Visitors to London who hope to see the famous Abbey Road Studios usually have to make do with taking photos from the street or visiting the souvenir gift shop next door. But for the next few weeks, they can visit a free exhibition in the public library of the Barbican Arts Centre that chronicles Abbey Road’s history. Though predominantly a show of well-captioned snapshots from the 1970s from rock photographer Jill Furmanovsky, the exhibition also includes historic photographs of the studios’ earlier days, including shots of George Martin and the Beatles. Also on display is some early hardware, including a collection of historic mics such as the Neumann U47 and U48, both shown in their entirety and also broken down to show their condenser diaphragm capsules and original valves. Open reels of EMI tape are labeled with the claim that while many brands of analog master tape became “sticky” in storage, and needed baking for eight hours at low heat to render them playable, no EMI masters needed restorative treatment. The exhibition runs through June 27.

Rebeat Innovation, the Austrian company promising summer 2019 debut of “HD Vinyl” enhanced LPs (see 1804250069), will base the first laser-production equipment it ordered in Weiz, Austria, founder-CEO Guenter Loibl emailed us Tuesday. “Once we finished the development we will order 2 additional laser-equipment sets for production.” One machine will be based in Tulln on the Danube for supplying Europe, “and one will be based somewhere in California (we have not decided the place yet) for supplying the American market,” he said. “In the case the demand from Asia is big enough we will add a 3rd production machine and base it in Japan or maybe China.” Any user, on any turntable, will benefit from 90 percent of the “enhancements” possible with HD Vinyl, said Loibl. “If you really like to get 100% of the HD Vinyl sound it might be necessary to upgrade your cartridge.” Turntables “optimized” for HD Vinyl “will have such a cartridge already installed,” he said. Technically, Rebeat can provide for playback of HD Vinyl LPs on either tangential- or radial-tracking turntables, he said: “At the end it is up to the music label. But I guess, due to the fact that most turntables are radial players, labels will decide for radial optimization.”

Logitech’s Ultimate Ears brand announced updated Amazon Alexa voice control for its Megablast and Blast Wi-Fi and Bluetooth portable speakers Thursday. Users can control volume remotely via Alexa, said the company, and they can check battery status via the app or by pressing volume up and down buttons on the speakers simultaneously. Beginning next month, users will be able to personalize sound for an artist or music genre with an equalizer. Coming soon is voice control on Spotify, and the two speakers will be the brand’s first to integrate Spotify Connect, allowing users to play music directly from a phone over Wi-Fi without having to pair via Bluetooth, it said. Megablast ($299) and Blast ($229) are available in the U.S., Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany and the U.K.

Pioneer introduced a portable hearing device to the U.S. market that uses digital signal processing (DSP) to improve clarity. The 0.67-ounce Nani "personal sound amplifier," helps improve audibility in conversations, TV audio and lectures, said the company. DSP is used to analyze sound collected by the Nani’s mics, optimizing vocal frequencies and suppressing unwanted background noise, it said.

MartinLogan co-founder Gayle Sanders plans to premiere his new company, Eikon Audio, and a $24,500 digital active loudspeaker system at the 2018 Audio Expo North America show in Schaumburg, Illinois, this week, the company announced Tuesday. Eikon speakers are hand-built and tested in Norwalk, Connecticut, using digital signal processing technology and new amplifiers with Sanders’ engineering; they don’t use the signature electrostatic technology Sanders was known for with MartinLogan, he noted. The Image1 system is based on the Eikontrol command center, which can accept any digital or analog input and is controllable by a smartphone or computer, said the company. By integrating digital amplifier technology, directly coupled to extremely low-distortion drivers, the system can achieve “excellent precision and coherence without the need and expense of big stacks of gear,” said Sanders.

Concerns over data privacy extend to the headphone market, Technavio reported, saying future headphones are expected to have features that capture bodies’ vital signs and other medical data. Headphones’ ability to collect large amounts of data and create recordings could violate users' privacy, the researcher said Tuesday, suggesting addressing privacy concerns of headphone users as prerequisite to the mass commercialization of smart headphones. The non-smart headphone segment had nearly 65 percent of the market last year but is forecast to drop to 9 percent by 2022, Technavio said. Smart headphones are the fastest growing segment and will have nearly 44 percent of the headphone market during the period, it said.

Pioneer began shipping the VSX-LX103, a 7.2-channel AV receiver with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio, said the company. The $599 AV receiver has powered zone 2 outputs, eight HDMI inputs and one output, and supports HDCP 2.2, 4K/60Hz video, wide color gamut, Ultra HD 4K upscaling and Dolby Vision, HDR10 and hybrid-log gamma HDR, said the company. Google Assistant capability allows users to change volume and tracks and stop the music via voice commands, it said. High-res audio files up to DSD 2.8/5.6 MHz are supported.

Onkyo bowed an entry-level AV receiver designed to be a future-ready hub for high dynamic range-ready media players and TVs. The TX-SR383 ($399) gives users a choice of native 7.2-channel soundtrack reproduction or a 5.2-channel configuration with powered audio for a pair of speakers in a second zone, said the company. Features include four HDMI inputs and one output supporting 4K/60p, HDR10 and hybrid log-gamma HDR, 4:4:4 color space, BT.2020 color-standard video pass-through and HDCP 2.2. The 155-watt-per-channel receiver supports DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD soundtracks, it said.

McIntosh plans a product clinic for customers at the LA Audio Show, June 8-10, at the Hilton Irvine, said the company Tuesday. McIntosh product owners can bring their gear for a free diagnostic service, operated by Los Angeles service center George Meyer AV. Tests will cover preamplifiers, integrated amps and power amps and will include a specification check, minor adjustments, and tube testing at no charge, with a free estimate of repair costs for more serious problems, McIntosh said. McIntosh brand vacuum tubes will be sold on site at special show pricing, said the company.

Bose will invest up to $50 million in startups that develop apps, services and technology for the new Bose AR augmented-reality audio platform it introduced at SXSW, said the company in a Friday announcement. “Unlike other augmented reality products and platforms, Bose AR doesn't change what you see, but knows what you're looking at -- without an integrated lens or phone camera,” it said. “Rather than superimposing visual objects on the real world, Bose AR adds an audible layer of information and experiences, making every day better, easier, more meaningful, and more productive.” A “minuscule, wafer-thin” acoustics package developed specifically for the Bose AR represents “the future of mobile micro-sound,” it said. It can be built “seamlessly” into headphones, eyewear and other wearables and it allows “simple head gestures, voice, or a tap on the wearable to control content,” said the company. Bose developed prototype smart glasses for the platform that are Bluetooth- Siri- and Google Assistant-compatible, it said. Bose already is in collaborations with ASICS Studio, Strava, TripAdvisor, TuneIn and Yelp, and additional agreements will be announced later because they have nondisclosure terms, it said. The Bose AR software development kit will be available this summer, as will “limited quantities of a refined and updated version of the Bose AR glasses,” said Bose.