Non-jagged little pill: Beats Electronics’ Beats Pill wireless speaker showcases smooth styling

Beats Electronics' Beats Pill hopes to bring a dose of value to the Bluetooth speaker game. For $200, you get a pill-shaped, aptX-enabled speaker that also bears the distinction of being the first tap-to-touch NFC speaker on the market. Specs such as driver size and power rating are scant, but its safe to say we can expect the Pill to carry on the Beats sound signature tradition.

Yesterday, Beats Electronics released their Beats Pill wireless speaker. The new offering features the company’s Beats Audio technology delivered through a four-speaker system, and this time around, Beats isn’t just courting music enthusiasts; it’s also catering to the conference calling set. The speaker handles all call functions, has a built-in mic for conferencing, and echo cancellation to maintain call clarity.

The Bluetooth-enabled model is, according to Beats, the first wireless speaker in stores that boasts both tap-to-pair NFC (Near Field Communications) and apt-X technology, but other than that, the audio specs aren’t available in detail. That leaves us with some questions. For instance, we know there are four drivers, but what size are they?  How about a power rating? #audiophileproblems. We acknowledge that Beats products typically do a good job of appealing to their target audience, but hearing is believing.

The Beats Pill’s versatility is part & parcel with a new objective of Beats Electronics: transitioning into a freestanding consumer electronics company. Though Beats is unlikely to stray too far from its Producer/President Dr. Dre’s musical roots, it’s clear that the company is aiming to throw its hat into a few more rings.

The Beats Pill retails for $200 and is available today at The Beats Store and other authorized locations.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Windows 8 Certified Aperion Aris wireless speaker now shipping

Aperion Audio's Aris speaker is the first to earn Microsoft's "Windows 8 Certified Compatible" moniker, which allows it to take advantage of features specific to the forthcoming OS.

It’s only been four months, but it seems like it’s been ages since we paid Aperion Audio a visit for some hands-on experience with what would eventually become the first “Windows 8 Certified Compatible” wireless speaker. Now, according to a recent announcement, the Aperion Aris has officially received its stamp of approval from Microsoft and will begin shipping to customers starting today. 

Rather than add to a glut of Apple AirPlay-compatible speakers, Aperion opted to work directly with Microsoft to create a product that would take advantage of some of the new features Windows 8 will bring to PCs and mobile devices. Aperion highlights the Windows “play to” feature, which allows users to “right click” on a music track and immediately start streaming to the speaker over a wireless network. But word on the street is that audio from any web page based on HTML 5 can be streamed to compatible devices through Internet Explorer as well. That means Pandora, Spotify, and a host of other web-based audio sources would qualify too. The Aris is also compatible with Windows 7, but Windows 8 compatibility — which Aperion could not comment on officially — promises additional features. 

But the Aris hasn’t necessarily hitched its wagon exclusively to Windows 8 and the various PCs, phones and tablets it is installed on. Aperion has already released an Android app that will stream music from Android devices to the Aris and will soon be introducing an iOS app which will do the same for iPods, iPhones and iPads. 

Additionally, since the Aris is built to accept interchangeable wireless cards, Aperion is working on developing both Bluetooth and AirPlay cards as add-on options. 

While we have had a chance to briefly listen to the Aris in action (and thought it sounded very good), we have yet to put the speaker through its paces, so we’ll reserve judgement on whether it justifies an asking price that’s  in the same league as Klipsch’s G-17 Air or Bowers & Wilkins’ forthcoming A5. We’ll know soon enough, as our review sample should arrive shortly. Check back in with Digital Trends for our detailed review. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Hidden’s gem: Kickstarter-funded Hidden touts its HiddenRadio speaker as a revolution in design

Intuitive and clever, HIDDEN's HiddenRadio hopes its simple design will be groundbreaking as well.

Earlier this week, consumer electronics manufacturer Hidden, made its HiddenRadio Bluetooth speaker available for pre-order on its website. The compact, minimalistic speaker doubles as an FM radio and purports to be powerful, despite its diminutive size. Its sleek structure was crafted by award-winning industrial designers John Van Den Nieuwenhuizen and Vitor Santa Maria and it was originally launched on Kickstarter, an online social funding platform for creative projects.

In addressing HiddenRadio,  Tim Bajarin, president and analyst at Creative Strategies, said, “as innovators like Apple have shown, occasionally a product comes along that just makes ‘sense’ in its design that it changes the way we think about an entire category.”

Whether you’re all about a chic aesthetic, or you’re partial to power under-the-hood, it’s difficult to deny that HiddenRadio is a truly unique product.

Its barely-there visual impact is the reason for the name,  but HiddenRadio, touts advancements in functionality as well. Its interactive cap serves as both power button and volume knob. The more you lift the cap, the more of the underlying speaker is exposed, and the more speaker you expose, the higher the volume goes. Press the cap all the way down and you’ll shut it off. It’s simple, but revolutionary from a design perspective.

HiddenRadio is available via the Hidden website and comes in metallic silver, graphite black, or pure white. Pre-orders are available at a discounted price of $150 and will ship free of charge to the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. This price point will be unavailable after September 30, 2012.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Bowers & Wilkins A5 and A7 wireless speakers aim to meld audio expertise with cutting edge tech

Bowers and Wilkins' A5 and A7 with AirPlay depart from the Zeppelin's polarizing dirigible theme in favor of subdued styling.

It’s been a busy week for new speaker announcements and Bowers & Wilkins has made things a bit busier by launching its Wireless Music Systems, a duo of Airplay-compatible wireless speakers set to compliment its award-winning Zeppelin Air. 

The speakers are dubbed the A5 and A7 and their aim is to marry Bowers & Wilkins’ established audio expertise with emerging tech. The company believes it can deliver wireless capabilities without compromising on sound quality. Given the strong performance of the Zeppelin Air, we’re inclined to believe it, though we’ll reserve our official opinion until we’ve had a chance to audition the speakers for review. 

The A5 is the smaller iteration and zeros in on convenience and minimizing visual impact, a design approach which is far cry from the rather bold styling of the Zeppelin speaker. Versatility is this speaker’s strong-suit, but if you believe its manufacturer’s claims, it has the audio chops to punch above it’s weight.

The A7 on the other hand, is billed by Bowers & Wilkins as “the ultimate Wireless Music System.” This model was built more for horsepower and sports a six-inch bass driver and DAC’s capable of up-scaling audio to 24bit/96kHz. The A7 it seems, is pure speaker; it forgoes both docks and control panels in pursuit of streamlined power. If you’re looking to have your hair blown back, this version might be more your speed.

Neither of the new docks appear to support Bluetooth, meaning use is limited exclusively to iOS devices with AirPlay. 

With more and more A/V equipment taking advantage of technologies like AirPlay, it seems it won’t be long before wires and physical docks go by the wayside. Both models will be available in October, with the A5 selling for $500 and the A7 going for a whopping $800.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Marantz Consolette: Ears-on with a $1,200 speaker dock

The Marantz Consolette sounds spectacular, but its equally spectacular price tag and unique design puts this speaker dock firmly in the "high-end" category.

Marantz’s Consolette stands to be a rather polarizing product. You’ll either love its styling or really, really abhor it. Then there’s the matter of the stratopheric price tag. At $1,200, the Consolette is not for the faint of heart.  But if the Consolette’s design passes muster and you consider $1,200 to be chump change, then we think this new networked speaker dock from one of America’s classic audio companies is worth a close listen. 

Part of the Consolette’s appeal is its design, which takes some queues from the original 1952 Marantz Consolette pre-amp, which launched the brand. Prominently featured are a rich wooden backing, porthole window and the classic Marantz gyro-wheel, which is integrated into the speaker dock as a source selector. 

Considering the challenges of a noisy show floor, we thought the Consolette sounded very impressive. Its sonic signature is distinctly Marantz thanks in part to a unique “balanced load radiator” design that has the tweeter dispersing higher frequencies over a wider area than traditional tweeters. Bass was impressive, especially considering the large volume of the room, and midrange was lush and smooth. 

At almost double the price of Samsung’s DA-E750, the Consolette may be a hard sell, but we think enthusiasts with deep pockets will find it irresistible. You can expect to see the Consolette sometime in November. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

NuForce DDA-100 digital amp ditches DAC for smoother sound

By removing the digital analog converter, the DDA-100 creates a more direct path from amplifier to speaker, resulting in smoother sound.

Now that the novelty of the MP3 has worn off, lovers of digitally delivered music have come to realize that low bit-rate music files sound terrible. The good news is that, as a result, there is more high-resolution digital music available than ever before. But a problem remains in that high-res digital music files don’t translate into excellent-sounding tunes if the digital to analog converter (DAC) destroys the information on its way to our ears (we’re looking at you, iPhone!). That’s just the conundrum NuForce is targeting with its new DDA-100 Direct-Digital Integrated Amplifier. The DDA-100 gets rid of the DAC in an effort to deliver high-res digital music in all its glory, all at a price that makes this kind of technology available to more people than ever before.

Traditional amplifiers need information in analog form, and the conversion from digital can affect audio quality in a big way, for better or worse. The DDA-100 yanks the DAC from the signal path and converts the audio at the speaker outputs. Since the audio signal travels through fewer parts, following a more direct path to the speaker, the sound should be cleaner.

That luxury comes with a price. The DDA-100 has an MSRP of $550, but for Direct-Digital Integrated Amplifiers that’s actually on the cheap side, with competitor’s prices in the thousands, not hundreds. This is one way to clean up audio without cleaning out a bank account at the same time.

The DDA-100 can handle four digital sources – a USB 2.0, a coaxial and two optical inputs line the rear of the amp. It drives speakers via a 75-watt RMS/250-watt peak (per channel) amplifier. Also included is a remote control to change inputs and volume while lounging comfortably and a pretty sleek design just nine inches wide.

The DDA-100 looks promising for computers, Blu-ray players and anything with digital audio outputs. But it’s not compatible with the most popular digital music devices in use today–specifically,  iOS devices. To get a digital stream from your iOS device, you need a  something like NuForce’s Icon iDo, which bypasses an iOS device’s built-in DAC and extracts the stored audio data in its original form via USB host mode. The DDA-100 simply isn’t designed to do that. 

On paper, the DDA-100 seems like a quality product, but we’ll be reviewing NuForce’s latest to see if it can deliver on all its promises. Check back with Digital Trends for the full review.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com