Intelligent sound quality with both hands: Tmall Genie X6 is officially released

Ray Technology

2024-05-23 16:05Posted in Guangdong science and technology creators

As the top three in the field of smart speakers in China,Tmall Elf's iconic sentence "Hello,I'm here",It has become the first impression of many users on smart speakers。 in addition,Tmall Genie has been emphasizing since X1"Sound performance",It has also significantly raised the average level of the smart speaker industry。

However, with the change in the positioning of smart assistants, everyone's demand for smart speakers has also changed. In the early days of the product, everyone's demand for smart speakers was just simple voice interaction and voice control, such as the most common "voice song order". However, with the evolution of AI technology and smart homes, everyone is no longer satisfied with simple voice interaction, and smart speakers and the intelligent assistants behind them are taking on more and more responsibilities.

It is in this context that Tmall Genie has also ushered in "probably the biggest change since its establishment":

On May 23, 2024, Tmall Genie released its latest smart speaker product in Hangzhou-Tmall Genie X6, and also announced the latest brand logo and slogan of Tmall Genie.

Image source: Ray Technology

Although the new Tmall Genie logo still retains the original cat ear lines, compared with the original dot matrix cat ear pattern, the new logo is obviously much sharper in the lines. In addition, the new logo also incorporates the letter element of "AI" in its composition, reflecting the core of Tmall Genie artificial intelligence. In addition, Tmall Genie's iconic response word "I'm here, you say" has also officially become Tmall Genie's brand Slogan.

The sound quality and sincerity are all full

As for the tmall elf officially released todayX6,It is the latest masterpiece of tmall elf in the field of smart speakers。 In terms of product design,Tmall Genie X6 is still a coaxial omnidirectional speaker。 But in terms of sound performance,Tmall Genie X6Compared with other similar products, there is a qualitative leap。

In terms of high frequency, Tmall Genie X6 uses a 10W overhead unit, and the working frequency is increased to 40kHz. Although the high-frequency unit usually does not need to pay attention to heat dissipation due to volume and energy level problems, the high-frequency unit of Tmall GenieX6 still uses magnetofluid heat dissipation materials derived from the aviation field.

Image source: Ray Technology

In terms of bass,Tmall GenieX6 use3inch30W Rubidium magnetic bottom unit,Four layers of voice coil bring up to 15mm of travel,With the design of resonance reflection on the upper desktop,It can bring better bass performance to Tmall GenieX6。 At the same time, Tmall Genie X6 There are also 4 passive diaphragm units in the middle of the fuselage, which can further enhance the low-frequency extension of Tmall Genie X6 while maintaining a compact size.

Image source: Ray Technology

In addition to the heavy cost of the unit,Tmall GenieX6It is also quite innovative in cavity design:Tmall GenieX6The high-frequency unit does not use an independent sound cavity,Instead, it adopts a design called "Linglong cavity"。 The structure of the upper and lower penetrations brings a larger volume to the Tmall Genie X6. Although such a design may introduce more phase interference and resonance, under the ingenious suspension design of Tmall Genie X6, the high and low frequencies of Tmall Genie X6 are still clean and neat.

Image source: Ray Technology

In the on-site display area of the press conference,Tmall Genie used19Tmall Genie X6 to compose"Large compilation",Challenge the shortcomings of this small wireless speaker-classical music。 It turns out that even the emotionally rich "Four Seasons Suite", Tmall Genie X6 can easily cope with it. By the way,This demonstration of multi-speaker wireless grouping playback has posed a great challenge to the wireless transmission stability and delay control of the product,It is recommended that all new speaker launches in the future be arranged。

Image source: Ray Technology

In addition,The ingenious suspension structure also allows Tmall ElfX6 to realize the design of sky sound,The precise sound amplification structure makes Tmall ElfX6The high-frequency sound can also be effectively omnidirectional diffusion,Improve sound projection efficiency。

Image source: Ray Technology

Speaking of omnidirectional diffusion,Xiaolei thinks that Tmall ElfX6 Actually, there is also some caution:In the blind listening comparison link,The two speakers compared with Tmall ElfX6(Harman Kardon Luna、Bose SoundLink Mini2) are all"directional sound",Compared with Tmall ElfX6There are obvious disadvantages when playing back。

But then again, even in the forward playback session, Tmall Genie X6's performance is not inferior to Luna's, and at the same time, Bose SL Mini2 is far behind. In addition, Tmall Genie X6 The sound orientation of the mid-frequency gain is also more pleasing to the user's ear, making people "fall in love with it at the ear".

Image source: Ray Technology

Of course,You can also say that the sound of Tmall ElfX6 is not enough"Restoration",Some "seasoning" is in it。 But considering that Tmall Genie X6 can present such a low distortion sound with such a compact volume, and at the same time has its own characteristics, I think Tmall Genie X6 has done a good enough job.

In terms of price, Tmall Genie X6 "Standard Edition" provides two colors: Time and Space Shuttle and Yihai Shell, priced at 399 yuan, and the limited-time preferential price is 369 yuan. In addition, Tmall Elf X6 has also launched a "Zhou Shen Exclusive Customized Edition" with Zhou Shen peripheral gift packs and customized interactive voices, priced at 429 yuan, with a limited-time discount of 399 yuan.

Image source: Ray Technology

In fact, before the official release of Tmall Genie X6, Xiaolei simply tried this smart speaker. Although Xiao Lei didn't know the specific price of Tmall Elf X6 at that time, Xiao Lei and his colleagues thought that Tmall Elf X6 sound performance was "quite good", and the psychological price given by Xiao Lei even came to 800 yuan. And the regular price of the 399 this time, in my opinion, is definitely a great value for money.

Sound quality and intelligence shouldn't be a multiple-choice question

In fact,The reason why Xiaolei has such a high evaluation of Tmall ElfX6 is inseparable from the "outstanding contribution" of the smart speaker industry in recent years。 In addition to today's protagonist Tmall Elf X6, Xiaolei has tried a number of different brands, ecological smart speakers. Except for HomePods, which are "the same size" as the price amount, most of the smart speakers give Xiaolei the feeling of "smart first, then speakers".

I don't think the route of "smart first, then speakers" is wrong, after all, the application scope of smart assistants is not only smart speakers, mobile phones, projections, TVs, computers and other categories of products can enjoy the intelligent dividends brought by smart assistants. Xiaolei also does not object to lowering the price of products、The practice of lowering the threshold for product purchase,After all, a lower price can allow more users to experience the convenience of smart speakers。

Image source: Ray Technology

But the problem is that the way for some brands to "reduce costs" is to subtract the sound quality and let the smart speaker "listen". In my opinion, this approach will only reduce the competitiveness of the entire smart speaker category - if the sound quality of smart speakers degrades to the level of smartphones, then why should we buy smart speakers? Wouldn't it be nice to just turn up the volume on your phone?

Also thanks to"Industry foil",Xiaolei has a good impression of the Tmall Elf X6 released this time——Tmall Elf X6The appearance of the Tmall Elf X6,Prove"High intelligence"Good sound quality","Low price"It's not impossible for smart speakers。 Even with a budget of only 400 yuan, we don't need to make a choice between intelligence and sound quality.

Of course, the reason why Tmall Genie X6 can be set at an ultra-low price of 399 yuan is inseparable from the strong capital and technical investment behind Tmall Genie. But "with background" smart speakers are not only tmall elf X6 This one,Tmall elf X6 can become"Cheap, good-sounding and high-intelligence"Representative,Behind it is the foil of the industry、Of course, there are also their own efforts。

According to the data released by Lotu Technology in April 2024, China's smart speaker market from January to February 2024 showed a significant downward trend:

During this period, the sales volume of the smart speaker market was 2.609 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 32.4%, and the sales volume was 740 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 34.9%. TOP4 brands such as Xiaomi, Baidu, Tmall Genie, and Huawei account for 98% of the market share, of which Xiaomi and Baidu each occupy 38% of the market share.

Lotu believes that the high concentration of brands is one of the important factors in the decline in sales. But in my opinion, brand concentration and declining sales mean that smart speaker products have gone through the "incremental era", and the next development focus will also shift from the incremental market to the stock market.

Image source: Ray Technology

This also means that smart speakers will end the era of "spelling price" and begin to "roll sound quality" and "volume intelligence". And the emergence of Tmall Genie X6 means that Tmall Genie is ready for future market changes.

"No sound quality, no speaker", regardless of whether the speaker is smart or not, this conclusion is true.

View original image 1.79M

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•