If sound engineering has reached such an extraordinary level of clarity and density, then the only area to excel in is the design of what emits the sound. And if the achievements in music production are so impressive, then shouldn’t the object playing that music be equally so? The A9 from Beoplay is exactly the kind of expertly designed sonic system that compliments the new simplicity of digital audio. Continue reading →

Home sound systems were once like the original computers: huge, room-occupying cubes that protected collections of vacuum tubes and wires. Now there’s no need for those beasts. A device the size of our palm can cycle through more processes in a second than the grand old room computers, and an MP3 player the size of your thumb can play louder than a Hi-Fi module. Then where’s the fun for designers if everything is so small and efficient? Continue reading →

Were I to tell you there is a portable speaker system that resembles a picnic basket, I can’t predict your reaction, but I suspect you’d be a little confused. Would it be like the bulky, woven reed basket that looks like it belongs in a craft fair painting of a meadow? I don’t know if there are more modern variations of the classic picnic basket, but that is what I immediately think of when I see the Beolit 12, the portable speakers system for your smartphone by Bang & Olufsen. And because of its digital pastoral design, the Beolit 12 looks like the perfect thing to bring along with a couple of sandwiches. Continue reading →

This is something to thrill the fashion conscious ladies out there! But also the sensitive hearted men who care enough to offer their beloved ones a present they will forever cherish. If there was to be a short, to the point description about Stelle Audio Clutch then it would have to be: the perfect intersection between fashion and technology. Continue reading →

This is cool design. There is a discrete, square device that can reawaken any old speaker and resurrect it to play music once again. The Vamp, a project by London-based designer Paul Cocksedge, which he funded on Kickstarter, is a small red boxey shaped tool that when connected to any speaker with the 3.5mm cord plays anything via Bluetooth. Continue reading →

Power cables are abundant and cluttering. The number of our devices grows, and meters of wire accumulate. Laptop speakers are too weak, and really clear, durable speakers are too big. Desks tend to take up too much space, and their size seems disproportionate to their function. Either they were just excited to experiment with the idea, or La Boite Concept was thinking of all these impediments to the modern workspace when they designed the LD120, a laptop desk and speaker system combination. Continue reading →

Bose is well known for obsessive, scientific attention to sound quality. Their various products, speakers, stereos, headphones, and home theater systems all tend to trump whomever is the competitor. And as important as sound is to personal enjoyment, Bose moves into the sonic arena of the outdoor backyard barbecue arena. Continue reading →

Never do we listen to the radios in our hotel rooms looking for impressive sound. The industrially produced clock radios function just for alarms, really. The Model XS by Geneva Sound System is a tiny portable audio system that might motivate you to toss the standard clock radio out of a window. Continue reading →

Internal tablet speakers fall more than short of an impressive sonic experience. Out of an iPad, Netflix film audio tends to sound like it’s struggling to even present character dialog let alone translate impressive explosions or emotive soundtracks. Inevitably, you end up jabbing the volume-up button as if you were scaring the device into pushing out louder, more definitive sound.

To sooth this impatient tendency, and to transform the tablet into a professional audio-visual device, Belkin created the Thunderstorm, a so-called home theater system that fits around your iPad, delivering the much-needed sonic boost. Continue reading →

For those of us who don’t enjoy walls of speakers and would like our sound systems to be discrete, the Sonos Playbar is a subtle but powerful piece of hardware. The Playbar is thin enough to sit anonymously by your TV or in your bedroom, all while pumping-out theater quality sound. Continue reading →