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New Gear: Earthquake Sound Revamps MiniMe Sub and iQuake Speaker Dock

High-powered car and home audio specialists upgrade popular models with a few design tweaks.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted May 17, 2012
Applying lessons learned in the car audio arena, Earthquake Sound has been delivering high-powered, high-quality products in the active deskop stereo and 2.1 market for a suprisingly long time.

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New Gear: Bang & Olufsen Play Line Debut

B&O expands its consumer line beyond the Beolit boombox with dock and TV offerings.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted May 10, 2012
When Bang & Olufsen unvelied the Beolit 12 portable speaker at this year's CES, company VP Henrik Lorensen described it as the first entry in a new brand, aimed at courting a different kind of B&O customer — somebody younger, hipper, and probably unfamiliar with the B&O brand to begin with.

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Test Report: Atlantic Technology AT-2 Bookshelf Speaker

Big bass from a small speaker.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 9, 2012
If there’s any speaker spec that’s routinely bogus, it’s bass response. You see a lot of little speakers rated to deliver bass below 40 Hz, but that measurement is almost always taken at -10 dB, instead of the industry standard of -3 dB. Even if the little speaker does hit, say, 36 Hz at some level, it almost certainly can’t deliver any usable volume at that frequency.
There are ways, though, to get legit sub-40 Hz response from a little speaker. One is H-PAS, or Hybrid Pressure Acceleration System, invented by Solus-Clements and now used and licensed by Atlantic Technology.

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New Gear: Aperion Aris Wireless Speaker

Don't like AirPlay? Windows steals some of Apple's thunder, with a little help from Aperion.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted May 8, 2012
Well, just when you thought AirPlay (and, to some extent, Bluetooth) devices had the stylish wireless desktop all-in-one music system market all to themselves, along comes Aperion's new Aris Wireless speaker to shake things up (and, possibly, to finally make Windows 7's AirPlayesque DLNA

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New Gear: The KEF LS50 Mini Monitor

KEF releases a brand-new bookshelf model as part of its 50th anniversary celebration
- By Michael Berk
- Posted May 3, 2012
British loudspeaker firm KEF's been putting out quality designs for 50 years now, and they're showing no signs of slowing down.

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Tech Trends 2012: Small is Beautiful

Desktop-scale audio components and digital docks stole the show at CES this year
- By Michael Berk
- Posted March 26, 2012
IT’S CLEAR THAT since the dawn of the iPod era, listeners and manufacturers alike have been struggling to figure out what kind of gear makes the most sense for a musical universe dominated by iTunes, and the rise of Apple rivals and music-streaming services has made matters even more confusing.

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Review: Aperion Audio Zona Wireless Speaker System

Simple, attractive, wireless audio
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted March 26, 2012
A few weeks ago I wrote about building a WiFi audio system without resorting to the use of a glorified iPod dock, with all of its inherent disadvantages.
The Aperion Audio Zonas offer a different way to do the same thing, or offer the flexibility of wireless speakers for surround channels, sound reinforcement, sound in another room, or anything else you can think of.

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Your Budget AirPlay Companion: iHome's iW2

AirPlay speaker prices got you down? iHome lowers the tariff with a new basic entry.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted March 14, 2012
As our own Geoffrey Morrison pointed out earlier this week, a lot of AirPlay-enabled speakers are expensive enough that they're bound to get you thinking about building your own system around a cheaper device like an AirPort Express.

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Power to the Speakers: Three New Active Desktop Systems

Can the new computer companions from Audioengine, Audyssey, and Paradigm serve all of your listening needs?
- By Daniel Kumin
- Posted March 12, 2012
- 2
Were we to travel to, say, Jupiter, and abduct its leading audio engineer (turnabout is fair play, after all), we might want to ask him (or it) this question: what’s the very best way to design a loudspeaker for the reproduction of high-fidelity music?
There’s no doubt in my mind as to how our Jovian guest would answer: “Active/powered!”

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Building a Better Wi-Fi Audio System

Why settle? For about the price of a single AirPlay speaker, you can get really great wireless sound.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted March 12, 2012
- 7
A few weeks ago I reviewed the Altec Lansing inAir 5000. It wasn’t bad, but for $500 I would have hoped for more. That seems to be the case with many Wi-Fi audio systems these days, and that got me thinking:
For the same amount of money, could I build an audio system with similar functionality, similar footprint — and that actually sounds good?
Challenge accepted.

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Review: Altec Lansing inAir 5000 AirPlay Speaker

Catch some Air(Play)
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted February 27, 2012
- 1
Altec Lansing is a name I hadn’t heard in a while. I vaguely recall some cheap computer speakers I had, perhaps back in the 66 Mhz days (486DX2-66 FTW!). But I shall not prejudge, especially when the new inAir 5000 Wi-Fi speaker is an attractive piece of kit. Also because that’s not what I’m paid for. Ok, “paid” but you get the idea.
Review Mode: Engage.

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Review: Geneva Lab XS Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Awesome audio entertainment, even if you lose your phone
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted February 21, 2012
- 3
Sadly, I’m old enough to remember when the mark of a tech-savvy traveler was a hand-wound folding alarm clock. So, apparently, is someone at Geneva Lab, a company known for making stylish, capable — and pleasingly plump — iPod docks. The Lab’s new XS Bluetooth speaker/FM radio/alarm combines styling cues from the company’s larger systems and from classic analog travel clocks.

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