Hasta La Gadget!

Yeah, we’ve seen our fair share of glass speakers in the past, but it looks as if Greensound has hopped on the bandwagon at just the right time. In the past, these kinds of music makers were largely looked at as gimmicks, but the Floe series looks to offer a serious advantage over equally expensive conventional drivers. Put simply, audio is created at the base of each speaker, and it’s distributed up (and around) the pane with the lows coming from the bottom, the mids from the middle and the highs from the top. We’re pretending to ignore the fact that these things will probably be far outside the budget of every sect save for the affluent, but you can tease yourself by pressing play just after the break.

Continue reading Greensound’s glass speakers: stunning visually and aurally, far from kid-friendly

Greensound’s glass speakers: stunning visually and aurally, far from kid-friendly originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 08:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink DVICE  |  Greensound Technology  | Email this | Comments

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.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Inspiration comes from all manner of places. Cars often taken their names from animals (Impala, Mustang, Bronco). Cell Phones are often verbs (Captivate, Restore, Vu, Remarq) or just seemingly random word association (Gravity, Pursuit, Fathom). The name of speakers, on the other hand, often reflects the shape of the product (Zeppelin, Soundsticks) or is simply a random pairing of numbers and letters.

Audyssey’s latest iPhone dock has taken inspiration from a different place entirely–San Francisco’s SoMA district. Says the company,

Nestled between downtown San Francisco and the Mission District, South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood of artist lofts and night clubs, restaurants and start-ups. This blend of old warehouses, culture and technology make SoMa a unique and diverse urban landscape. Its eclectic blend of energy and history serves as the inspiration for the innovative audio technology and iconic design of the Audyssey Audio Dock, South of Market Edition.

For those of you on the East Coast, think of these as the Williamsburg, Brooklyn of iPhone speakers, only much, much cleaner.

Speaking of clean–our audio analyst Tim Gideon tried the dock out and remarked how crisp the Audio Dock: South of Market Edition’s sound is, particularly in the case of speak phone calls–a place where similar docks often drop the ball. The dock features Bluetooth connectivity, letting users make calls via the iPhone or any other Bluetooth-enabled device.

There are microphones mounted on the front and rear of the device, and the included remote lets users answer the phone from afar, without touching the iPhone.

The SoMa also connects to Macs and PCs wirelessly, letting users stream music, sync to iTunes, and make calls via VoIP. A built-in BassXT subwoofer offers deep low-end sound by “monitor[ing] the low frequency signals and constantly pushes the speaker to its
maximum safe capability.”

With a five inch width and nine inch depth, the thing is pretty small–it’s not particularly cheap, however, at $399.

A company called iMainGo has combined two commonly requested tasks into a nifty little case called iMainGo 2. It is a protective case and an ultra-portable speaker in one.

Considering how much smartphones and music players cost, having a case to keep them safe is plain practical. And sometimes, we like having speakers to listen to the music without headphones. It’s about time someone thought to combine them into a single box.

Smaller than a mass trade paperback, the iMainGo 2 has a pair of 2.5W speakers on one side. It has a tuned bass port and it will connect to any 3.5mm headphone jack.

The speakers are powered by four AAA batteries.

A clear sleeve on the other side lets you see and control your device. The touchscreen functions work fine through the sleeve.

The case is made from neoprene that is waterproof.

The iMainGo 2 is currently available for $40.

The trouble with many speaker docks available today is that they support either your iPhone or your iPod, or your iPod Touch, or your iPad. With the Philips Fidelo Docking Speaker, you can attach any device with Apple’s 30-pin Dock Connector at the bottom and use the speaker system as the audio output for the device. This means if you want to play some games on your iPad or get some work done and you’d appreciate the extra sound, you can use the speaker as an iPad stand and a set of external speakers. You can just as easily remove the iPad and put your iPhone on it to charge and wake you up in the morning when it’s time to get up.

The Fidelo can function on 4 AA batteries that will power the speaker set for up to 8 hours or you can attach it to AC power for indefinite use. The device also has an aux-in jack in the back so you can dock your iPhone or iPod in the front, and then connect another media player or mobile phone using the auxiliary jack. The Fidelo will charge just about every iPod and iPhone on the market, but unfortunately it won’t charge your iPad even though it docks with it. The Philips Fidelo Docking Speaker is available now for $99.99 retail.