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Harman Kardon's Omni+ speakers offer HD multi-room audio
When it comes to speakers, connected gadgets capable of multi-room audio are all the rage these days. At CES 2016, Harman Kardon pulled the wraps off its new line of devices that'll do just that. The Omni+ collection includes the Omni 10+, Omni 20+, OmniBar+, Adapt+, and the Omni 50+. That's four speakers, a soundbar and an add-on for those older non-wireless speakers. Each piece of audio gear handles high-definition audio streaming with 24-bit/192KHz quality and there's a controller app for beaming songs with either Spotify Connect of Google Cast. There's no mention of AirPlay, but that companion app is available on iOS and plays nice with other streaming services like Deezer and Tidal.
The best of Public Access Vol. 3: the Atari ST, virtues of HD Audio and more
You can learn a lot from someone's personal gadget arsenal, whether at home or on the road. This past week on Public Access gave us a glimpse of your technological inclinations and taught us quite a bit. Miné Salkin's at-home gear is all about enabling multimedia storytelling and journalism, and constitutes a pretty impressive setup for creating and editing 4K video. Alexander Hohenthaner shared the gear he packs in his bag to get through his daily grind. It's not all about now, however. Nostalgia's a powerful thing, and Jess James gave us a heavy dose with fond memories of his first PC, the Atari ST. Meanwhile, Chris Carroll waxed poetic on how filming family get togethers has brought about some peculiar behavior from his relatives. P.S. The homepage is coming soon! in the meantime you can check out the latest from Public Access right here. Not a member? Apply, and keep the weird alive.
The Bernhoft Islander app could be the future for iOS music releases
Jarle Bernhoft, a Norwegian singer and composer with a following in the U.S. and Europe, has released a rather groundbreaking "album" as an iOS app titled Bernhoft Islander. It's US$20.00, similar in price to a high resolution audio-only download. Billed as the "world's first HD audio visual album app", there is a boatload of content as well as a high resolution copy of the Islander album. The app has an integrated player to support the HD audio, which is 48K 24-bit. Along with the album tracks, the app features an interactive mixing console, where you can re-mix the album on your own, giving you access to all the recorded tracks. You can also manually add percussion by tapping on-screen controls. There is a very unique 360 degree video, that lets you move in a circle and watch the band play from any angle. There are also videos, song lyrics, photo galleries and bios of the players. With the adoption of MP3 files and mobile music, we have lost both audio quality and the in-depth notes that we used to get on phono albums and CDs. This app goes way beyond the legacy packaging, letting you explore the artist and even make your own creative decisions about how the music will be heard. Bernhoft is not a household name, but it would be amazing to see music companies release this kind of package for well-known popular artists. I applaud the people who put this app together for their creativity and vision. The $20.00 price is too high in my view, but this was a lot of work and the package, taken as a whole, is a worthwhile exploration. Bernhoft Islander is a universal app, and it is a big one -- almost 1.5 GB to download. The built-in player can play back the high resolution files, but note that iDevices headphone jacks don't support anything more than 16-bit audio. Even so, the music sounds great on headphones. The app requires iOS 6 or later, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5. It's hard to convey how impressive this app is in presentation and operation. It might be a glimpse into the future of mobile music.
Plex desktop app becomes Plex Home Theater, adds AirPlay and HD audio
Plex wants us to settle in for some holiday viewing in front of our home theater PCs, and to that effect it's delivering a major beta update to its desktop app -- including a new name. The more clearly defined Plex Home Theater syncs up with the XBMC 12 beta and simplifies Plex's own update process. For those in the living room, shifting to the newer base brings AirPlay streaming from nearby Apple-friendly gear as well as 10-bit H.264 video and HD audio. Behind-the-scenes updates bring more efficient video rendering and fix some older bugs, such as audio sync with SD footage. The catch to enjoying all this? As the upgrade is pre-release code, Plex is limiting early access to PlexPass subscribers. Media mavens still willing to pay the premium can check out the source link for an upgrade to their end-of-year movie marathons.
iTrax.com delivers DRM-free HD Audio downloads
Just in case you don't have enough digital download choices, here comes iTrax to give you another. This site, however, deviates from the beaten path by offering up DRM-free HD Audio tracks for those with more discerning ears. Granted, the music selection is quite limited, but for the albums that are available, users can download individual songs or entire records in a variety of encoding formats / mixes. Among the options are MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless and even uncompressed PCM 96/24, and most songs can be downloaded in 2.0 stereo, 5.1 "stage" and 5.1 "audience" perspectives. Currently, the available music all stems from AIX Records, but more options are purportedly on the way, and if you're curious about pricing, most albums look to run you anywhere from $9.99 to $24.99, depending on quality / mix.
Latest Yamaha receivers boast HDMI 1.3a / Ethernet / 1080p upscaling
Shortly after Sony unveiled its newly revamped ES lineup of AV receivers, along comes Yamaha with a powerful new duo of its own. The RX-V3800 (140-watt x 7) and RX-V1800 (130-watt x 7) each support lossless Dolby Digital TrueHD / DTS-HD and feature Yamaha's Cinema DSP processing engine, video upscaling to 1080p, HDMI 1.3a, and an Ethernet connection that enables consumers to "access internet radio stations, music files stored on a PC, and the company's MusicCAST audio system server." Furthermore, the units are also compatible with your iPod and XM radio via optional adapters, include Burr-Brown 192kHz/24bit DACs, and will be on display at next month's CEDIA expo. As expected, neither of these devices can be classified as cheap, as the less powerful RX-V1800 will demand $1,299.95, while the higher-end RX-V3800 rings up at $1,699.95.
Onkyo's HDC-1.0 HD audio PC for audiophiles
Japan's Onkyo has this new HDC-1.0 media PC in the chute and ready for launch next month in hopes of wooing the audiophile crowd. Set to replace the HDC-7, the HDC-1.0 measures in at 205 x 240 x92.5-mm and brings a Vista pre-load as you'd expect. However, the "wow" is limited to just Home Basic... this ain't no Vista Media Center friends. Instead, Onkyo loads up their own CarryOn Music 10 software to make the most of Onkyo's SE-90PCI PCI card which touts a 2-channel, audiophile grade 110dB SNR and 24bit/192kHz -- yeah, that exceeds CD sound quality. The software also ties back neatly to Onkyo's own "e-onkyo music" 24bit/96kHz download service. At the heart you'll find a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500 CPU, Intel 945GM integrated graphics, 1GB of memory, 120GB of 2.5-inch SATA disk, gigabit Ethernet, DVI and optical digital output, 6x USB 2.0 (2x in front) and 1x Firewire, and a slot-loading DVD super multi-drive. Onkyo attempts to keep the environment at bay by using an external power source to minimize EMI and by using a single, 8-cm fan and lots of rubber damping to keep things quiet inside the box. The result, according to Onkyo, is a true "HD audio PC." Of course, they could have packed in an SSD and ULV processor to ace the fan and cut the vibration completely, right? Sure, but then we'd be looking at a price much higher than the HDC-1.0's already expensive ¥210,000 (about $1,739) or ¥248,000 (about $2,054) after tossing in the matching digital amplifier. Check the amp and PC splayed after the break. [Via Impress]
