Parrot RKi8400

Parrot RKi8400 There are many more or less curious ways to get digital sound into your car many of which involve some sort of iPod connectivity. With this car sound system, Parrot have brewed themselves a concoction that raises itself above the rest, at least in terms of user experience.

All the standard stuff such as FM radio, Bluetooth hands free  and Bluetooth audio streaming (A2DP), and MP3 playback from memory card is there, in a 4x50W package. On top of that it can play music from an iPod. Not through some old fashioned analogue jack but through a genuine iPod dock that lets you browse music complete with album covers and track information on a built in colour display. Nice.

Parrot Parrot

Copenhagen Records offers 24-bit lossless

Danish record company Copenhagen Records announced 30th June that they will offer their releases in 16-bit and 24-bit lossless resolution. Which sample rates will be available, however, they do not reveal. Presumably 44.1KHz is what they mean when they say CD-quality. Master-quality would then likely be 96KHz or perhaps even 192KHz. Their ambitions, though, are much more well defined: They intend to offer their coming releases as 24-bit – directly off of the master. File formats are Apple Lossless, WMA and Flac.

Copenhagen Records already sell CD-quality 16-bit  WMA and Apple Lossless covering most of their backlist. What the new formats are concerned, so far only Nephew’s new album Danmark Denmark is available as 24-bit master quality. A brilliant band so perhaps I will just buy this album as Flac and tell you what rate it is.

Copenhagen Records Copenhagen Records

Wifimedia

Wifimedia Can you even imagine this – a store selling practically nothing except wireless sound equipment? Specifically streaming devices. This must surely be heaven.

Dutch Wifimedia is not just your regular web shop. They do offer most of their stock online, true, but the distinguishing mark of Wifimedia is their physical showroom in the centre of Arnhem. Here you will find Sonos and Sooloos, Squeezeboxes and NAS-disks… and probably everything not mentioned in that [granted] very short list.

Wifimedia Wifimedia

Sony NAS-Z200iR and CMT-Z100iR

Sony CMT-Z100iR Now we are back to some bona fide digital news. Sony just announced a new system consisting of a media streaming apparatus called NAS-Z200iR. As to why Sony have chosen to use the term NAS in the name is a bit of a conundrum, since the device does in fact not have any storage to share. What it will do, however, is receive music from a DLNA compatible server (meaning pretty much everything), host an iPod in a docking station or play a CD. It even has an old fashioned AM/FM radio for when the internet radio stations are not enough. How about that?

On a curious note aside, the NAS lets you control an iPod from a wireless remote roughly twice the size of an iPod Touch. I know, I know. You get speakers and amps and stuff. But still. If you look past all that.

At the same time Sony announced another device called CMT-Z100iR. It looks roughly like the big sister NAS, but instead of having everything remote controlled, controls are mounted on the base of the iPod dock. This one comes in white as well. Pretty cool looking too.

Specs have not been revealed yet for either device. Can’t be long, though.

Sony Sony

The Beatles Complete On Ukulele

cover

January 2009, Roger Greenawalt and David Barratt declared that by 2012 they would re-record each and every one of Beatles’ 185 recorded songs – on ukulele. Being a ukulele lover in general and specifically a great fan of Brook Adams’ highly memorable covers of, to name a couple, Django Reinhardt, Metallica and Jimi Hendrix, I immediately took a fancy to the idea.

Now the project has been under way for 6 months and I have to say that the results are impressive. Generally speaking the covers are great and some even surpass the originals. Excellent job!

“But 185 songs?”, you may say – “…on ukulele?”. Luckily they didn’t mimic aforementioned Brook  Adams. He gave us a variation of songs and put them in an unfamiliar setting. The range of styles and the limited number, made it work and very well so, indeed. It wouldn’t work with 185 songs. Instead Greenawalt and Barratt teams up with a multitude of musicians and it is they who are doing the actual cover – featuring Greenawalt on uke on all songs. That works. That works big time. Greenawalt, by the way, did something similar before, playing all 185 songs at a concert in benefit of fellow ukulele player, billionaire Warren Buffet.

The new project is based around a weekly recording accompanied by a causerie on said song and its history. These writings are hilarious! They alone could justify the project.

I urge you; go have a listen and a read. It is absolutely brilliant.

The Beatles Complete On Ukulele The Beatles Complete On Ukulele

I may be transgressing the boundaries of this blog, writing about something so definitely not digital, but it is after all my own set of rules I am breaking.

Iggy Pop – Préliminaires

preliminaires This has absolutely nothing to do with streaming music. Not in the least. I have to mention this new album from Iggy Pop, though.

On 25th of May Iggy released his newest album. Our own super punk rocker proclaimed it to be a reference to Michel Houellebecq’s neo classic novel La Possibilité d’une île. Exactly how this reference would manifest itself was unclear, and indeed still is – even when you hear the master say “if there is a god, then why are his followers thus”. One thing is certain, though. This is the most wonderful piece of music ever to come of the master’s hands. Simply wonderful.

There are French chansons crooned in the most wonderful kitchy manner. I doubt even Maurice Chevalier could have out-smoothed Iggy there doing his French version of Autumn Leaves. The omnipresent Louisville jazz notes are particularly notable on the track King Of The Dogs, also released on YouTube as a three way interactive video. A brilliant music video, by the way, even if the interactivity is a bit of a fad. A tune reminiscent of Louis Armstrong’s King Of The Zulus. The dog’s bollocks, if you will, and pardon the pun.

Back to Préliminaires, what stands out is an uncanny atmosphere, lavishly spread out across all tracks, making the album a wholesome experience. The punk has finally grown up… at least until his next concert.

Right about now Iggy kicks off a tour with his new band, doing a live radio show from Paris which will include such wonderful classics as Cab Calloway’s swinging Minnie The Moocher and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put A Spell You. Quite a novel repertoire in all its altmodischness.

Iggy Pop Iggy Pop

Peachtree Audio Nova

novaThe rather unusual integrated amplifier, Peachtree Audio Decco has now been granted an older brother (entsippled?) which has yet to have its specs properly disclosed. What is clear is that it sports 80W under the hood and a 24bit/192KHz DAC. The design is sligtly purer than the Decco but otherwise the same.

One thing is new, though. This is what they say on the web site:

“Even compressed MP3 files sound almost indistinguishable from the original CD when played through the Nova or Decco”.

What? Have their brains melted? That’s like saying that snow chains will keep your ears warm*.

Peachtree Audio Peachtree Audio

*Which in fact they might when used outside the recommendations normally given in the manual.

Perreaux éloquence 250i

Perreaux éloquence While claiming to be the most powerful integrated amplifier in the world seems a bit much given the specs, this certainly is an impressive piece of machinery. Not that amplifiers normally stream much except for the odd electron, this amp stands out thanks to an unusual approach to modularity allowing you to extend it with not only a RIAA module but also letting you add a 24bit/192KHz DAC with 5 inputs, including USB. In other words: It really does earn a place on this blog.

On the standard connectivity side there are balanced XLR inputs and the ever present iPod connector on the front; actually this is simply a 3.5mm analogue jack which accepts anything that can be squeezed in there. Nothing unusual there.

A bold statement from the land of the hobbits and  one to watch at that.

Perreaux Perreaux
Review from French magazine Stéréo & Image Prestige (6MB PDF) Review from French magazine Stéréo & Image Prestige (6MB PDF)

Sony STR-DA6400ES

Sony STR-DA6400ES Sony have announced a new line of home theatre receivers creaming the competition with a top model 7.1 receiver showing some rather unusual features.

The STR-6400ES is not just network enabled. It streams music from your network like most modern systems. IT relays internet radio through a SHOUTcast service along with a number of the discrete inputs on the system, such as CD, turntable and radio. It even sends video to a second zone with its own set of OSD menus for controlling the signal.

With a backplane measured in square meters and some rather impressive specs, this is not at all an uninteresting piece of equipment for those about to bedazzle their TV apparatus (apparatii?).

Sony Sony

Last.fm Radio changes channels

Last.fm The now CBS owned social media service Last.fm announced yesterday that they will stop their free services in all but three countries. From naught to €3.00/month.

Even if Last.fm is not even remotely hi-fi, it is a truly interesting service that lets you share with fellow members, what you play. From this information it will suggest music, radio stations, that others with similar playlists as you enjoy listening to. In other words a more-of-the-same service based on statistics rather than metrics.

Until now Last.fm has been free with a paid subscription offering extended services such as specific artist radio stations. With this new initiative, however, I fear that many freeloaders will abandon the station and thus reduce the statistic number soup and consequently turn Last.fm into more of the same instead of offering us more of the same.

While it is perfectly understandable that such an undertaking costs money and that a user base of 30,000,000 users world wide must mean a hefty royalty check for artists, the decision does cause some raising of eyebrows.

Last.fm Last.fm

Barebone device Barebone device
Cheap good featured Cheap good featured
Actual hi-fi device Actual hi-fi device
High end hi-fi High end hi-fi
Out of this world Out of this world
CD CD drive
Wifi Wifi
Flac Flac audio
Digital IO Digital IO
Ogg-Vorbis Ogg-Vorbis
uPnP support uPnP support
Video Video

Please note that the ratings are not objective in any way nor are they a measure for quality. They are a measure for what I think the target group for the device was intended to be; my expectations if you will.

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