MP3

iTunes taking over live music?

2008-07-15T09:54:00Z

Following a brief residency at London’s ICA gallery last year with iTunes performances from everyone from Paul McCartney to Kasabian, Apple has set up shop in Camden this month.

Every day during July, Camden’s Koko plays host to a mix of artists and bands and, after each performance, live tracks will be available to download from iTunes. You can see the full line up and try to win free tickets here.

The iTunes Live event raises the question: is Apple set to take over live music? Last year Madonna quit her record label and signed a contract with concert promoter Live Nation, combining recording, merchandise and touring rights for all her new material. The theory is that with CD sales dwindling, live performances (and recordings of live performances) are far more lucrative.

The iTunes Live audience is made up entirely of competition winners, meaning every single ticket is free with money made from iTunes downloads of the live performances. Would the global iTunes download of concert tracks make more money than 2000 Koko ticket (and beer) sales? Of course – which begs the question – how big could the ‘free ticket and pay-for download’ industry become?

Next year, could Apple take over Wembley for a week and offer free tickets to a Live 8 style event, then sell the whole day back to concert goers and the rest of the world as a premium iTunes download package? Given the resurgence of live music and importance of touring an album, it’s a real possibility…

iPhone mania – techno hype or genuine innovation?

2008-07-13T20:20:00Z

"I just don't get all this fuss about the new iPhone," lamented one of my colleagues in the office late on Friday. "I mean, I get hi-fi, and I really enjoy my home cinema system at home, but a phone's just for making calls isn't it?"

Well Jonny, I'm sorry to contradict you, but if the queues outside the Apple store in Kingston on Saturday morning were anything to go by, you're clearly in the minority. I'd popped into the Bentall Centre to do a spot of shopping (and no, not to buy an iPhone – sadly, I'm on Vodafone) and had to barge past the queue snaking along the first floor to get to the other (non-Apple stores).

And guess which was the most-read item on whathifi.com this weekend? No prizes for discovering it was our exclusive review of Mr Jobs's latest creation.

However, not everything went quite as smoothly as Apple might have hoped. As you'll have read already, our own Tom Parsons got very agitated with the ordering process when trying to get his new 3G iPhone online, and judging by the reports in this weekend's newspapers, early customers were left fuming when the computer system linking Apple's stores to 02's network struggled to cope with the demand.

So why all the hoopla? Well, it seems as if the iPhone is the must-have accessory, credit crunch or no credit crunch, and anything else just won't do.

I'm not an iPhone owner, but I do have an iPod Touch. So, keen to get a flavour of what the new iPhone can do, I downloaded the new iPhone 2.0 software from iTunes (it cost me £5.99) and loaded it onto the Touch. Simplicity itself.

And here's the thing. Once you've upgraded to 2.0, there are some brilliant free applications you can download to your iPhone or Touch. Apple Remote allows you to control the music on your Apple Mac computer or Apple TV using the iPhone/Touch as your remote. It logs on to your home wi-fi network and enables you to select, play, pause, shuffle and skip the songs on your computer from anywhere around the house. Very neat.

I've also downloaded NetNewsWire (an RSS reader) and have a choice of zillions of internet radio stations to listen to via the Tuner app. A free eBay app lets you watch, bid on and search for items in real time, and if you fancy something to entertain you on those long train/plane journeys, Super Monkey Ball is a great puzzle game.

Oh, and did I mention there's another app that means you can keep in touch with all your Facebook friends too?

Of course, the only thing my Touch can't do is make phone calls. So for that I need my Sony Ericsson W580i. But frankly having to take two items with me every time I leave the house is a bore. Looks like I'll have to buy an iPhone after all, Jonny!

Ordering the iPhone 3G - what a nightmare!

2008-07-08T12:32:00Z

Now that 24 hours have passed, it seems a good time to reflect on the - shall we say 'awkward' - iPhone 3G ordering process of yesterday. Like many punters, myself and a couple of other What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision staffers had our bank cards out as soon as the email came in from O2 announcing the commencement of pre-orders.

Little did we know that only one of us would get one, and that an innocent PC keyboard would have met it's demise by lunchtime that same day.

Firstly, there was the website collapsing under the sheer number of visitors attempting to put their order through. The frustration of getting through pages of the order process only to be thwarted at the last moment by an unresponsive page was huge the first time, let alone on the fifth and sixth attempts (this is where one member of staff's annoyance was vented on the aforementioned keyboard).

And then they closed the website, handily offering a number to call if you wanted to order the iPhone. But alas, calling the number simply generated an automated instruction to place your order online - oh dear.

So we waited and waited, and attempted to do some work in between regular clicks of the refresh button, until finally, it was up and running again. After a couple of false starts and page errors, my order was complete - I can expect my iPhone 3G on Thursday...

...or can I? You see, the email I received shortly after placing the order begins with this vaguely worrying sentence: "Your order is still being processed and, if accepted, should be despatched to you within the next 5 days. Any iPhone 3G orders will be delivered on or after 11th July."

So let me get this straight: my order hasn't been "accepted" yet, and if it is "accepted" I can expect to receive it on launch day, or maybe sometime afterwards, like, say, Christmas.

Still, it could be worse - I could have been after a white 16GB model, which Carphone Warehouse and O2 have now said isn't coming into the UK at launch. Or I could be a current customer of O2, and suffered an even more obstructive ordering process as a result. Strange that one, isn't it?

As it is, I'm very lucky - I'm the only What Hi-Fi? Sound And Vision bod to successfully complete an order. I'll be even happier if it actually arrives on Thursday...

What I did on my holidays: the Brennan JB7

2008-06-29T09:35:00Z

I've just had a week off.

So what did I do? All those things I don’t have time to do when reviewing and editing – I listened to lots of music, watched a few movies, did some reading and a spot of writing.

Busman’s holiday? Not quite: when you do this for a living, you don’t get much chance to switch off the work brain and switch on the enjoyment brain, and it takes a while to stop listening to the system and start listening to the music again.

All of which explains why I was pretty pleased when the doorbell rang on Monday morning and a courier was there with a surprisingly small box from Cambridge company 3GA, containing the Brennan JB7 hard-disk music system and a pair of speakers.

It’s a product I’d been meaning to get a listen to for a while, and a chance phone call a couple of weeks back meant I got the chance to slot it in when i had some time off. That meant I could use it as it is meant to be used, freed from the pressure of reviewing deadlines.

And having lived with the Brennan for almost a week now, I can safely say that not only do I ‘get’ what the designer was trying to achieve – I also really like the JB7. So what follows isn’t by any means a review, more a set of user impressions.

Designed for simplicity
The JB7 is the brainchild of Martin Brennan, who those of a geeky persuasion may recognise as a veteran of Sinclair and the Alan Sugar empire, not to mention the co-designer of the world’s first 64-bit games computer, the Atari Jaguar.

A Cambridge physics graduate, Brennan had long had the idea for the JB7 on the back-burner: the pitch for the unit says that “Ever since CDs were invented Martin wanted a CD player that would hold his entire CD collection.

“He wanted something as simple to use as a light switch but at the same time something that would let him find a particular track without leaving the armchair - and he wanted something that could rattle the windows when he was in the mood.”

The result is a small, simple to use and very blue machine designed to take up minimal space and yet deliver convincing performance. You probably own larger hardback novels than this – it’s just under 5cm tall and 22cm wide – and simplicity is assured by just four large buttons and one control knob.

Several versions of the JB7 are available: it starts from £309 delivered with a 40GB hard-disk, and goes up to £359 for the 160GB of the review unit. Add in the little Brennan BSP50 two-way speakers – yours for £59 a pair, and the total package I received could be on your doorstep for £418.

There’s a slot-loading CD drive for ripping discs, a USB slot for copying files to/from memory devices or iPods, or to connect an external hard drive, a full-function credit-card remote control and 3.5mm sockets for line in/out and headphones. Oh, and the small matter of onboard 2x30W amplification, meaning you really only need to add the speakers and you’re in business.

All the things it doesn’t do...
Playing the ‘anticipate the comments’ game, the Brennan JB7 doesn’t have any network capability (let alone wi-fi), won’t store video, and won’t check your email, play internet radio or let you prepare a PowerPoint presentation while you listen to music. And it doesn’t update its 2.4-million album database automatically – you just request an update disc occasionally from the manufacturer.

And true, it ‘only’ has a 160GB hard drive, whereas I know before you tell me that you could easily buy a terabyte or two for what? Five bob or so?

What’s more, it uses MP3 compression, although you can also store discs in uncompressed form if required. At the standard 192kbps rate – you can also choose 128k or 320k – that means the 40GB version will store 400 albums, or 50 uncompressed, while the 160GB will hold 1600 albums, or 210 uncompressed.

Why just MP3? Over to Martin Brennan again: “JB7 is about convenience and accessibility so we tend not to focus on compression types and bit rates – I design the low level software that deals with inverse cosine transforms, Huffman codes, psychoacoustic masking and all that kind of stuff, but when I listen to music I don’t want to deal with all that – I just want my music easy to get to.

“We do have a simple in-house high speed lossless compression algorithm that provides a modest level of lossless compression that can be performed on-the-fly as CDs are loaded. We decided against using it in this product because it wouldn't deliver any real benefit to the majority of our customers.”

And just so the hi-fi purists aren’t left out of the ‘yes, but’ game, the JB7 has springclip speaker terminals, and all the rear panel ins and outs are on 3.5mm stereo jacks, not RCA phonos.

...And what it does
This system couldn’t be any simpler to use. You stick in a CD, and the unit asks you if you want to copy it to the hard disk. Press the master control knob to agree and it looks up the disc database, and gives you the details – sometimes you have to scroll through a couple. Find the right one, press again, and off it goes – meanwhile, you can play something already stored. At the end of the rip process, the disc is ejected. See here for a video explaining all.

Finding music is similarly simple: you can search by track name or album title/artist, play whole albums or let the player run through everything stored. Again, this video explains how it’s done.

There are also seven playlists available, named after the colours of the rainbow, and into which you can program tracks. Each list has its own key on the remote – just press and hold to add a track.

Finally, you can also transfer tracks into an MP3 player – there’s a video showing how to do this, too.

I’m going to leave the serious ‘how it sounds’ stuff to the proper review, either here or in the magazine, but suffice it to say here I’ve had a lot of fun listening to the system over the past week, both through the optional speakers – which are more than respectable for £60 – and using a 3.5mm to phono adapter to connect it to my main system.

Even at the default 192kbps compression the system sounds good for all-day music, and sounds to me like it would be a very acceptable solution for a second system, a study or even a bedroom. I’ve had some fun with it blasting out everything from dance music to Elgar, and from Pink Floyd to a budget Ian Dury package I picked up in the supermarket the other night. At a fiver for a two-disc set, it was a no-brainer, and worth it for the moment the chap next door asked me what that ‘Ada’ song I was playing was all about!

Initial impressions are ‘mission accomplished’ on this one: it’s unfeasibly compact and neat, so beautifully thought through that it’s a breeze to use, and meets the design criteria in terms of the performance/usability trade-off. And above all, it’s huge fun, and the sort of product that’ll have you saying to friends “come and have a look at this.”

It’s going to be a hard one to give up when the time comes.

Who wants their music on a phone? iDon't!

2008-06-16T16:29:00Z

As regular readers may know, I’m not the biggest fan of the Apple iPod.

Maybe it’s because I tend to do my commuting by car, but I’ve never really ‘got’ the appeal of having all my music in my pocket, ready for instant access.

Or maybe it’s because I’m old-fashioned enough to believe that music is something requiring you sit down and give your entire attention, not to form the backdrop to something else.

After all, you wouldn’t carry versions of great paintings around with you, just to have a swift glance now and then, would you? Music while you work?

No thanks – I find it to be a serious distraction.

That’s probably why all the news about the new iPhone – it’s now less expensive, and has ‘3G’ capability, among other features – leaves me rather cold. Yes, I carry a mobile phone around with me – it’s a company one, so I kind of have to – but the idea of using it to browse the internet while listening to music and making a call seems just too much.

And however exciting the touch-screen interface may be to the committed Apple fans, surely having to haul the thing out of your pocket just to change the volume level is more or less inviting a mugging in some of the more dangerous parts of the world?

Nevertheless, I'm sure we'll see queues outside Apple stores as the product goes on sale; after all, the day the new iPhone was announced the radio was awash with people talking about the product in terms roughly akin to the Second Coming.

But I’ll stick to phones that are phones, and music as it's meant to be enjoyed.

In calm, and quiet.

NEWS: Grundig puts a dock in a bucket

2008-06-12T15:24:50Z

Just the thing for the beach, particularly boisterous garden barbecues or indeed anglers who want to scare the fish once the close season finishes on Monday, this is Grundig's £100 Emanate.

It's a weatherproof, splashproof iPod speaker system, complete with rechargeable batteries and a lock-down see-through cover for your personal player, and any similarity to an ice-bucket is entirely coincidental.

It comes with controls around the dock, and also a remote handset, and has a mains adapter for recharging. Other facilities include a 3.5mm input for other MP3 players.

It has a 2x15W output – see what we mean about scaring the wildlife? – and stands 24cm tall. It's available in black or white, direct from Grundig's online shop.

Technorati Tags: Grundig, iPod speakers, weatherproof

NEWS: Motorola's turn for movie downloads

2008-06-10T13:34:13Z

Following last week’s news that Apple was launching its movie download service in the UK, Motorola has followed suit by announcing a similar service for mobile phones.

The mobile phone manufacturer has announced a deal with Paramount Digital Entertainment to offer movie downloads. Pricing for films ranges from £5.99 to £8.99 and include titles such as Mission Impossible 3, School of Rock and The Italian Job.

The movies will work on handsets that support OMA 2.0 and H.264 video codecs, including the company’s new MOTO Z10 handset.

The service will initially be launching in the UK, with Germany, Italy, Spain and France following soon. Hop over to www.hellomoto.co.uk and see what’s on offer.

Technorati Tags: apple, MOTO Z10, Motorola, Paramount

NEWS: Second-gen iPhone adds 3G, navigation - and will cost from $199

2008-06-09T15:47:00Z

We've just received the report from our man in the States, and the second generation iPhone really is coming.

It adds 3G capability, has built in satellite navigation, and will sell for just $199 worldwide for the 8GB version.

It goes on sale on July 11, and will be much more widely available than the old one - it'll be on sale in 70 countries over the next few months.

Some of the stats of the new version include better battery life
- Standby is 300 hours
- 2G talktime 10 hours (up from 8)
- 3G talktime 5 hours (rivals have 3 hours apparently)
- Browsing - 5-6 hours
- Video 7 hours
- Audio - 24 hours.

The new iPhone also claims much faster downloading of web pages, as Tom Dunmore of Stuff magazine reported from the announcement in San Francisco.

it was shown downloading a graphics-heavy web page, this taking "21s in 3G and 59s on EDGE. Wi-Fi was 17 seconds. The iPhone is 36% faster than the Nokia N96 in downloading a website."

UK availability is yet to be announced for the phone, but some stores are apparently already suggesting August 8th.

UPDATED: Looks like it's coming to the UK on July 11, according to some online reports.

"Also on July 11, iPhone 3G will be available in 21 other countries:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom."

The 16GB version will sell for $299, with Apple again suggesting that's a worldwide maximum price.
 

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone 3G

NEWS: TEAC iPod dock aims for budget appeal

2008-06-09T14:52:47Z

TEAC's £100 SP-X2i is claimed to be 'arguably the neatest reasonably priced speaker system for iPod on the market', thanks in no small part to its use of NXT flat-panel speaker technology.

The stylish look is maintained by the use of a hideaway subwoofer, and the dock itself will accommodate almost all iPods apart from very early models and the Shuffles, but even these can be connected using the system's auxiliary inputs.

The dock also has composite and S-video outputs, with suitable cables provided, and both 3.5mm and RCA phono inputs. It'll charge iPods while they're in place, and comes complete with a remote control handset.

The speaker system uses 25mm NXT exciters driving aluminium honeycomb main speakers, and a conventional 10cm driver in the subwoofer. The power output is 5W per channel, with 15W for the subwoofer, and the main left/right speakers can be wall-mounted.

Technorati Tags: iPod dock, iPod speakers, TEAC

NEWS: Sleek Audio serves up customisable headphones

2008-06-06T14:38:42Z

With virtually all in-ear headphones, what you hear is what you get. If they don’t sound right, you either lump it or buy a better pair.

But things are about to change. American company Sleek Audio has just launched its SA6. These in-ear, sound-isolating headphones allow for some serious tinkering.

They can be custom tuned using the company’s Variable Equalisation System (VQ). Simply put, the ‘phones come with interchangeable filter tips that can influence both high and low frequencies. You can alter the sound to suit your musical taste.

Sleek Audio is also looking to launch a wireless version in Autumn ’08, but existing owners won't have to buy brand new headphones.

You can detach the cable from the actual headphone body so, in theory, you’ll be able swap it for a new cable fitted with a Bluetooth receiver.

Interested? The SA6s cost £140 and are available at www.hifiheadphones.co.uk. Stay tuned for a full review in the September issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision.

Technorati Tags: Bluetooth, earphones, headphones, iPod, MP3, Sleek Audio

NEWS: Cowon’s D2 MP3 player is a right touch

2008-06-06T11:49:11Z

The iPod Touch was a fantastic advert for touchscreen technology. We couldn’t resist a good grope every time one was in the office.

Let’s hope the new, 16GB version of Cowon’s D2 MP3 player can have a similar effect.

It features a 2.5in QVGQ touchscreen and is compatible with MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF, FLAC and WAV audio files, not to mention MPEG-4 video files.

There’s a built-in FM tuner, TV output and line input for voice recording.

And, with a claimed 52hours battery life it contains almost as much juice as a Del Monte fruit factory.

As well as the 16GB version (£160), the D2 is also available in 4GB (£100) and 8GB capacities, but the integrated SDHC memory card slot means you can potentially expand this to 32GB.

Visit www.advancedmp3players.co.uk for more information.

Technorati Tags: Cowon, Cowon D2, D2, iPod, MP3, MP3 player

NEWS: Goldring launches lower-priced GX 'phones

2008-06-06T11:16:57Z

It's all gone a bit earphonetastic around here at the moment.

Resplendent in iPodalike white, these are the new GX100s from Goldring, and we don't think they're the last headphones we'll be telling you about today.

Designed as an even more affordable stablemate for the excellent GX200s, the new arrivals, which will sell for £29.95, are built with soft touch mouldings and a "triple method cable management system".

This, apparently, is designed to let them be worn three ways: "symmetric, asymmetric or necklace".

The earpieces are designed to make insertion easy, and come with a choice of three sizes of soft silicone earbuds.

The GX100s, which come with a drawstring storage bag, are also available in black.

Technorati Tags: earphones, Goldring, headphones, iPod, MP3 player

NEWS: Sennheiser's iPhone-friendly earbuds

2008-06-06T10:40:34Z

Much to most people's annoyance, Apple decided to give the iPhone a recessed headphone input, ensuring standard 'phones simply wouldn't fit in the connection.

Still, this allows headphone manufacturers to expand their ranges with iPhone-compatible cans, like these, the Sennheiser MM 50 iP.

Part of the CX Hi-Fi range, the £50 'phones will fit the iPhones under the sun and the rumoured 3G model around the corner.

As well as being headphones, the MM 50 iP also work fine for taking your calls, equipped as they are with a microphone and control buttons for the phone functions.

Naturally Sennheiser is confident that they will provide a sound quality upgrade on the freebie cans – and we should think so, too.

The MM 50 iP deliver a frequency response from 18 - 22,000 Hz, have a 16 ohm impedance and a sound pressure level of 106 dB.

The cans are supplied with three different sizes of ear adaptors, each boasting "high isolation against environmental and ambient noise".

Out now, the Sennheiser MM 50 iP will set you back £50.

Technorati Tags: earphones, headphones, iPhone, MP3, MP3 player, MM 50 iP, sennheiser

NEWS: Klipsch introduces more affordable Image earphones

2008-06-05T13:10:28Z

When it's not working out ways to make its products even more invisible in its press pictures, Klipsch has been keeping itself busy expanding its Image earphone range.

Fresh from a rave review of its £200 Image 'phones in the current issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, the company has announced the imminent arrival of the X5, designed to sell for a lower price.

Seen here actual size, the X5 uses earpieces that are just a little larger than the originals, which are being renamed X10. The diameter of the 'bud' may only be 2mm greater, but apparently this makes it both easier and slightly less expensive to manufacture.

The company says this will enable it to "pass the savings on to the end user": UK pricing for the X5 is yet to be announced, but in the States the X5s will sell for about 30% less than the X10s.

The new headphones come with five different pairs of ear gels, and are supplied complete with a carrying pouch, an in-flight adaptor and a cleaning tool for the ear gels.

Technorati Tags: earphones, iPod, Klipsch, MP3

NEWS: Voix MPX speaker system takes the long view

2008-06-04T12:23:56Z

This is the new 2.1 speaker system from Voix, designed for use with iPods. mobile phones and MP3 players.

The £259 floorstanding speakers use aluminium-cone drivers and come complete with remote control, plus a dock atop one of them and 3.5mm socketry for the connection of non-Apple portable players.

But like us, you're probably wondering where the '.1' is, since there's no sign of a subwoofer.

Look closely and you'll spot that the two speakers aren't quite identical – apart from the obvious matter of the iPod dock, of course.

The one on the right is an 'X' speaker, complete with control electronics and a downward-firing subwoofer. The one on the left is a 'Y'.

The speakers claim a 72W output, and use a 25mm tweeter and 4x5cm mid/bass units per channel, giving them a claimed frequency response of 120Hz-18kHz.

The subwoofer in the right speaker is a 9cm unit, powered by a 36W amplifier and extending the bass response down to 50Hz.

The speakers are finished in piano black, and come complete with an auxiliary output for an external amplifier and a subwoofer output, plus a remote control handset.

Technorati Tags: iPod dock, iPod speakers, Voix