Big Sound, Small Package

As recently as five years ago, speakers were regarded less as gadgets and more as furniture pieces, often standing as high as side-tables and warranting similar consideration as interior-design centerpieces. Nowadays, nearly everyone can get away with having a speaker as small and portable as Denon’s new Envaya Mini, which proves that big sounds can really come in small packages. According to Paul Belanger, the product manager for D+M Group, which owns Denon, this zucchini-sized Bluetooth speaker’s dual oversized drivers “allow it to perform way beyond what you’d expect from a speaker this size.” Though the Envaya Mini is orders of magnitude smaller than the oil drum-sized speakers of the past, its design, developed with Amsterdam-based Feiz Design Studio, is still very much a priority. “The sturdy, premium materials used to craft the unit were chosen to stand the test of time while still making it stylish,” adds Belanger of the speaker’s water-resistant materials. It’s hard rationale to argue with: A speaker’s good looks only matter if it works.