Hasta La Gadget!

Audiophiles with deep pockets will want to take a look at the upgraded line of Olive’s Opus stereos, announced this morning. The top-of-the-line model now offers 2TB of storage for $1,799. There’s also a 500GB model for $1,499 and a 1TB model for $1,599. Is anyone really not going to spend the extra $200 for another terabyte?

The Opus No. 4 needs that storage because it saves CDs in the lossless FLAC format. The upgrade also includes software that increases the speed of the touchscreen menu.

Other perks of this premium player include the ability to create playlists and to save favorite Internet radio stations, automatic music categorization, wireless multi-room playback (using the separate Melody Hi-Fi Multi-Room Player), and simple setup.

Today, Shure announced a new line of “professional” headphones. The
good news for you: They aren’t any more expensive, really, than the
company’s mid-level earphones for consumers. The SRH240, the SRH440, and the
SRH840 are, respectively, $75, $125, and $250 list–which means they’ll cost even less in stores.

Shure is definitely taking aim at the home studio crowd, but there’s no
reason folks with iPods who prefer headphones to earphones can’t check
out the new line. If the headphones are anything like a typical Shure
earphone pair, you can look forward to a generally flat response with a touch of extra bass response, but nothing booming.

We’ll be checking out some of the new headphones at PCMag.com in the near future, so stay tuned for our reviews. All three pairs will be available this summer and will come with a two-year warranty.

Bose announced a new wireless music solution for the home today, the SoundLink. Available August 27th for the serious-commitment price of $549.95, the SoundLink will stream music from your PC’s music library to anywhere in your house. The concept here has already been seen in products from Creative and Altec Lansing, to name two, but these products were more iPod-centric and have not seen the sales success that a typical Bose release enjoys.

The system utilizes a USB key that plugs into your computer and sends its audio output to the SoundLink’s speakers. Bose claims it works well through walls and floors, and since it’s basically just grabbing your PC’s audio out, it’s not just for your music library–you can stream Pandora, Slacker, or any other sound source.

We have no idea how it’ll sound yet, but for the price, it should deliver quality audio. The system has a rechargeable battery and a remote control, as well, that actually allows you to skip tracks in iTunes and Windows Media Player, which is pretty cool. There’s also an Aux input on the speaker unit for your iPod or other sound sources.

PCMag should be getting this in for testing soon; check back for the review in the coming weeks.

Hosts Brian Heater and Kyle Monson explore Web trends with guest Eric Griffith, and finally get their own hate site.

Brian speeds through the “Hot Five in Five” regaling us with intriguing stories such as Web royalty wars over Internet radio and the 1-dollar netbook (find out what the catch is).

Brian interviews Ben Huh, creatorz of teh site I Can Haz Cheezburger. Mr. Heater also chats with Engadget founder Peter Rojas about his new site, GDGT.

The crew discusses a PCMag project currently in the works: the top 100 websites.

This podcast can be downloaded on iTunes or can be listened to directly on PCMag.com.

Want to play your iPod’s music throughout the room? You don’t need external speakers when you’ve got the Kerchoonz K-box, which turns any solid surface into a speaker.

The K-box has a standard 3.5mm audio jack, so it works with any audio device. Simply plug it in to your player and the surface beneath it resonates with the music you’re playing. To see it in action, check out this impressive demonstration video on YouTube.

According to the press release, the K-box uses patented Gel Audio Technology to convert surfaces into speakers. It has both a standard speaker inside for mid- to high-range frequencies, and the Gel Audio Technology for delivering bass through the surface beneath it. The result seems to be a much more balanced sound that most compact speakers can produce.

The K-box is the size of a mobile phone, and it recharges through a USB connection for a playtime of 20 hours between chargings. Get it for $74.50 US plus shipping and handling from the company site.