Media server company Mozaex is getting into the thriving...

Media server company Mozaex is getting into the thriving headphone business with a two-piece, 10-transducer surround-sound product. Called BluWav, the system incorporates proprietary technology that decodes a standard 7.1-channel soundtrack at an “HD Audio-level” 27 Mbps bitrate, CEO Douglas Kihm told us Thursday. The $1,695 system, called BluWav, combines wired headphones with a “Blender Console” that houses patent-pending crossovers and equalizers that allow users to set up personalized audio profiles, Kihm said. Users can adjust volume as they're watching a movie for each transducer individually, and front transducers can be tweaked by a 15-band equalizer, he said. The system has two “vibration” subwoofers with bass-booster amplifiers that provide a tactile sensation. “You can feel the frequencies under 200 Hz, but it doesn’t hurt,” Kihm quipped, saying deep bass material such as thunder in a soundtrack propagates a sound wave that can be felt through the ear cup. Mozaex will launch the product at CEDIA next month and positions its first headphone system, with a component-size console, as a custom electronics product that will mount in a standard electronics rack. The console connects to a receiver either via HDMI or analog preamp output jacks, Kihm said. Mozaex is making the headphones at its factory in Salt Lake City, he said. Regarding whether the launch of a headphone line marks a shift away from the media server marker, Kihm said the high-end headphones follow the company’s basic mission to focus on “high-end luxury home entertainment. That’s our niche,” he said. The surround-sound headphones are targeted to the growing number of home entertainment enthusiasts living in multi-dwelling units where they “love movies but can’t listen to them at full volume,” he said. Mozaex will sell BluWavs through 20 distributors internationally and through 10 in the U.S. and Canada. “The growth in the headphone market is extraordinary,” he said, citing a U.S. market of $2 billion. CE sales in the U.K. are off “precipitously,” he said, but the headphone market has reached 137 million pounds compared with an overall CE market of 167 million pounds there, he said.