gloss finish. Dock your iPod or iPhone for rich sound via a high-excursion mid-bass driver and silk-dome tweeter, plus advanced digital signal processing. Touch-sensitive iPod controls illuminate when a player is docked, and an auto-dimming 3-inch LCD shows iPod functions, radio and time information. Read More
CNN Money/Fortune Small Business – Radio is the hot tech frontier (Jonathan Blum)
My pick of the new radio litter comes from Somerville, Mass.-based Cue Acoustics. It (The Cue Radio Model r1) takes great advantage of the latest in miniaturization of audio components to deliver a radio of utmost quality and good looks. The unit uses advanced tuner technology that makes it easy to control the high-quality radio within. The whole package is wrapped in an attractive black enclosure that supports an iPod dock on top. Read More
Switched – New High-End iPod Dock/Radio from Cue (Tim Stevens)
It's called the Cue Radio and is a simple yet sophisticated looking device. On top is the ubiquitous iPod universal dock for cradling your favorite gadget. Inside is an AM/FM tuner, so the thing will still pump out some tunes even when said dock is empty. With only three dials the thing is a cinch, and it's intended to be the “best table radio in its class.” Read More
