FiiO’s KB3 adds DAC and headphone amplifier to RGB 75% Keyboard

Whether you’re a gamer struggling with desktop space or work from home and need better audio, FiiO’s KB3 mechanical keyboard may be what you are looking for.

Sporting a gamer-friendly 75% layout, this tenkeyless (TKL) mechanical keyboard, the FiiO KB3 adds a shock-absorbent gasket mount design on an aluminium-magnesium alloy base and Gateron G Pro 3.0 yellow switches with semi-transparent swappable keycaps that expose the RGB lighting beneath into the mix. The keys and switches are also hot-swappable, enabling you to find the perfect set-up. So far, this sounds like the basics of any gaming board.

Even the 3.5mm headphone port in the keyboard isn’t new territory; I remember Razer at least doing so. However, where the KB3 comes into its own is that headphone output is not just at the end of an analogue passthrough; audio, in fact, is treated to a DAC and headphone amplifier built into the FiiO keyboard.

Crunching the numbers are dual Cirrus Logic CS43131 DACs supporting up to 32-bit / 384kHz and DSD256 audio, helped along by a pair of low-noise SGM8262 op-amps producing a claimed 550mW. Alongside the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, you also get a 4.4mm balanced output. Not too shabby, then.

Finally, two USB A and a USB C port around the rear of the board round things off.

Available in Midnight Black / Morning Silver, the FiiO KB3 Hi-Fi Keyboard with built-in DAC/Amp is available now, priced at £139 / $149 / €169.

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Studio JTM – The Amp That Started it All Returns

The Marshall JTM returns in a more compact, lightweight package to honour what would have been Jim Marshall’s 100th birthday and to pay homage to the first Marshall amp.

Inspired by the JTM first produced in 1962, the new Studio JTM brings the modern player the same legendary warm, smooth tone that inspired generations of musicians to launch their musical visions onto the world.

The new Studio JTM range includes a 20W head, 20W combo amp, 1 x 12″ and 2 x 12″ cabs. They come adorned with period-correct aesthetics such as the famous red enamel poured “coffin” logo and luxurious fawn fret.

The original JTM45 was heavily praised by Gary Moore, Richie Blackmore and Angus Young for granting more tone, gain and grit to their sound. You can expect that same ethos behind the creation of the Studio JTM, having recreated the sound of the JTM in immaculate detail. Moreover, the Studio JTM range is handmade in Marshall’s world-class UK factory in Milton Keynes.

Terry Marshall, Jim Marshall‘s son and creator of the original JTM45, told GadgetyNews:

When I was demonstrated the Studio JTM, and it took me back to my original JTM45; it was my sound…I feel like it is going to be something special.

Modern Convenience – Classic Sound

The Studio JTM features many of the same components that helped define the iconic tone, from the ECC83 preamp values, 5881 power amp valves, ECC83 phase splitter and G12M-65 Creamback Celestion speakers, resulting in a unique blend of warm, growling and versatile sound.

Marhsall’s new design features a smaller footprint and more lightweight offerings than its historical counterpart without compromising sound quality. This results in easy transportation and more applications for the busy musician, especially as the Studio JTM boasts built-in power reduction technology, allowing players to switch between 20W and 5W settings.

Additionally, you will find an FX Loop and DI out, enabling you to add FX and external recording to personalise your playing experience further.

The Marshall Studio JTM range is available now with suggested retail pricing coming at £1,075 for the ST20H 20W head, £1,279 for the ST20C 20W combo, while the ST112 1×12″ cabinet is priced at £565, and the ST212 2×12″ cab costs £765.

Visit Marshall Amps for more information

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Oppo’s Find N2 Flip Lands in The UK

The Oppo Find N2 Flip may well draw comments regarding its similarity with Samsung’s Z Flip 4, but there is lots to like about the N2 Flip.

Firstly, and the most striking difference, is the N2 Flip’s 3.26-inch portrait cover screen. Not only does this trump the Z Flip 4’s slim landscape display in size, it actually looks more like a regular smartphone screen. While we can all agree that size isn’t important (right?), the larger Oppo display enables it to show more notifications at a time (up to six) and offers a larger preview viewfinder for those crucial selfies.

On the subject of cameras, the Oppo Find N2 Flip boasts a 50MP (f/1.8) Sony IMX890 main sensor sitting on top of an 8MP ultrawide unit with input from Hasselblad. In addition, a third camera can be found inside, above the 6.8-inch inner OLED display. This has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz (the cover screen maxes out at 60Hz), and Oppo says that the N2 Flip has “the smallest crease in any flip phone yet”.

The Find N2 Flip uses what Oppo calls a “Flexion” hinge with an “improved waterdrop design”, which the company says is thinner, smaller and stronger than the previous hinge found inside the original Find N launched last year. However, it never made it beyond the Chinese market.

Finally, the Find N2 Flip is powered by a MediaTek 9000+ chipset and has a 4,300mAh battery.

Oppo Find N2 Flip UK Prices

Priced at £849 to buy outright from Amazon, the Oppo Find N2 Flip is also available from Vodafone starting at £36 a month (£49 upfront cost) with 8GB of data on a 36-month device plan and a 24-month airtime plan. Voda also adds that you can save up to £240 on your airtime plan if you order the Find N2 Flip before 30 March.

O2 starts at £30.00 upfront and then £42.30 per month for 36 months which gets you 30GB of data.

Plans on EE start at £58 a month. If you’re considering that, you may as well add another £7 and get a massive 165GB of data on EE’s Essential Plan.

It’s still cheaper than Samsung’s flippable phone. Tempted? Find more information at Oppo or head to Amazon to buy SIM free.

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Victrola Stream Carbon Turntable for Sonos

Victrola has unveiled its Stream Carbon turntable – a wireless vinyl experience for music lovers with Sonos in their homes.

The Victrola Stream Carbon requires no additional equipment to connect it to your Sonos ecosystem, resulting in effortless setup and easy control via the Sonos app.

The turntable marries a “premium and elegant design” synonymous with Sonos speakers and promises “the best physical and digital music experiences for Sonos owners” as this new record player is certified by the Works with Sonos program.

After a simple setup process via the Victrola Stream app, you can control the Victrola Stream Carbon turntable from the Sonos app or the illuminated control knob. In addition, you can send and control the music volume from a record to any Sonos speaker in your home, just as you can with digital music.

Scott Hagen, CEO of Victrola, told GadgetyNews:

Consumers told us they would listen to music even more if they could play their favourite records through their Sonos system, using their Sonos app. It was with this in mind that led us to working with team members at Sonos on a multi-year journey that resulted in the coolest music product I have ever had the opportunity to help bring to market. We are proud of how easy to set up and use the Victrola Stream Carbon is, but we are even more proud of the reaction we see when someone listens to records with friends or family through their Sonos system.

The Victrola Stream Carbon utilises the highest quality materials, including a low-resonance veneer plinth with premium metal turntable components and a carbon fibre tonearm with a custom-designed removable headshell. Furthermore, the Victrola Stream Carbon comes loaded with an Ortofon Red 2M moving magnet cartridge.

The flagship Victrola Stream Carbon is now available in the UK, priced at £899/ €1000, following last year’s successful launch in the US. Additional products in the Stream turntable line will be announced in the coming months.

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Best Dolby Atmos Soundbars 2023

With all streaming services supporting 4K and multiple HDR formats, which most new LED and OLED TVs feature, they are now focussing on improving the audio experience.

All streaming services support various forms of surround sound, 5.1 is the standard, but that’s old-fashioned nowadays.

What is Dolby Atmos?

The new go-to surround sound format is Dolby Atmos, which adds two additional speakers higher up, which allows the sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects in a much more natural way.

Dolby Atmos typically has two front-height channels, but more advanced systems can add them to the rear as well.

Which streaming services support Dolby Atmos?

Currently, Netflix has either Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 or Dolby Atmos. Apple TV can do PCM Multichannel (up to 7.1), Dolby Digital 5.1, or Stereo.

Disney+ plans to take things to the next level by adding IMAX signature sound by DTS to select Marvel films and more in 2023. This is in addition to the IMAX Expanded Aspect Ratio they have already rolled out, which reduces the black bars in certain scenes.

The IMAX signature sound has a bit of a vague description stating it will enable an elevated end-to-end experience specially calibrated to provide fans at home with IMAX-quality pictures and sound.

However, the DTS that underpins this technology is well established. DTS has a wide range of technologies going up to DTS-HD Master Audio which supports a virtually unlimited number of surround sound channels and lossless 24-bit, 192 kHz audio.

However, with all these fancy sound formats, how do you enjoy them without investing in an overly complex (and expensive) multi-speaker and AV receiver?

Surround Sound Soundbars

Thankfully, there are a growing number of soundbars that support a lot of these advanced sound formats.

Different brands achieve this in different ways. Some companies have dedicated rear speakers and a subwoofer, while others contain all the speakers within the soundbar. Most of these will attempt to virtualise the surround in some way; it is not as effective as having seven (or more) speakers and subwoofer woofer dotted around your home, but it is much more convenient.

For the best performance, the price of these soundbars can get expensive, but they are a worthwhile investment if you have spent a lot of money on a large TV and want a quality home cinema experience.

The best surround sound soundbars with Dolby Atmos & more

James, at Mighty Gadget has compiled a list of the best surround sound soundbars on the market.

Sonos Beam Gen 2 – £425

The Beam Gen 2 is probably one of the best semi-affordable options that support Dolby Atmos. However, you will need to pair it up with rear speakers if you want to enjoy the surround sound experience properly.

Beam Gen 2 supports stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (both the Digital+ and TrueHD versions), multichannel PCM and Dolby Multichannel PCM. Decoding for DTS digital surround will be later, but there will be no DTS:X.

The Beam has a single eARC port which allows it to receive the highest-quality audio formats.

Samsung HW-Q800B – 5.1.2 channel – £749

The Samsung HW-Q800B is not exactly cheap, but it is one of the most affordable options that claim to support full surround sound with Dolby Atmos. The speaker configuration is 5.1.2, and you have Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Similar to the Sonos Beam, there is a single eARC HDMI port.

There is also the Samsung HW-Q930B, priced at £949. This is the next model up. The main advantage is that you get two dedicated rear channels which have two up-firing and four side-firing speakers. This claims to have a 9.1.4-channel sound which should give you a sense of height from the rear channels.

LG Soundbar S80QR – 5.1.3 channel – £999

The LG S80QR has a bit of an odd surround sound design with a 5.1.3 channel arrangement. The soundbar sits at the front which has three upwards-firing channels. The central upwards channel is a world first for soundbars.

It is then paired with dedicated rear speakers, which have a dedicated receiver which then connects wirelessly to the soundbar.

This supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X to recreate the 3D effect of sound from above. It then has Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and more, covering almost any need. It is also certified for IMAX Enhanced, which LG states will provide deeper bass and more dynamic sound for edge-of-seat sonic thrills.

This then has two HDMI ports, one with eARC and one input for another device. Sadly, the input HDMI is not  HDMI 2.1, so the soundbar does not support 4K at 120Hz on its input port.

Sony HT-A7000 – 7.1.2 channel – £1099

This is an all-in-one soundbar that claims to do 7.1.2. It has two up-firing speakers, two beam tweeters and five front speakers. There’s also a built-in dual subwoofer for added bass.

Sony calls their virtual surround 360 Spatial Sound, which is a similar technology to the spatial sound that’s used on the PS5.

You can upgrade this system for better performance. There is an optional SA-SW3 or SA-SW5 subwoofer. Then for the rear, you have the optional SA-RS3S or SA-RS5S wireless rear speakers.

Sound support includes Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD Master Audio and many more.

There are two HDMI ports. Both are HDMI 2.1, with one having eARC. This means you can use the input port for a PS5, Xbox Series X, or gaming PC and enjoy 4K 120Hz.

Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus – 7.1.4 – £1299

The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus is the only all-in-one 7.1.4 channel soundbar on the market. If you don’t want the inconvenience of multiple speakers and a subwoofer, this is the best way to enjoy surround sound formats.

With it being all in one, the surround sound is virtualised, but it is highly effective. You may not be able to pinpoint the exact location of the sound, but it is impressive how the sound seems to come at you from multiple directions.

You can also expand the system with any subwoofer using the RCA out or the dedicated wireless Sennheiser sub.

Audio compatibility includes Atmos, DTS:X and more.

This has three HDMI ports, but only the eARC port is HDMI 2.1; the other two are HDMI 2.0a, therefore not compatible with 4K 120Hz.

The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX is also worth considering. It has a superior speaker design with 13 speakers in total but only has one HDMI port which supports eARC. It has been out for a few years now, but it is their flagship product and is priced accordingly at £1800.

Samsung HW-Q990B Soundbar – 11.1.4 channel – £1299

The Samsung HW-Q990B is the same price as the Sennheiser AMBEO Plus, but it takes a different approach.

You have the soundbar, two dedicated rears and a subwoofer. There are a total of 22 speakers plus the wireless sub, which allows this to achieve an 11.1.4 channel sound. You’d struggle to do that with separates!

It is basically an upgraded HW-Q930B. The rear speakers are the same design, with two up-firing and four side-firing speakers. The soundbar then has the usual left, centre, and right speakers. Then two up-firing speakers. It then improves surround sound performance with two side-firing speakers and two angled speakers, which they claim to be able to direct the sound in from the side of your listening position.

Sound support includes Atmos, Dolby MAT, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby True HD.

You have three HDMI ports. One HDMI 2.1 eARC, but the other two lack support for 4K 120Hz and variable refresh rate signals.

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Berluti x Bang & Olufsen Collaborate For Luxury Audio Visual Line

Parisian maker of fashionable leather goods, Berluti, and Danish luxury audio brand Bang & Olufsen have collaborated for a limited-edition collection of products.

Perfect for urban travellers and digital nomads, Beosound A1 2nd Gen Berluti Edition, Beoplay H95 Berluti Edition, and Berluti’s Sound Pouch are ideal for carrying on the go.

Rounding off the collection are a trio of decidedly non-portable special editions in the form of the Beosound Balance Berluti Edition, Beovision Harmony and Beolab 90.

Beosound A1 2nd Gen Berluti Edition

Bang & Olufsen’s second-gen portable Bluetooth speaker is waterproof, dustproof and boasts up to 18 hours of battery play time.

The 360-degree omnidirectional speaker sports a three-microphone array and Alexa baked-in.

The minimalist design in Grey Mist features a large Berluti logo on top of the speaker, while a Berluti calf leather cord in shiny dark brown tones aids the A1’s portability. There is also an aluminium tag with the Bang & Olufsen logo laser engraved on one side and the Berluti logo on the other. The aluminium tag is completed with a mirror-polished finish, drawing inspiration from Berluti’s ready to wear accessory trimmings.

Beoplay H95 Berluti Edition

First launched in 2020, the H95 are arguably the Danish brand’s finest wireless headphones. Upgrading these comfortable noise-cancelling headphones is a headband featuring Berluti’s trademark Venezia leather with a TDM Intenso patina and the Maison’s embossed logo.

The dark brown soft lambskin ear cushions match the Berluti Venezia leather headband, creating a cohesive expression. The aluminium discs have been engraved with the Berluti logo on the left-hand side and the Bang & Olufsen logo on the right. The headphones are housed in a black aluminium case where you’ll find more laser engraved logos.

Berluti Sound Pouch

Berluti has created a dedicated pouch that can comfortably cosset either the Beosound A1 speaker or the Beoplay H95 headphones.

Made with Berluti’s Signature Canvas – a motif blending Berluti’s new logo and the undulating strokes of the iconic Scritto – and featuring a patinated Venezia leather tag, it is ideal for safe carrying.

Beosound Balance Berluti Edition

Bang & Olufsen’s home object-inspired speaker features a hidden touch interface that lights up when approached and comes with Google Assistant and supports Apple Airplay2, Spotify Connect and Google Chromecast.

Seven carefully placed speaker drivers with beam-forming technology hands you the option of powerful and room-filling sound for everyday listening and sound directivity for precise and immersive music experiences.

Patinated by hand, Berluti’s Venezia leather is wrapped around the wooden base of Balance, creating a distinct finish and manufactured with Berluti’s artisanal know-how. The fabric has a dark knit with a touch of brown to match the leather base, which has been embossed with both logos and includes fine stitching around the base’s edge to create a touch of elegance. The top plate and grill come in natural aluminium for a high contrast and exclusive highlight to the darker materials.

Beolab 90 Berluti Edition

Featuring 8,200 watts of musical power, Beolab 90 adapts to its surroundings and your preferred listening modes to create an unprecedented level of musical power and precision, says the Danish audio brand.

The base of the aluminium speaker is customised with Berluti’s Venezia leather – with a TDM Intenso patina to create a bold design statement and, funnily enough, is the perfect match for Beovision Harmony Berluti Edition.

Beovision Harmony Berluti Edition

Originally unveiled at Milan Design Week in 2019, the 77-inch TV folds down into a sculptural shape with the panels partially covering the screen. When you want to watch something, these wings fan out and elevate the screen above them to perfect viewing height.

Featuring an LG 4k resolution OLED screen and motorised floor stand, infused in Berluti’s DNA through exceptionally fine, perforated and patinated Venezia leather covering the speaker panels, it offers a unique interactive experience, we are reliably informed.

A Berluti representative told GadgetyNews:

Berluti and Bang & Olufsen are a perfect match, bringing together a common passion for excellence. Bang & Olufsen’s cutting-edge philosophy, technological innovation and state-of-the-art design run parallel to the Maison’s focus on craftsmanship and its continually evolving lifestyle collection.

Christoffer Poulsen, SVP of Product Management & Brand Partnering at Bang & Olufsen, added:

For nearly a century, Bang & Olufsen has been pushing the boundaries of audio technology, and the company continues to sit at the forefront of acoustic innovation. Together with Berluti, we are bringing the best of artisanship to the fore with our expertise in sound and design and Berluti’s knowledge in leather craftsmanship to create a truly remarkable collection.

The Berluti edition Beoplay H95 (£1,100), Beosound A1 (£320), Beosound Balance (£3,200) and Sound Pouch (£450) will be available in limited quantities from May 28th 2021 at Bang & Olufsen at Harrods, Berluti at Harrods, Berluti Conduit Street and Mr Porter, as well as online at www.bang-olufsen.com. The made-to-order Beovision Harmony (£32,800) and Beolab 90 (£97,000) will be available to order from May 28th and showcased in select Berluti and Bang & Olufsen stores.

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Huawei Watch 3 Series and new MatePad Pro Launched with HarmonyOS 2

Huawei has launched a range of smartwatches and tablets powered by its new HarmonyOS 2 operating system, including the Huawei Watch 3 Series and the Huawei MatePad Pro.

Harmony OS has been in the pipeline for a while, but now it’s hitting the ground running in its 2.0 flavour as it is powering a raft of new products.

Huawei is pinning its hopes on HarmonyOS as becoming the Android slayer where BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone, Firefox OS, et al failed. Naturally, the company has had its hand somewhat forced thanks to the ongoing political situation between the USA and China.

Harmony OS first appeared on some IoT devices and the much publicised Smart TVs. Now 2.0 boasts apps that will appear on the brand’s Huawei smartphones, such as the P40 and Mate 40, as well as tablets and watches.

HUAWEI Watch 3 Series

Huawei’s brand-new flagship smartwatch, the Huawei Watch 3 Series, features a curved glass 1.43-inch circular AMOLED display that totes a 326ppi pixel density and 316L stainless steel case. There is also a brand-new 3D rotating crown that senses different pressure levels and provides haptic feedback in response to user input.

Naturally, there are stacks of health and fitness tracking baked in, too. The Huawei Watch 3 Series supports more than 100 workout modes. In addition to a broad range of healthcare support options, the watch can now monitor skin temperature with a new, high-precision temperature sensor. It also supports fall detection and SOS functions so that you can monitor and manage another user’s health in real-time.

The Huawei Watch 3 Pro has a quoted battery life of 21 days in ultra-long battery life mode or five in smart mode, whereas the Huawei Watch 3 can last three days in smart mode and 14 days in ultra-long battery life mode.

Connectivity comes through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, and eSIM, enabling you to make and receive phone calls and listen to music using the same phone number and data plan as your smartphone.

Pre-orders run from June 2nd to 17th in the UK, with the Watch 3 going on sale on June 18th priced at £349.99. As for the Pro model, that costs £499.99, and pre-orders are active between June 2nd and 27th, with the watch becoming available on June 27th.

Those who place a pre-order with a deposit – £20 for the Watch 3, £50 for the Watch 3 Pro – will get that money off their watch of choice at purchase and will be able to redeem a pair of the company’s FreeBuds Pro true-wireless earphones at the same time.

HUAWEI MatePad Pro

We’re told that the new Huawei MatePad Pro features a 12.6-inch OLED FullView Display and has bragging rights to a 90% screen-to-body ratio, the highest among all tablets currently available on the market, they say. 

Every display comes with a Delta-E colour difference of less than 0.5 for incredibly high colour accuracy. It promises to deliver a crisp, colour-accurate picture that is on par with professional monitors. The Huawei MatePad Pro also has an ultra-high contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and supports a DCI-P3 colour gamut.

Loaded with Kirin 9000 series chipsets, the MatePad Pro should deliver the goods as it is also supported by the distributed data management and task scheduling capabilities of HarmonyOS. This means that the tablet can work together seamlessly with smartphones and PCs to double your productivity and creativity in different scenarios, “whether you’re in the office or at the drawing board”.

The nifty MatePad Pro also supports multi-screen collaboration with PCs and supports cross-device file dragging and dropping, delivering a more efficient and collaborative multi-device experience.

The second-generation M-Pencil was also unveiled together with the MatePad Pro. The new smartpen features a new platinum-coated nib for high-precision handwriting and ultra-low latency, accurately differentiating between 4,096 levels of force. 

The MatePad Pro is available for £499.99 and comes with a free keyboard cover and mini speaker when purchased directly from the Huawei website.

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Steinway & Sons’ SPIRIO | r is the pianola of the iPad generation

Steinway & Sons’ SPIRIO | r could well be the most advanced pianola available right now. Alternatively, it could be seen as possibly being the largest hi-res audio player currently available. Either way, we dare to say that it is unique.

Steinway & Sons is a legendary piano maker and has been plying its trade since 1853. Additionally, this renowned company has contributed to many innovative evolutions of piano technologies throughout the years.

SPIRIO | r – The Evolution

This piano-based evolution started back in 2015 with Steinway & Sons’ introduction of SPIRIO, a high-resolution player piano. By simply using an iPad, you could access a vast, ever-growing library of music, virtually indistinguishable from live performances played by renowned international pianists. Naturally, you could always play the piano yourself, too.

The SPIRIO music library currently consists of more than 4,000 pieces, and each month, the content available on the SPIRIO app grows.

With SPIRIO | r, pianists now can record, edit, playback, search and save their performances in Steinway’s proprietary high-resolution format.

SPIRIO | r is designed to give artists and engineers intuitive controls in multiple file formats, including SPIRIO high-resolution, MIDI and MP3 high quality sampled audio. Native to the SPIRIO app, the SPIRIO editor provides the world’s only advanced iPad-based high-resolution editing capabilities to SPIRIO files. We are told that this preserves all the music and enables you to edit every nuance of your SPIRIO recordings.

SPIRIO | r integrates into multiple musical environments through various forms of connectivity, and the flexibility of remote firmware updates enables users to easily add future features as they are released.

SPIRIO | r is available in a model D-274, the concert grand of Steinway & Sons, and model B-211 via the authorised Steinway & Sons dealer family, the latter priced at £127,000. The Limited Edition Black Masterpiece (which has just launched and includes Spirio r technology) costs £262,500.

The post Steinway & Sons SPIRIO | r Self-Playing Piano appeared first on GadgetyNews.

Tascam celebrates 50 years of home recording

Tascam is one of those brands that almost every musician of a certain age will recognise. To me and countless others, Tascam will always be synonymous with its 4-track Portastudio. As a wannabe guitarist who later ‘bloomed’ to become a mediocre bass player, the Tascam Portastudio was the stuff of legend. Around the mid-eighties to mid-nineties, the Portastudio was the best way to get demos down. Using mine, I recorded demos to join such bands as Queen Adreena (nearly got that one, too!) and Cradle of Filth, amongst many other more local outfits. 

It’s time to put on your best dancing pants and celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tascam – the company that effectively invented if not revolutionised home studio.

It is no exaggeration to state that Tascam has irrevocably influenced the way people make music. From the 4-track Portastudio to the Emmy Award-winning DA-88 digital multitrack recorder, on to the company’s Model series recording mixers and beyond, Tascam has redefined audio production at all levels – from the home enthusiast to high-end production facilities and leading installations around the world.

Tascam’s heritage dates back to the late 1960s when the Tani brothers, who were both engineers, and Dr Abe, a senior engineer at TEAC, formed a special R&D group named TASC (TEAC Audio Systems Corp.). TASC’s focus was to research ways to apply TEAC’s recording technology to musicians and recording studios. 

In 1971, Tascam (TASC AMerica Corp.) was established to distribute TASC products in the USA and conduct additional market research. In 1974, Tascam was absorbed by the rapidly growing TEAC Corp. of America sales and distribution company, and Tascam became the official brand name of all TEAC recording products designed specifically for musicians and recording studios.

The Tascam name has a rich history in terms of its technological achievements and the artists and engineers who have used Tascam products. 

For instance, the Tascam 80-8 tape deck was a half-inch, open-reel 8-track audio recorder and was used to record the voices of R2-D2 and C-3PO in the making of the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, in 1977. 

In more recent history, singer/songwriter/actress Lady Gaga‘s father gifted her a Portastudio when she was around 11 years old. Reflecting on the gift, she said, “I could just sit at the piano and hook up a mic and record by myself. That’s probably the best gift that my dad ever gave me.”

Similarly, Bruce Springsteen used a Portastudio 144 to record what would ultimately become 1982’s album Nebraska. 

Tascam products have literally been used on tens of thousands of recordings and hundreds of gold and platinum records.

Throughout 2021, Tascam users and prospective customers will have much to look forward to. There are various promotions planned where music aficionados will have the opportunity to expand their equipment arsenals. Of course, Tascam will introduce new products in 2021 and beyond that address a wide range of applications. 

From a musician who turns 50 this year to the maker of products that has helped start and shape so many musical careers, happy half-century Tascam!

Check out the special 50th-anniversary page on Tascam’s website for messages and special features.

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Naim’s Mu-so 2nd Generation all-in-one gets wood

Naim’s Mu-so Wood Edition promises to be a stylish addition to homes whose owners are looking for a lighter, more natural aesthetic from their audio equipment. As Spring seems to have finally sprung here in the UK, could this timber-wrapped Naim Mu-so 2nd Edition be just the thing to help lighten your musical mood?

Naim Audio’s Mu-so 2nd Generation is a great performing all-in-one wireless speaker that works great for music and also doubles up as a rather excellent soundbar to bolster audio from your TV via HDMI ARC. Understandably, then, it already has plenty of fans, but today the Salisbury-based firm has announced a rather eye-catching variant.

READ THE NAIM MU-SO 2ND GEN REVIEW HERE

The Naim Mu-so Wood Edition “blends superb performance with exquisite styling,” boasts the company. Dressed in sustainable Ayous hardwood that has been treated and lacquered to give the appearance of a Light Oak finish, this Mu-so appears a little softer than its more industrially chic siblings.

The iconic Mu-so heatsink has also been refreshed with a new anodised aluminium tint. Pulling all of this together is a neutral-toned, woven front grille.

This new Wood finish is an ideal match for lighter-look interiors – allowing you to seamlessly enjoy harmonious style and sound throughout your home, from the living room to the kitchen, home office to the bedroom.

Naim Product Manager, Stuart Brown, told GadgetyNews:

Blending class-leading performance and timeless design with a luxurious new finish, Mu-so Wood Edition is the perfect premium audio companion for homes with classic or contemporary interiors.

Business As Usual

Of course, underneath its more natural and neutral wrapping, you still get all the technology that has made the Mu-so 2nd Generation so popular such as superlative wireless streaming from your favourite music services. Using the Naim App, you have access to Spotify Connect, TIDAL and Qobuz, while Chromecast Built-in gives access to Deezer, Google Play Music and much more, including Google Assistant compatibility. AirPlay 2 support adds Apple Music streaming and Apple Home integration, including Siri voice control potential. It also works as a Bluetooth speaker.

Mu-so 2nd Generation Wood Edition is also Roon Ready adding to its already flexible multiroom skills.

Mu-so Wood Edition (Light Oak) is available now, at a suggested retail price of £1599 / €1799 / $2290. Mu-so 2nd Generation, Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation and Mu-so for Bentley Special Edition models remain in the range as additional or alternative options.

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