More New Sony Gear
Yesterday, I covered the new Sony Walkman MP3 players. Today, let’s take a look at some of hte other new audio gear from Sony.
Sony Xplod In-Dash Receivers
Sony has announced four new Xplod in-dash recievers for your car that are slated to be availabe in September. The new CDX-GT630UI, CDX-GT430IP, CDX-GT330 and CDX-GT130 receivers carry features such as HD Radio, iPod connectivity and USB ports. Check out more details on these units over at CrunchGear .
Sony SCD-XA5400ES SACD Player
It’s supposed to have the best audio quality . . . ever. For $1500, it better be. More at SlashGear .
Sony TA-DA5400ES and TA-DA3400ES AV Receivers
More ES series receivers from Sony too. The TA-DA5400ES features a 120-watt x 7 channel internal amplifier, six HDMI inputs, 2 outputs, six optical audio jacks and three sets of component inputs. Via Engadget .
Sony Walkman
The Sony Walkman is back with an attitude and loads of features. Everyone is trying to dethrone King iPod and, while, Sony’s not going to do it today, their new Walkman MP3 players are pretty cool devices.
S-Series Walkman Players
The S-Series is the top-end line of Walkman players and offers drag and drop file transfers for non-DRM files. It also has the ability to make a playlist to your liking via the new SensMe Channels - a la Pandora.
S-series Walkman players also help diminish background noise while improving your overall listening experience. The S-series Walkman players feature integrated active noise cancellation with supplied 13.5mm EX noise canceling headphones and an accessory cable that extends the noise canceling functionality of the device. On airplanes, you can connect the S-series player directly to a plane’s audio video system with the included accessory cable and enjoy regular in-flight entertainment with the bonus of high-quality noise cancellation.
E-Series Walkman Players
Like the S-series, all E-series models are format friendly, easily playing back ripped tracks from your personal music collection, music store downloads and rights-managed video clips. Non-DRM files can be transferred by “drag and drop” from online music services to Walkman players . It doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles of the S-Series, but it offers plenty of functionality for playing your MP3 collection.
B-Series Walkman Players
The ultra-portable B-Series Walkmans can connect to your PC’s USB port for easy "drag and drop" file transfers. Like all other Walkman models, open support for Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 codecs enables users to buy, copy and manage music to fit their needs. Again, these are for budget-minded consumers, but still play the music.
Boston Acoustics’ Horizon i-DS2 iPod Speaker System
Finally, an iPod Dock Worthy of Playing your Favorite Music!
Stylish and Compact System Lets Users Share their iPod ® Music in Rich High-Performance Stereo, with Deep Powerful Bass
PEABODY, Mass. - Boston Acoustics, Inc., a world-renowned manufacturer of high-performance loudspeakers, today announced the introduction of the Horizon i-DS 2 iPod Speaker System (MAP: $179.99), a stylish and compact solution for bringing the music of any Apple® iPod® to life in great room-filling stereo sound. With built-in dual 3 1/2” full-range speakers and 60 watts of dynamic power, the Horizon i-DS2 is a high performance system with deep powerful bass and crisp clean stereo sound that lets users dock and charge their iPods while listening to their favorite music. And reflecting Boston Acoustics’ Play Smart™ attitude, the i-DS2 features the company’ s innovative P.O.P. design concept, which lets users quickly and easily change the look of their unit to match any room’ s dé cor using a variety of different colored speaker grilles. Read more
CD Quality MP3 Audio From Pioneer
I am sure there are a lot of you audio buffs out there like me that are disappointed at times in the audio quality of our mp3 players. Pioneer has a patented technology in many of there products that restores much of the clarity of the compressed audio of our mp3’s called Advanced Sound Retriever.
A typical compressed audio track from your iPod is usually encoded at 128 or 256kbps. To scale down the size of each song, much of the high frequency information and harmonic frequencies is often cut out. This means that, depending on the bit rate of the compressed audio file, you’re usually only listening to a fraction of the information present in the original studio recording.
The Police Final Performance…EVER!
We are now two days away from the final concert from The Police at Madison Square Garden on August 7, 2008. If you have been unable to score tickets or just aren’t able to go, Best Buy has a great solution. They are going to stream live footage via bestbuy.com so fans can take part in The Police concert event of a lifetime.
Best Buy Webcast Press Release
MINNEAPOLIS, August 4, 2008 - Thirty years after their first American tour, one of the biggest bands in rock history, The Police will play their final show at Madison Square Garden in New York City on August 7. Fans unable to obtain coveted final performance tickets will now have the opportunity to be a part of this historic evening thanks to an exclusive webcast presented by Best Buy. Fans are invited to share the band’s final moments on stage, live from the comfort of their own homes.
After fifteen months of touring, The Police will take to the stage one last time in New York on August 7, 2008 as a benefit for New York Public Television. Best Buy will be on-site to document the band’s historic final moments on stage and will exclusively stream live footage of their final encore on BestBuy.com hosted by pop culture correspondent Lauren Scala. To view the live footage, fans should log on to www.BestBuy.com/ThePolice at 10:45 PM EST.
“At Best Buy we understand how passionate our consumers are about music and we are thrilled to be able to share these once in a lifetime moments with those who do not have the opportunity to be at the concert in-person” said Gary Arnold, senior entertainment officer for Best Buy.
In addition to the live webcast, which includes three of the last four songs in the encore, Best Buy will begin the presale of an exclusive DVD/CD set, “The Police: Certifiable”. The set features the band’s entire concert from Buenos Aires as well as bonus footage, available in a 2 DVD/2CD standard format or a 1 DVD/2CD Blu-ray format. Also available is a three LP premium vinyl set with an MP3 file key (a one-time free download of entire album).
You can check out more about The Police at www.thepolice.com.
