sound

If it were possible for a company to spoil its products rotten, Creative would be one of the guilty parties. We recently saw how it coddled its "Zen Wav" with a cushy dock, and now it's pampering the "Zen Stone Plus" with a portable speaker system.

Just look at the new "TravelSound"--it practically cocoons the MP3 player as it nestles safely in its perfectly sized dock, resting horizontally as if ready to take a nap. The speaker system will go on sale next month for $69, according to Fareastgizmos, though we're … Read more

Imagine if you will a room full of several hundred developers, journalists, and curious onlookers sitting together listening to the sounds of monkeys. That was the scene here at Where 2.0 during a demo for Wild Sanctuary, a project that presents sound clips of nature as a layer on Google Earth.

Users can explore various sounds, and see their placement and contextual information on the map. What's interesting about these "soundscapes" is that they can show the difference in an area before and after environmental impact both with visual maps and sound as. Several examples were … Read more

For every person who loves the idea of 6-foot tower speakers at each corner of the room, there are 20 others who prefer their home theater to be heard but not seen. It's for that latter group that the Sony DAV-IS10 Micro Home Theater System was designed. The system crams an entire 5.1 home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) down to Mini-Me proportions: the 2-way 100-watt subwoofer barely outsizes a couple of phone books, the DVD/CD player head unit is a bit larger than a Mac Mini, and the five satellite speakers are--as Sony's press kit helpfully points out--"about the size of a golf ball." Despite the minuscule size, the DAV-IS10 will include the much of the same impressive features found on Sony's trio of Bravia HTIBs: DVD upscaling to 720p and 1080i via the HDMI output, automated speaker setup (which Sony calls "Digital Cinema Auto Calibration," or DCAC), and HDMI-CEC capability (the ability to control compatible TVs via the IS10's remote when connected via HDMI--"Bravia Theater Sync," in Sony speak). The system also features a Digital Media Port, so it can interface with Sony's quartet of proprietary digital audio accessories--though that's less of an enticement, now that we've been underwhelmed by the first two we've reviewed, the TDM-IP1 iPod dock and the TDM-BT1 Bluetooth interface. … Read more

Japan's Tomy is making little plastic replicas of American birds that, in an interesting cultural twist, will sing with an American accent. Northern Cardinal, American Goldfinch, you name it. Tokyomango says they're "touch sensory," meaning that the song begins as soon as the bird is handled. (I still like Tomy for the corny basketball-suspended-in-water games it made eons ago.)

Before you invest in one of these plastic twerps, you'll want to select the proper birdsong to match your mood or decor. Check out real calls at Whatbird.com or the best American bird sound library … Read more

As some of you may have noticed, I have somewhat of a history with ridiculous wearable gadgets. Who am I to let that legacy die? Enter the TubeSurround Sound Headphones, which are, to say the least, interesting-looking. You wear them halo-style around your head, then adjust the two tube-style earbuds into your ears. There is a point to this not-so-low-profile design: it serves to position six minispeakers in different spots around your head, thus creating a true surround-sound experience. The TubeSurround then uses a combination of bone conduction and traditional audio to create an immersive experience.

Naturally, I got to … Read more

There must be something in the air--or the water, to be precise. Just as we were wrapping up an item on a waterproof LCD, we got a note from our friends at Electronic House about a speaker that's designed specifically for the shower.

That alone is hardly new, but this one is still worth noting for its unobtrusive design. While most bath-friendly speakers blend into the decor about as seemlessly as an aloha shirt at the cotillion, the "SoundTile," does its best to live up to its name by looking like an intentional part of its surroundings … Read more

Many an audio purist will insist that you need large tower speakers for a truly "weighty" sound in your home theater. Meanwhile, the other 90 percent of the population can't abide their living room being taken over by giant, black sonic monoliths--thus the ever-growing market for fashion-friendly "lifestyle" speakers. Canada's Paradigm already offered a variety of smaller speakers (such as the Cinema 110CT 5.1), but the company's upped the design ante with the just-announced Reference Millenia 20 Trio. The $1,000 unit combines the three front channels of a surround system--left, center, … Read more

At Crave we're very fond of iPod-ready speakers and we're not averse to those that claim to be of a superior quality. How do you think we felt this morning to see a set that look like our studio monitor speakers and claim to be the most dynamic-sounding smart speaker system on the market? We felt good inside.

Sierra Sound has a history of producing high-end studio audio equipment, so theoretically it should know what it's doing designing the iN Studio 5.0 iPod speaker system. (We don't think the same can be said of … Read more

Last month I wrote about the release of Korg's mini, battery-powered version of their Kaoss Pad audio effects processor. Well, I finally got my hands on one, and I'm happy to report it is every bit as cool as I had hoped. To refresh your memory, the Korg Mini Kaoss Pad is a palm-sized, battery-powered effects processor that lets you warp and remix any stereo line signal. My full review (with video) of the Mini Kaoss Pad posted on CNET this week, but it didn't have any audio samples to let you hear what it can do. … Read more