The French manufacturer Waterfall Audio will introduce its glass speakers to American market at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show next month. The company announced two models for launching suggestively called Victoria EVO and Iguasçu EVO (after the names of two famous waterfalls).

According to the press release the “Victoria EVO and Iguasçu EVO are slim, pure-glass towers standing 40 inches high but just 10 inches wide. The Victoria EVO, a three-way/four-driver design, includes Waterfall’s proprietary, downfiring, 8.5-inch passive woofer, the Iguasçu (34 inches tall by 10 inches wide) employs identical drivers (including the passive woofer) in a two-way/three-driver arrangement. Both models use a key Waterfall technology: the Acoustic Damping Tube (ADT), which performs near-total damping of mid- and low-frequency ‘back-wave’ artifacts, and precise damping control of midrange reflections, allowing the speakers to produce superbly accurate, high-end performance within their effectively undamped glass enclosures.”

Victoria EVO speakers retail for $5,400 a pair, while their little brother, the 34-inch Iguasçu EVO costs $3,900 a pair. The glass speakers will be available in February 2008.

Griffin Technology has launched recently a new wireless sound system. The product was released on BestBuy.com, an online shop. The Evolve Wireless Sound System features a base unit dock, two wireless speakers and a RF remote control.

The dock station is compatible with iPod video, iPod photo and 1st- and 2nd-generation iPod nano. The unit recharges your iPod too, as it streams digital stereo sounds. The wireless speakers are powered by built-in lithium-ion batteries, which deliver up to 10 hours of functioning. Evolve Wireless Sound System has auxiliary audio in RCA jacks for alternate audio sources like other MP3 player for example.

You can buy it for $299 at BestBuy.com. (via iLounge)

Tango Studio is a compact audio system that will perfectly suit on a bookshelf or on your desk. Its sleek design match very well with iPod’s. The system features two full range loudspeakers and a full stereo high-dynamic amplifier. To keep the compact design, Tango Studio was projected with a retractable iPod dock.

The device was designed for iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano (1G, 2G, & 3G), iPod with video, iPod (4G), iPod mini. Even you have an iPod Shuffle it can be connected via the auxiliary line-in jack. Also the unit allows you to connect other devices, for example other music players or just a video game console.

The system features a wireless remote control. It works in a fifty feet range. Other specs needed to be mentioned here are the FM tuner and the display behind sleek the cloth grill. The Tango Studio Audio System retails for $79.95.

Product page via TechFresh

Well I can tell you guys I am a fan of Bose and now I think they really made a product I will certainly buy. It looks like Bose thought of getting a small slice on the desktop speakers market with their new Bose Computer MusicMonitor, that boasts 25W and dimensions are 5 x 2 inch. They read the market really well because as announced by Bose’ business manager “the demand for smaller and better sound will never stop”. Release date is October 4th and if you want them, the price is $399.

Source via Engadget

Bowers & Wilkins has 40-plus years of experience and know-how in speaker design in a single package. A new creation was announced on their website:

Bowers & Wilkins prepares to launch a new speaker especially designed for iPod. Called Zeppelin, the speaker will provide a level of sound quality usually available only through dedicated hi-fi separates. Zeppelin is certified “Made For iPod” and is designed for use with the current model range. The name was chosen due to its design line. The concept was created by Native Design, London.

Zeppelin will be available from September 2007 in Apple Stores or online (http://store.apple.com). The manufacturer recommends a retail price of $599.00.

Press release here.

Who would like a car system that can provide both high quality video and audio playback along with MP3 players connectivity and other juices? Sony announced their first multi-channel Super Audio CD (SA-CD) for your car, the new Sony XAV-W1. A few small things that you can do with the new Sony XAV-W1 are setting wallpapers with anything you like and personalize the sound settings the way you like.

Now to bring you more info about the world’s first in-car head to support 5.1 SA-CD. It uses a 7-inch WGA display, supports Sony HD Radio tuner and the system brings in 52W to all those 4 channels. It’s also happy to connect your iPod and satellite radio if you got bought the receiver separately. Sony XAV-W1 supports CDs and DVD video playback, MP3 and WMA audio playback and an image viewer for JPEGs.

The price is $800 and it will be available from August.

Sony via Krunker

This Christmas will bring more than one Zune model in stores since Microsoft apparently confirmed the rumours regarding the second generation of its wireless portable device. As anticipated, the news confirms the coming of more than one flavored Zune but it doesn’t reveal details concerning what the coming models will be (Draco, Scorpio and maybe more …).

To better battle Apple’s dominance on the market the new Zune models will support more iPod like features (podcasts), but some extra ones as well. One thing is for sure there will definitely be WiFi support and it will probably be expanded beyond what we see in Zune 1.0.

The portable device is set to come in time for the Holiday season and Microsoft promises also ” to expand the international footprint of Zune” for other geographical markets.

[Source]

Samsung has a very nice upgrade of the YP-T9 media player which we mentioned from the start that has a very bad name. Samsung T9+ The Third Story is what we get our eyes at these days, after the great success in the Korean markets. So far we had Bluetooth headphones but now with the new T9+ it has player-to-player game functions that can be used withing a 30-feet radius and has 5 built-in multiplayer games. File support is for WMA and MP3.

If I think of the storage size, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB is what we already had in the previous model. Americans are waiting for the interface and language package upgrade.

[via electronista]

Pioneer has two new power gadgets for us that are in the middle range, that will work great with HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs and with smaller prices than their top notch models. Featuring Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio with 7.1 sounds these two new amplifiers from Pioneer are what you need for a serious home theater system where you can connect all your audio and video gadgets that will come out great.

It has S-video, optical digital audio, a couple of HDMI 1.3a inputs and is iPod friendly. How neat! For the price of $1153 the Pioneer VSA-AX1AH that will bring 180W x 7, can be bought in June and Pioneer VSA-1017AV that has 170W x 7 is $774. I personally don’t think the 10W x 7 are worth paying almost $400 more.

[press release via Gizmodo]

What I would enjoy to have in my house right now is the new micro DAV-IS10 from Sony. It’s the mini 5.1 home theater system with satellites that aren’t bigger than a baby’s hand. Using the new technology from Sony, Bravia Theater Sync, the whole system is extremely powerful : 5 satellites x 50W and 2-way subwoofer x 100W. That makes a total of 450 watts which is more than my neighbors can bear.

Sony micro DAV-IS10 comes with a compact, single disc DVD/CD player/ receiver with touch-sensitive controls, has a Digital Media Port to enable WiFi and Bluetooth streaming and an iPod docking. This is a good launch for Sony and I am sure the $800 price is not going to be a problem.

[Source: ShinyShiny]