High-res music

High-res music enters a golden era                                                           

 Are we entering a new golden era of ­personal digital audio? In the last 12 months, a slew of digital players, amps, headphones and speakers have come on to the market that are changing our notion of what to expect from streamed music. Instead of mediocre MP3s, we're now getting high-resolution digital tracks twice to three times the quality of basic downloads. What's more, all the big streaming services are at it. Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer all now support higher 'bit rates' for streamed songs.

And even though you still need a higher-than-average budget to reach this high resolution audio standard, the price has come down a lot since the technology was first floated at the portable audio market. For example, Sony's original high-resolution Walkman cost over €1,000 last year. But it now offers high-resolution players for closer to €300 now.
This is the backdrop against which ­Pioneer has launched its 100R player, a metal encased touchscreen Android music device with special firepower under the hood to boost audio levels beyond ­conventional equipment.

Specifically, its high-resolution chops come courtesy of superb flexibility in the digital files it will play (almost anything) and in a special codec that lets it download and stream tracks at a much more efficient bit rate than most high-resolution digital files. For audio fans, this is something worth paying for, especially as it only comes with 32GB of storage (expandable to 432GB via memory card slots).
That the device comes with a five-inch Android touchscreen (and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) is testament to how far streaming services have also come in the high-resolution audio universe. Two years ago, there wouldn't have been any point in having a dedicated portable music player for Spotify or Deezer, as they were limited to middle-of-the-road quality. By adding the touchscreen (and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), Pioneer is making this gadget a self-sufficient high-resolution music centre.

Not everyone will like the ultra-modern touch aesthetic. Android touchscreens are commoditised and, as a style market, are the epitome of non-exclusive. This might actually matter a little to audiophile snobs, some of whom like their high-end equipment to appear as analoguish as possible (even if they have NASA-grade tech under the hood).
But this is no phone. There is no microphone, speaker or camera on board. So while it hosts Google's Play Store (which can download apps like WhatsApp or Facebook), you won't be relying on this as a communications device. Meanwhile, every other particle of the 100R meets the precepts of genuine techno lust. The gadget is housed in a dark grey brushed metal format with no rounded corners or plastic. The volume is a gorgeous wheel nozzle on one side, with power, play and forward-rewind buttons on the other. It feels solid, rather than heavy.

It's a beautiful object to handle and hold. The 100R has two memory card slots that add over 200GB per slot to the existing 32GB of on-board storage. It also recharges via a standard Micro USB connection, the ones you already use for most Android phones.
There are two distinct markets for this product: the 'serious' audiophile and the home music user looking for a modern stereo replacement. The audiophile might bring this about with them, playing bulky audio files offline or streaming high-res tracks from the likes of Tidal (using the phone as a personal hotspot). That's however, is a two-device strategy. And as cool as this gadget is, as much as I want to believe that the added bit-rate quality will encourage me carry it around with me, I'm not yet sure that I will. Convenience (one gadget, not two) often triumphs.

On the other hand, there is a highly plausible scenario where you buy this as a home audio solution, using it with speakers that adapt to high resolution audio. (There are umpteen such speakers now available at affordable prices.) The bottom line? The 100R is a gorgeous piece of music tech. If you can squeeze it into your life, you probably won't regret it.

KERV CONTACTLESS RING

The Wearable Technology Show (WTS) was back in London for its third year on March 15th and 16th.
While the show was full to the brim with smartwatches, fitness trackers and VR apps, there were a number of unconventional products on display this year, as well as some standout innovative lifestyle gadgets.
Here is PCR’s roundup of the most exciting things we saw at WTS2016:



KERV CONTACTLESS RING

Kerv is the world’s first contactless payment ring. The ring wearer can make payments anywhere in the world that displays the contact payment symbol, including in stores, coffee shops and on public transport. If you lose your wallet and your phone dies in the middle of London at 3am and the only way home is via a charming night bus – which doesn’t accept physical money – you’ll be thankful for having a Kerv ring on your finger. 

TOMTOM BANDIT ACTION CAM

TomTom had a number of products on show, including wearable tech for golfers, but the Bandit action camera caught our eye. It aims to make the act of editing all your super-exciting video as easy as possible. The camera itself has a number of motion sensors, so after you’ve finished filming you can open the Bandit app on your smartphone, give the phone a shake, and collect all the pieces of footage that had the most movement while filming. The app then puts it all into a handy video for you to upload to social media.  

EMFIT QS

Another world’s first, the Emfit QS is a contact-free sleep tracker. It gives the user a detailed description of their sleep quality, stress level, and progression of recovery. The innovative thing about this is that you don’t need to wear a chest strap or wristband. You don’t event need to turn the device on or off, just place the strip under your mattress.  

VTIME VR SOCIAL NETWORK

vTime is the first VR social network. It’s like a cross between Second Life and Skype, with Sims-style avatars. Using just a smartphone and a VR headset, vTime lets you meet, chat and interact with friends, family and, if you desire, strangers. There’s a number of virtual locations to hang out in and it currently works with the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. 

BABYPOD

Babypod claims to be the only device that can ‘stimulate vocalisation of babies before birth with music’. Babypod emerged within the research line carried out by Institut Marquès on the effects of music from the beginning of life. Unlike some of the other similar products out there, instead of play music through a device strapped to the mother’s abdomen, they pump some soothing tunes through a speaker that is ‘easy to insert and remove’ from their vaginas. Yes, you read that right.

CORNER BLOK-IT

Corner is wearable tech for boxers. By slipping on a pair of small, bluetooth trackers to their handwraps, boxers can track every punch, block or combination to build a full picture of their performance. It monitors punch types, speed, power and accuracy without interfering with the boxer’s routine.

ATHEER GLASSES

Atheer aims to bring AiR (Augmented interactive Reality) computing to deskless professionals at Fortune 1000 companies. The platform combines AR with intelligent gesture, voice and head-motion interactions as well as real-time rich-media collaboration. Wearing the see-through AiR Glasses enables a worker to view rich information critical to workflows, interacting with the information naturally and collaborating with remote peers – without the need to hold any device.

TESPACK SOLAR SMARTPACKS

Tespack’s solar smartpacks promise to be ‘the most efficient and lightest’ in the world. They had ultra-light battery packs, extra-thin solar panels for bags at the show. Using the devices, one hours of sun can fully power a phone.

VUZIX VIDEO HEADSET

Vuzix has combined a headset and headphones to create the iWear – video headphones for big screen HD entertainment. A representative on the stand stressed that the device is not intended to be used in the same way as say, the Oculus Rift, rather for fully immersing yourself in a film or a video game. It does however, have VR capabilities included.

                                                                                                         

Epson EB-475Wi

Epson EB-475Wi

The Epson EB-475Wi is a short-throw wall-mount projector that comes with its own mounting kit. It projects on to the wall immediately below it rather than across the room, which has numerous advantages over traditional designs. Unlike projectors mounted in the middle of the ceiling, rear wall or sat on a table at the back of your viewing room, there's no problems with unwanted shadows being cast by objects or by people walking in front of the beam. It's great if you want to present as you can step in front of the screen between slides, and get the full attention of your audience, all without being dazzled.

The mount, although a fairly weighty 10kg and almost 16kg with the projector attached, is also significantly less unwieldy to attach and assemble than most ceiling mounts - drilling holes in a wall is usually easier than a ceiling. The fact that the projector and mount are specifically designed for one another is also a distinct advantage, with mounting holes built into the projector itself to negate the need for a bulky cage.

The projector can cover screens from 53in to 100in in size. Once in position, it doesn't move. There are no focus controls, although there’s a digital zoom that's already at its widest setting by default and is only really suitable for making minor adjustments to fit screen size. A digital E-Zoom feature on the remote control is of more practical use. It allows you to zoom in on a portion of the image, magnifying your display by up to 1.35 times. It's not very likely to be required if you're just going to use the display to show presentations, clone a computer screen or act as an electronic whiteboard, but it is helpful if you've connected the projector to a USB document camera that allows you use the projector to display any book or document on screen.

There are plenty of ways to connect a massive variety of sources to the projector, such as a HDMI port, two VGA ports and a USB port. In combination with Epson's supplied Easy Interactive Function software, this lets you make full use of the supplied pair of digital presentation pens to send notes from the projection screen to your computer.

The pens can be used to move a cursor, draw diagrams, and highlight and enter text, among other features, turning your projected display into an electronic whiteboard suitable for use in meetings, lectures or classroom environments. At their simplest and most effective, you can choose a colour and use the pen to draw and annotate projected content. Once you've filled the screen, you can save your notes as a PDF, PNG, JPEG or BMP file and wipe it at the click of a button.

The projector also has a 10/100 Ethernet port for network projection. Once again, Epson supplies software that makes it easy to set up and use the feature with a minimum of fuss. An optional wireless dongle is also available. You can also use Epson's iProjector app for Android and iOS to display photos, documents and web pages directly from your phone.

Other connections include S-Video, composite and two component video inputs that work with more traditional video players and other legacy sources. There's also a serial port that you can use to add a projector controller and a VGA output that lets you daisy-chain your projector to additional screens or capture content from the projector's screen. The projector also has a built in 16W speaker, as well as a 3.5mm audio input and both 3.5mm and phono audio outputs.