Gear Patrol

The high-end speaker dock pool, already swimming with the likes of the B&W Zeppelin, B&O BeoSound 8, and the Bose SoundDock 10, just got more crowded with Denon’s Cocoon diving in. The Cocoon, available in home or portable models, represents Denon’s late foray into the iDevice market — while they have fielded systems with docks,…

Any musician worth his Gibson knows that the best way for a band to turn a profit is through touring. That’s easy enough for Maroon 5, but a bit harder when you’re not bringing in Moves Like Jagger swagger. Touring buses are unwieldy and expensive to operate, (though it hasn’t stopped John Madden) and regular…

After being out of print for what seems like an eternity, The Beatles’ 1968 animated hit, Yellow Submarine has finally been digitally restored for DVD and Blu-ray. Getting the Blue Meanies all primped up and ready for their 1080p debut apparently was no easy feat. In fact, each frame of the film was restored by…

Like Harold Camping on the subject of Judgement Day, audiophiles are notorious for predicting the death of high quality audio at the hands of the digital music revolution. We certainly think today’s emphasis on MP3s has put a dent in the quest for high fidelity, but initiatives like Apple’s Mastered for iTunes series do give…

Box of Vision is a company that still remembers the days when showing off your music collection didn’t involve a scroll wheel and being a true fan meant owning every album, instead of the five best singles. Subsequently, their archive products are designed to act as a showcase for displaying the complete works of legends…

Ahmet Ertegun isn’t a household name — let alone easy to say, but if you’re a music fan, you’ve probably benefitted from his life’s legacy. Despite being the son of the first Republic of Turkey ambassador to the US, Ahmet channeled his love of Blues and Jazz to found Atlantic records. Not up on your…

Old school DJs were just as much showmen as they were beat droppers. Then computers made the whole craft much more nerdy. As it turns out, clicking on trackpads just isn’t as engaging as tearing up vinyl. Replace the laptops of today with an enormous, transparent touch panel display, and the pendulum could swing back…

The Blood Bros. are, for lack of a better description, an awesome DJ duo with an awesome goal: creating mix tapes compiled from the best 80′s action movie songs. A quick listen to the first few minutes of each track (after the jump) on their two mixes will have you running in gym sweats or…

Hip-hop may not be for everyone, but that hasn’t stopped Jay-Z from becoming a household name. Though his rise to fame stems through rapping, Mr. “I’m not a business-man. I’m a business…man” has earned praise from plenty of those outside the game, including Warren Buffet. So when a mind like that puts its attention towards…

Few people on the planet have ever epitomized rock and roll like Keith Richards. That’s one of the reasons why his long-awaited memoir Life ($16) is a must read. Filled with Keith’s surprisingly crystal clear recollections about the genesis of classics like “Ruby Tuesday” and “Gimme Shelter”, consider it a rare look into the special…

The Yamaha MCR 140 ($399) has two major things going for it. The first is that outside of performing the functions of your typical micro-audio system, thanks to Yamaha’s proprietary yAired technology, it can play uncompressed audio wirelessly from your iPod/iPhone using a simple dongle that eliminates the syncing hassles associated with other tech like…

Released yesterday, One Life Stand is the third full length album to be released by this English electro pop group since their formation in 2000. Described by many reviewers as a clear sign of maturation by the band, this 10 track album is certainly much less of an oddball mash up of crazy beats and…

After taking it back to the classics with last week’s mix, it’s time to return hard with artists pushing limits and setting high bars in their respective scenes. Some have been doing it for years, while others are relatively new on the radar, but regardless of tenure each of the tracks below is sure to…

This week’s grab bag of songs are about as random as they come. In this installment, hear The Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas’s new first single in his self titled solo act, a classic soul tune, one of the best storytelling raps ever written, and an overlooked 90′s gem of a rock song, all in…

Musically it’s hard to point to a consistent sound from this batch of five tracks, so we’ll dismiss any claims of themes for this segment. Bouncing from Indie Rock, to Electro Pop, to Rap and back again, this collection is random, but designed to serve as a great starting point for all of you music…

Radios today comes in many forms: FM, AM, Satellite, Internet… and all of them digital. There was a time, though (like your grandparents’ time), when radios ran on tubes and literally took time to warm up when the turned on. You might remember them as the wicker cabinet behemoths with knobs – hardly worthy of…

It’s already been five years since the 10x platinum ‘Songs About Jane’. Maroon 5 has released their much-anticipated sophomore album today with a sexier and stronger edge. The band has pulled from Prince, Michael Jackson and Taking Heads as inspiration – the result? George Clinton funk meets George Michael pop. Definitely worth a listen. What…

[Review from Wired.com] The Tivoli Audio Music System is exactly what an all-in-one system should be: a cinch to operate. Its uncluttered interface and elegantly integrated functions are so intuitive that you can ignore the user’s manual. (We had it up and running in two minutes.) The system comprises an AM/FM radio, a CD player,…