Bluesound will begin shipping the Pulse Sub+ subwoofer late next month, said the company Tuesday. The $749 bass box has an 8-inch long-throw woofer, 150-watt amplifier with digital signal processing and is rated to deliver low frequencies down to 22 Hz. Users can pair the sub with any Bluesound product using the BluOS controller app, which also controls volume, crossover, and phase adjustment settings.
Bowers & Wilkins bowed a Carbon Edition version of its flagship PX7 over-ear wireless headphones with Bluetooth aptX technology. The $399 cans, due next month, support hi-res audio up to 24-bit/48kHz streaming quality, Andy Kerr, director-product marketing, told a media briefing. They use B&W’s adaptive noise-cancellation technology the company developed last year. It’s based on four mics that analyze ambient noise in real time and identify the most effective noise cancellation solution, Kerr said. A pass-through feature allows voices to get through noise cancellation, he said. A proximity sensor automatically pauses music when an earcup is lifted and resumes when the cup returns to the ear. Users can launch Siri or Google Assistant voice assistants by pushing a button on the earcup. Battery life is 30 hours; a 15-minute boost provides five hours’ additional life, said Kerr.
Bose is taking preorders for two new true wireless Bluetooth 5.1 earbuds slated for Sept. 29 availability, it said Thursday. The QuietComfort Earbuds ($279) use StayHear Max tips, said to create a tight seal, and multiple mics for noise cancellation. Multiple mics sense, measure and send noise to a proprietary chip, and an algorithm delivers an equal and opposite signal to the earbuds in less than a millisecond to cancel it, said the company. The QCs have 11 levels of control and six hours’ listening time; an additional 12 hours are available from a fully charged case. New Bose Sport earbuds ($179) have a StayHear Max tip that locks the buds in the ear, said the company. Battery life is five hours; a charging case provides 10 additional hours.
1More’s True Wireless active noise-canceling in-ear headphones ($199) are the first true wireless phones to carry THX certification, said the company Tuesday. THX Certified sound is available on units manufactured beginning in June with firmware version 3.62 or higher, said 1More. THX certification focuses on frequency response, consistency and low distortion, said the headphone maker.
Denon celebrated its 110-year anniversary Tuesday with the launch of an AV receiver, integrated amplifier, SACD player and phono cartridge. The flagship AVR-A110 ($5,499) is billed as 13.2-channel 8K receiver with a full array of immersive audio formats: Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and X Pro, Imax Enhanced and Auro-3D. With Heos multiroom wireless audio, it has access to Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music HD, Tidal, SiriusXM and Deezer streaming music services and is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Josh.ai voice control platforms. The $3,499 PMAA110 hi-res integrated amplifier is rated at 80 watts per channel at 8 ohms with 0.07% total harmonic distortion and includes a phono preamplifier compatible with moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. The DCD-A110 SACD player ($2,999) spins CDs and Super Audio CDs and plays 2.8-Mhz/5.6-MHz DSD files and high-res audio files up to 192-kHz/24-bit on recordable DVDs. The DL-A110 moving coil phono cartridge ($599) is “hand-spun” in the Denon Audio Works factory in Shirakawa, Japan, “just as it was in the 1960s when it was first introduced as the DL-103 cartridge,” said the company.
IFi is shipping Zen Phono, a $149 phono preamplifier designed to pair with moving-magnet or moving-coil phono cartridges. Its balanced circuit design reduces noise and crosstalk, said the company.
Audioengine bowed a pair of A1 compact powered speakers, available for $199 from the company’s e-commerce site with a 30-day tryout. The speakers support Bluetooth aptX at up to 100 feet, plus AAC. The powered left speaker connects to the passive right speaker with supplied wire. An auxiliary input accepts wired audio from a turntable, computer or TV.
Panasonic teamed with Square Enix on the SoundSlayer gaming speaker, set for September availability. B&H Photo showed the 2.1-channel system Tuesday as “coming soon” for $299. The 17 x 2-1/16 x 5-1/4 inch sound bar has three sound modes: role-playing game, first-person shooter and voice; it supports Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and DTS Virtual:X immersive audio formats. Panasonic is pitching the Bluetooth-equipped sound bar as an alternative to headphones, which it said can become uncomfortable after prolonged use.
Yamaha introduced a pair of AV receivers with support for 8K, HDMI 2.1 and HDR10+ to “usher in a new era of dynamic displays.” The RX-V4A ($439) will be available this month; the RX-V6A ($599) in September. Audio features of the Wi-Fi receivers include MusicCast and app control, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, built-in music streaming services, multi-room audio and voice control via Alexa, Google and Siri-enabled devices. MusicCast Surround allows optional wireless MusicCast speakers to be paired and used as surrounds in a 5.1-channel setup without the need for speaker wire to the AV receiver. The 7.2-channel V6A, rated at 100 watts per channel, has Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization. The 5.1-channel V4A is 80 watts per channel. Both have YPAO automatic room calibration. The company’s upcoming YH-E700A and EP-E70A (see 2008200022) headphones have Qualcomm’s AptX Adaptive audio codec, capable of 96 kHz sampling rates, noted a Yamaha spokesman on a Monday webinar. "Not a lot of phones" have the codec yet, he said, but the headphones are “ready and waiting” for next-gen smartphones with the feature.
Zvox Audio’s latest sound bar uses hearing aid algorithms to improve clarity of TV dialog and adds SuperVoice technology to reduce the level of background sound in TV programs. Users can connect an Amazon Echo device to input 2 of the AV157 to use it while listening to TV programming. The 17-inch-wide sound bar automatically turns down the TV audio volume when Alexa responds to a question, then raises it again to return to programming, it said. Price is $299.