Tag Archives: AXNov12

November Products: Cush Headphones, Measurement Mics, & More

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The November 2012 issue of audioXpress features product information about a variety of interesting, well-designed audio gear. Headphones, an amp, a mic, and more are detailed.

Cush Headphones Offer Sound Quality, Comfort, & Style

KICKER recently unleashed its 39 years of high-performance audio knowledge to offer KICKER Cush headphones.

KICKER’s Cush (Source: KICKER)

Featuring an ultra-lightweight design and thick over-the-ear cushions, Cush headphones offer 54-mm speakers and a 118-dB maximum output to provide the legendary bass response and tonal accuracy for which KICKER is known.

The headphones feature a smooth, soft-touch finish in black gloss or white with monochromatic graphics for a subtle appearance. The breathable, perforated headband cushions the listener’s head.

Cush headphones utilize a 53”, Kevlar-reinforced, flat cable to provide freedom for movement while listening. The flat cable is smooth and less prone to tangles. The angled “L” plug connects into any iPod, iPhone, MP3 player, or KICKER docking system.

Barix Expands Audio Product Range

Barix markets its Annuncicom IP audio and SIP/VoIP devices around the world, bringing bidirectional audio streaming and control solutions to various markets within the commercial, entertainment, private sector, and residential worlds.

Barix’s Annuncicom 60 (Source: Barix)

Barix now offers two low-cost, reliable VoIP and IP Annuncicom audio devices that optimize features and functionality for universal applications.

The new Annuncicom 50 is built specifically for OEM applications. The device delivers Barix’s trademark reliability, open standards design, and multi-format audio capability at a low cost for OEM customers.

Barix also offers the Annuncicom 60, a universal, programmable, and ultra-compact device that offers reliable IP encoding and decoding. It is roughly 40% the size of existing Annuncicom devices, which are known for offering a compact footprint to systems integrators and end users.

The Annuncicom 60 is a single-zone paging interface device that can decode VoIP codecs as well as MP3, AACplus, and PCM audio. Its built-in speaker amplifier, balanced line output and microphone interfaces, serial and contact closure control interfaces, and Power over Ethernet (PoE) support is unique to the market—delivering universal functionality at a competitive price.

Contact Barix for more information at www.barix.com or www.ip-audio.info.

Sennheiser Offers High-End Amp & Headphones

Sennheiser now offers an amplifier for dynamic headphones. The digital HDVD 800 has a fully symmetrical layout and sampling frequencies of up to 24 bit/192 kHz to ensure an unequalled listening experience. It also harmonizes perfectly with Sennheiser’s HD 800, HD 700, HD 650, and HD 600 high-end headphones.

Sennheiser’s HDVD 800 (Source: Sennheiser)

The HDVD 800’s features include its balanced sound image, maximum precision, and impressive spatiality. The high-end headphone amplifier has a fully symmetrical layout for operation with analog audio sources, ensuring symmetrical signal transmission from the source to the headphones. For use with digital sources, the amplifier is equipped with a high-quality Burr-Brown digital/analog converter that converts digital audio data into analog signals, enabling the HDVD 800 to transmit the entire frequency spectrum of high-end audio sources without any frequency loss.

A rotary gain switch at the rear of the unit provides simple adaptation of the amplifier output to the audio input voltage. This ensures that the dynamic range can be used to its full extent.

The HDVD was developed and designed in Germany, which is where the latest member of Sennheiser’s high-end series is also being manufactured.

Sennheiser also offers the IE 800 in-ear earphones, which the company describes as headphones with “the most innovations per square millimeter.”

Sennheiser’s IE 800 (Source: Sennheiser)

The IE 800 offers innovative technology providing brilliant trebles, precise bass response, and a detailed, lifelike sound image with a 5-to-46,500-Hz frequency response.

The IE 800’s interior conceals many small but effective innovations: the centerpiece is Sennheiser’s specially developed extra wide band (XWB) driver. With a 7-mm diameter, it is the smallest wide-band sound transducer available in dynamic headphones. Its functional principle guarantees distortion-free sound even at high-sound pressure levels. It also features a modern design and high-quality materials (e.g., scratch-resistant ceramic housing).

Pro V-Series Speakers Provide High Sonic Accuracy

Pro Audio Technology (PRO), a leader in professional-grade loudspeaker and digital amplifier technology, announced the new V-Series loudspeakers, designed to deliver the high-impact dynamics for which PRO is known, but at a more affordable price. Both new models, the SCRS-210v full-range loudspeaker and the LFC-12v subwoofer, feature 6” enclosures, placing high-output systems in small rooms.

The SCRS-210v loudspeaker (Source: Pro Audio Technology)

The SCRS-210v’s two 10″ woofers provide a high-sound pressure of 102 dB with 1 W of input and combined, can handle 300 W of continuous power. Offering even higher sensitivity, the 1” annular-diaphragm compression driver produces 110 dB/W and delivers detailed and extended highs. Striking a balance of power and accuracy, the SCRS-210v fills nearly any space with cinema-quality sound and concert-caliber music without industrial-grade pricing or space requirements.

For low-frequency support, the companion LFC-12v subwoofer features a high-output 12″ professional-grade woofer with a 4″ voice coil. With sensitivity rated at 96 dB driven with 1 W, and power handling up to 700 W, the LFC-12v has no problem with today’s high-quality recordings.

When paired with the PMA amplifier/processor, advanced digital EQ can be applied to compensate for speaker positions near boundaries or for the effects of placement behind viewing screens or fabric. The PRO V-Series loudspeakers and PMA amplifiers provide a level of sonic accuracy unparalleled at the price.

Acoustic Measurement Microphones

PCB Piezotronics, a leader in the design and manufacture of microphones, vibration, force, torque, load, strain, and pressure sensors, and the pioneer of ICP technology, now offers a 0.25” prepolarized microphone series to complement its line of acoustic products. Models 378C01 and 378C10 are microphone and pre-amplifier combinations designed to measure high frequencies and high amplitudes. The distinguishing features for this series are the microphone frequency capability, which can accurately measure up to 100 kHz, and the 165-dB amplitude range (i.e., 3% distortion limit).

PCB’s Model 378C01 free-field microphone (Source: PCB Piezotronics)

Model 378C01 is a free-field microphone and pre-amplifier suitable for automotive and aerospace noise source location and array applications. Other common applications include biological and medical acoustic analysis, machine monitoring and defect detection, gunshot analysis, cabin noise, and other applications (e.g., testing in anechoic chambers). Model 378C10 is a pressure response microphone typically used in noise absorption applications within impedance tubes or general noise testing in cavities or small enclosures.

PCB carries a full line of prepolarized condenser microphones and pre-amplifiers. The prepolarized designs can also be used with the same constant current source used for ICP accelerometers, minimizing set-up time. PCB also offers the traditional externally polarized microphones that operate from a 200-V power supply.

AX November: Inside Audio: Loudspeakers for PCs, ESL Design, & the Tubes vs. Solid State

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The first issue of Circuit Cellar magazine—a sister publication of audioXpress that’s focused on embedded computer engineering—was printed in 1988 with a now-famous quote on the cover: inside the box still counts. Since then, engineers and innovators have used the line to educate their nontechnical peers about the amazing technologies inside the devices they use every day. The line was on my mind as I chose articles for this issue. When it comes to audio systems like speakers and tube amps, the quality and design of the technologies inside the cabinets and enclosures are essential.

Turn to page 12 to learn about the technology Ton Giesberts implemented to improve his PC’s sound. It’s the first article in a series about an active loudspeaker system.

Two-way active speakers for your PC

On page 22, Giovanni Bianchi elucidates some theory, math, and science behind loudspeaker sound. He details the Linkwitz equalizer and its limitations, and then proposes a possible solution.

The inside the box theme continues with Mike Klasco and Steve Tatarunis’s article on ribbon and planar magnetic loudspeakers (p. 8). They provide thought-provoking details about topics ranging from “pure” ribbon topology to ribbon transducer manufacturing.

As usual, Vance Dickason puts a speaker to the test. This month he presents what he learned about Faital Pro’s FD371 bullet-type, high-SPL tweeter (p. 18).

Faital Pro FD371 bullet-type tweeter

For more about loudspeakers, check out Part 3 of Richard Mains’s series on experimenting with electrostatic speakers (p. 26).

Richard Mains mounted the ESL series resistance in the cabinet’s base

Richard Honeycutt wraps up the issue with “The Differences in Amp Sound” (p. 31). What goes on inside tube amps and solid-state amps matters. Richard weighs in on the debate that will likely keep audiophiles arguing for decades to come.