A huge great big black cube of a speaker on a stand is not exactly what you’d call discreet, but when you’ve got an iPod dock as good-looking as the Geneva Labs XL, you want to show it off.
June, 2009
A few years ago valve amplification was thought to be more retro than slicing off your opposable thumbs, growing gills and wriggling back into the sea. Now, it appears, that valve amps are back in vogue, starting with the Fatman iTube Carbon Edition 2.
Anyone who’s ever bought an iPod knows that Apple’s own headphones aren’t exactly, how should we put this, audiophile quality. Etymotic Research, though, have filled the pro-earphone-shaped hole with a pair of cracking noise-isolating buds for your iPhone.
Creative’s mini marvel, the Zen Stone Plus, somehow squeezes 4GB of memory, a funky blue-lit screen, FM radio, a stopwatch and even a speaker into a body that’s about as big as your big toe (we know… we’ve seen it!).
I have been using the Asus N50 for a couple of days now and it has grown on me. Through the years I’ve used a lot of laptops and although all men are created equal, some laptops are definitely more equal than others.
Funny really. A less ‘creative’-looking pair of headphones would be hard to imagine: dull, plastic-looking and silver has been the headphone design staple for years. The Aurvana, however, does hide a secret weapon in that bland exterior: X-Fi circuitry!
The Cowon S9, in so many ways, is like a bad lookalike – you know the ones we mean: fat Elvis impersonators that call themselves Suspiciously Elvis. That sort. The S9 desperately wants to be an iPod Touch, but only comes in with 8GB and 16GB models, no Bluetooth support, no Wi-Fi and no web browser. That said, this does trump the iPod with one major ace: audio quality.
Oh the humanity. Just 70 years after the Hindenburg burst into flames and barely a year since Led Zeppelin arthritically rocked the Dome, B&W brings you the best Zeppelin yet.