Superpower sounds can define a comic book hero as much as any form-fitting costume, and when a character is drafted to the silver screen the sound comes with him—but how do they bring these made-up sounds along? More »
Hands up if you actually know what ruthenium is. Don’t worry if you don’t, it’s just used as an external plating on these extremely luxurious open-back cans. More familiar expensive materials can be found within, with titanium-plated 40mm drivers, silver-plated copper wires with 99.99 percent purity and kevlar-coated cables, and of course, for that extra special touch, Ethiopian sheepskin earcup pads. That’s skin, not wool, so bear it in mind if you care for the welfare of little fluffy ones. Either way, the Ultrasone Edition 10s do seem like they’ve packed just enough luxury and exclusivity to justify their $2,745 price — only thing we need now is a matching mahogany furniture set, preferably with some endangered species’ heads adorning our walls.
Ultrasone Edition 10 headphones sound and are expensive: $2,749 for one of only 2010 made originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You might not have heard of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), but there are likely a bunch in your new smartphone — they make possible the tiny accelerometers and gyroscopes needed to detect motion as your device swings around. However, last week students at the University of Twente demonstrated a brand new micrometer-scale system: a tiny musical instrument that plucks strings (those “folded flexures” above) one-tenth of a human hair wide. Six microscopic resonators fit on a microchip, one resonator per musical tone, and series of the chips can be combined into a MIDI interface to play entire songs. Though the micronium needs to be amplified 10,000 times before they’re audible through standard speakers, the instrument’s the real deal — watch it play a wide selection of tunes (including some Mario Bros) in a video after the break. One burning question remains, however: is this nano-violin open source?
Continue reading World’s smallest violin uses MEMS, plays only for you (video)
World’s smallest violin uses MEMS, plays only for you (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Announced just before CES, tested by us at CES, and launching… erm, right about now: the Tunebug Shake, everybody! This helmet-attachable speaker has certainly taken its time to reach a marketable state, but let’s look on the bright side — it’s now priced at $99.99, $20 cheaper than it was in January, and it remains a pretty unique piece of kit for the active gadget maven. The Shake uses SurfaceSound technology to channel vibrations into whatever it’s attached to, using it as a de facto enlarged speaker surface. We weren’t exactly blown away by the sound quality when we tried it, but time heals a lot of wounds (and product flaws). If you’re sufficiently intrigued, you’ll find video of the retail box contents after the break and orders can be placed at the source link below.
Continue reading Tunebug now ready to Shake your cranium for $100
Tunebug now ready to Shake your cranium for $100 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 05:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apps are funny things. They tend to provide narrow utility — focusing intensely on one specific thing — but once you get used to them, you wonder how you lived without them. Take this Awareness! app, for example: it gauges environmental noise levels, sets up a threshold, and then pipes in anything louder than that into your skull alongside your music. Reasons why you’d want that to happen include oncoming SUVs, mothers screaming because their babies are in peril (from oncoming SUVs), or something as benign as your teacher yelling at you for not paying attention in class. There’s a nice set of options too, such as manually adjusting how loud a sound must be to be allowed entry into your cranium, as well as pausing of the app or of your music. Awareness! is available for five bucks on the iPhone and iPod touch, and will soon jump on to the iPad, Android, Symbian, and even the Mac and PC.
iPhone Awareness! app selectively filters outside noises into your headphones, saves hipster lives originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Before the iPhone, the iPod, and iTunes, there was Napster. The original gangster of digital music distribution has undergone many changes since its heyday as a pirate’s Shangri-La, though this latest one seems to be the most fitting. A new app for the aforementioned iOS devices as well as the iPad has been launched, giving you the full Napster experience in a more portable form factor. That means that for $10 a month you can stream and cache music from a library of 10 million songs — yes, offline listening is available too — essentially turning your iDevice into the Apple equivalent of a Zune Pass-equipped music station. Good times ahead, eh sailor?
[Thanks, Louis Choi]
Napster app arrives on iOS, completes the circle of life originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You’re sick of audio docks, we know. So are we. But as much as we wanted to skip merrily along beyond Logitech’s S715i set, we couldn’t help but note that it’s something of a rarity. Whereas most other iDevice speakers tend to keep themselves safely tethered to the nearest wall plug, this unit claims it can get an ambitious eight hours of music playback from its battery, while boasting a whopping eight drivers (two rear-firing ones on the back) in total, including a pair of “laser-tuned” neodymium 3-inchers for midrange delivery. We could hardly gauge audio quality in our noisy environment, but we’ll say this much: Logitech isn’t fooling around with the volume the S715i can put out. Even our video after the break doesn’t do justice to the surprising roar you can generate from this otherwise compact package.
A standard 3.5mm audio input will let you stray outside of the Apple product family if you wish, and there’s a bundled remote too. Yet, in spite of all these goodies, we still can’t recommend this as a sage purchase at Logitech’s lofty $150 price. Don’t get us wrong, the S715i looks neat, just not that neat. We also managed to grab a few images of its family mate, the Z515 Bluetooth speaker, which similarly rolls on its own power (for up to 10 hours, it’s claimed) and captures tunes from your nearest Bluetooth-equipped device. It’s another well built and easily portable little thing, priced at $60 $100 by Logitech.
Continue reading Logitech S715i and Z515 portable speakers hands-on (video)
Logitech S715i and Z515 portable speakers hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You had to know that Corsair wouldn’t stride into a new product category with just so-so hardware. Its new HS1 gaming headset has been sent out to a couple of UK reviewers and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Both Hexus and Bit-tech praised the circumaural (made to fit around, rather than on top of, your ears) design for its weight distribution and memory foam-assisted comfort, while also giving the thumbs up to sound quality. Bass reproduction is said to be somewhat weaker than desirable, but the bundled software gives you plenty of adjustment options. It’s a shame that you’ll have to install the drivers in order to avoid the in-line remote control blinking madly at you, and it’s also not too awesome that you won’t be able to use the mic on a Mac, but so long as these vices don’t bother you unduly, you should find the $99 investment in an HS1 set more than worth it. Hit the links below for more detailed impressions.
Corsair’s ear-straddling HS1 headset earns high marks in early reviews originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Sep 2010 09:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Audiophiles are quick to name the umpteen flavors of Dolby, but at the risk of oversimplifying things a tad, there are just three types of surround sound today — each easily identified by their plug. Virtual surround uses just simple stereo jacks, emulating multiple channels from two, while digital surround travels across optical or coaxial S/PDIF cables (or HDMI) and has to be decoded. Finally, there’s analog surround sound — the cheapest solution of all — where you basically just plug a pair of dumb speakers into each of front, rear and center 3.5mm sockets on your existing PC sound card. Unsurprisingly, the $100 Logitech Z506 speakers use this last technique to deliver their true 5.1 sound, but that’s no reason to count them out. The question is, do they deliver enough bang, boom and tweet for the buck? Read on to find out.
Continue reading Logitech Z506 review
Logitech Z506 review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The debate rages on about the sound, or rather the lack of sound, coming from electric vehicles. Their relative quietude could make roadside-housing rather more tenable in the future, but, if you ask some people, will turn those cars into silent killers. We’ve seen some crude noisemakers attempt to make those cars a bit less lethal, but that just brings us back to the noise pollution issue again. ECTunes has what sounds like a solution that will better appeal to both camps: directional sound. The prototype Citroen pictured above emits tones only audible to those right in its path, straight ahead when traveling forward and behind it when in reverse, silencing altogether at 30mph when wind and tire noise is enough of a deterrent to those who can’t see oncoming traffic — or who simply choose not to. A solid, reasonable solution to the problem? Absolutely. Will it make those on both sides of those topic agree? Unlikely.
Continue reading ECTunes adds sound to silent EVs, but only where and when you need it (video)
ECTunes adds sound to silent EVs, but only where and when you need it (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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