This device is made to fit in your adult-sized pocket at 2.5-inches wide and 5-inches long. It’s made to work with both microSDHC and microSD (which you’ll see in the hands-on video shortly). You can plug it in to any device with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and the battery that’s built-in to the guts, you’ll be getting sounds blasting for hours on end. Have a peek at the hands-on video here and see for yourself the simplicity:

This unit has not yet powered down and we’ve been using it for a couple days. Not without pause, of course, but still – bring this to your workplace and jam on the tunes for a full 8 hours without any trouble whatsoever. You won’t need to charge this device each night – maybe every other night. That being if you’re using the microSD card or the line-in, though we’re to understand that the line-in will bring you more hours than the card alone. You can also plug it in to the wall via your own miniUSB line for as much up time as you like – whatever you want!

That’s the way you power up the internal battery, too, through the miniUSB port in the side of the device, right next to the line-in. This device provides lovely loud sound good enough for the office or your local skate park, but I’d bring a bigger blaster for a house party. Get an OK idea of how quality the sound is in the hands-on video, or just take my word for it: well worth the price. This device will cost you a cool $29.99 in Satechi’s online store right this minute – available now!

The new owners at MySpace are Tim and Chris Vanderhook, and they plunked down $35 million to get their names on the deed. News Corp had paid $580 million for the site in 2005 and proceeded to run it into the ground admittedly making every mistake possible. The new owners have been working to turn MySpace around by emphasizing the site as music and entertainment hub, and apparently it’s working, to some extent, so far.

The NYT reports that MySpace is set to offer its first good news in a long while. The good news is that MySpace has attracted 1 million new users since the Vanderhooks took the site over. The million new users have come to MySpace since December, 2011, which was the same month MySpace unveiled a new music player. According to Chris Vanderhook, MySpace went from zero sign ups per day to 40,000 per day with the unveiling of the new music player. It’s also worth noting that the Vanderhooks other partner is Justin Timberlake.

[via NYT]

After all, music from The Beatles has never been offered on premium streaming outlets, which are well known in the industry as providing smaller royalties to artists than places like iTunes or Amazon MP3, where the revenue generated for each individual song that someone wants to access is far greater. They have continued to promise that as their user base grows, so will the royalty rates, but for McCartney it didn’t grow fast enough.

The former Beatle is not the only one shying away from the subscription-based models. Coldplay and Adele are two other heavy hitters who decided to pull the plug on sites like Rhapsody and MOG, although Coldplay did release its most recent album to Rhapsody after first launching it exclusively as a pay-per-download product online. McCartney’s music will of course continue to sold on iTunes, where he is growing an increasingly fond relationship.

[via CBS]

Essentially everything about this monster is recycled or recyclable – not that you’d ever want to recycle such a lovely amalgamation – and is made to give you a unique experience as well as vision. The wood you’ve got here is FSC certified Birch, the canvas is durable and will bring you back to your army days, and the plastic throughout the setup is entirely recyclable. The packaging the whole setup comes in is recycled, as well, so you’ll have nothing you need to throw away when you get the device in the mail.

The speakers you see here are both 4.5-inch high-definition woofers, the setup also having two 1-inch tweeters, 32 watts of power and DSP Sound Processing on the whole. That means high quality sound on both the high and the low end. There’s a pocket on the side, two sets of handles for the different ways you might want to carry while you blast, and the whole beast is set to ship this month. If you order one of these mothers up today, you’ll get it by the middle of the month – $349.99 at the House of Marley right now.

This 2.0 update will bring you several new features you’ve perhaps been waiting since the inception of this application to try. Though the original version had the ability to create music, sure, it lacked such amazing features as AudioCopy, the ability to reverse a sound clip, and MINI-in. Well what do you know, this update has those features and a whole heck of a lot more, too!

• The Randomizer and The Automation Panel will be bringing you in on a whole new set of creative tools like step by step randomization and much more precise control than ever over your Mixer parameters.

• 16 and 32 Steps per patterns as well as 24 new Drum Kits for the grand total of 64.

• WIST sync technology made by KORG to tie two iPads together, and reversed sounds to flip you on your head.

• AudioCopy on exporting, Colored song patters, and a whole new set of help screens with tips and tricks galore.

• MIDI In. Enough said.

Have a peek at a demonstration of what this update will bring to your beat lab, and pick the app up right this second from the iTunes App Store for a cool $5.99 – or if you’ve got DM1 already, the update is absolutely and totally free!

The Gratitude has a distinct gold aesthetic and comes with 12 different eartips of varying size and type. The headphone also has a ControlTalk in-line microphone and seamless volume controls. When you’re done tuning out the outside world, the headphones can be tucked away in one of the included carrying pouches. And should you ever have any issues, they come with a one-year warranty.

Okay, so now to answer the next question – the one you’ve been asking since you saw the word “Monster” – how expensive is the Gratitude? To grab a pair you’ll need to shell out $229.95. Yeah, Monster products are always at the high of the high end and they usually are not worth the premium you have to pay. But when it comes to headphones, quality and durability is really important. So perhaps it isn’t too ridiculous. Then again, the $12 pair of headphones at the corner grocery store are probably just fine for many consumers.

[via Cnet]

So yeah, apparently Gene Simmons, who you either know as the star of the reality show Gene Simmons Family Jewels, or as the lead man in the band KISS, or don’t know at all, depending on your generation, has a soft spot for ill-tempered avians. According to a recent interview, he has been talking with developer Rovio about some sort of KISS-Angry Birds partnership.

A bunch of different mental images certainly come to mind, and not all of them are incredibly pleasant. We can see an Angry Birds game with a very dark and gothic background, a version where the birds are decorated in KISS garb, or a setting in which the evil pigs have ridiculously huge tongues. Take your pick. Would you buy that game? Oh, who are we kidding? It’s Angry Birds; of course you would.

[via IndustryGamers]

This pair of earbuds is one of several created in collaboration between thinksound CEO and acclaimed Audio Engineer Aaron Fournier and a set of musicians all aiming to create a pair of earbuds with nothing less than a full range of sound and acoustics worthy of their end price. At $99.99 a pop, we’d expect nothing less than the best for our ears constantly bombarded by the evil of lesser sound-blasters. That’s just what thinksound delivers, thankfully, and in the video you’re about to see you’ll hear just that.

What you’re listening to in the back half of the video there is a new single from Jack White, a fellow you might recognize from the White Stripes, this music played from the audio jack of an iPhone 4S through the ms01 phones and the camera I’m using here: a Lumix GF1. So what you’re hearing isn’t exactly what you’ll hear in the end, but you’ll get an OK idea of how lovely the sound does hum. That said, you’ll only really know how excellent these buds sound once you’ve got them on yourself.

These 8mm drivers inside the phones are working at 18Hz to 20kHz frequency response, and when the buds are in your ears you’ve got passive noise isolation working for you so the sound you want to hear is basically all you’ll hear. The first time I tried the ms01 buds out, the music I’d been listening to for months before came through in a while new way, at a whole new level of warmth and depth. These buds are without a doubt the finest set of in-ear earphones I’ve experienced thus far. I’ve not had this quality sound since I first set up my own pair of gigantic speakers to a record player from the 1980′s – there’s just something there that you can’t get anywhere else.

As far as the actual hardware in the buds besides the buds themselves, the whole setup is lightweight, the cords are PVC-free and “tangle resistant,” and you get a pair of Active Lifestyle Ear Hooks to keep these phones in your ears if you’re the type to have your head jamming around on a regular basis. If you’re in the gym quite often, you’ll also be glad to know that these buds are sweat-resistant.

The plug is 3.5mm large and gold-plated, while the buds have four different sets of flexible silicon ear inserts for all your different kinds of holes. You get a cord clip and a cotton carrying pouch as well as a 1 year warranty to keep your brain at ease. As with all thinksound phones, these buds are made with a tiny eco-footprint and “green” in mind, the phones made of real wood taken from renewable sources, the packaging is made of recycled materials, and the packaging is completely bleach-free. There’s no plastic bubbles, PVC, or gigantic packaging here.

You can pick your own pair of these beasts up right now at the thinksound shop online at store.thinksound.com and check out the rest of their products while you’re at it. You’ll be dropping $99.99 for this set, then you’ve got the option to get extra buds and accessories along with them for a few extra bucks as well. Have at them!

This new slightly larger version of the speaker has a model number J2011-03-US and has a 60 inch USB cable and a lovely 3.5mm audio jack included. This device has the same 33 foot range as the original and will “fill up any room with unbelievable sound” just as well as the original. We must assume that this version of the speaker will have more power than the original in one way or another aside from battery life, but you never know!

You can check out our several workings with the Jambox in the past including its updates that’ve come down the pipe since its first release. You’ll want to take a look at the future of this product as well: Jambox is a bigtime awesome speaker system from Jawbone and wont be going away any time soon. Big Jambox or Jambox BIG will be made for the home, where the original Jambox is for mobile – let’s get stationary!

[via Android Police]

It’s not often that you get a leak of an Apple product in photo form, much less do you get so very many photos as these folks have taken. The model you’re looking at here has the same sized body and apparently nearly the same weight as the current 6th generation iPod Nano, but has a 1.3 megapixel camera capable of video and photo embedded in its back. There’s also a hole in the back clip so the camera can see through it – how simple a solution is that?

You’ll remember back in May of 2011 we saw something like this popping up in patent form, with Apple looking to add a camera to their future line right in the place we’re seeing one appear now on this Nano. This model obviously isn’t ready for production, but word has it that it’ll be released sometime hopefully inside the year. At the moment it appears that the camera sensor still needs to be modified as MIC Gadget notes that it takes slightly overexposed photos. We’re sure it’ll be just lovely by the time it’s actually released.

[via Apple.pro]

This collection is also known as Urbanears’ 2012SS series, and are available right this moment for all lovers of design, fashionable color-coding, and everyone else who ever wanted a pair of all-yellow jammers. You can now get your own pair of phones or earbuds, several different styles available, in yellow, army green, blue, red, black, gray, white, grape, cream, and sage. Grab the whole rainbow, why don’t you?

For those of you that’ve never before seen these lovely phones in any of their many iterations, have a peek at the Plattan here in its first birthday video from late last year. It’s fun and dandy indeed!

There’s four different kinds of phones: Bagis, which is the most basic earbud, costing $35 USD, Tanto, this being a $40 non-over-ear headphone, Medis, an EarClick set of in-ear earbuds ringing in at $50, and of course the Plattan, a $60 pair of lovely over-ear headphones.

Being a pioneer of music in the digital realm was what Young hoped to let us all know he’d be carrying on via Jobs spirit. The first and probably largest hurdle for this particular device right out of the box (or before the box exists, rather), is the idea that each song will be taking 30 minutes to download due to its gigantic size. In addition to bringing high-fidelity back to the world of music, as he sees it, Young hopes to do so while he makes legally downloaded music as convenient as possible.

In response to concerns that a much longer download time would lead to inconvenience and therefor a less likely download in the end, Young disagreed, saying:

“While you’re sleeping, your device is working for you.” – Young

In regards to how and why he came to speak of Jobs for this device, he noted that he’d been speaking with Jobs about the project for some time now, but that his death shut down development of the project pretty much completely.

“Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, but when he went home he listened to vinyl. I have to believe if he lived long enough he would have tried to do what I’m trying to do.” – Young

Young spoke also about Piracy and the state of the record company, saying that he liked his own company, but that the industry that exists today might be going away sooner than later.

“I look at Internet as the new radio and radio as gone. Piracy is the new radio; it’s how music gets around. … What I like about record companies is that they present and nurture artists. That doesn’t exist on iTunes, it doesn’t exist on Amazon. That’s what a record company does, and that’s why I like my record company. People look at record companies like they’re obsolete, but there’s a lot of soul in there — a lot of people who care about music, and that’s very important.” – Young

We hope for music’s sake that Young can make something happen in the digital realm other than big business attempting to cut down on piracy. The way to the future is to fight the absolutely free downloads that exist right this minute widely, and if a new device which brings ultra-high-fidelity downloads after 30 minutes a song can do it, so be it!

[via AllThingsD]

I don’t listen to music via Facebook or share links, but I do have a couple of friends who listen to a lot of tunes, and at times most of the news feed page is links to what they are listening to, which is rather irritating. The topic of “frictionless sharing” came up at the Midem conference and VP of Partnerships for Facebook, Dan Rose, took the opportunity to talk about frictionless sharing a bit. Facebook calls “frictionless sharing” the ability of apps to share things without you having to control what is. The goal is for Facebook to show only the right people, the right stories, at the right time.

I would hope that means trying to make things like all of these music links only show if they’re appropriate for you. I would assume that means since I don’t listen to music on Facebook, “frictionless sharing” should presumably make the system understand that I’m not in the music and stop showing me all these links. So far, that has not happened. I think if Facebook tweaked the system to eliminate that sort of sharing of material that friends may not want, it would limit the effectiveness of the sharing partnerships for Facebook. With that in mind I don’t particularly see Facebook working hard to stop sharing from friends of things we aren’t interested in, Games are a prime example . I’ve never once played a game on Facebook, yet I still get loads of game requests. I don’t see frictionless sharing changing things much for me.

[via Thenextweb]

“Spotify has yet to become popular with artists because artists don’t see the financial benefit of working with Spotify,” McGuinness believes. “That’s partly the fault of the labels, and the labels partly own Spotify.” Details of exactly how much Spotify pays each label and each artist per play are closely guarded secrets, though previous leaks have suggested the balance is tipped decidedly in the direction of record labels.

According to insiders, Spotify and rivals like Rhapsody are forced to agree to huge upfront payments along with payout deals based on the biggest income of either minimum subscriber fees, per-play costs or total company revenue. Each label can insist on the best terms of all the negotiated deals their counterparts have arranged.

In the end, “damned by faint praise” seems the most apt description for the U2 manager’s attitude toward Spotify and other streaming services. “I see no reason why the Spotify model should not be part of the future, it is essentially honest so it’s to be encouraged. I’d like to see it adopted everywhere, quite honestly” he concluded. However, as to whether Spotify is “a means of monetizing distribution for product or is it promotional?” McGuinness asked himself, “at the moment I’m inclined to treat it as promotional.  If we have to choose where to put records on their debut we’re unlikely to give it to Spotify. I’d rather give it to a DJ on a great station.”

In this device you’ve got built-in focus control, this offering you two different sonic options with the tap of a physical button. A lovely blue light up front of the device lets you know when you’re rolling, and an adjustable desk stand and built-in shockmount allows you to get the grade audio you want wherever you may roam. You get y-cables for each platform you want to work with as well as a headphone jack so you can listen in on what exactly you’ll be recording as the device records in real-time.

You’ve got a noise level of 10 dB (A-weighted), sound to noise ratio of 84 dB, and frequency response of 26Hz to 20kHz. You can use your iPad or iPad 2′s own Apple 30-pin connector to hook this device up or any USB 2.0+ cord straight to your laptop. You get a sensitivity rating of 28 mV/Pa, SPL handling range of 65-128 dBA, and the whole thing comes in a lovely blue and silver color combination. This device is not yet priced or dated, but it IS being shown off this week at MacWorld | iWorld 2012, so stay tuned!

Google has updated the Music Manager system and it now allows you to grab all your tracks at one time. That includes the ability to download tracks that you purchased on the Android Market. This is a nice new feature for sure. Being able to download all of your tracks at once will round out the features list with something that many have wanted since launch.

I like that this service will protect all the tunes I have collected over the years too. If you get a new tablet or smartphone, you can download the files to it. If your computer crashes, you still have all your music too. If you aren’t using this already, it might be time to check it out.

[via Android Community]

There’s one massive list of strange customers that wear the original LP model customized to their liking – Paris Hilton, Gio Conzales, NERVO, and Lindsay Lohan to name a few. And though celebrity names like Kobe Bryant wont do one whole heck of a lot for audiophiles when it comes to actual audio quality, you can bet that this team of manufacturers isnt going anywhere any time soon. And I’m here to tell you right now: if it’s good enough for Paul Oakenfold, it’s good enough for me.

Unboxing

So we’ve got a pair of $199 headphones here in a box that you’ve got to cut a ribbon to get into. The box itself is impressive enough what with cardboard around it that’s thicker than the jacket of a hardcover book, then the top has a button hinge and a snakeskin strap (fake, we hope) that keeps the contents beyond safe in their travels to the specialty shops. Inside you’ll find padding around a monster shell which contains the headphones and the mass of cords and plugs that come with it.

Package Contents

Inside the shell are the headphones themselves, two detachable cables with 24k gold-plated plugs: both of them fabric, 3.5mm jacks, and universally compatible with all headphone jack-having devices. One is is a classic cable with no added features along it, the other has a 3-button remote control able to work with Apple products including iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. Also inside is a converter plug for plugging these same cables into your larger amplifier, and all of these items are held down with a couple of strap-heavy removable panels that you can use (or not use) inside your shell – one also has a belt clip so you can attach your goods to your side when the shell is too big to bring with you on the go.

Military Grade Construction

The shell is a hard exoskeleton carrying case that’s black-on-black printed and ribbed on the outside surrounded by a red and black zipper and embroidered in red with the V-Moda logo at the top. Inside is a lovely bright red padded container custom molded for your V-MODA Limited Edition Crossfade LP2s. Great for tossing in your backpack for long trips on airplanes or short trips to the recording studio. Don’t worry too much about damage, on the other hand, because with these phones you’ve got an Immortal Life Program – this allowing you a 50% off lifetime discount if you’ve accidentally smashed the crap out of your phones and want to pick up a new pair – cheap!

For the phones themselves, you’ve got a business that’s ready and willing to help you get the best fit and feel the most awesome when you’re using your headset on the regular. Get a taste of trueHERTZ to see what I mean. As far as how hardcore the equipment is, Military-Grade durability should keep you sleeping at night:

The Crossfade LP2 is tested under strict MIL-STD-810G military testing and V-MODA’s even tougher VMQA guidelines:

• Kevlar® reinforced detachable cables and 45-degree plug strain relief can each bend over 1 million times, over 100x industry standards
• Survives 70+ drops on concrete from 6 feet, approximately 3x the industry standard
• Headband can bend 10+ times flat, not break and retain its memory and shape
• Virtually inaudible sound variances across the spectrum of less than 2dB from unit to unit versus 10-30dB+ of inferior products
• MIL-STD-810G environmental tests including high and low temperatures, humidity, salt spray and UV exposure

Sound

As for sound – and I know you’ve been waiting for this after all that talk about every other possible aspect of these phones – you’ve got what V-Moda calls Live Play Sound. It’s a patent-pending “biggest-in-class” set of 50mm Dual-Diaphragm Drivers and V-PORT 3D staging. This setup, they say, is able to recreate the sound of multiple drivers at the same time as it sticks to the consistency of a single quality driver. The Crossfade LP2 phones are fine-tuned with a 31-band EQ, this keeping your eardrums in tact whilst delivering a wide range of sounds with high quality power.

Wrap-Up

And indeed that is what they do. If you were looking for assurance from your humble narrator here that these headphones sound fabulous – they certainly attain that level of approval from me. These are without a doubt the finest set of over-ear headphones I’ve tested at this point for the price point they set at, and are currently my day-to-day go-to pair for everyday listening as well as listening out in the wild – read: at coffee shops and at the library.

For DJ situations, again, I’ll trust the tests of the masters listed above working with the model that came before this one, essentially the same in build and quality. What this set offers is a bump above the original LP model, and without a doubt they are worth the cash you toss down on them at $199. You can also grab yourself a pair of custom metal plate replacements if you really want to – go ahead! Treat yourself! These limited editions are available at V-Moda’s online shop while supplies last.

Connect these mothers to your Android device for listening to the Google Music all night long – connect to your iPhone for some iCloud banging throughout the day! Then for those of you without Bluetooth devices or a need to connect directly, there’s also the option for using a 3.5 mm audio cable in the interim. Charge them up with the included USB cable and grab yourself 22.5 hours of talk time with 180 hours of standby.

That’s right, talk time – these headphones can also be used as a handsfree headset for your smartphone should you feel the need to chatter. The Signal to Noise ratio on these beasts is More than 58Db at 1kHz and they’re designed to fold up nicely for travel as well. And what’s best about these phones in black or white? They only cost $39 USD including shipping! Available in early February for all interested lovers of Bluetooth-compatible sounds.

[via Tenqa]

This device has no mass of odd controls, no confusing set of clicks and switches to speak of, instead only the basics and a set of value-added controls that are ultra easy to work with are included. You’ll be getting all the “growl, snarl, and low end” you’d be getting with any device from the Taurus family of bass synthesizers, only here in a small package that’s rugged enough to work with you anywhere! Have a peek at a highlight video to get you salivating:

Then get a load of these specifications, each of them better than the last and all included in the out-of-box experience you get with this 2012 model that’ll ring in at $679. This little beast will be coming out in the spring and will have you dialing in in no time flat.

• One knob per function interface for tweaking and creating new sounds on the fly. It also makes live performance a blast.
• Two oscillators with Sawtooth (Original Taurus) and Square wave-shapes for each VCO. Recreate sounds of the original Taurus with sawtooth waves, or create new sounds with square waves or a combination of both.
• 2 Mixer VCAs for VCO levels control of Oscillators 1 and 2.
• Moog Ladder Filter with adjustable resonance delivers classic Taurus 1 and 3 bass and boom.
•Two Minimoog style ADSR Envelope Generators for modulating VCF and VCA. The Decay and Release segments are controlled by the Decay knob, while the Release segment is enabled or disabled via Release On/Off switch.
• Midi-syncable LFO with Controls for Rate, VCO LFO Amount, and VCF LFO Amount
• DIN MIDI and MIDI over USB offer complete control of the Minitaur’s sound engine.
• Analog Control inputs for Pitch, Filter, Volume and Gate. Use an EP2 or CV to connect and control MInitaur with everything from Modulars to Moogerfoogers.
• External audio input for processing external audio through the Mixer and Filter section of Minitaur.
• Headphone output with 1/8″ connection.
• Compact rugged steel chassis that is built like a tank.

Then have a bonus in-depth look at the device as presented by Moog, the name you trust in modifying your sounds until they sound like they’re from a different dimension:

[via Moog Music]

What Arturia is bringing to the table here is a still completely pure analog machine that brings multi-wave oscillations with a “huge sounding” classic multi-mode filter. You can use this in your home or on the stage just as mightily, modulation being the key to your ultimate blast of sound and energy. You’ve got connectivity along USB, MIDI, and CV, and all of it’s inside a cool metal enclosure for the full package effect. Have a peek at the first intense ad spot here:

Then have a peek at the massive amount of features they’re listing on this device, again small enough to fit in your rucksack for quick movements:

•Monophonic synthesizer
•100 Percent analog audio signal path
•Steiner-Parker 2-pole Multimode Filter (Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass, and Notch)
•Voltage Controlled Oscillator with Sub-Osc (Square, Sine, -1 and -2 oct)
•Oscillator Mixer (Sub, Sawtooth, Square, Triangle, White Noise, Audio In)
•Signal Enhancers:
•Pulse Width Modulation
•Ultrasaw generating shimmering sawtooth waveforms
•Metalizer bringing extreme triangle harmonics
•Brute Factor delivering saturation and rich harmonics
•LFO1 with 6 waveforms (Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Square, Random Square, Random Sine) and bi-polar modulation destinations (to PWM and Metalize, Pitch, Filter, Amplifier)
•LFO1 clock syncable to Arpeggiator (Arpeg, or free)
•LFO2 with selectable rate and 3 vibrato modes (trill up, trill down, sine)
•Two ADSR Envelope Generators with selectable slow / fast speed (from 1 millisecond to more than 10 seconds)
•Keyboard Tracking on the VCF Cutoff
•25-Note semi-weighted keyboard with aftertouch (assignable to Cutoff or Vibrato amount)
•Mod Wheel (assignable to Cutoff, Vibrato, or LFO amount)
•Pitch Wheel (with selectable bend range)
•Octave selector from -2 to +2 octaves
•External Analog Audio Input
•CV In / Out controls: Pitch, Filter, Amp
•MIDI In / Out with 5-pin DIN connectors
•USB MIDI In / Out
•CV Gate source selector (Audio / Hold / Keyboard)
•1/4″ Audio Output and 1/4″ Headphone Output
•Full Function Arpeggiator:
•4 Modes of arpeggiation
•4 Octave range control
•6 Step divisions
•6 Swing positions
•Hold function
•Tempo knob
•Tap tempo
•MIDI Sync
•Rugged aluminum enclosure
•12V DC 1A power

Then have a look, again courtesy of Arturia themselves, at the device in-depth with this close-up look at the device. There’s currently no release date on this mother, but we can expect it inside 2012 if we’re lucky.

What on earth you’d be thinking when you pick these up unless you’re one of the people involved in the company behind the two, one simply cannot guess. Crystal Rocked’s claim to fame on the Street by 50 model is that they’re the first group on the planet to have gotten sets of the headphones in for customization specifically, while the Dre headphones they’ve simply gone nuts on without any special bonus. You will notice, if you step back for a moment and see the craftsmanship inherent, that everything the folks at Crystal Rocked have touched here has nothing less that a perfectly fine quality in a big way.

Each crystal has been placed with care, and each device has had its design poured over and perfected. Notice how there’s a perfect amount of crystals placed in the logos, for example. This perfection doesn’t come cheap, of course, with the Street by 50 models chiming in at £580.00, that being something like $900 USD, while the Beats will be costing you a cool £549.00, that close enough $900 USD once again to make your nose bleed. Then there’s the older models, too – that’s right! This isn’t the first time a pair of Beats by Dre have been tricked out with crystals by this crew.

Then there’s a pair of Sennheisers in there, some Audio Technica headphones, and some Sony MDR over-ears as well. There’s even a pair of Beats in-ear earbuds! You can crystalize anything, folks, go for it!

[via Crystal Rocked]

This device also has a S/PDIF input, a line input, and for power and connections you’ve got FiiO’s own proprietary 18-pin port. This port works with FiiO’s L7 dock and E9 desktop amp, but there’s also a standard USB input so you’re not limited in any way. This device is made for you audio maniacs, mind you, with 24/96 over USB and 24/192 over S/PDIF, sounding just fantastic, we can imagine.

You can change the firmware also if you’re not totally satisfied with the sound right away, you able to change bass, treble, gain level, and believe it or not, balance and pan. As the folks at Anythingbutipod say, they’re glad the audio balance feature remains in-tact, and they having looked at the original E7, the smaller version of this FiiO machine, are glad this new device is out like a whip. This device will be released soon at something like $150 USD.

[via FiiO]

The core board has two USB Host ports and a USB device port, two CV inputs (or any analog input), two CV outputs (or any analog output), MIDI in, MIDI out and various program selection switches, all on a 92 x 92 mm square. Then there are three Oplab sensors, the TS-2 Tap with a percussion/motion-sensitive microphone, the TS-3 Flip with an accelerometer, and the TS-4 Poke, with a pressure sensor.

There’s also the TS-1 Team Sneaker, an actual shoe with a side-pocket for a sensor, so that you can create music while dancing around like a loon. Each sensor has a 3.5mm input, but you can also hook up your iPad (using MIDI over USB to control the Oplab), your traditional synth, your OP-1 (with the promise of new functionality to be unlocked in future OS updates) or any electrical junk lying around, as in the video below.

Teenage Engineering is asking €279 ($362) for the Oplab core board, with the various accessory boards sold separately at €49 each ($64); the TS-1 sneakers are €125 ($162). A kit, with the Oplab, three sensors and the “lab tray” shown at the top is €400 ($520).In the pipeline is a DIY synth development kit, allowing you to use the Oplab as the core of a retro-style modular analog synth.

[via GearDiary; video via DontEatWhatTheyFeed]

This project has no future plans to become a mass-made or distributed product, but in that the video you’re seeing is made so well what you’ll not possibly miss the point, it’s made wonderful from start to finish. As the tree’s years rings are analyzed for their strength, says the creator, so too are they analyzed for their thickness and rate of growth, and turned into a song that describes it all. Have a peek a the manifesto for this project here:

A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.

This project is made up of a modified turntable, a camera, acrylic glass, vvvv (a multipurpose programmable toolkit), veneer, and of course a computer. The whole thing rings in at 90x50x50 cm and again, there is only one. The artist worked with or would otherwise like to thank Land Salzburg, Schmiede, Pro-ject Audio, Karla Spiluttini, Ivo Francx, vvvv, and Rohol. Get your tissues out, lovers of nature, this is going to get messy for your eyeballs.

[via Traubeck]

All the USB controllers connect directly to a Mac, PC or iOS device with the correct adapter. The Q61 has 61-notes and will work with just about any software and hardware device. The device has velocity sensitive keys and a five-octave range and can be used at home or on stage. The QX25 is a 25-note offering, and the QX61 has 61-notes.

Both have pads for drumbeats; have filter knobs and volume adjustments. The keys are also velocity sensitive. All three of the keyboards will be available in Q2. Pricing is $149 for the Q61, $199 for the QX61, and $99 for the QX25.

However, most Core MIDI apps for the iPad 2 should work as well, giving you sixteen velocity-sensitive pads with aftertouch along with several dedicated UI buttons: note repeat, transport controls, mute/solo, track select, erase and timing correct. An integrated li-ion battery powers the MPC Fly itself, with pass-through power for charging the tablet when plugged into the mains.

As for the MPC Fly iPad app – which, unlike the controller, will work on both the first- and second-gen iPads – has a four-track mixer, comes preloaded with samples and drums, but can also record external sounds and sequences using either the iPad’s internal microphone or a line-in source. Several effects are offered, including delay and compression, and you can clip sounds from your iPod library with a turntable UI for those demanding retro. Of course, there are Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud sharing options, since there’s no point doing anything these days if you’re not telling everyone else about it.

Once you’ve finished laying down your phat track, you can export it over to your PC or Mac to pick up in a more complex package. No word on pricing at this stage.

[via Engadget]

The Numark IDJ station has nudge/scratch jogwheels, buttons for looping, pitch controls, and the whole shebang besides. You’ve got volume knobs all around, buttons for the programming, and full integration with the already diverse djay app. This unit is made for consumers mainly, but certainly has nothing large holding it back from being used in a professional party environment.

This unit is made of both a brushed alminum and semitransparent plastic so lighted controls can brighten up your world on the fly. Capacitive touch-activated platters work with Hot Cues and retro-styled aluminum bits across the board for a powerful experience for everyone from beginners to veteran musicians. This device has a dedicated RCA 1/4 input, is Airplay compatible, and has a lovely dedicated music-library scroll knob of which it’s quite proud of. This device does not yet have a release date or a price, but we can expect it inside 2012 for sure!

Check out this fabulous hands-on video with Numark’s product manager Chris Roman courtesy of the folks over at DigitalDJTips – note that although the unit isn’t fully working as of yet, it’s pretty much a final look at the hardware.

All you’ve got to get is a bit of paper, some scissors, and maybe a bit of glue and you’ll be well on your way to creating the same awesome structure everyone in the hipster world’s favorite band of all time They Might Be Giants are pushing in this video! They’ve got a concert coming up, and their monster truck is telling you to get interested in it! Along for the ride as well is none other than Jonathan Coulton, famous for his ballads “the First of May” and “Still Alive” from the end of the Portal video game series (notably the first one.)

Now if you’re interested in creating this fine piece of automotive awesomeness, you can either make it full sized at over 12 feet tall, or you can choose to make the wimpy version at just a little closer to 4-inches. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t have a lot of parking space, we suggest going for the smaller model. ALSO if you’re interested in going to the tour of these fine fellows, you’ll want to know that it all begins on the 27th of January in Santa Cruz. You can find the rest of the dates down below the video complete with links on TMBG’s YouTube. Get in on it!

You’ve got a gigantic range of abilities for loop recording, the ability to save all of your creations on the fly, and an advanced sound generator built in. The Kossilator is played by you tapping, sliding, or otherwise engaging with the Kaoss touchpad with your finger. From there, your pitch and note information are read and distributed how you intend. Inside are 150 sound programs divided into seven categories including Lead, Bass, and Chords.

Unlimited loop recording is included on this pocketable device, two loop recording banks included for doubling up on sounds and phrases. Loops can be cross-faded, muted, and have their length changed in realtime. There’s both an internal mic and an aux mic input, and all of this can be saved to the microSD card slot (to the microSD card you insert) for on-the-fly jamming. The Kaossilator has all these features and MORE working on just a set of two AA batteries, and will be available in May 2012 for MSRP $220.

This device is made with an undeniably simple industrial design, made for what it’s made for and nothing more. Inside is a microphone, high-visibility organic electroluminescent (OEL) display up top, and the ability to accommodate what they say will be nearly any audio source. Battery power in this device is rechargeable, there’s an MP3 player aboard, FX Release, and a microSD card slot. Also built in is 100 effects right out of the box including Flanger, Filter, Delay, Reverb, as well as a selection of new and advance effects like Looper, Vinyl Break, and Ducking Compressor.

This device can recall up to three effects from memory, there’s a hold function to freeze your effects without effort, and auto BMP detection allows you to sync tempo-based effects to the tempo of a song – professional sounds at a tap. The 1/8-inch audio output can be used as a headphone output if you wish, and the energy-efficient design allows you to roll with two AA-batteries – again, make sure to grab yourself some rechargeable units here. Six audio examples are also stored in the device right out of the box for demo use.

You can grab the Mini Koss Pad 2 Dynamic Effect Processor and MP3 Player in May of 2012 for the cool price of MSRP $220.00. Sound like the little beast for you?

Each model has a front panel with five knobs and a front-panel switch, these controls giving you hands-on analog sound control across the board. Each unit has a ribbon keyboard, this allowing you to make separated sounds if you like, or gradients of moving sound with a slide of your fingertip. The entire Monotron series uses the same VCF circuit as Korg’s classic MS-10 and MS-20 semi modular synthesizers, each of them born over 30 years ago. All units have audio-in, as well, this allowing you to bend the sounds of any instrument that can be converted to the single jack.

The Monotron DUO has two oscillators, each with its own separate tuning and with the ability to together create what Korg describes as a “rich, thick, analog tone.” Inside is the X-MOD cross modulation circuit as also found on Korg’s classic Mono/Poly, this allowing you to get wild edges to your sound if you wish, this instrument delivering everything from metallic sounds to vibrato to bust your eyeballs out. The ribbon can be set to be a Minor, Major, or Chromatic scale on the fly.

The Monotron DELAY has the analog oscillator, the LFO, the filter, and a fabulous “Space Delay” effect that works with equipped Time and Feedback. Pitch changes as you delay the time, and the delay can be added to any external sound via your Aux In jack once again. On the back is a trim pot to adjust the shape and direction of your wave, and the keyboard ribbon has another four-octave range. Also this Monotron glows under blacklight – why not!?

Each of these units, including the original Monotron, the DUO, and the DELAY, are available now for MSRP $70. Grab em all, why don’t you!

Now we’re taking multiple pieces of a file, telling the computer to see each similar piece as one piece of information, essentially, and sending. As publisher Devin Coldewey so elegantly puts it: instead of sending a music file over to your friend instrument by instrument, you just stack the sounds on top of one another, this resulting in a single file much more complicated than any of the individuals. This can all be simplified, says MIT researchers working to improve this “discrete” Fourier transform.

What they’ve found, or what they’re showing in the paper about to be published on the matter, is that the level of simplification that can be applied to this process can be rather drastic. For example they have an 8×8 block of values (64) in which 57 can be discarded – this happening without visibly affecting the file at hand, the file in this case being an image. What this could mean for our future is some gigantic things, ironically, especially in the fields of mobile computing and home computing – entertainment to the max. Have a peek at the paper as it’s titled now: Nearly Optimal Sparse Fourier Transform written up by Haitham Hassanieh, Piotr Indyk, Dina Katabi, and Eric Price.

[via MIT]

This little beast is just 5 inches long, 2.5 inches wide, and a little over an inch tall, this meaning that it’s certainly a candidate for pocketability. You can work through the microSDHC/microSD card slot for content, or you can plug in your device with the standard 3.5mm headphone jack. With its built-in rechargeable battery you’ll be getting 17 hours of playtime on the card or 24 hours via line-in, no troubles!

You’ll be recharging via the miniUSB jack through your computer or the converter to your wall socket, and the battery inside is a standard lithium polymer. Controls include play/pause, next/previous track, volume up/down, and repeat/shuffle. So we’re talking simple, simple, simple here folks, with a price to back it up! Let’s check it out!

In-use

The quality you’re getting here is top-notch, and since this isn’t the first version of these little beasts, you know good and well that V-Moda has once again further perfected the art. Your hearing will be protected by the Faders working to filter noise up to 12dB. They do not BLOCK the noise, they filter it – this meaning that your mids and your high-range audio is still there and still very clear, while the damaging low-end noises galore are plugged up. You can adjust the amount you filter by changing the bud size, also.

The versions you’ll get in the store come with a lovely little shell case, while these early versions show just the buds — you’ll know the 2012 versions from the older ones from the slight difference on the box face, the newer ones having a bright ORANGE splash around the “METAL” bit. The newest versions also come with detachable cords. Otherwise they’re the same fabulous sound-blocking masterpieces.

Verdict

These monsters are certainly worth what you pay for them. If you want throwaway plugs, go ahead and pick up a pack of them from your local grocery store. These plugs will stopper up the sound to the degree that you like and will do it in a fashionable way – so very lovely. Pick up the gunmetal versions (like we’ve got here) for ultimate anytime wearability.

These buds will be available SOON, and when they are, they’ll be $15 USD plus shipping unless you can grab them from your local audio-conscious record store. Grab em online sooner from V-Moda!

This device is still likely several months off from actual review units or a full release, but full waterproofing on a speaker that’ll connect to any of your bluetooth-enabled devices is fun to consider! It’s also got both a built-in mic so you can use this monster as a speakerphone whenever the situation calls for it. The speaker is also shock and dust-proof incase you drop it down the side of a short cliff – though I’m sure they don’t suggest whipping it into a canyon just for testing.

The Turtle Shell’s current iteration comes with a flexible cord that lets you attach it easily to any variety of items in your traveling arsenal, the prospect of slapping it on a BMX bike seeming to me to be the most awesome possibility. The device will be able to run on 10-hours with Hi-fidelity sound with 240 hours of standby on a single charge, and gets charged up with a simple mini-USB jack.

The bluetooth range on this beast is 33 feet, you can connect it to your headphone-jack-having device with its simple 3.5mm jack as well, and both release date and pricing are not yet official. Expect this device in late summer at the earliest for something around $130 – blue please!

Check out how the DJ crafts a few beats here in this trailer and notice how the digital bits flying around in a transparent array, this telling you that while the connection is there, you’ll still be working in your native environment. This takes what mostly analog users had loved about their preferred work station and keeps it in the real world, taking with it the advantages of the digital world to make a wholly connected experience.

Now we’ve only got the skills of the DJ at hand to blame for the idiotically insanely wicked beats that shall be dropping imminently. We’ll be following TRAKTOR very closely in the next few weeks here to grab the name, release date, and price of this particular station, and hope that they’ll be releasing it into the wild soon! The set you’re seeing in the video, mind you, uses Loopmasters sample content from these lovely titles: Lynx – Eclectic Drum and Bass, Kanji Kinetic Presents Drumstep & Mutant Bass Vol. 1, and you can find those at Loopmasters.

For those of you that do not know, Mix Master Mike is one of the most notoriously fantastic DJs on the planet, emerging on a global scale when joining the Beastie Boys as their resident spin master on such gems as Hello Nasty and their newest album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. What these headphones are is a DJ-friendly set of features like dual-cable inputs (one on either phone), one-touch mute, single-channel cue control from your pair of articulated earcups, and 50mm speakers. Your plugs are gold plated of course, as all plugs should be, and you’ve got interchangeable cables with a mic.

These headphones are light, have a 20-20K Hz frequency response, and can flip out and forward so you can jam with them as off-ear speakers as well. These phones will run you $299.99 and come in a couple of different color combinations online: Black and Kidrobot. The second pair are basically the same colors as the first, but come with the the “Dunny” outline pattern on the top, Kidrobot’s specialty. Good luck finding the ultra-wacky color scheme we’ve got here in Las Vegas!

You can find the new feature in Facebook’s chat sidebar. A music note icon will show up next to friends who are listening to music. When you hover over a friend’s name a pop-up appears with a “Listen With” button. Clicking on that then lets you listen to what your friend’s listening to and you can even chat with them while you’re at it.

Other friends can join in, turning it into a group chat and group listening party. To avoid certain friends or just to listen in private, Facebook does give you some settings to control that. The new feature will start rolling out over the next few weeks.

To engage noise-cancellation, just flip the switch to ‘On’ and roll the wheel located on the base of the right earmuff. You will hear a faint hum when noise-cancellation is working and no audio is present. The InSound headphones proved to play great bass notes, but the vocals and mid-range were slightly thin. However, noise-cancellation worked properly across the board. Blues and jazz sounded excellent when noise-cancellation was engaged.

The InSound headphones are not currently available for purchase, but if priced properly they will be a smart buy. Those further interested should know the sound quality and craftsmanship is not comparable to top tier’s like Custom Studio Beats by Dr. Dre. However, the InSound portable form factor will make these an excellent choice for those that want to travel.

There’s only 500 of these devices available in the entire world, ladies and gentlemen, and they’re going to cost you a whopping $1,099.99. If you prefer the non-limited edition, on the other hand, you can grab the DS9800W mentioned above for a slightly more affordable $799.99. You’ll be blasting hard, whatever you do, with SoundCurve technology for crystal-clear audio and FullSound technology to “restore sonic details” to compressed music. The 100W RMS total output power wont sound bad either.

The spherical nature of this device will make full use of your music, humming it out from your desk in full fashionable style. What do you think – gonna pay over a thousand bucks for a limited edition wood-covered speaker that’ll blow your mind with full AirPlay abilities for your iDevice? You could also, of course, head back down to the SoundSphereMini as well, that costing a cool $499.99 and rolling out with 50W RMS total output power.

The Mini will be available in March of 2012, the basic SoundSphere is out now, and the limited edition will be out in April 2012. Might as well grab em all!