Model: VMPR family
Carpeted Cabinet speaker w/ Steel grill
Color: Black

Technical pro’s VMPR speaker series consists of different sizes and power outputs all put together in a set of the most durable and long lasting speaker design’s on the market. If you are a studio designer, setting up sound for a live stage or venue you will find what you need in this series of speakers. Depending on your venue size and needs you may go for the smaller or larger offering, each built with the same innovative technology that is expected from Technical Pro. And the signature RED frame on the woofer makes it easy to identify.

The VMPR Carpeted Cabinet Speaker w/ Steel Grill is a professional loud speaker that will fulfill your big sound needs in a mid to large sized venue. Depending on your speaker throw needs, you may opt for the VMPR8” which is the baby of this series.  This combination will give you a great overall sound for a small to mid-sized venue.  The VMPR series it will still give you that huge club sound that you are after! It is able to push out a total peak power. Connect this speaker to any standard amplifier and you’re ready to rock!

The VMPR series are constructed with Technical Pro’s innovative and long lasting technology. The sturdy design will keep your speaker components safe and sound in the most rugged environments. Moving and placing this speaker is made easy by using the two built in carrying handles. Each corner is reinforced for added protection The front panel has a full length perforated steel cage that will protect your speaker while allowing all of the proper acoustics out. This is a durable speaker meant to be used in the most professional sound environments.

Technical Pro is built for the professional sound designer, studio professional, live stage sound designer and it’s a performer’s dream! If you are serious sound professional putting together a professional speaker system, you want this! Check out the other speakers in the VMPR line for a complete sound set up…and at a cost that is almost too low to list!

The heart of the VMPR series lies in its unique combination of premium construction quality along with features and performance technology previously unheard of at this price level, offering a range of options without equal. With improved performance and great looks, they deliver punchy mids and smooth highs at any level, with a bone crushing low-end. The quality wood cabinetry construction is carpet-covered and has an extra heavy-duty metal grille for ruggedness.

Our lives tend to accumulate clutter in every corner: on our desks, in our drawers, on our shelves at home, in our closets, on our computer — you name it, and clutter finds a way to fill every available space.

But having a simple, uncluttered life is possible, with some very simple methods.

Devote a little of your time to tossing clutter from your life, and keeping things relatively clutter-free, and you’ll be rewarded with much more pleasing living spaces, with a less stressful life, and with better organization and productivity. Clutter weighs us down, distracts us, brings chaos into our lives.
Let’s look at some ways to kick it out … for good.

1. Your desk
   If your desk is covered in paper and other clutter, clear it off to create a pleasing work environment. the steps here are the basic decluttering steps we’ll follow for many of the other steps below: 
   • Clear everything off: Take everything off your desk and put it in a pile on the floor. Clear out the drawers too, if you have time. The only things that should be on your desk now are the computer, phone and other similar equipment.
   • clean: Wipe down your desk, and clean your drawers if you’re decluttering them too. It’s good to start with clean surfaces.
   • Sort: OK, here’s the meat of the process: sort through your stuff, one pile at a time. Toss out or route as much as possible, so that what you’re left with is a relatively small amount of stuff. If you won’t be using it again in the near future, or if you can access it on the computer, toss it out.
   • Designate homes: Now you get to place everything back in your desk. Set up a simple alphabetical filing system, with one folder for each project or client. Have drawers for your office supplies and other stuff. With less stuff to organize, it shouldn’t be too hard. Be sure to have a place designated for everything, and keep things in those places. Sometimes it helps to label, so you don’t forget.
   • Leave flat surfaces clear: Don’t put stuff on top of your desk. Have an inbox for all incoming papers, and then sort them each day and either toss, delegate, do them immediately, or file all documents, so nothing remains on top of your desk. The only thing that should be on your desk is your computer, phone, inbox, perhaps a family photo, and the documents you’re working on right now.
2. Files
   If you decluttered your files in the above step, you can skip this, although you should declutter not only your work files but your home files as well. Keep a simple alphabetical system, and try to fit everything in one drawer. It’s good to take out all your files, and purge what you don’t need. Many times that can be half of your files or more. Get rid of as much as possible — most times, we keep copies of stuff we’ll never need again. When you’re done purging, you should have a minimum of files, and it shouldn’t be hard to keep organized.
3. information
   In today’s digital world, there are tons of ways that information comes into our lives — and it can be overwhelming. It’s information clutter — we get too much of it. Instead, set certain times of the day when you check email, your RSS feeds, Facebook, or various forums or other things you read daily. Reduce the number of things you read each day — purge anything that doesn’t give you value, reduce your consumption of news and television, get rid of magazine subscriptions. Keep information to a bare minimum, and only check it at certain times of the day instead of letting it rule your life.
4. Computer
   Purge your computer files, getting rid of stuff you don’t need. Clear your desktop of icons — they slow your computer down, create visual clutter, and are an inefficient way to access files, programs or folders. Set up hotkeys with AutoHotKey or similar programs. With online search tools (such as that in Gmail) and programs such as Google Desktop, you don’t need to keep your files in a complex array of directories and subdirectories — just archive, and search later. Purge old, unneeded files at least every month or two.
5. Closets
   Use the same method for your closets as you did with your desk: clear everything out, clean it out, sort (and toss or donate as much as possible), and designate homes for what you decided to keep. Keep only what you love and use often. I recommend keeping your closet floor clear — it makes everything look nicer. If tackling the entire closet is too intimidating, it can be helpful to just tackle one area of your closet a day, until it’s done. It’s also useful to go through your wardrobe, and donate everything you haven’t worn in 6 months — it greatly simplifies your closet.
6. Rooms
   Are the rooms in your house too cluttered? A few rules about simplifying a room: first, start with anything that’s stacked on the floors; then work to the flat surfaces (tables, shelves, countertops, the tops of dressers, etc.) and clear them completely if possible; then do the larger stuff like furniture and other things that clutter the room; and finally tackle drawers and cabinets and closets. As much as possible, keep floors clear and all flat surfaces. Sort through everything in piles as in the first step above, tossing and donating as much as possible. Organize everything else in drawers and closets and cabinets, out of sight but still neat and uncluttered. Tackle one room at a time, going for a clean, uncluttered, simple, minimalist look in all cases. It can be helpful to continually edit a room once you’re done decluttering — you can always find little ways to make a room simpler.
7. Drawers
   The way to declutter a drawer is the same as outlined above: empty everything out, clean the drawer, sort through the pile of stuff from the drawer (purging as much as possible) and organizing the few things left. Keep like things together — a drawer for office supplies should only be for office supplies. Avoid having a junk drawer — everything should have a designated place. Go through one drawer at a time — don’t jump from one drawer to another.
8. Commitments
   Aside from physical clutter, our lives are often way too cluttered by the things we need to do — at work, at home, in our civic or religious lives, with our hobbies, with friends and family, etc. Go through each area of your life, and write down every commitment you have — from things you’ve volunteered or agreed to do on a regular basis, to meetings and sports games and other things you do every month or week. It can be overwhelming. 

   Now examine each one, and decide if it truly gives you joy and value in your life, and whether it’s worth the time you commit to it. It can be useful to just choose a few of the commitments that your really love doing. Get rid of all the rest. Just call people and tell them your schedule is too busy, and you have to decline. Learn to say no! One by one, eliminate the commitments in your life that don’t give you value, and you’ll have more time to do the stuff that’s really important to you — stuff for yourself, or your loved ones.

9. Routines
   It is extremely useful to examine your daily and weekly routines. Often, we don’t have any set routines, and we tackle our chores, regular tasks, and obligations haphazardly. This leads to chaotic days and weeks, and often a drop in productivity. It’s better to batch like tasks together — do all your errands at once, for example, or all your laundry at once instead of throughout the week. Write down all of your weekly and daily obligations, chores, tasks, etc. and plan out a weekly and daily routine. Post it up where you can see it and try to follow it, at least for a week. It could bring some calmness and simplicity to your life that hadn’t been there before. Be sure to schedule time for decluttering in your weekly routine!
10. Systems
    Once you’ve purged clutter from your life, it will inevitably start to creep back in. To keep from having a cluttered life again, you need to set up systems that will keep the clutter to a minimum. Examine how you do things, how things come into your life, and see if you can create a simple system for everything: chores, laundry, paperwork, email, RSS feeds, yardwork, errands, work projects, filing. And then write down your systems, step by step, and try to follow them. If your systems are set up right, you will continually purge clutter you don’t need. For example, a system for paperwork might look like this: 
    • All incoming papers go in inbox.
    • At the end of each day, inbox is processed.
    • Rules for processing: toss, route, file, do, or write on to-do list to do later and put it in “action file”.
    • Process to empty, leaving no papers in inbox or on desk. Clear desk of any working paper

Source: DumbLittleMan

Still wary of uploading your precious media and memories to a cloud service? Create one of your own with the LaCie CloudBox ($120-$180). Available in 1TB – 3TB capacities, this dead-simple device plugs into the wall and your router — using Ethernet — and in minutes appears on your Macs and PCs just like a normal connected device. Thanks to its UPnP capabilities, it can stream music, movies, and photos to devices like the Xbox 360 and iPad wirelessly, and can also provide streaming service over the Internet with its MyNAS feature. The handsome Neil Poulton design is just icing on the cake. Source:LaCie CloudBox

Ever wonder why you need a DVR in every room? So did the people at DirecTV. The result is the DirecTV Genie ($TBA), a whole home solution for TV viewing. This crazy box can record up to five shows in full HD simultaneously, lets you pause, rewind, record, and delete shows from any room, recommends new shows based on the ones you already watch, and offers 200 hours of HD storage — so you don’t need to worry about running out of room due to a Honey Boo Boo marathon.

You can pay for your coffee, turn off your lights, control your TV, and start your car with your smartphone — so why can’t you unlock your doors? That’s exactly what Lockitron ($150) does. This sleek box slips over the inside of most deadbolt locks, and sports built-in Wi-Fi to let you check on the status of and lock/unlock your door from afar. You can also add family and friends as guests to share access, but we’re most excited about the Bluetooth 4 integration, which means it can sense your iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 and unlock the door automatically without you ever having to do a thing. [Thanks, John]

Successfully getting our butts out of bed and helping us achieve our toned bicep dreams? Talk about killing two birds with one stone. This Dumbbell Alarm Clock ($20) keeps on blaring until you’ve repeated enough reps to convince it to shut off. As long as we don’t end up smacking ourselves in the face with it in our bleary, semi-conscious morning state, it’s a sure win.

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BY LORY GIL

PictoPlay (Free) by IRL, INC is a social networking game that is all about photographs. Just like the popular iOS game draw Something, this app lets you play against friends in a word-to-image game, only with PictoPlay, you get to take photos instead of draw pictures.

 

You can take a picture from within the app, or select an image from your camera roll. For one of my turns, I found an image from the Internet that I had taken a screen shot of. Your options are unlimited. However, if you enjoy taking photos, I don’t suggest simply using preexisting images from the Internet. It defeats the purpose of the game, which is to take cool pictures.

Once you’ve added your picture, you can add a comment. If you take a photo that needs explanation, this is a good way to provide your friend with a bit of background information on why you took the picture, or what they are seeing. Players can also comment on pictures from their opponent.

With every turn, players earn credits that can be used to customize their experience. For example, you can pay two credits to get a new set of words to choose from, or pay four credits to enter your own custom word.

Players can also send images to Instagram and Facebook. You don’t have to stick to your own images, either. You can add your opponents’ photo with just a tap of a button.

I was only able to play this game for about a day with a friend, but it seems to be a pretty fun way to share photos with others. The game lacks variety for how to connect with friends. The only way you can play with people is if they are your Facebook friend. I know a couple of people that don’t use Facebook, but would probably love to play this game. I’d like to see the ability to connect with friends through Game Center.

 

Even though the friend discovery feature is somewhat lacking, this is a great game. It may not gain the overwhelming popularity that Draw Something did, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t gain some notoriety over the next few weeks. download it, get your friends to download it, and start taking pictures of everything around you. This is a fun way to stay connected with others throughout the day in a more visual way.

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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.

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