Audio - Page 16

As an avid Spotify user - heck, I'm listening to music on Spotify right now, Black Eyed Peas to be precise - this news comes as a bit of a shock. The House of Representatives has slapped a ban on the use of music streaming and subscription service, Spotify.

The House has a longstanding ban on peer-to-peer technology, and while Spotify isn't exactly a P2P program, it has still been banned. The ban on peer-to-peer software was made to stop illegal file-sharing and to prevent infections on computers with malware. A spokesman for the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer told Politico:

After 21 years in the limelight (well, until the iPod was unveiled) Sony's MiniDisc player has been discontinued. Sony are just finishing off the MiniDisc, where the last units will leave the assembly line next month.

Debuting back in 1992, Sony's MiniDisc player was heralded as the next big step in portable music players, where it was capable of cram a bunch of music onto a small optical disc, which at the time was about half the size of a compact disc. This made it easier to take your music with you, enjoying a nice 80 minutes of listening, but it never really took off with US consumers for a few reasons.

Pricing on the format was expensive and didn't slide down to acceptable levels for years, and there weren't many new releases dumped onto the format. Japan was the place to be for the MiniDisc, but elsewhere? Not so much.

While most people can't distinguish the difference in bit-rate between 128Kbps and 320Kbps, the latter has become a selling for most online streaming services. Sony has updated their Music Unlimited service to keep up with the times and that means they will now be streaming 320Kbps audio.

The updated streaming quality will first be coming to Android, web, and the PlayStation 3 players, but desktops, iOS, and the Vita won't be left out. Upgrades for the latter devices and home theater devices will be coming later this year. Sony has staggered the update to make sure it goes without a hitch.

You can read Sony's full press release below:

Creative have just taken the veil off of their latest creation, the Sound BlasterAxx range of products. Creative dub this "a whole new generation of Sound Blaster" which is set to "dazzle the new mobile networked generation". In reality, just a handful of cool, new Sound Blaster-based products.

First up we have the Sound BlasterAxx SBX 20, which supports both PC and Mac, as well as iOS- and Android-based devices. SBX 20 sports Bluetooth connectivity, making it that much easier to hook these devices together and get your audio goodness on. Because we live in a world of network-connected devices, Creative Chairman and CEO, also the creator of the Sound Blaster, Sim Wong Hoo, had to really go back to the drawing board when envisioning the new Sound BlasterAxx range of products.

Creative's Sound BlasterAxx SBX 20 is Bluetooth-enabled, features a unique patent-pending "stacked stereo" speaker design that can fill a room with sound, a high-quality, dual-microphone for great voice chat and conversation, hardware-accelerated SBX Pro Studio and CrystalVoice technologies, as well as featuring aux-in for wired connection from other audio-connected devices. The package arrives in a 410x91mm form factor.

It looks like there might be some new, redesigned earbuds in those new iPhone boxes. MacRumors has posted some news, along with a photo and video regarding the redesigned earbuds.

The video shows off the new earbuds, comparing them to the old ones that were included with the current-gen iPhone 4S:

At their first event in Australia, professional audio brand Denon and Marantz late this week announced their new range of lifestyle gear including headphones and dock speakers for personal mobile devices.

Differentiating between key types of users and their music needs and tastes was what Denon did in their new range. With 8 new on-ear and in-ear models across four different lifestyles: Music Maniac, Globe Cruiser, Urban Raver and Exercise Freak - there should be a product that will fit your lifestyle.

High-end audiophile gear can be found in the Music Maniac range, with two on-ear (AH-D7100, AH-D600) and 1 in-ear (AH-C400) models. We were able to play around with these headphones that were connected to an amplifier.

The headline for Logitech's product launch promises big things: "Pure Undiluted Music, Anytime, Anywhere." So, how are they going to do that and what products are in this new line? The press release highlights six new products ranging from boomboxes to headphones, so the line is quite expansive.

"Today's fans have their music with them wherever they go - they carry it with them on their tablet or smartphone," said Rory Dooley, Logitech senior vice president of music. "But no matter how or where you choose to store or access your favorite music, this lineup is the best way for you to experience it. Whether you want to be completely immersed in your favorite song, to share music with friends, or to discover new favorites, Logitech UE is the clear choice."

CES 2012: The Republic of Gamers team is pretty damn awesome, not only do they make some truly kick arse motherboards, but they also have gaming accessories like keyboards, mice and headsets and are now set to enter the sound card market, too.

ASUS teased at CES the ROG Xonar Phoebus (the God of Music and Light) and is a standalone product (not bundled with a motherboard). Xonar Phoebus is rated at 118db SNR and includes the regular outputs, a dedicated amplifier for driving up to 300ohm headphones and a volume control/wire extender for gaming headsets.

It sports the usual ROG black/red theme and looks insanely sexy for a sound card. I/O wise we have headset connectors, power for the volume control, line-in, 5.1 audio and SPDIF-out as pictured below.

Looking at picking up a new set of headphones over the xssy break? - You might be interested in one of six new pairs of headphones Sennheiser has just announced today. The new models in Sennheiser's line include the HD 219, HD 229, HD 239, HD 429, HD 439 and HD 449, all promising to deliver 'defined sound' in style.

The HD 219 will set you back only $59.95 and feature closed ear cups with a padded head band for excellent comfort. For an extra $20 you can shift up to the HD 229 which include the use of powerful neodymium magnets that promise precise stereo sound output.

Corsair picked up a talented new product manager over the Summer, Stan Kwong. Stan's roots trace back to Creative and Logitech and he's wasting no time using his skills at Corsair. Yesterday TweakTown made a quick stop in San Francisco to see the new Vengeance Gaming Headset products just down the road from Intel Developers Forum.

The new Gaming Headphone Lineup consists of three products, Vengeance 1500, 1300 and 1100 and are designed for excellent gaming audio reproduction, outstanding comfort and convenience.

The Vengeance 1500 is a USB gaming headset with an MSRP of 99 USD. This model has a unique aluminum structure not found on the Vengeance 1300. The 1500 and 1300 share the same circumaural, closed-back earpad designs and audiophile grade 50mm drivers.

Creative are back in the limelight once again today after previously announcing both the ZEN X-Fi3 Bluetooth Touch MP3 player and Sound Blaster Recon3D. The company has also rolled out a new line of PCI-Express sound cards that, while impressive by design, may bring on a bit of a sad panda face for some due to the obvious end of the X-Fi generation for good after its over half decade presence since August 2005.

The new line-up is called Sound Core3D and it has one major difference to the X-Fi family of cards. Where X-Fi used high-performance native audio processing (through hardware) by making use of the processors on the card such as the CA20K series, the focus is now on the set of DSPs (digital signal processors) resident on the Core3D; there being four of these that give it a "quad-core" moniker, but this is not in the sense of there being four actual processing cores. These four DSPs are also not necessarily hardware-accelerated, but due to the presence of four of them, they work together in order to produce the best overall audio output.

So far there are three models making up the new lineup; the base model Sound Blaster Sound Core3D, the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional and the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Champion. The base model is easy to spot without the inclusion of a fancy EMI shield. It sticks to a simple PCI-E audio processor that is void of most of the RISC processor components of the CA20K series audio processors. It gives common HDA front-panel output connectivity, Fatal1ty Champion front-panel IO capability and a regular batch of 7.1 channel analog jacks that reside next to a pair of TOSLINK digital input and output connectors.

Creative have unleashed the ZEN X-Fi3 Bluetooth Touch MP3 player. The ZEN X-Fi3 sports the apt-X codec which brings superior Bluetooth transmission, and also features X-Fi technology which restores rich detail and retains high level of clarity for audio tracks. It's housed in a stylishly-designed player which delivers the best wireless audio while you're on the move. ZEN X-Fi3 also supports a huge range of audio formats inclusive of FLAC for die-hard lossless audio fans.

The player also includes video output so you can share movies and photos with family and friends on your big-screen. Bluetooth connectivity allows you to easily connect to compatible stereo Bluetooth speakers and headphones. The ZEN X-Fi3 also features responsive touch keys for easy navigation and playback control and surprisingly, a microSD card slot for additional storage. An integrated FM radio is also included.

For a more detailed rundown of the ZEN X-Fi3 be sure to check it out.

The underdog in this fisticuffs battle of online music services [in my opinion] is Amazon and maybe they know that too which is why they were the first to launch their music service before the great Apple and Google, it nabbed them headlines and probably, groupies. This has given Amazon time to gain a customer base and do some work on their service. Amazon have since studied what Google was offering (free upload of 20,000 songs) and also Apple (unlimited storage up to 25,000 songs for $25) and decided that its own pricing scheme needed some lovin'.

Anyone who purchases MP3s from Amazon should definitely give Cloud Drive a second look: every MP3 purchase before the cloud streaming service launched can now be stored for free and all limitations on music uploading have been removed from paid members. Upon launch, Cloud Drive offered five Gigabytes of free storage to users and the option to upgrade was there. 20GB for $20, 50GB for $50 and so on up to 1000GB. All new MP3s purchased through Amazon are able to be stored for free without counting against that total, but the allowance didn't apply to previous purchases.

Now it does. This is now Amazon's greatest strength in the online music battle, it's connection to the Amazon MP3 store. But that's not all... Cloud Drive now has a "limited time offer" which gives anyone who pays for storage unlimited space for uploading tunes. This means that everyone who dropped $20 for storage now has unlimited, yes, unlimited space for MP3 uploads even if they were not purchased from the Amazon store.

Wireless headsets on the Xbox 360 seem to only be taking off now, like somehow companies are just seeing the Xbox 360 on the shelves and decide it's a gaming platform that deserves an expensive headset. Today is no different with Microsoft teaming up with Tritton (Mad Catz) to produce a series of cobranded headsets which have unrivalled integration with the Xbox 360, including such things like on-screen battery status and a 100-percent wireless headset with both game audio and chat.

Logitech released its supercharged surround sound Speaker System Z906 today:

Razer is really pumping out some sweet peripherals and accessories for the Xbox 360 and their new Chimaera 5.1 wireless headset is no exception. The Xbox 360 headset is now listed for pre-order and comes in at $199.99. Sure, that sounds expensive but considering surround sound systems are usually a fair bit more than that, it's not bad at all.

Every time I go to the gym and see someone wearing headphones, it never ceases to amaze me that I can hear their music with them wearing earphones from 10 feet away. I can only imagine how loud that must be in their ears and how bad that must be for their hearing.

If you live in an area where the radio stations are not to your liking and you want to listen to something other than your own music collection internet radio is a good option. You can find just about any music genre you want on the web and stream those tracks all you want. Since you have to be web connected for internet radio most folks can only listen via their computer.