For a compact tabletop speaker, Marshall’s forthcoming Uxbridge Voice packs a lot in. It offers Amazon Alexa voice support, Apple AirPlay2 & Spotify Connect streaming. Rocker-style manual controls for volume, bass, and treble located on the top of the unit make it easy to dial in perfect sound. Available April 8.
Polyend’s Tracker is a powerful music making and production tool; a hardware workstation based on classic 80s-era grid sequencing workflow. Digital and sample-based, it creates endless options for sequencing and creativity. Its vertical workflow allows you to utilize up to 48 instruments as samples or sources, and 256 patterns as well as connecting with external MIDI gear & other synths.
We’ve shared a lot of radical speakers here over the years but Kranio is in a category all its own. Just look at it. A 3D-modeled Lynx skull with cybernetic implants and a built-in bluetooth 5.0 speaker. Each one of these speakers is painstakingly hand-painted to be realistic and totally unique. Created by Red Dot award-winning industrial designer Alan Wong, it was inspired by his youth; films like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and games like Cyberpunk & Shadowrun. The internal 10W Hi-Fi speaker has an acoustic transmission line, designed to produce accurate, undistorted sound quality in a small unit..
Created with British designer Benjamin Hubert of LAYER, Bang & Olufsen’s BeoSound Balance is a powerful, compact shelf speaker designed to bring exceptional sound to more intimate spaces. The minimalist, Scandinavian design features a wooden base, textile-wrapped speaker array, and brushed metal accents. It features Adaptive Room Compensation, optimizing audio to any space you place it. Chromecast is built-in, it supports Google Assistant, & streaming via all your services. Available now in Black or Natural Oak.
Playtronica’s latest audio-tech toy is a midi device that allows you to make music with almost anything. Like fruits and vegetables. The system—consisting of 2 boards & enough cables & alligator clips to plug in an orchestra of vegetables, then connects to a computer. As the brand explains, it connect humans and objects in one electric chain and measures the intensity of human touch, which is technically a change of electric resistance. That signal can be captured with various online synthesizers via the web MIDI API.
The all-new HyperBoom Speaker from Ultimate Ears is the largest and loudest Bluetooth speaker in the brand’s lineup, powerful enough for party-pumping bass and crisp, room-filling sound. The rectangular tower features a sleek, streamlined design with simple, push-button controls & ports aplenty. Including an optical port. Linked with the Ultimate Ears app, it streams seamlessly using Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, or Deezer. The speaker array consists of two 4.5-inch woofers, two 1-inch tweeters, and two 3.5-inch passive radiators; all of rated IPX4 for weather resistance. Battery life is up to 24-hours.
Marshall’s latest addition to its growing line of premium headphones is the Monitor II ANC, a noise-cancelling over-ear design that boasts 30-hour battery life and a streamlined design plus wireless bluetooth function. No more tangled cable, same rocking sound.
If you’re prone to singing in the shower, this new collab design from Kohler & Harmon Kardon will sound sweet. The Moxie shower head + Wireless Speaker integrates a removable/rechargeable bluetooth speaker into a shower head. It delivers not only a shower with a soundtrack but offers hands-free control with a built-in voice assistant. The speaker has an IPX67 waterproof rating and boasts a 5-hour run-time between charges.
The T10 range of noise-cancelling earbuds from high-end audio brand Klipsch brings premium-quality sonics to a compact, modern design. The new buds feature sound-enhancing Klipsch Ear Micro technology and dual-microphone active noise control as well as gesture and voice-activated controls. Due out Fall 2020.
With CES opening its doors next week, the world is about to be deluged in new tech toys. LG will be in attendance with a new line of soundbars for your audiovisual pleasure. The new bars feature machine learning technology that LG calls “AI Room Calibration” which enables the speakers to automatically adjust & perfectly suit your space or sound system. 4 models are available, featuring 4K pass-through, eARC sound technology, and Google Assistant.
Sustainable and solar-powered aren’t terms we associate with headphones. JBL wants to change that. The legacy audio brand is currently crowdfunding this effort with the launch of their REFLECT Eternal, an over-ear headphone that uses Exeger’s Powerfoyle material to turn both natural and artificial light into a power source—powerful enough for these cans to deliver 68-hours of playback with just 30 minutes under a light source. Sounds good to us! They’ve got sharp 40mm drivers, offer hands-free calling and even voice assistance from Alexa & Google.
Roland’s Go Piano Keyboard offers the convenience of Alexa voice control, allowing users to adjust, control, and tweak functions, all the while keeping fingers on the keys. Play along with music you want to learn, use it as a metronome, or play your originals at full volume through the built-in loudspeaker. All of Alexa’s other abilities are also accessible, just ask.
With a design that puts its analog vacuum tube power on full display, New York-based high-end audio brand McIntosh has combined a 300-watt tube amp with a 600-watt solid state amp into one eye-catching monoblock unit called the MC901 Dual Mono Amplifier. The solid state amp powers your woofers while the tube amp is dedicated to mid & tweeters. Built on a stainless steel chassis, it blends retro styling with a functional, contemporary design.
The Air Speaker by Quirky functions as one self-contained cylindrical 24W speaker or it can be pulled apart into 5 separate pieces—a base & 4 separate speakers & arranged for the space you’re in. Like a surround array when watching a movie or a multi-room setup. The speakers have a wireless range of 75-feet & it recharges via USB.
The latest creation from audio-instrument brand Artiphon is called the Orba. It’s a palm-size digital music making device that let’s you make beats, play, capture, and record endless sounds and layered beats that you create. It has 8 feather-touch sensitive pads on the surface & a variety of touch and motion sensors. With an aux cord jack, it plugs in anywhere—like your laptop or sound system. A funded Kickstarter.
The TMA-2 from audio innovators AIAIAI, is a modular over-ear headphone designed for personalized function with interchangeable & upgradeable parts. Choose from Wireless, HD (newest), Comfort, Move, & DJ variants for the fit and feel you desire. All feature premium materials like aluminum and Alcantara leather as well as advanced audio technologies to deliver flawless, studio-quality sound.
For creative pros, the Adobe CC suite is where everything happens. And the Loupedeck CT is an advanced creative tool that empowers users to streamline, connect, and customize their Adobe applications & how they interact, for seamless workflow. With physical buttons, dials, tactile controls and haptic feedback, it lets you quickly access presets, control menus, switch between applications and tools—basically everything you do, only faster, easier and infinitely programmable, for use with video, photography, illustration, and music.
Twelve South has a sweet little solution for your airline audio woes. The AirFly Pro is a wireless headphone dongle that will pair your buds or cans with the airline entertainment system through an audio jack. The device supports 2 pairs of headphones at once with a battery life of 16 hours. AirFly Pro is available in Apple stores & directly from Twelve South.
Master & Dynamic calls the new MW07 PLUS True Wireless their most technically advanced earphones yet. With Active Noise Cancelling, Ambient Listening Mode, Berylium drivers, Bluetooth 5.0, & 40-hour battery life, they’re loaded. With premium materials like stainless steel and handcrafted acetate, they look every bit as good as they sound.
Lots of good things to report about Beats new Solo Pro headphones. Completely redesigned from the original & now iconic Solo, the Solo Pro is the brand’s first over-ear model to feature active noise-cancelling. With the push of a button, users can adjust noise-cancelling to suit the setting. They also feature Apple’s H1 chip for seamless & stable connectivity and charge via Lightning. New drivers and improvements to bass delivery make for smooth sounds. They boast battery life up to 40-hours and come in 2 shades of blue, plus ivory, gray, black & red.
