Bowers & Wilkins unveiled Tuesday the P9 Signature headphone to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The $899 flagship headphones are made from Italian Saffiano leather, and the memory foam cushions mold to the shape of the user’s head over time for comfort and to create an acoustic seal, said the company. All components in the P9s were custom-designed, said B&W. The P9 Signature comes with cables for use with home audio gear and with portable devices. An additional Lightning cable, in development, will be available free early next year to users who register their headphones at www.bowers-wilkins.com, said the company.
DTS is the latest multiroom audio company to announce it’s adding Alexa voice control. The company is working with Amazon to add the Alexa service to DTS Play-Fi products early next year, it said in a Tuesday announcement. Sonos (see 1608300040) and Denon (see 1609200055) also recently announced Alexa compatibility for their multiroom ecosystems. Beginning in “early 2017,” Play-Fi owners will be able to use an Alexa-enabled device -- including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Fire TV -- to play and control music on one or more DTS Play-Fi-enabled speakers in the home, “regardless of brand,” said DTS. The company also is working with Play-Fi partners to bring far-field Alexa capabilities to DTS Play-Fi speakers through the Alexa Voice Service, with future Play-Fi products incorporating a set of far-field microphones, enabling customers to use the Alexa service and mics to control various devices in their home by voice, DTS said. The Play-Fi speakers will use signal processing techniques like those in the Amazon Alexa products to “capture spoken commands in noisy environments, even when the speaker is playing music, from across the room,” it said. Mic-equipped, Alexa-enabled Play-Fi products will launch from “select partners” next year, it said. There are currently 30-plus Play-Fi speakers, soundbars and receivers from Aerix, Anthem, Arcam, Definitive Technology, Integra, Klipsch, Martin-Logan, McIntosh, Onkyo, Paradigm, Phorus, Pioneer, Polk, Rotel, Sonus Faber and Wren Sound Systems, with new products and firmware updates enabling Alexa service slated for a Q1 rollout, DTS said.
A new speaker system from Logitech allows users to stream audio from a Bluetooth-enabled computer, tablet or smartphone and to switch among them, said the company in a Thursday announcement. The Z337 Bold Sound comes with a control pod that can be placed for easy access to speaker functions including power, volume and Bluetooth pairing, said the company. To switch from one source to another, users press pause on one source and then play on another. The pod also has a headphone jack and a knob to adjust the bass level from the subwoofer. A 3.5mm input allows connection to a monitor, computer or video game console, it said. The 80-watt system ships this month at a $99 list price, it said.
Denon will enable Alexa voice control for its Heos multiroom audio platform in a Q1 launch, the company said Tuesday. Denon formed a voice user interface team earlier this year, it said. With Alexa integration, users will be able to initiate and control music, get news and weather, control smart home devices and ask Alexa questions, Denon said. The music skill is scheduled to be available on all Heos-enabled devices by Q1. Denon didn’t say whether users will be charged for the Alexa upgrade.
Amazon Prime members now have access included for Audible Channels, a short-form digital audio service launched earlier this year from Audible. Prime members also will be able to choose from a rotating selection of 50 audiobooks from the Audible catalog, said an Amazon announcement. Audible Channels comprises a regularly refreshed selection of original programs, comedy, lectures, and audio editions of articles and news from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Foreign Affairs, Charlie Rose: The Week, McSweeney’s, The Onion and other periodicals, Amazon said. The service also showcases 20 Audible Playlists that include stories of the day, meditation and comedy content and compilations about science, history and technology, said Amazon. Audible Channels is available to non-Prime members for $4.95 per month or $59.40 per year.
Vizio added to its Google Cast multiroom audio portfolio with the SmartCast Crave Pro and Crave 360 speakers, it said in a Wednesday news release. The Crave Pro has 2.1-channel audio with dual integrated subwoofers, and the Crave 360 is an omnidirectional portable speaker. Both speakers are controllable by Vizio’s SmartCast app and include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Crave 360 is available directly from Vizio and at Samsclub.com. The Crave Pro is “coming soon” to Vizio.com for $299, it said.
Bowers & Wilkins refreshed its P3 headphones with the Series 2, due at retail Sept. 15. The headphones have a lightweight frame and folding mechanism for easy storage in a coat pocket, said the company. The damping system in the headphones’ drive unit controls diaphragm movement to deliver precise sound with extended bass, it said. The P3 Series 2 ($149) comes with a remote/microphone accessory for iPhone and a universal cable for other smartphones and MP3 players.
The wireless multiroom audio battleground is clearer after IFA announcements that Harman aligned with Google Cast and that Pioneer and Onkyo joined DTS’ Play-Fi ecosystem. DTS demo’d products at its IFA booth with European streaming music service Qobuz, the latest music service to join the DTS ecosystem, while Pioneer and Onkyo said they will upgrade select soundbars, AVRs, lifestyle products and home-theater-in-a-box systems to Play-Fi in 2017 firmware updates. Qobuz bills itself as a premium streaming audio service with a library of more than 30 million titles, including 45,000 albums in 24-bit Hi-Res. Other streaming music services in the DTS portfolio are Amazon Prime Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio, KKBox, Napster, QQ Music, Pandora, SiriusXM, Spotify and Tidal, said a DTS announcement.
Sony’s making a bold move in the noise-cancellation headphone category, with a set of $399 over-the-ear phones with multiple-button operation and optional wired and wireless operation. The company demo’d the MDR-1000X headphones in New York under embargo last week and put them on preorder Thursday before sales begin in October at Amazon, through Sony dealers and at B&H and InMotion Entertainment locations. The MDR-1000X, the standard bearer of the Sony headphone line, has dual noise sensor technology and a personal noise-canceling optimizer to tailor the amount of canceling for individual ears, even taking into account users' hair styles and whether they wear glasses, said the company. The headphones support Hi-Res Audio in wired mode through the company’s S-Master HX audio amplifier, it said. The headphones also can operate in wireless Bluetooth mode, and the company’s LDAC technology is said to deliver three times the audio quality of standard Bluetooth streaming. When users listen to files in MP3, ACC, ATRAC and WMA, the MDR-1000X’s built-in DSEE HX technology upscales the compressed files to “near Hi-Res Audio” quality, it said. The headphones have a “quick attention” mode that’s activated when users place a hand on the side of the headphone’s shell to disable noise canceling and allow natural sound to come through, the company demo'd, giving a use case of a flight attendant taking a drink order on a plane. The MDR-1000X’s are customizable. Through a button, users can change the noise-canceling settings to hear ambient sounds around them to fit their surroundings. Battery life is given as 20 hours. The headphones come with a case, audio and power cables, and an adapter for airplane use, said the company.
The B&K audio brand is making a comeback at CEDIA Expo, “reimagined for 2016 with one-of-a-kind solutions for custom installation, home theater, and multi-room audio,” it said in a brief statement Wednesday. The official relaunch will be at a CEDIA Expo news conference Sept. 14, 2-2:30 p.m. CDT, at the Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. B&K will exhibit in booth 1700 at the expo.