Important Specs Overview
Speaker type: Passive, ported, 2-way coaxial
Continuous power handling: 15 W* (per)
Peak power handling: 50 W (per)
Impedance: 8 ohms
Sensitivity: 83 dB/W/m
Frequency response range: 90 – 20k Hz
Unit weight: 2 lbs
Unit dimensions: 4 x 5 x 5 inches (width x depth x height)
Warranty: 1 year
*When nominal/RMS power isn’t specified by manufacturer, we use an approximation of ~30% of the specified peak/dynamic power for comparison purposes.
Review And Discussion
The COVO-S is a unique product: a passive bookshelf speaker with the apparent goal of being as small as possible. To achieve that, it uses a coaxial design, meaning the tweeter is embedded within the woofer, whereas bookshelf speakers in general are almost always a component design, meaning the tweeter is embedded separately in another part of the cabinet.
Further reading: Coaxial vs Component Speakers – Which Is Better For Home Audio?
The power specs are quite modest – some of the lowest we’ve seen for passive bookshelf speakers. They’re clearly intended for near-field listening and would fall short as full-fledged home theater speakers. The response floor is also very high at 90 Hz, meaning these wont produce stellar bass, but that’s usually the case with 2-way bookshelf speakers, yet especially so for the COVO-S and almost certainly a concession born from the coaxial design choice. If you’re listening to talk radio these will be fine, but probably not so for a full fledged musical experience.
Set up might be as easy as it gets as each unit isn’t much bigger or heavier than a baseball, but they are passive and will require a receiver to power them. Micca offers a 1 year warranty on it’s passive speakers which is pretty bare minimum – other brands offer up to 5 years of coverage, even on their budget-tier products in many cases.
Our Overall Take, As Compared To The Competition
While the idea of a maximally compact bookshelf speaker is interesting, we just don’t really see the point of it. Coaxial speakers are mainly designed for situations where space is truly limited, like in the side of a car or the hull of a boat, but that’s rarely an issue in a residential set up. The downside with coaxial speakers is that they’re prone to resonance and interference, especially at the lower ranges, which is why we suspect the response floor of these is so high, even for a 2-way bookshelf speaker.
So, unless you really need a tiny speaker, for whatever reason, we’d say just opt for a slightly larger component bookshelf speaker which will almost certainly perform better. There are options available for not much more money that have far superior specs and build. There are even powered speakers that have better specs than these that might wind up being cheaper overall since you won’t need to buy a receiver assuming you don’t have one already.
Get the COVO-S speakers on Amazon (affiliate link)
See our current picks for the overall best budget bookshelf speakers
