Google said YouTube Music is available on all Sonos speakers, letting YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium subscribers play songs, albums, playlists and artist radio stations along with YouTube’s standard catalog of remixes, live performances and covers. We weren’t able to pull up YouTube through our Sonos app, and a search on the Sonos community site showed a question asking about YouTube from five months ago. A post dated “12 days ago” from a Sonos customer said: “I just discovered the Sonostube app. It plays youtube on your Sonos system.” We didn’t find an app under YouTube or Sonostube, but a Sonos spokesperson emailed us that software updates are being issued “on a rolling basis.” On whether the elevated coziness with another Google streaming service hinted at an impending release of an update for Google Assistant voice control -- expected last year -- she said: “we’ll share more as soon as we can!”
KNZ Technology bowed a combination Bluetooth speaker/Qi charging station called Dock'n'Roll that claims 30 percent faster charging than most OEM chargers. Its driver and bass radiator are powered by a 7.5-watt amplifier, and the speaker can be detached for portability, said the company Friday. Range is 50 feet, battery life is 12 hours, it has five presets and can be paired for stereo sound. Price is $119.
POW Audio is taking preorders for an expandable Bluetooth speaker designed for smartphones. The $99 speaker can be attached to the back of a phone using a universal mount and then folded down to pocket size when not in use. The company’s WaveBloom technology expands to create a passive radiator, supporting speaker drivers with an air-filled chamber that’s said to provide more bass and volume than what’s possible with a phone’s speaker. The POW speaker can be combined with another to create stereo sound, is water-resistant and is compatible with Bluetooth 4.2 at a range of up to 100 feet, the company said. The speaker charges via USB-C and is said to deliver eight hours of runtime on a charge.
Select Onkyo USA and Pioneer network-enabled products will support AirPlay 2, after a firmware update due in spring, the brands announced at CES. Compatible models are the Onkyo TX-NR585, TX-NR686, TX-NR787, TX-RZ630, TX-RZ730 and TX-RZ830 AV receivers and the TX-8270 stereo receiver. Compatible Pioneer products are the VSX-S520, VSX-LX103, VSX-LX303 and VSX-LX503 AV receivers and the SX-S30 stereo receiver.
Cleer Audio, in an expansion of its portfolio, and a relocation from the Venetian suites to the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, unveiled a line of headphones and smart speakers at CES. Marketing Vice President Aaron Levine called the company's repositioning an “update to the existing brand” as the company moves from being a headphone brand to a “performance audio brand” that also offers smart speakers, smart displays and virtual reality. Notable among the new products were a cylindrical Alexa-based smart speaker, the 3.1-channel Mirage (Q3, $500), with a 7.8-inch flexible wraparound AMOLED display made by Royole. The Halo wireless neck speaker ($149, June) sits on the shoulders with upfiring speakers that send music up to the ears and not outward for others to hear, Levine told us. Halo is powered by the Qualcomm CSR8675 Bluetooth audio chipset with aptX, optimized for AAC support and Google Assistant voice control. Users have to press a button to engage the Assistant, he said. Other introductions included the Edge voice-controlled wireless heart rate monitor headphone ($169), based on the Qualcomm CSR8670 chipset, with Bluetooth 4.2 audio streaming, Google Assistant and cVc noise reduction technology, said the company. It also introduced the Flow II wireless noise-canceling headphone based on the CSR8675, saying the headphones provide "near-CD quality" audio streaming and 20-hour playback.
Fiscal Q3 sales in the premium audio segment at Voxx declined $7.7 million due to the company’s decision to pare unprofitable online distribution of the Klipsch brand, said CEO Pat Lavelle on an earnings call Thursday streamed live from CES, where Voxx was a Central Hall exhibitor. The strategy is “working, as gross margins are up and the segment is more profitable,” he said. Pretax income in the segment year to date is running $8 million higher than a year earlier, he said. Klipsch will launch an “exclusive” soundbar and subwoofer program in March “for direct import with Amazon,” he said. Klipsch also signed a partnership agreement, making it the “official speaker supplier” of First Watch restaurants, which runs 200 breakfast locations in 26 states, he said. “We are also in discussions with a number of other large global organizations, and success with just one or two of them should help drive performance and heightened visibility of the Klipsch brand.”
NAD Electronics will begin shipping next month the M10 BluOS-enabled amplifier in its Masters Series, it said Monday. The $2,499 streaming amplifier offers the LE version of Dirac Live Room Correction to tailor sound to a room, along with Audio Return Channel for integration in a home theater system, MQA decoding and compatibility with home control systems from Apple, Crestron, Control4, Lutron and others, it said. AirPlay 2 integration will come in a future upgrade, it said. Sister brand PSB Loudspeakers bowed the next-generation Alpha speakers: the P3 ($199 a pair) and P5 ($349 a pair) bookshelf speakers, C10 center-channel ($299 each) and T20 tower speaker ($599 a pair). Alpha series speakers have updated neodymium tweeters. Products are on display at CES in the Lenbrook America suite (29-236) at the Venetian.
Pioneer will debut wireless sports headphones at CES, it said Friday. The $149 E8 in-ear headphones feature a custom fit through three supplied pairs of ear fins in small, medium and large sizes; an AAC codec; voice-assisted and manual controls; and a charging carrying case. The Pioneer Android app can read out email and news over the headphones, it said. The E8s come in gray, pink and yellow.
Absolute Audio Labs (Sands Booth #51726-20) is launching Pyour Audio, an open smart audio operating system at CES, it said Friday. Pyour is available to audio OEMs, the retail channel and app developers looking to develop and market audio products, categories and services, said the Netherlands-based company, highlighting apps for speech intelligibility and personalization. In 2019, capabilities will be available for audio enhancement, machine learning, IoT, voice assistants and live translations, said the company, which also plans an aftermarket "medical upgrade feature" for consumer audio hardware in 2019.
Headphone maker Beyerdynamic announced the Team Tygr bundle ($399), which pairs its Tygr 300 R gaming headphones with a Fox Professional USB studio mic. An integrated headphone output is said to allow real-time listening without delays. Mic sensitivity can be adjusted with a gain switch, and audio signals can be mixed, it said.