Bang & Olufsen has announced the Beolit 20, its successor to the well-regarded Beolit 17 portable Bluetooth speaker. The company says that it delivers true 360-degree sound …
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Danish hifi manufacturer Bang & Olufsen has launched its most portable Bluetooth speaker to date: the P2 …
Bluetooth speakers are so ubiquitous that, to be honest, my eyes have a tendency to glaze over at the mention of yet another one. The Soundcast VG1, however, caught my attention because its earlier – and more expensive – Melody speaker got rave reviews.
The VG1 looked, on paper, to be the holy grail of highly-portable outdoor speakers, claiming good sound quality, decent volume, long battery-life and true IP67 waterproofing at a relatively affordable $150. The question was: could it deliver in practice … ?
Ultimate Ears’ Boom & Megaboom speakers have consistently been rated highly in our Bluetooth speaker roundups and reviews, and the company has just advised us of a new feature coming today. You were previously able to pair two of the speakers for either stereo use or just louder mono, but a firmware and app update will now allow you to link up to 50 of them.
With schools about to break up the the summer holidays, now would be a great time to line up some activities to keep them entertained – and Bose has come up with an interesting-looking option. The BoseBuild speaker is a $149 Bluetooth speaker that kids build themselves from prefabricated parts. Instructions are provided by a companion iOS app.
The build itself looks pretty basic, but there are a whole bunch of activities along the way that teach kids how a speaker works – from the fundamentals of how sound is created through to frequencies and waveforms …
The KEF Egg digital wireless speaker system certainly lives up to its name. The shape of the speakers are a peculiar half-egg shape that make you question whether or not you should take them seriously.
A quick listen, and that question is answered with authority. Despite the peculiar look, these speakers mean business in the sound department.
Not only do these speakers sound good, but they also work well in a variety of different environments and with a variety of sources. KEF Egg is a Bluetooth speaker, a Hi-Fi USB speaker, and features traditional optical input as well. This means that the Egg works well in a bedroom, an office environment, or even in the living room.
At $499, these speakers are anything but cheap, but if you’re searching for a pair of flexible speakers possessing high-end sound, then the KEF Egg might be worth saving up for.
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Naim Audio isn’t a household name outside of audiophile circles, but this British company has for many years made some of the most respected amplifiers in the business. Naim long had an informal partnership with Linn, and if the standard audio system fitted to Bentley’s ultra-expensive cars isn’t good enough for you, the optional audio upgrade is to a Naim system. You’ll also find it available through the Apple Store.
The company is notoriously conservative when it comes to new technology, refusing to even consider making a CD player for most of the 1980s, relenting only in 1989, when it felt the technology had developed sufficiently to allow it to deliver the quality it sought. It’s therefore no surprise that Naim has waited so long to launch its first wireless speaker system, the mu-so – nor that it has done the job properly when it finally did so.
The price is also no great surprise …
From 9to5Toys.com:
Update: Looks like Best Buy and Amazon both killed the deal. Hope you guys got in early!
Amazon and Best Buy offer the Beats Pill+ in Black (Best Buy also offers White) for $137.99 with free shipping. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on Apple’s new Bluetooth speaker by quite a bit (it was discounted $30 to $200 on Black Friday). It comes with soft carrying case, 1.5m Lightning to USB-A charging cable and 12.5W PSU. Read our full review for an in-depth look at this stylish speaker.
Better yet, grab 2 and the price for each drops to just $117/ea at Best Buy which is pretty much BoGo. Note Amazon might take a 1-2 days for processing but both promise to deliver in time for Christmas.
In addition to tonight’s Beats deal, Best Buy is also discounting several other Apple products down to all-time low prices. Highlights include $300 off the all-new 12-inch MacBook, $100 off Apple Watch, $125 off iPad Air 2, and iPhone 6s for just $1 on-contract.
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At the start of the week we saw Apple officially pull the plug on Beats Music after using it as the foundation for Apple Music which includes a streaming radio station dubbed Beats 1 as a salute. On the hardware front, Apple is totally marching forward with the headphone and speaker business it acquired after buying Beats for $3 billion a year and a half ago. The first totally new product to come from Apple under the Beats brand is the recently announced Beats Pill+ ($195, reg. $229), a portable Bluetooth speaker that recharges over Lightning like iPhones and iPads.
The Pill+ marks Apple’s first real step back into the speaker business since briefly entering it in with the iPod Hi-Fi from 2006 to 2007; aside from color variations and wireless models, all other Beats hardware has been designed before the Apple move. Still, Apple’s new portable speaker resembles previous versions of Beats hardware more than you might expect from the iPhone maker in 2015. There’s even a companion Pill+ app for both iOS and Android. And even though this is clearly a Beats-branded product and not purely Apple, there’s something for fans of both to like, but is it the best speaker in its class?
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Bowers & Wilkins, maker of the iconic Zeppelin speaker and its AirPlay sequel Zeppelin Air, today announced an upgraded model with even more horsepower and features: Zeppelin Wireless ($700). The original $600 Zeppelin redefined “high-end iPod speakers” at a time when Bose and Klipsch had established a $300 to $400 price ceiling, successfully upping the ante in both sound quality and industrial design.
Zeppelin Wireless retains B&W’s classic elongated football shape and five-speaker concept, but now relies entirely on wireless streaming for audio, boasting Bluetooth aptX, AirPlay, and Spotify Connect support. Backed by 150 Watts of amplifier power, a new twice-as-powerful digital signal processor upsamples all inputs to 24-bit/192kHz resolution, promising to deliver greater accuracy, lower noise, and enhanced dynamic range through an audiophile-quality DAC. The speakers and enclosure have been upgraded, as well…
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VIZIO 49-inch 120Hz 4K LED Smart HDTV $600 (Reg. $720), 43-inch $548 or $528 w/ Prime (Reg. $599)
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VIZIO 49-inch 120Hz 4K LED Smart HDTV $600 (Reg. $720), 43-inch $548 or $528 w/ Prime (Reg. $599)
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If you want a Wi-Fi-based multi-room audio system, you so far haven’t had many alternatives to the market leader, Sonos. Other manufacturers offer their own solutions, but generally only in a handful of products. That looks set to change as Yamaha today announced that its MusicCast system will be supported by more than 20 products, with pricing starting from $250. That includes all but one of its 2015 receivers, reports CNET.
Unlike Sonos, MusicCast supports five different lossless audio formats, including Apple Lossless, FLAC and WAV. It’s controlled by an iOS app, which can stream both your own music library and services like Spotify, Pandora and Rhapsody. Support for Apple Music seems likely further down the road …
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Seagate Expansion 5TB USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive: $110 shipped (Reg. $130), more http://t.co/MX0Sx068Qb pic.twitter.com/iI1LeOQUPW
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WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive: $70 shipped (Reg. $100), more http://t.co/MX0Sx068Qb pic.twitter.com/XppZTF5hGu
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) July 21, 2015
We’ve reviewed a great many Bluetooth speakers over the years – I half-suspect Seth has built an extension to his home out of them. I’ve generally not been tempted myself. If I’m at home, I’m either streaming to the hifi in the living-room, or playing through the (wired) B&W MM-1s in my office. If I’m out & about, I’m listening through my B&W P5 headphones.
But there are times when you get chatting with friends about music and you all try to listen to an example on the iPhone speaker, and that doesn’t really cut it. A very portable speaker with a decent enough volume level for a few people to hear would be handy.
While I’m generally pretty fussy about sound quality, this scenario isn’t enough to justify investing in anything expensive, but this one looked the part and for $55 (down from $99) it seemed worth a listen …
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