Review: Phonak Audéo PFE 232 Earphones.

Bliss. Sex. Harmony. Words that could be used for many things in this case are being used for…ears. No. We haven’t turned into some fetish sex blog. Instead, we’re experiencing music for the first time, all over again. But before we begin the constant word tripping, take a second, grab a snack, and follow us in after the break. If you’re at all into personal audio and music, you’re going to want to hear what we have to say…

Review: id-America Spark Earphones.

So many headphones and so little time. Yes, we do go through quite a fair share of such things at GS HQ, but that’s because we’re audio junkies. So when we found these beauties sitting on our step the other day, we were more than excited to give them a shot.

id-America is more known for their iPhone cases than anything. But the Spark in-ear phones are a new direction for the company, and one we hope that they succeed in.

Hop past the break and see if the id-America Sparks are your next pair of earphones or simply another pretty face…

IDAPT Launches Universal Docking Speaker At CES 2012

IDAPT announced the World’s first Universal docking speaker for the iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices. The IDAPT S1 features a dual docking station as well as a patented interchangeable tip system allowing for multiple devices to be docked at once.

The all-in-one speaker has a unique retro design and a top facing LCD panel to set and have access to all functions while an LCD panel on the front gives access to the basic functions. The IDAPT S1 will fit perfectly anywhere in the house, whether it’s in the living room or by the bed, easy access and a snazzy design make this a winner for any home.

As far as audio, the IDAPT S1 includes Stereo 2.0 sound, full range loudspeakers and Bluetooth 2.0. We haven’t heard it with our own ears, but they claim great quality.

We will be stopping by their booth to attempt a hands on and a review sample. We’ll hopefully be touching on this later in the week.

Hop on in for a full list of specifications…

CES Unveiled: Behringer

CES 2012 is shaping up to be a year of firsts. Just like AudioFly and Velodyne, Behringer is traveling into uncharted waters with their new, vast consumer electronics range of audio equipement under the Eurosound name. Everything from iPhone docks with wireless, inductive charging speakers to a wireless, waterproof pool speaker were shown off. Get a stiff drink and join us after the break…

CES Unveiled: Velodyne vPulse Earphones.

Velodyne has long been known — 28 years in fact! — in the home audio world for their high-end home theater subwoofers. This year at CES they emerged into a new market: Personal Audio.

The “vPulse”, as they’re being called, feature an acoustically balanced 9mm dynamic driver that according to Velodyne, were designed to have deep, accurate bass that doesn’t overpower or distory mids and highs.

Other perks of of the vPulse include a pressure relief system that Velodyne says is safer on the user’s ear canal as well as flat, tangle resistant cables.

Interested parties can pick up the vPulse earphones now at Velodyne.com for $89.00. Physical retail locations will begin carrying the vPulse earphones in the coming weeks.

Quick video after the break…

CES Unveiled: AudioFly

We’ve just emerged from the pits of CES Unveiled freshly scathed and battered. But we’ve got a lot of awesome tech to show you. Starting things off: AudioFly.

AudioFly is an Australian born company that according to founder Dave Thompson, was founded to create audio products that truly reproduce music in its fullest, purest form. At CES Unveiled AudioFly had several new models from their AF line to show off. That said, the fun starts after the break…

Here’s What Spotify Announced Today…

Spotify’s special event just wrapped up, and with it come details on the company’s future amongst a heap of recent Spotify articles good and bad. The once little known service inside the U.S. has quickly become a music juggernaut. During today’s event, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek stated that Spotify has secured licensing deals with all the major labels and adds over 20,000 tracks to Spotify’s library each and every day. According to Ek, the full library would take over 100 years to listen to from start to finish, and all this reaches 10 million listeners. But enough fluff. Here’s what Spotify announced today…

Audium Is The Sexiest iOS Music Player We’ve Ever Laid Eyes Upon.

Ever since Apple relaxed iOS developer restrictions on “copying functionality of core Apple apps”, we’ve seen some great additions. In the browser realm there have been several 3rd party browsers such as Opera and Dolphin that while not perfect, bring their own unique features to the table.

As far as music apps go, iOS is full of them. But one particular app that caught our eye over at Beautiful Pixels is a new Music.app replacement by the name of Audium (AudiumApp.com) that is simply…gorgeous. A big focus is put on full-album listening and album art, with controls being relegated to touch/gesture based.

Album Navigation:

• Swipe left or right to scroll your albums | Swipe down to reveal the album name | Double-tap an album to begin playback

Song Navigation:

• Double-tap to toggle between play & pause | Swipe right for the next track | Swipe left for the previous track | Swipe up or down to adjust the volume

We’ve only been using Audium for ~15 minutes but are already in love with how it looks and operates. Our only grip is that there isn’t any shuffle function. And if we’re to be really honest, we love having a couple of social sharing buttons included in-app. But again, those features would go against the app’s main goal — to bring people back to listening to full albums and ultimately, simplicity.

At $0.99 we’d say it’s worth a shot.

• Audium: iTunes Link

Update

We’ve just gotten a handy tip from the devs over at Audium about the first big update — Shuffle, Twitter integration and…Last.fm — shout out to all the srcobblers!

Google Announces Google Music.

Well, it is official with the Google press event wrapping up we know Google Music is official. With the online search giant dropping the beta tag and expanding its tendrils into the music industry by netting deals with major labels like EMI and Sony, it is shaping up to into quite the iTunes competitor.

Google Music will allow users to upload up to 20,000 songs and stream them in 320 Kbps quality from pretty much any device that has a web browser. Best of all, all of this new found Google Music action will remain free!

In addition to music labels being added to Google Music, some integration with Google+ was announced as well. Google+ users can share songs and entire albums with other Goolge+ users whom in turn are given one full free play.

Not to veer too far from the topic — Google+ is shaping up to be a very robust social medium. We like what we have seen so far and are looking forward to the months ahead to see what additions Google+ and Google Music will receive.

The new service is officially live at music.google.com as is the official Google Music Android app.

Well be giving Google Music a thorough testing over the weekend. Look for our Google Music “review” early next week.

In the meantime…Let us know your thoughts in the comments!