Sonoro's Saucy Swarovski-covered Stardust Radio Selling for $2,500
[Via Blast]
Posts with tag audio
[Via Blast]
Pea Speaker Concept Makes Multi-Room Wireless Audio Easy
Skullcandy and Metallica Team Up on Death Magnetic Headphones
The Hesh cans (pictured) possess a fatter, more comfortable headband with 50mm drivers, while the Lowrider includes 40mm drivers and a fold-up headband for portability. No telling how long it'll be before these disappear, but we're hearing this strange rumor that pre-loaded clips of Hetfield play underneath your tunes to subconsciously encourage you to uninstall your BitTorrent client. Not like that's even fathomable or anything. [From: Skullcandy via MusicRadar]
Are Next-Gen 'Binaural Beats' a Replacement for Recreational Drugs?
Idosers (or Idozers), as they've come to be called on the Internet, originally gained attention for their supposed ability to induce health benefits without the use of drugs. A visit to I-Dose.us reveals free binaural tones meant to increase focus, relieve pain, and even fight alcoholism.
According to a recent article in USA Today, however, a new generation of Idosers is targeting a much different market segment. New sites are claiming to be able to produce effects similar to illegal narcotics using only sound waves. Electronic drugs are aimed to relax, cause hallucinations, and generally get the listener high. This has,of course, set off alarms with some who think that the new idoser trend is dangerous because it encourages the use of drugs.
While we can't argue with the fact that even seemingly encouraging drug use is bad, we can at least attempt to soothe some of your fears. We actually tried out some of the ones that have supposed health benefits (and help us reduce our alcohol intake) and can't say we came away impressed (or high, for that matter). Our sore arm still hurts, we're exhausted, and we still love to imbibe massive amounts of alcohol (hypocrisy duly noted). In fact, all the binaural tones did was give us a headache. [Source: USA Today]
Scientists Figure Out Formula for the Perfect Speaking Voice
by Will Safer, posted Jun 11th 2008 at 3:40PM
What kind of voice and speaking tone inspires the most trust and confidence in listeners?
An English linguist and a sound engineer say they have the answer. It's a combination of traits that includes tone, speed, frequency, words per minute and intonation.
The two have simulated the ideal speaking voices for both men and women, and say that real life actors Jeremy Irons and Dame Judy Dench come closest to the ideal when they talk.
Irons, for example, says 200 words per minute and pauses for 1.2 seconds between sentences. The ideal speaker would say about 164 words per minute and pause for 0.48 seconds between sentences.
This may explain why some radio talk show hosts and DJs are more popular than others. Listeners prefer to hear spoken sentences that fall in tone toward the end rather than rise. They prefer a deep voice that speaks slowly.
A rising intonation, the two researchers said, implies weakness and tells the listener that the speaker is unsure of what he or she is saying. To hear an example of the ideal speaking voices for men and women, click here. [Source: BBC News]
Alpine's Head Unit Supports iPods and Divx Playback
When you call your product a 'Mobile Multimedia Station' it had better offer up a pretty robust set of connectivity options; especially when it costs $1,100. In that manner, Alpine's new WXGA touch-screen IVA-W505 car head unit doesn't disappoint.
The 7-inch touch-controlled IVA-W505 Mobile Multimedia Station comes loaded with input options: DVD/CD/MP3/AAC/WMA/DivX AV, Bluetooth hands-free connectivity and more. The list also includes HD/Satellite radio (with iTunes tagging) and the unit supports MP3/WMA players like iPods and USB sticks. The double-DIN (a larger head unit form factor in cars) unit uses IMPRINT, a system that automatically analyzes your car's interior and adjusts acoustics accordingly. Rounding things out, the head unit can function as a dock for Alpine's PMD-B200 portable GPS unit. Sweet. The IVA-W505 is available now through authorized dealers in North America.
From Alpine
Proposed Bill Aims to Set Minimum Auto Sound Levels
Fisker Karma's recently announced hybrid sports car that generates motor noise through some external speakers might have received a good bit of derision when it first made itself known, but it now looks like it may actually be a bit ahead of the game, at least if a bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives ever actually becomes law. As AutoWeek reports, the bill was apparently prompted by concerns that hybrid and electric vehicles are a little too quiet, and pose a risk to pedestrians, especially the blind. To address that supposed danger, the bill reportedly demands that the U.S. Secretary of Transportation initiate a study to determine if a minimum sound level is in fact needed and, if so, require that automakers comply with it (possibly as early as 2010).
From AutoWeek Car News
Researchers Play Tune Recorded 17 Years Before Edison
Researchers have uncovered an old recording of the human voice. Not impressed? You should be. The recording predates Thomas Edison's 1877 recording of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by nearly two decades.
The 10-second clip of a unknown person singing the folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" was recorded by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in 1860. According to an article in today's New York Times, Scott, a typesetter and tinkerer from Paris, created a "barrel shaped horn attached to a stylus, which etched sound waves onto sheets of paper blackened by smoke from an oil lamp."
These etched pieces of paper -- called "phonautgrams" -- were not meant for audio playback, at least not at the outset. They were created to provide a paper visual record of human speech that could hopefully be deciphered later (by someone like Edison!). It took a while for de Martinville's "recordings" to actually produced audio, but according to the Times article, "Lawrence Berkeley Scientists utilized optical imaging and a 'virtual stylus' on high-resolution scans of the phonautogram, deploying modern technology to extract sound from patterns inscribed on the soot-blackened paper almost a century and a half ago."
Historians have known about Scott's work for quite some time. It was David Giavannoni, an audio historian, and a group of his peers, however, that first attempted to actually find Scott's recordings and try to play them back. They began their search in earnest this fall.
This is the earliest recording of sound ever discovered. It is however, not the first playable recording. Is one discovery more important than the other? Did Edison get credit for merely tweaking an idea that had already been established? Or does the primitive nature of Scott's etched papers render them inferior? Let the debate begin.
From New York Times
Related Links:
- BlackBerry's Getting Music Download Sevice
- $50 PC Will Teach Chicago School Kids
- World's First MP3 Player Is 10 Years Old
Car Stereos Trends in 2008 - iPods, Bluetooth, and Tiny Speakers
More than anything it seems like 2008 will be the year that iPod integration and Bluetooth become standard on all but the lowest-end systems. Every all-in-one system from Kenwood and Pioneer featured the abilities, and almost every standard CD player system provided iPod connectivity. Some of the more basic models have even been fitted with Bluetooth. That means you can say goodbye to those headsets that make you look like a jerk.
As for those all-in-one units that combine GPS with audio and video functions, look for prices to continue to take a nosedive. Prices start at $1,000 for units from Kenwood, Pioneer, and Alpine, but we expect by the end of the year prices will fall even further.
Meanwhile, Pioneer says it is going back to it roots: sound quality. iPods allow us to carry our entire music collections in our back pocket, but the problem with digital audio is that it's compressed in order to make the file smaller. Pioneer is using a technology they call ASR (Advanced Sound Retrieval) to restore some of the lost frequency range due to compression, and after a demo we were quite impressed.
Lastly, as with everything else, thin is in when it comes to car speakers. Just about every company that makes car speakers was showing off shallow subwoofers for those who don't want to gut or mod their car to get amazing bass.
Gallery: Car Stereo Trends
Related links:
These Aluminum Speakers Will Set You Back $140,000
Our never-ending search for items at the Consumer Electronics Show that are true statement pieces continues with a visit to KEF, maker of the Muon -- perhaps ironically named since a muon is a smaller particle than a quark, yet these speakers, evidenced by the picture above, are clearly not tiny.
Nor is their price tag. At $140,000 for the pair, the Muon speakers are meant for only the most discerning audiophile, for whom price is obviously no matter.
Only 100 pairs of the speakers will be made, according to Johan Coorg, marketing director for KEF. "The one-hundred and first person who wants one will just have to be disappointed," he said.
Why make speakers like these?
"This actually started as a testbed project for our engineers," Coorg said. "British audio has always been very well respected. These speakers now are the leading edge in real cool design. It's no longer acceptable to buy a square box anymore."
Though they have a somewhat organic shape, these speakers are made of aluminum, shaped and made strong through a process called "superforming."
The result is five-hundred combined pounds of visually arresting listening delight.
From KEF.
Related links:
- The Audio System That Costs as Much as a House
- Volcanic Rock Makes Light and Durable Pioneer Speakers
- New Wireless Bluetooth Speakers Are Finally Affordable
