AIAIAI's description of the AIAIAI UNIT-4 ultra-low latency wireless studio monitors (pair)
COMPLETE WIRELESS FREEDOM.
Complete wireless freedom - both audio and power cables removed. Connect wirelessly for a clutter-free setup and bring your creative process anywhere.
PORTABLE AND BATTERY-POWERED.
Designed for portability while delivering reference monitor performance. Bespoke acoustic design, 2.5kg and 20H+ playback time.
PORTABLE SIZE.
Designed for portability while delivering reference monitor performance. 3 litres / 2.5kg.
20H+ BATTERY.
Battery powered with 20H+ of playback time.
CARRY AROUND.
Rear bass vent designed as a comfortable carrying handle when on the move.
REFERENCE MONITOR PERFORMANCE.
Designed for portability while delivering reference monitor performance. Bespoke acoustic design, 2.5kg and 20H+ playback time.
PRECISE SOUNDSTAGE.
2 way active studio monitors delivering tonal accuracy and a precise soundstage.
NEUTRAL FREQ. RESPONSE.
Flat +/-2dB frequency response from 50Hz to 20kHz.
CLEAN BASS EXTENSION.
Tuned to provide a clean bass extension down to 40Hz.
UNIT-4 DEEP DIVE: BESPOKE ACOUSTIC DESIGN.
Full bass extension through advanced bespoke acoustic design. Accurate, trustworthy reference monitor sound in a 2 way active monitor, with a 4-inch woofer and 1-inch silk-dome tweeter with crossover at 3kHz. The bass reflex enclosure is made from stiff recycled plastic, which minimises resonance and colouration of the sound.
The UNIT-4 Wireless+ studio monitors allow you to break free from the cable and expand your creative freedom.
With low-latency wireless performance, battery power and a lightweight design, they’re designed to accompany you wherever your creative journey takes you. Crucially, this versatility doesn’t come at the cost of sound quality. UNIT-4 is a professional-grade reference monitor, and it has the sound to match.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the features that make UNIT-4 sound detailed, transparent and powerful. We’ll explore the design decisions behind its high-quality sound, and show you how to get the best out of UNIT-4 no matter where you are.
HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.
The most important qualities in a studio monitor are clarity and honesty. You need to trust that you’re hearing things right, without loss of detail or additional colouring. UNIT-4 offers accurate, trustworthy reference monitor sound. It’s a 2 way active monitor, with a 4-inch woofer and 1-inch silk-dome tweeter with crossover at 3kHz. The bass reflex enclosure is made from stiff recycled plastic, which minimises resonance and colouration of the sound.
As shown on the below graphic, UNIT-4 gives a flat frequency response (with deviations of just +/-2dB) from 20kHz down to 50Hz. Individual amps for the woofer and tweeter also help to achieve precise control over the sound and enhanced dynamics. All this means you can be confident in what you’re hearing across the frequency spectrum, and from the loudest moments to the quietest.
SERIOUS LOW-END.
Additionally, UNIT-4 offers impressive bass extension down to 40Hz. Given the speaker’s compact 3-litre volume, getting such deep, controlled low-end wasn’t easy. A series of careful design features help achieve this.
Firstly, the 4” woofer has an unusually high excursion - that is, it moves far forwards and backwards when producing sound waves - which helps it to effectively reproduce lower frequencies. Special care was also put into the design of the bass vent. A vent (or hole in the speaker enclosure) is a common technique for improving low-frequency response. UNIT-4’s vent has been carefully optimised, with a folded design that makes the most of the enclosure’s limited internal space. (The bass vent also doubles as a comfortable carrying handle).
Many smaller portable speakers (such as Bluetooth speakers) use extra signal processing to artificially boost bass, giving the illusion of extra power. This is undesirable in a studio monitor, where honesty is the best policy. UNIT-4 uses just a simple EQ boost to create a flat frequency response down to 40Hz - without any misleading bass boost or other DSP trickery.
GREAT SOUND EVERYWHERE.
UNIT-4 is intended to be mobile and versatile, ready for use in a wide range of contexts. So we designed the speaker to optimise sound quality while keeping in mind that not every music-making space is ideal. Key to this is the waveguide: the curved part of the enclosure surrounding the tweeter. The waveguide is used to control the flow of high-frequency sound as it projects into the room.
Typically, you’ll get the flattest frequency response when the tweeters are pointing directly at you. But this isn’t always possible in informal settings or group sessions. We designed the waveguide so that a neutral frequency response is maintained when you’re up to 30 degrees off-axis. That means you can stop worrying about your set-up and positioning, and just get on with making music. The waveguide, alongside the speaker’s minimal front design, also ensures a precise sound stage, helping you to accurately hear the placement of sounds across the stereo spectrum.
You can position UNIT-4 in various ways to get the performance you need. As well as standard vertical placement, the speaker can be set on its side in “stage monitor” mode, which angles the cones 30 degrees upwards. This is useful when projecting sound across a large room, or in an enclosed space where your ears aren’t level with the speaker position. UNIT-4’s rubber feet ensure grip and isolation from whatever surface you place it on. Additional UNIT-4 Iso Pads are also available with a 6 degree incline or decline, providing greater isolation between the speaker and your working surface to further improve point-source accuracy, staging and dynamics.
ADJUSTABLE EQ.
The portability of the UNIT-4 Wireless+ monitors means that you can use them in spaces where previously only headphones would do. This frees up your creativity in exciting ways. But when working on speakers, the room has a greater effect on the sound. Sometimes, additional tweaks are needed to compensate for its characteristics.
The AIAIAI app makes it quick and easy to adjust UNIT-4’s sound to match your surroundings or listening preference. The app connects to your monitors via Bluetooth, and offers a customisable 5-band EQ that updates the speakers in real-time as you tweak. Five additional presets have been tuned by our audio specialists to give you the optimum sound in common-use contexts.
These features mean that you can trust the sound of UNIT-4 no matter where you are. Whether you’re jamming with friends, creating in a hotel room, or sketching on your sofa, the UNIT-4 Wireless+ Studio monitors will tell you how things really sound. The UNIT-4 Wireless+ studio monitor is the first of its kind. It merges two worlds of speaker design to create a new archetype for music creation.
CUSTOM 5-BAND EQ.
Tune the frequency response to your space using the predefined sound profiles or customisable 5-band EQ with the UNIT-4 mobile app.
Available on Apple Store and Google Play.
PROTECTIVE STEEL GRILLE.
Magnetic steel grille provides sturdy protection for the woofer and tweeter.
CONNECT TO EVERYTHING.
ULTRA-LOW LATENCY WIRELESS.
Connect the X02 transmitter to any USB-C or mini-jack audio for ultra-low latency wireless audio.
BLUETOOTH STEREO.
Doubles as a listening speakers with stereo audio via Bluetooth 5.2 on all Bluetooth-enabled devices.
CABLED CONNECTIONS.
Connect directly via 3.5mm mini-jack and 6.3mm balanced TRS input.
DESIGNED FOR THE FUTURE.
DESIGN FOR DISASSEMBLY.
Glue-free design so you can take the whole speaker apart using just two screwdrivers.
100% RECYCLED PLASTICS.
Main components are produced from 100% recycled plastics, from post-consumer sources.
FUTURE-PROOF DESIGN.
Upgrade and replace components such as batteries, driver units, and wireless electronics.
POWERFUL AND COMPACT.
UNIT-4 Wireless+ features a groundbreaking design, focusing on advanced features that merge professional-grade sound with portability. Designed in partnership with Panter&Tourron.
The UNIT-4 Wireless+ studio monitor is the first of its kind. It merges two worlds of speaker design to create a new archetype for music creation.
UNIT-4 is a professional-grade studio monitor, delivering reference quality sound without compromise. But with its battery operation, low-latency wireless audio, and lightweight design, it also offers a flexibility found in portable devices such as Bluetooth speakers - without their usual drawbacks.
Bringing these two design worlds together opens up new possibilities for music-making. With UNIT-4, you can create wherever you are: in the studio or on the road, jamming in the park or noodling in your living room. Getting UNIT-4 right meant rethinking some important aspects of speaker design. To achieve this goal, we worked with Panter&Tourron, whose cutting-edge work sits at the intersections of design, technology, and society. Together, we created a design that brings innovation and imagination to every aspect of UNIT-4.
In this deep dive, we’ll look at the elements that go into UNIT-4’s pathbreaking design.
Clean, minimal and timeless
Inspired by Scandinavian traditions, UNIT-4’s clean, minimalistic design helps it to blend in no matter the time and place. Its sleek form builds on decades of studio monitor design, ensuring top-quality reference sound. We aim to design objects that clearly visualise their function, and the portable UNIT-4 takes additional inspiration from the iconic shape of stage monitors - a form familiar to musicians on the road. The result is a design that is right at home in studios and other pro audio contexts, and fits equally well in living rooms, ad hoc workspaces, or anywhere else you might want to create.
With UNIT-4, we refined the classic monitor shape and function down to its essentials, working with strong, recognizable forms and lines, but treating them in the purest way possible. To see what we mean, look at the rear of the unit, where a full feature set including a DC power inlet, balanced and unbalanced audio ports, and two connectivity buttons are cleanly presented with the minimum of clutter. The simple stylishness of UNIT-4 also guarantees longevity: Its look transcends passing trends, ensuring its relevance into the future.
Multiple positions
UNIT-4 is designed to work in two orientations. Alongside conventional vertical positioning, try placing the speaker on its side to improve performance in small or unconventional spaces. This horizontal mode is inspired by the “wedge”-style stage monitors found in live music contexts, a form familiar to many professional musicians. In this position, UNIT-4’s angled casing tilts the cones 30 degrees upwards, helping sound reach your ears even when your work surface lacks the depth for ideal speaker placement.
Whichever position you choose, sturdy rubber feet offer grip and isolation on any work surface. In vertical position,a3/8 inch microphone stand thread on the underside fits industry-standard speaker stands and bases, allowing you to slot UNIT-4 into your existing set-up.
Fully integrated and ultra-portable
With UNIT-4, everything you need is integrated into the unit itself, so you can create anywhere - without power supplies, trailing cables, or other excess equipment. The integrated battery offers 20 hours of playback time (for just 2 hours of charging time), and AIAIAI’s W+ Link low-latency wireless connection makes for effortless cable-free listening. (Standard Bluetooth connectivity is also provided).
Additionally, UNIT-4 is extremely easy to move around, with a volume of 3 litres (substantially smaller than many monitors of equivalent quality and power) and a weight of just 2.5kg. Making UNIT-4 so lightweight without compromising on sound and performance meant designing the speaker from the inside out. Every millimetre of internal space was carefully accounted for, to maximize functionality without adding unnecessary bulk.
Sound quality is paramount in a pro monitor, so we used the largest woofer we could (4”) to optimize power and frequency response. Further low-end heft comes from the bass vent, whose unusual folded design makes the most of UNIT-4’s limited internal space, providing bass extension down to 40Hz. Emerging at the top of the casing, the bass vent doubles as a convenient carrying handle: an example of how each component in UNIT-4 is put to maximum use.
Rugged construction
UNIT-4 is designed to be equally at home outside the studio, and a number of features make it sturdy enough for the road, the park, or a lively jam with friends. Instead of a soft-touch coating that could peel through use, we worked with recycled plastic to produce a robust surface finish that is extremely resistant to scratches and bumps. Rubber strips on multiple planes protect UNIT-4 and grip to whatever surface you’re working on.
An optional metal grille offers additional protection if you’re outside or in more intense environments. This component takes inspiration from both the fabric speaker covers found in home Hi-Fis and the sturdy protective grilles used on boomboxes and other portable audio equipment. The result is the best of both worlds: a stylish, functional add-on that attaches magnetically with minimal fuss.
Responsible design
AIAIAI takes responsible design seriously, and every aspect of UNIT-4 was approached with sustainability in mind. The main structure was produced using 100% post-consumer recycled plastic without any surface treatment, to ensure it can be recycled into new products in the future. The post-consumer plastics we’ve used can be recycled several times without a major loss in quality.
Designing responsibly means designing for the future, and UNIT-4 features a glue-free construction, meaning it can be disassembled by anyone with two screwdrivers. This makes it possible to repair or replace components, such as the battery, as they reach the end of their life. Important components are easily accessible, and the wireless audio circuitry can be swapped out as technology develops. Sustainable products should have the longest life possible, and we’ve worked hard to make sure that UNIT-4 will remain relevant and useful long into the future.
Keeping UNIT-4 compact is also part of our responsible design approach. Every bit of the speaker’s internal space is used to the maximum, getting the best performance with the minimum bulk. That means we don’t ship a needlessly large or heavy product.
User experience
Creating a speaker with the functionality of both a studio monitor and a portable listening device meant rethinking the user experience. Important information relating to UNIT-4’s wireless functioning - such as battery status, pairing mode and volume level - needs to be conveyed without disrupting your creative flow.
To achieve this we designed the LED waveguide, a ring light encircling the main woofer. This ring is a powerful and intuitive communicative interface, keeping you informed without the jarring audio cues often used in Bluetooth listening devices - an unwelcome interruption in pro audio contexts.
UNIT-4’s extensive feature set can be accessed with just a few buttons cleverly integrated into the casing. On the top of the speaker you’ll find volume controls alongside a handy multifunction button (a single press for play/pause in Bluetooth mode and mute/unmute in other connectivity modes, or a long press for power on/off in all modes). On the rear of UNIT-4, two connectivity buttons make mode switching quick and painless: one toggles between W+ Link and classic Bluetooth 5.2, while the other controls the speaker’s position mode: stereo left, stereo right or mono. The goal is to make using UNIT-4 as painless as possible, so you can get on with what matters: creating.
RIGHT TO REPAIR.
UNIT-4 is designed to be repaired by you, using just 2 screwdrivers and our easy to follow repair guides. The components that could eventually wear out, specifically batteries and speaker drivers, can be easily accessed and swapped out.
SPECS.
