Jul 15
Jul 12
Audio Pioneer Amar Bose Is Dead
Posted in: Today's Chili
Dr. Amar Bose, the man who founded one of the best-recognized consumer audio equipment brands in the United States has died at the age of 83. The MIT-trained electrical engineer, professor, and entrepreneur significantly altered the way people think about consumer audio, especially over the last few years as audio technology has become increasingly small and portable.
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Jul 12
Opinions about Bose’s consumer audio products aside, there’s no discrediting the extensive contributions its founder added to the world of amplified sound. On that note, we’re saddened to report that its Founder, Chairman and Technical Director, Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, has died — this, just two years after donating a majority of Bose Corporation shares to MIT. According to MIT News, after earning degrees in Electric Engineering at the college, he taught there from 1956 until 2001. While teaching, he studied physical and psycho-acoustics, which resulted in his patents in “acoustics, electronics, nonlinear systems and communication theory.” In 1964 he founded the company, Bose Corporation, that would bring us the well-known noise-cancelling headphones and audio systems that many have come cherish. An official statement from Bose Corp. and more info about the man himself can be found at the source links.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video, Alt
Jul 12
Jay-Z “Disheartened” After Botched Album Launched For Samsung Galaxy Devices
Posted in: Today's ChiliLast week we reported that Jay-Z’s new album, Magna Carta, was leaked ahead of the album’s initial exclusive release for Samsung Galaxy owners. Given that albums are leaked onto the internet on a regular basis, we guess we weren’t too […]
Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Jul 11
Human Speaker: Manual Auto Tune
Posted in: Today's ChiliThere are dozens of ways we can modify our voice, but designer Nic Wallenberg made a silly device that bypasses the vocal chords altogether to make unusual sounds come out of one’s mouth. Hence the name Human Speaker.
The Human Speaker looks just like a neck collar, except it has sockets for two wires in front. I’m not sure what it’s connected to, but according to Wallenberg the collar sends vibrations to the wearer’s upper throat. All the wearer has to do is open his mouth and a sound will come out. It’s like reverse ventriloquism. The wearer can then play with the sound as one would his own voice, by moving his mouth and lips. The Human Speaker can only make two notes at a time though, so you’ll need several people to make complex music. Or you can do what Wallenberg did:
I bet it’s made from the throats of Daft Punk.
[via Nic Wallenberg via WeWasteTime]
Jul 11
Earlier this year we got our first look at Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM at CES, a lovely stark looking set of headphones made of metal and leather. Here in the summer of this year we’ve had our look and listen to the set, and right at the dawn of the multi-colored fashionable expansion to this headphone lineup – those are also on-ear while these MOMENTUM phones are over-ear. These are the black, and these are the ones you’ll see in wild right this minute.
Of course these phones are also available in Brown right this minute, and up through this week they’re still just existing in the two tones. But it’s the sound we’re wanting here, and it’s sound Sennheiser delivers. The following is true of this pair of headphones, no matter the color:
• Impedance: 18 Ω
• Frequency response 16 – 22000 Hz
• Sound pressure level (SPL) 110 dB
• THD, total harmonic distortion < 0.5%
• Contact pressure 2.8 N
• Load rating 200 mW
• Weight 190 g
The quality is tight – these phones offer a high-end, well balanced bit of sound with an emphasis (not too much, just right) on the bass end. These phones work just as well as a daily driver for a smartphone as they do for the deep darkness of a basement gaming PC experience.
The cord you’re seeing leading up to this set is one of two included in the box. You’ll be getting a carrying case with the set that holds all the gear you get here safe while you travel, and you’ll want both cords for the many uses they make themselves useful for. There’s one with a bendy tip, a plug with a joint in it, 3.5mm like the rest, this cord working with a remote as well – ready to work with Apple devices right out of the box.
The other works with a bit less flare, the both of them made with plugs for your mobile devices and massively powerful gaming PCs the same. There’s also an adapter in the package for connecting to a guitar amp, if that’s what you’d like to kick it with. The two cords in the box connect interchangeably to the phones, snapping in tight.
The phones adjust with a sliding bit of soft plastic keeping tight against metal, while the two phones are connected by a thin bit of red cord. These phones are made of an amalgamation of metals, leathers, and plastics, and they’re not going to be destroyed easily – but they’re not meant to be used out in the mountains or tossed around one whole heck of a lot either. They’re not rugged so much as they are de-facto prepped for looks nearly as much as they are for high-powered sounds.
The set are ringing in at $349.95 for the black edition we’re experiencing here, straight from Sennheiser. There’s a brown edition as well, and as mentioned above, there’s an on-ear edition of the phones headed to market soon too, in lovely tones for many occasions. Keep an eye out for the finer materials surrounding the sound.
Sennheiser MOMENTUM Black headphones Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 10
If you take your music seriously, and won’t make do with an iPhone speaker-dock, then Bowers and Wilkins has made the new CM10 for you. The freshly-released flagship speakers perch a tweeter on top of a full-height floor standing unit – a flourish borrowed from B&W’s hyper-expensive Reference 800 Series – with four drivers in the main body including a third bass driver.
That’s accommodated thanks to shifting the tweeter to its new position, meaning the CM10 should be louder than the previous flagship B&W CM9. However, the company has also used a new “double dome” design for the tweeter itself, which – so it’s claimed – will reduce distortion at higher frequencies.
By separating it from the other drivers, it also has room “for a more natural, spacious sound” B&W says, and while usually we’d be dubious, the company’s long track recording in keeping audiophiles happy does encourage benefit of the doubt.
On the back, there are two linked pairs of terminals. That allows the CM10 to be used in conventional setups, with one set connected to your amplifier, or as a bi-wire connection to make the most of that extended bottom end B&W promises.
The Bowers & Wilkins CM10 will go on sale in August, priced at around £2,999 ($4,462) for a set of two. They’ll be available in gloss black, wenge, rosewood, or satin white.
Bowers & Wilkins CM10 speakers float the tweeter for extra bass space is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 06
When you have the world’s largest headphones, you don’t put them on your head. You sit between the earcups and let the sound assault you. These monstrous headphones were created by Dallyn Rule for the recent Mini Maker Faire in Vancouver, B.C.
They measure almost a full human body length and they are completely functional and made from 100% recycled material. Making this huge pair of headphones has been a dream of Dallyn’s since childhood.
They may be the only headphones designed to never ever touch your ears or head. Yet it still produces music designed for individual listening – like a surround that affects your entire body. And it doesn’t affect those around you very much at all. So it is a very personal way to experience music.
Great work Dallyn, though is it just me, or are you wearing actual headphones in that second image above?
[via Damn Geeky]
Jul 05
In what has to be one of the most brilliant self-defense mechanisms ever developed, several species of tropical moths are able to rasp their genitals against their bodies to produce ultrasonic signals that confuse an attacking bat’s acoustical targeting system.
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Jul 04
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