powered Bluetooth® Loudspeaker

• Outputs: RCA
• Bluetooth® compatibility allows for wireless connection to any A2DP stereo Bluetooth device
• Features Bluetooth v2.0 with EDR
• Bluetooth (2.4 GHz) technology
• Bluetooth range: 30 Feet
• System Consists of One Main speaker and two Satellite speakers
• Main Speaker Cabinet contains two 4” woofers
• Satellite speakers each contain one 3” woofer and one tweeter
• Frequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz
• bass, Treble & Volume Controls
• weight: 15 lbs
• power Selector 110v
• Technical pro is known to build professional gear that audio professionals and audiophiles turn to for all of their sound needs. Our new line of Bluetooth Compatible equipment is quickly becoming the bench mark for all others to follow. With its sleek design and powerful sound the BLUET4 Powered Bluetooth® Loudspeaker is one of the hottest units in the market. It’s packed with options and of course built with the same long lasting design that you can expect from the engineers at Technical Pro.The BLUET4 is one of the newest Bluetooth capable speakers introduced by Technical Pro. With the ability to connect wirelessly to a Bluetooth enabled device while delivered a thumping bass, the BLUET4 has changed the game. With one powered base speaker and two passive satellite speakers that feed directly from the base speaker you can easily fill the room with audio.

  Want to play audio files from your phone while keeping it safe in your pocket? No problem. The BLUET4′s Bluetooth compatibility allows for wireless connection to any A2DP stereo Bluetooth device. That means you can play audio files from your phone, laptop or any other Bluetooth enabled device within a 30 foot foot range. The BLUET4 gives you the freedom to stream music wirelessly from any Bluetooth enabled device.

  Your in the car on your way home listening to your favorite beats or maybe a podcast from the your phone via the Bluetooth connection in car. You pull into your driveway. Previously there were only two options; stay in your car and keep listening or turn the the car off and continue the listening next time in the car. Technical Pro’s BLUET4 unchains you from you car. Now you can walk into your home and connect your Bluetooth enabled mobile device to the BLUET4 and continue listening to your audio.

  The BLUET4 Bluetooth connectivity is also very useful if your having people over. Connect your mobile phone to the BLUET4 and play your audio from anywhere within a 30 foot range of the BLUET4. If crowd wants you to change the track you don’t have to go running to the speaker anymore. Just take out your phone and select another song.

  The most impressive feature on the BLUET4 is the clarity of the Bluetooth transmission. You wont be able to tell the difference between the sound coming from a mp3 player connected directly to the BLUET4′s RCA input or a mobile device 30 feet away connected via Bluetooth.

  One look at the BLUET4 and you will think it arrived from the future. The unit is extremely stylish and will surely impress your clients or your crowd. If you are serious about your sound, and are in need of options to play modern audio sources, and want to maintain a high level of performance this is for you…and it’s available at a price that won’t break the bank.

Technical pro is known to build professional gear that audio professionals and audiophiles turn to for all of their sound needs be it at work or at home. Our new line of Bluetooth Compatible equipment is quickly becoming the bench mark for all others to follow. With its sleek design and powerful sound the BLUET3W Powered Bluetooth® Loudspeaker is one of the hottest units in the market. It’s packed with options and of course built with the same long lasting design that you can expect from the engineers at Technical Pro.

The BLUET3W is one of the newest Bluetooth capable speakers introduced by Technical Pro. With the ability to connect wirelessly to a Bluetooth enabled device while delivered a thumping bass, the BLUET3W has changed the game. With two full range woofers and one subwoofer the BLUET3W delivers unheard of power into your home.

Want to play audio files from your phone while keeping it safe in your pocket? No problem. The BLUET3W’s Bluetooth compatibility allows for wireless connection to any A2DP stereo Bluetooth device. That means you can play audio files from your phone, laptop or any other Bluetooth enabled device within a 30 foot foot range. The BLUET3W gives you the freedom to stream music wirelessly from any Bluetooth enabled device.

Your in the car on your way home listening to your favorite beats or maybe a podcast from the your phone via the Bluetooth connection in car. You pull into your driveway. Previously there were only two options; stay in your car and keep listening or turn the the car off and continue the listening next time in the car. Technical Pro’s BLUET3W unchains you from you car. Now you can walk into your home and connect your Bluetooth enabled mobile device to the BLUET3W and continue listening to your audio.

The BLUET3W Bluetooth connectivity is also very useful if your having people over. Connect your mobile phone to the BLUET3W and play your audio from anywhere within a 30 foot range of the BLUET3W. If crowd wants you to change the track you don’t have to go running to the speaker anymore. Just take out your phone and select another song.

The most impressive feature on the BLUET3W is the clarity of the Bluetooth transmission. You wont be able to tell the difference between the sound coming from a mp3 player connected directly to the BLUET3W’s RCA input or a mobile device 30 feet away connected via Bluetooth.

One look at the BLUET3W and you will think it arrived from the future. The unit is extremely stylish and will surely impress your clients or your crowd. If you are serious about your sound, and are in need of options to play modern audio sources, and want to maintain a high level of performance this is for you…and it’s available at a price that won’t break the bank.

Technical pro is known to build professional gear that audio professionals and audiophiles turn to for all of their sound needs. Our new line of Bluetooth Compatible equipment is quickly becoming the bench mark for all others to follow. With its sleek design and powerful sound the BLUET7 Powered Bluetooth® Loudspeaker is one of the hottest units in the market. It’s packed with options and of course built with the same long lasting design that you can expect from the engineers at Technical Pro.

Besides the Bluetooth connectivity & FM Tuner there are also inputs for a USB flash drive and AUX (1/8″) connections. Connect such sources as a laptop, computer, mp3 player, CD player, DVD player audio, mixer or other stereo audio devices to the 1/8″ AUX connector. The USB flash drive input can handle a maximum size of 16 GB & play your .mp3 & .wma files from your USB flash drive through this speaker. You don’t need any other equipment. Playback features only available on the USB flash drive input include play, repeat and random playback.

Forgot your USB flash drive at home? Want to play audio files from your phone while keeping it safe in your pocket? No problem. The BLUET7′s Bluetooth compatibility allows for wireless connection to any A2DP stereo Bluetooth device. That means you can play audio files from your phone, laptop or any other Bluetooth enabled device within a 30 foot foot range. The BLUET7 gives you the freedom to stream music wirelessly from any Bluetooth enabled device.

Your in the car on your way home listening to your favorite beats or maybe a podcast from the your phone via the Bluetooth connection in car. You pull into your driveway. Previously there were only two options; stay in your car and keep listening or turn the the car off and continue the listening next time in the car. Technical Pro’s BLUET7 unchains you from you car. Now you can walk into your home and connect your Bluetooth enabled mobile device to the BLUET7 and continue listening to your audio.

The BLUET7 Bluetooth connectivity is also very useful if your having people over. Connect your mobile phone to the BLUET7 and play your audio from anywhere within a 30 foot range of the BLUET7. If crowd wants you to change the track you don’t have to go running to the speaker anymore. Just take out your phone and select another song.

The most impressive feature on the BLUET7 is the clarity of the Bluetooth transmission. You wont be able to tell the difference between the sound coming from a mp3 player connected directly to the BLUET7′s 1/8″ AUX input or a mobile device 30 feet away connected via Bluetooth.

The front panel shows a digital fluorescent output display that shows the audio source, ID3 tags, and track and title information for the USB flash drive input. One quick look to the face of this unit and you know all the information you need about your playback status. Use the included remote control for ease of use. Set up your sound sources, walk away and control all your features from the remote.

One look at the BLUET7and you will think it arrived from the future. The unit is extremely stylish and will surely impress your clients or your crowd. If you are serious about your sound, and are in need of options to play modern audio sources, and want to maintain a high level of performance this is for you…and it’s available at a price that won’t break the bank.

Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG.

Can a $249 digital-to-analog converter/headphone amplifier deliver state-of-the-art sound? The Audiophiliac listens to the AudioQuest DragonFly to find out.

by Steve Guttenberg

The AudioQuest DragonFly is a USB-powered (it doesn’t use batteries or an external power supply) digital-to-analog converter. I usually need some time to get a handle on the sound of a component, but within minutes of plugging in the tiny $249 DAC I knew exactly what made it so special. It sounds clear and clean, so there’s less standing between the music and my ears.

The AudioQuest DragonFly

(Credit: AudioQuest)

The DragonFly is a bona fide Audio component, designed by Gordon Rankin, a man known in audiophile circles as a great tube electronics engineer, but Rankin is also a computer audio guy. He’s one of the few DAC designers with equal depth of knowledge in analog and digital audio technology.

The DragonFly uses an ESS Sabre DAC, a high-performance chip more typically found in higher-end CD and Blu-ray players. The DragonFly works with MP3s and CD-standard 16-bit/44KHz to 24-bit/96KHz file formats. Inside, there are 107 components mounted on a 0.6×1.7-inch four-layer board including regulators and custom capacitors.

The DragonFly was designed with the audiophile in mind, so instead of relying on a digital volume control that might reduce signal resolution and sound quality, the DragonFly’s volume control works in the analog domain for the best sound quality. The analog volume control tracks the movement of the volume slider on your computer. The DragonFly has a 3.5mm output jack.

It can be used with desktop speakers, like my Emotiva Airmotiv 4s, or a component hi-fi system, or it can directly drive headphones. I tried it all three ways, and the DragonFly’s stunning resolution was always a joy to listen to.

To put the DragonFly’s performance in context I compared it first with the Halide Design DS DAC ($295) that I raved about earlier this year. The DS DAC has a softer and richer sonic balance, which I still like, but the DragonFly’s sound is clearer and more precise. bass is tighter and better defined. Listening over the Airmotiv 4 speakers, the DragonFly’s more expansive stereo image floats freer of the speakers than it does with the DS DAC.

The DragonFly trounced the DS DAC, but how would it fare in a shootout with the $495 Halide Design DAC HD? The DragonFly didn’t win that one; the DAC HD had more bass and sounded more dynamically alive, and had better overall tonality. The stereo image was even bigger, and still had razor-sharp detail. When you hear a truly great DAC, like the DAC HD, on a desktop system, you’re a giant step closer to the sound of a first rate high-end hi-fi.

At first I was less happy with the DragonFly’s sound when I listened to it as a headphone amp. I plugged in the Audio Technica ATH M50 and Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphones, and found the DragonFly’s sound lightweight. Bass oomph was lacking, which overemphasized midrange and treble frequencies. Then I popped on my Velodyne vPulse in-ears, and the DragonFly sounded positively awesome! My JH-13 custom-molded in-ears were also fantastic, so all I can say for now is the Dragonfly might not be a great match with some full-size headsets. We’ll see.

Granted, it’s a $249 desktop DAC, so you can’t really expect it to be a giant killer on every application, but the DragonFly still has a lot going for it.

[LINK]

the first time I heard the word “DAC” I thought it was a misspelling of a company that used to send me catalogs of unusual electronic equipment made in dubious places for ridiculously low prices. Of course I eventually learned what a “digital Audio converter” was and that it’s now found in audio devices to convert a digital signal to analog — because the sound we hear comes through the air and impinges upon our ears. Cyborgs we aint yet.

Now devices created by Dr. Fang Bian are known for their level of sophistication when it comes to audio — the guy’s a certifiable genius when it comes to making electronics dance to his tune. And when you consider how crummy the DAC is that you’ll find in a so-called “high-Tech” device like your laptop, it’s no wonder that the sound is often the least thing the manufacturer is pointing to with pride.

But a standalone DAC can be expensive, not to mention cumbersome to use. But what’s the value in having a really good pair of headphones or powered speakers attached to your desktop/laptop when the DAC isn’t worth jack? So when Dr. Bian sent me the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC, I was expecting  some high-end tech that wouldn’t be lugged around because it’d be too bothersome.

Instead I’m looking at a little rectangular box that barely weighs enough to juggle with. And a under 3-inches in height and under 1-inch wide/deep, easier to toss in a pocket than my smartphone.

A quick spin shows me that there’s a USB socket at one end and a mini-jack and line output sockets at the other. As for the controls and power socket — there isn’t any! Nor any internal battery — oh, I get it, USB not only transfers the digital signal through the USB cable, but supplies the power too.

And because I hate manuals, I can easily figure out how it’s used: you plug a USB cable into the USB socket and the other end into a USB socket on the desktop/laptop. Then you insert a headphone plug or a mini-jack plug into the other socket and put on the headphones or turn on the speakers. Of course you have to select the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC in the desktop/laptop so it knows to output the sound, but that’s easy on a Mac and just a few extra clicks on a PC (if the blue light on the HIFIMAN goes on, you’ve got power).

The HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC is going to have impressive specs, according to the info I was told: inside there’s a Texas Instrument PCM2702 16 bit 48kHZ chipset. And conjoined to that a S/n (signal to noise) ratio of 96dB, 0.07% THD (total harmonic distortion) and stereo crosstalk (signal leaking from one program channel to another) of 78dB. Like my ear registers all that (Cyborgs R Us, not yet). But I certainly can do an “unscientific” test of listening with and without the HM-101 to hear whether there’s a discernible difference.

I’ll be using my MacBook with CD-quality audio files I ripped earlier. For listening, I’ve a pair of Audio Technica ATH-CP500i in-ear headphones (better than the junky pair you get with iOS devices, and in fact equal to or better than many pairs costing over $100, in my opinion). For the portable speakers, I’m going with the STEM Time Command Mini — a small portable audio dock for iOS devices whose speakers are not spaced very far apart. And because I’ve heard some reviews noting that there’s sometimes noise interference, I’ve a really good USB cable to work with, not some $2 junk.

So the Audio Technica in-ears are plugged in to the MacBook directly and I play the beginning track from Boston’s debut album with the volume set at the midway point. Stopping the track after about a minute, I plug in the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC and plug the in-ears into them. I then repeat playing the track. I immediately notice that the volume seems a bit higher and clearer. The stereo effect doesn’t seem to have been changed any (didn’t expect it to), but a lot of the harshness of the guitars, especially when using the Time Command Mini, seem to have been dissipated. Basically the track sounds “cleaner,” to use a decidedly unscientific term.

I then repeated this entire process, only playing Landslide by Fleetwood Mac and, for the kick of hearing how old orchestrial tracks can sound, The Last Reel from the Adventures of Superman 1950′s TV show soundtrack CD (first just with the MacBook and then through the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC). Those points I mentioned earlier with the in-ears now are even more pronounced, and I can turn the sound up a bit more without getting the distortion that otherwise would be the case. I’m even picking up little nuances that weren’t coming through before. Or to be more exact, the nuances in the audio were there but the DAC in the MacBook wasn’t picking them up. On occasion I did hear a bit of hiss between tracks when nothing was playing, but it wasn’t annoying or unbearable. And the level of the bass seemed more deep and vocals crisper — definitely the case with the Fleetwood Mac song.  I even found my Apple-supplied iPhone earbuds  sounding better with the HIFIMAN than without.

Editor’s Rating:

Great

Bottom line: At a retail of $39, the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC is compact enough to remove any barrier for being carried around. And the setup and use is a no-brainer. Plus it actually does what it says — improving the audio you’re hearing. If the whole idea of being an audiophile is to spend big bucks on components so you can show off — you’’ll have to fake it when displaying the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC. But for sure you won’t have to fake how much better the sound now is.

Pros

• High-end digital to audio converter
• No computer driver needed

Cons

• Occasional interference during quiet passages

via HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC Review | GadgetReview.

Listen to anyone involved in making Music, specifically someone involved in engineering music, and they’ll tell you that iTunes has resulted in poor sounding music. Music files just can’t get the same fidelity as a CD or vinyl record. Well, Apple has taken a step to remedy this problem and introduced a platform called mastered for iTunes.

The problem with iTunes is that it compresses music into an AAC file (or rips a CD to an MP3), which loses some of the nuance. AAC compresses music by eliminating some of the sounds you won’t hear, or just won’t miss. It’s the same way that the JPEG format cuts out colors that you just won’t see.

To get technical, music is typically recorded using 24-bit samples at 96kHz (or even up to 192kHz now), a CD will then handle 16-bit 44.1kHz which is about 15 percent of the data of the original recording. Even an iTunes Plus song compressed to a 256kbps AAC will be one-fifth the size of the CD recording, or three percent of the data from a 192kHz recording.

Because the AAC files compresses the song, it ends up not sounding the same way it would in a studio. Listeners using the bundled Apple earbuds, or cheap headphones in general won’t notice the difference, nor will they probably care too much.

However, there are users out there now with higher-end headphones that try to make the music sound better. Those users could be plugging in a pair of Beats, a mid-range pair of Sennheisers, or they could be plugging their iPhone into high-end audio systems. Those users need music that sounds better than the average compressed music file.

To answer this need Apple has put up a page on iTunes called Mastered for iTunes.

The albums on this page have been mastered to work around the limitations of the file format and the hardware the music is played on. Apple has given engineers guidelines and a toolkit to help make these albums sound better.

With the tools, engineers can check out how tracks will sound when a user buys them from iTunes. It’s extra work on the engineer’s part, but it’s important to the process to get the music to sound right.

Without the tools, songs will still sound “good” to most users, but won’t sound perfect. For example, Masterdisk Chief Engineer Andy VanDette has completely remastered all of Rush’s catalog to be Mastered for iTunes.

By making the albums Mastered for iTunes VanDette can make sure the albums sound just like they did 35 years ago when Rush started making music.

Of course to appreciate those sounds you’ll still want something better than a cheap pair of headphones. The tracks still probably won’t sound as good as a lossless file would sound, but you’d need to be an audiophile or a music engineer to hear the differences.

As devices start to get bigger storage capacities those lossless files, or just higher resolution AAC files could be a possibility.

For now it’d just be nice if more albums were added to the Mastered for iTunes page. It’s about time the music industry started mastering music to sound as close to studio-quality as possible on when played through a smartphone or iPod. [Source]

From 1949 McIntosh has carved out a reputation for providing impeccable audio designs and recently celebrated their 60th anniversary by launching a limited edition MC75 amplifier. However, what comes as a little bit of a surprise is the company’s new launch – a clock shaped in their signature amplifier style. What’s more, it costs $2,000. The MCLK12 wall clock features two large metres displaying the hours and the minutes respectively. It also contains the black glass panel, the McIntosh amplifiers are well known for. But, $2,000 for a wall clock? Really?

[Gizmodo Via - Dvice]

Dayum, talk about going overboard with computer speakers. the GLA-55 Two-Piece speaker System ($1000) by Harman / Kardon is kinda outrageous, but the seductive jewel-like facets of its bass technology makes us swoon. Packed with Atlas™ bass woofers for powerful lows and patented CMMD® tweeters for crisp highs, this is audio luxury defined. Touch-sensitive volume controls and universally compatible connections put us in control. Yep, we’d have any audiophile in the bag with these on our mantle.

Ultrasone has debuted the open-backed pro 2900 headphones with an option to upgrade to a balanced, double cable version.

While standard, single cable headphones are commonplace in most pro audio and audiophile applications, a balanced headphone coupled with a balanced amplifier offers unique advantages over the former such as increased audio performance due to a doubling the slew rate and voltage swing power, while reducing distortion components and eliminating crosstalk. Ultrasone claims the end result is decreased distortion and ultimately superior audio performance. To achieve this paragon of headphone fidelity, balanced headphones must be paired with a balanced amplifier (4-channel amp with 2 inverted positive channels) that instead of using a common ground, uses two wires per side to deliver positive and negative audio signals to each side of the headphone. Now we all know what $700 for headphones means… a far fetch dream just stick to the Technical Pro HP-820 and save $640. but if your still not convinced read on…

Ultrasone’s PRO 2900s boast a classic black design, velvet covered black ear pads and a diamond-cut logo insignia on the ear cup. The PRO 2900 features a 40mm titanium-plated driver and a soft USC-Cable that is paired with Neutrik connectors. Ultrasone’s newest headphones contain MU-Metal shielding (ULE technology) that reduce the amount of radiation directed to the listener by up to 98%, as compared to conventional headphones. The PRO 2900s also contain Ultrasone’s patented S-Logic Plus technology for reduced sound pressure on the ear drum and improved tonal perception. This gives users the advantage of wearing Ultrasone headphones for many hours without their ears hurting. Ultrasone’s PRO 2900 comes in a hard-sided carrying case along with two removable cables (one spiral and one straight) and spare speed-switch ear pads.

Features:
» S-Logic Natural Surround Sound Plus
» Dynamic principle, open
» Frequency range 6-42.000 Hz
» Impedance 40 Ohm
» Sound pressure level 96 dB
» MU Metal buffer board, reduced field emissions in accordance with ULE (=Ultra Low Emission) standard
» Driver 40 mm titanium-plated
» Weight 295 g (without cord)

Ultrasone’s PRO 2900 headphones are available now and cost $549; the Balanced PRO 2900 version will set you back $799. More information on the Ultrasone PRO 2900 headphones.