Beatles fans and audiophiles alike should be excited that the Liverpool quartet’s entire 12-album catalogue will be live and remastered in stere-eree-o on September 9—yes, 9.9.09—the same day that “The Beatles: Rock Band” comes out.
The Sanyo R227 isn’t an entirely new product, but it’s new to us in the US. A Wi-Fi-based radio, the R227 allows users to scan for internet music just like they would FM.
Just unveiled at Tokyo Designer’s Week, EOps i24R3 is probably the best-looking speaker system for the iPod/iPhone I think I’ve seen. Plus it’s jammed-full of wirelessness, so the iPod-dock, woofer-equipped base station is paired with two or more (up to eight) remote stereo speakers. And in the true spirit of iPhoneness it’s gesture controlled— touch-free gestures too: you just wiggle your hand in front of the base station and control volume and equalizer functions. galleryPost('i24R3', 3, '');
If you have a new 4th-gen nano and a decent ear, you may have noticed something funny: After putting it to sleep, if you wake it up by inserting headphones, the left and right channels switch. I tried this with the most obvious stereo mix of all time, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” and it’s really easy to duplicate yourself. While it’s easy to correct, it’s still definitely a weird, weird bug. Thanks to reader Matt for bringing it to our attention, and posting a thread at iLounge. Have you noticed it or any other weird glitches, like Genius’ pathological avoidance of the lovely Norah Jones? (I’m serious, try it!)
We can’t believe it, but Fusion CA-1P500 is apparently the first head unit that allows you to dock and hide your iPod directly inside the face. The thing costs £149.99 (US$278), which isn’t too bad for a head unit that has an OLED menu, a knob that corresponds to the iPod’s scroll wheel, and SRS Wow. It fits the classic, touch and nano, but supposedly not the iPhone. Weird, aren’t the touch and iPhone about the same? In any case, what we’d love is for it to take in the iPhone and give us full handsfree calling capabilities through a mic in the head and output through the speakers. [Fusion via T3]
Sound engineers have digitally restored some of the earliest recordings of stereo sound by the technology’s inventor, Alan Blumlein. Blumlein, a research engineer at EMI, had lodged a patent for “binaural” sound in 1931 and made several experimental recordings to see if they could sell it to the fledgling film and audio industry. In 1934, EMI decided that nobody really needed surround sound and shelved all projects related to it. File that under late great historical oopses.
The iPhone (both 2.5G and 3G) might not come with an A2DP Bluetooth in place, but you can easily add it on yourself with this Infinixx adaptor. It’s US$62, but works with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod video, iPod colour and iPod mini, meaning you can basically turn any fairly recent iPod into a wireless stereo device. You can also pair your Bluetooth headset to the iPhone directly to answer calls, which isn’t supported through the dongle transmitter. Until Apple decides to put A2DP in the iPhone itself–and shorten the battery life even more–this is your only hope for wireless stereo music. AU: Motorola offer an A2DP dongle for iPods – not sure if it will work with the iPhone though…
[Brando]
After a frustrating few months of searching for a solution to the audio problems he encountered while ripping on-screen video with his Dell laptop, a ripten editor discovered that others were experiencing the same issue–and that the problem was not confined to Dell laptops. Apparently, the lack of a sound card Stereo Mix recording option is to blame–and numerous forum threads have suggested that the RIAA has put pressure on laptop manufacturers like Dell, Gateway and Pac Bell to remove it.
Over at The Audiophiliac they’re running a story about a visit to the house where abstract painter Jackson Pollock used to live with wife Lee Krasner. Apparently the guy had a pretty cool hi-fi: a Bogun DB-20 tube amp, a Crown turntable and speakers built into a stairwell. Audiophiliac’s Steve notes that the door holding the speakers “is covered with Pollock’s trademark paint splatters, drips, and blobs,” so it probably counts as a minor work of art all of its own. And of course “Pollock loved to play his hi-fi really loud, especially when Krasner was out of the house.” I wonder if the volume helped with artistic inspiration? [The Audiophiliac]
Joshua Heineman is obsessed with old stereo cards, those old photographs from the 19th century that contained two different views of the same subject to give the illusion of depth. He converts them into pseudo-3D GIF images that can be seen without glasses, on your monitor. The method is extremely simple, and while the jerking result may seem silly, surprisingly, it works:
