JBL make some pretty awesome speakers. I was lucky enough to have a pair of their high-end speakers in my testing studio (or my loungeroom, as it were) back when I was editor of Australian T3 – giving up those speakers was one of the hardest decisions to make when I decided to come over to Giz…
Anyway, my point is that JBL speakers are pretty awesome, at least in my experience. And their new LS series of speakers look like they’re bringing the typical JBL audio quality to a pricepoint that’s (almost) attainable for the masses. Of course, not everyone wants a high-end surround sound setup in their loungeroom, but those people tend not to read Gizmodo and we don’t really care about them too much.
There’s a full rundown of pricing in the press release below, plus a bonus pic.
The Gadget: JBL’s On Stage IIIP, which plays nicely with your iPhone
Design Guy 1: Hey dude, I was watching A New Hope last night, and I had the best freakin’ idea. Design Guy 2: What? Build a Death Star? DG1: No, man. You remember those little robot wheelie things that run around the Death Star, making funny noises? DG2: Yeah, I think so. DG1: Well, what if we made an iPod dock that looked just like one of those things, except without the wheels, and with a silver grill around it? DG2: Are you high? DG1: On life! DG2: Let’s do it!
You know what I find most frustrating about the new iPhone? It’s not the battery life – Careful planning can help with that. It’s not the phone crashing, either – so far, I haven’t had a problem.
the biggest problem is that pretty much every accessory I own that docks an iPod doesn’t actually work with my new iPhone. My desktop iPod dock. My Harman Kardon iPod speaker. My Logitech portable iPod speaker. My Yamaha iPod dock connector for my Yamaha receiver. They all refuse to cooperate when I stick in the iPhone.
So for me, the announcement from Australian JBL distributor Conexus that they’re launching the On Stage IIIP for iPhone has me clamouring for one of my own. The original On Stage speaker was one of my favourite iPod speakers – it’s unique design and sound quality impressed me for such a compact unit. I expect no less from this model designed to work with iPhones as well as iPods.
The only downside is the price tag: $299 isn’t cheap for a small speaker this size. But considering it can run off the mains and battery power, has an IR remote and a USB 2.0 connection so it can connect directly to your PC or Mac for easy syncing, I may still drop the cash on this anyway.
[Conexus]
JBL Control Now loudspeakers love donuts. Because since each speaker covers a 90-degree curve, four Control Nows can be assembled to make a donut. Or two can be combined to form a half-donut. (Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from fitting together 3, but nobody wants a donut that someone’s already taken a bite out of.) It may sound like a gimmick, but we can think of a few uses.
Both Infinity and JBL have just dropped two wireless subwoofers. The subs function utilizing a 2.4GHz transmitter/receiver setup and there are four selectable channels to allow you to pick the best possible reception.
Apple is working with iPod dock makers JBL and Polk on a system that allows anything heard on an HD Radio/iPod dock system to be tagged and sent to an iPod, which will later be transferred to iTunes. Once on iTunes, a playlist is presented where users can purchase any tracks they heard while listening to HD Radio. iBiquity will be working with HD Radio stations to make this iTunes Tagging an industry-wide standard.
Polk will release the i-Sonic ES2 iPod dock first which will feature the Tag button, followed by the JBl iHD this holiday season. There are plans for Tag buttons to be placed in cars and more iPod docks in 2008.
We had the pleasure of listening to the new JBL’s Project Everest Everest DD66000 speakers plus a few other important-sounding things, but, frankly, they had us at “$40,000 per speaker.” Where were we? In JBL’s rather impressive home cinema that cost $300,000 to build —including 6TB of storage for DVDs, their lowest end setup. And while we were there, we learned that someone installed a $4 million version on his yacht, as well.
The popular donut-shaped On Stage iPod dock is now in its third incarnation —and this time it will work with your iPhone. Its makers, JBL, have filled in the middle of the ring as well as supplying interchangeable trim, so that your On Stage 3 can match your Nano. Full press release with specs below.
We’re finally getting to some more expensive docks in our Super, Mega, Ultra iPod Dock Battle. On one corner, we have the JBL On Time. It’s our second clock dock, and it’s pissed (we think…tough to tell). In the other corner, we have the XtremeMac Tango. It smells excellent—like our favorite variation of RightGuard. Both units retail for a deuce of Benjamins.
How will this fight end? Only one can win!
