Cut the cords, keep the sound quality.
As the anchor of the world’s first true wireless high end loudspeaker system, Dynaudio’s XEO 5 Towers ($4,500) break new ground. They’re designed to be used with virtually anything that plays music, including iPhones and iPads, and can be placed up 100 meters away from other audio components — perfect for those of you living [...]
Everything you need to live it up
Looking to make your extended weekend celebration extra memorable? Well, our editors have culled through our latest posts to help provide some last minute inspiration for your Memorial Day weekend, whether the festivities are at your place, or elsewhere. You can thank us by throwing another burger on the grill. Two slices of cheese, please. [...]
See right hear
Some of the best sounding speakers could use a pleasing aesthetic touch. A basic black box is nice and simple, but also a tad boring in the realm of desktop audio. If you have a desire for high fidelity and high-end looks, look no further than Well-Rounded Sound. Using full range drivers with 100 Hz [...]
Long live the clock radio
The radio alarm clock business has never been a particularly sexy one, not counting, of course, the occasional technological breakthroughs in snooze technology (we set ours at 9 min). But Geneva is waking up the sleepy clock radio industry with the Geneva Sound System Model XS ($250), a slick ultra-compact bluetooth audio system and the [...]
Loud and Studious
Ask any studio engineer worth his ponytail about Adam speakers, and they will tell you their monitors have populated some of the best recording facilities in the world for years. The reason for this is a passion for forward thinking design and revolutionary use of materials, such as carbon fiber diaphragms and ribbon transducers. While [...]
Dare to Stream
Logitech has a new dog in the iOS speaker fight. Teaming up with Ultimate Ears — best known for the ubiquitous in-ear monitors you see worn by everyone from Bono to Bieber — the Logitech UE Air Speaker ($400) is a single-unit sound system whose engineers are out to prove that it has equal parts [...]
Roombox
The Arcam rCube is another high-end iPhone dock to hit the home audio market along the lines of the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air. What sets Arcam’s offering apart from the rest is the Sonos-like ability to wirelessly network up to four rCubes throughout the house, using an included USB dongle, for a complete home [...]
Home sweet home theater
As rabid movie, music fans and gamers, we’re always on the hunt for gear that can push our home entertainment experience to 11 (much to our better half’s chagrin). This roundup includes some of our favorite home theater products out today that we’d love to host in our living room. Continues after the jump.
Can-do attitude
We credit the Rams’-like looks of the new hidden radio & Bluetooth Speaker on Kickstarter for catching our eye this morning — despite our luke warm feelings about most Bluetooth audio. The monolithic can avoids spoiling its clean lines with external buttons by incorporating a simple but effective twist top design. The first twist turns [...]
Tower Records
Shrouded in gleaming aluminium and molded rubber, the Revo K2 ($470) tower not only out-looks other, plebeian docks, but also offers access to virtually every radio signal under the sun including old-fashioned over-the-air and internet streaming stations including last.fm. Perfect for your morning dose of NPR. Besides a dearth of plastics, the K2 also features [...]
Boom Stick
Most TV speakers have the acoustical chops of a cowbell orchestra. We put up with them simply because alternatives are pricey, bulky, and a pain in the ass to install in a clean and proper manner. The Yamaha YAS-101BL Front Surround System improves on these common drawbacks in several ways. It’s relatively easy on the [...]
Slow Speaker Movement
The result of four years of R&D, the handmade all-wood Blumenstein Ultra Fi Orca Speakers ($550) are designed with a singular purpose: deliver bone-tingling sonics from a bookshelf speaker without a wallet annihilating price. Hi-Fi buffs (and common sense) will tell you that one of the best ways to make this happen is to reduce [...]
Fine Noise Makers
Etsy isn’t the first destination that comes to mind for audio gear, but stumbling across these jaw-dropping Mt. Man Speakers ($900) from Philadelphia-based maker Jesse Gerard, aka Carrot Grant, is a welcome surprise. Designed and made by hand from solid cherry, each speaker features twin copper-clad woofers, gold-plated binding posts for banana plugs or 12 [...]
Bringing Boom to Any Room
Okay, we’ll come clean. Technically these speakers are marketed for portable gaming. They’ll actually work with any device with a 3.5mm jack to deliver decent room-filling sound, though, thanks to their 360-degree omnidirectional speakers. More importantly, each speaker can pump out beats for 12 hours straight from the built-in rechargeable batteries. Combined with their included [...]
As men, we’ll always be suckers for shiny things. There’s no point in fighting it. Particularly when they can help do things like battle our inbox(s), catch up on missed episodes of the shows we’re too busy to watch, or single-handedly sway the tide of battles using just our thumbs. This gift list is a [...]
