Floorstanding loudspeakers — Piega PREMIUM 501 WIRELESS GEN2

The Premium 501 Wireless Gen2 is an active three-way floorstanding loudspeaker from Piega of Switzerland, the middle model of a wireless range that also includes the 301 bookshelf and the larger 701 tower. The second generation went on sale in March 2023 at EUR 2,975 per speaker in aluminium or EUR 3,175 in black or white, with the Connect Plus hub at EUR 590 and the simpler Connect without streaming at EUR 290.

Key specs that matter

The driver set pairs an LDR 2642 MKII ribbon tweeter with one 120 mm MDS midrange driver and four 120 mm MDS woofers. A Class D amplifier module inside each cabinet supplies 180 W. Piega quotes a frequency range of 30 Hz to 35 kHz and audio resolution up to 24 bit and 192 kHz. Each speaker measures 101 cm high, 16 cm wide and 21 cm deep and weighs 22 kg. The mains input accepts 220 to 240 V, and standby draw is 1 W.

Engineering and use context

For Gen2 Piega dropped bass reflex ports in favour of closed cabinets, which the company says helps impulse behaviour and low frequency precision and allows placement near walls or in a corner. The drivers were tuned anew and the response is linearised by DSP, and every driver has a dedicated amplifier branch. Piega makes the Linear Drive Ribbon tweeters by hand in its own production, and the enclosure is a one-piece aluminium housing without visible joints with a brushed anodised surface. The hub holds the preamplifier and the high-resolution D/A converters, and it has a two-way wireless remote as well as control through an app from Piega on iOS or Android phones. The speakers carry no source inputs themselves - they receive audio wirelessly from a separate Piega Connect or Connect Plus hub over KleerNet, the Kleer wireless technology, at up to 96 kHz. The Connect Plus adds dual-band Wi-Fi to 802.11ac, Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, DLNA and Bluetooth, and is Roon Ready. Its wired side offers analogue inputs, three optical and one coaxial S/PDIF input, USB and HDMI with ARC. Finishes are black anodised with a black fabric grille, aluminium with a grey grille, or white varnish with a grey grille.

Pairing

No external amplifier is needed, so a system can be as simple as the pair plus a Connect Plus with a phone or tablet as the source. Record players via an external phono stage, CD transports or network players can feed the analogue or digital inputs of the hub, while the HDMI ARC connection routes TV audio to the pair. The closed cabinets make positioning in smaller rooms around 20 m2 easier than with a ported tower.

Alternatives

The Piega Premium 701 Wireless Gen2 is the bigger active tower of the same range and sits above this model in the series.