With a focus on absolute convenience to complement the exceptional sound quality, Sennheiser introduce the FLX 70 wireless mobile headset with FlexFit for unsurpassed personal fit and multiple wearing styles.

This gives superior comfort and audio quality for quick or lengthy mobile conversations, when you really need your hands for doing more than holding your mobile phone or adjusting your headset.

With a retail price of $129.95, quality bluetooth headsets have finally come of age.

DBX Driverack units help get your PA system sounding flat, in terms of frequency resposne that is. These systems used to start at $1499 but with the strong Australian dollar prices have come down, and with the release of the PX model, you can now own one for under $800.

The Driverack PX is a processor specifically tailored for powered speakers. Utilising DBX’s highly-acclaimed DriveRack technology. The DriveRack PX Powered Speaker Optimizer has everything you need to get the most out of your stereo powered speaker system. It even includes stereo or mono subwoofer support. With the included dbx M2 measurement mic, Auto-EQ corrects for audible deficiencies in the room environment. Sweet, they are fully balanced and make great room equalisers for your home stereo too!

Qsonix Q110 music management systems from the USA offer the most reliable and truly friendly digital music management solutions available, and they are finally available in Australia through Vistra Systems. Qsonix’s unique touchscreen based graphical interface enables the entire family to effortlessly store, organise and play their music library throughout the house.

It is claimed that the Qsonix digital music management system delivers a complete set of intuitive and easy to use features that make loading, organizing, browsing and playing music fun and simple. Having played with a unit for a short time, I have to say it one of the best I have tried and certainly superior to the non-touch screen units available from other companies.

The Q110’s unique drag and drop user interface makes it a simple task to instantly access their entire music library without training or technical knowledge, which means you will not have to read an inch thick manual to get up and running.

Qsonix systems are available in a number of different configurations, which include 15" or 17" touch screens, and up to 1.5TB of internal storage. A basic system consists of a 250GB drive, suitable for all but the largest of CD collections, and prices start at $7495. Click here for more.

Tags: Qsonix

The MX W1 is Sennheiser’s first portable and completely wireless stereo earphone system. Featuring two separate (left/right) earphones, transmitter and carrying case with integrated charger, the Sennheiser MX W1 offers an uncompressed digital wireless connection and delivers excellent high-fidelity stereo sound, letting you enjoy your favourite music without the hassles of cords.

The transmitter offers the possibility to transmit to up to two pairs of MX W1, enabling two people to listen to the same audio player at the same time. The system’s carrying case doubles as a charging station for quick-charging the earphones up to three times while ‘on the move’ — even without access to a power supply system.

With a recommended retail of $749 it does not come cheap, but from all reports so far, the sound quality from these little earphones is simply superb!

Tags: Headphones, Sennheiser, Wireless

Early July 2008 will see the launch of the new Sennheiser MM50 iP in Australia. "It is a Stereo Headset for the Apple iPhone which allows the iPhone user to have excellent communication capability with a superb mobile music experience. Based on the successful launch and the popularity of the iPhone in Europe and the US, we now introduce a headset tailor made for the iPhone and iPod."

It appears to be base don the CX 300 which is Sennheiser's extremely popular entry level ear canal headphone, mated to a microphone and designed specifically for the Apple iPhone due to launch around the same time here in Australia. RRP $99.95.

Tags: Headphones, Sennheiser, Headset

In July 2008, Australia will see a swathe of new product from Sennheiser aimed squarely at the portable music market an travelers.

The new range begins with the Sennheiser CX 6 Travel, which are high-end ear-canal phones offering an excellent attenuation of ambient noise of up to 90%, especially on a plane, train or in any other noisy environment. The CX 6 Travel ships with an airplane adapter, which is a double mono jack with integrated impedance switch. RRP $269.95, but our price is much lower of course!

Next is the IE series of ear canal headphones, the IE 6, IE 7 and top of the range IE 8. With the success of their lower end CX range, Sennheiser have moved way up the scale with this range starting at around $270, making them four times the price of the CX 300. For your money you get better sound quality and greater noise attenuation.

Tags: Sennheiser, Headphones, Ear Canal

Are you constantly trolling the second hand CD shops, or scouring eBay for those old out of print CD's? Well it will now get a bit easier with a new deal on offer from Amazon who has struck a deal with a group of record labels including Sony BMG, EMI, Rhino, and Vanguard, to offer out-of-print CDs via its CreateSpace subsidiary.

Under the deal, out-of-print albums on CD will be listed in Amazon's general music catalog; when they're ordered by customers, the CDs will be manufactured on-demand. Amazon and the labels are promoting the service as a way to revive out-of-print music and make it available to dedicated fans. Some labels and content providers are also using CreateSpace's manufacture-on-demand services to release new content.

"This is an exciting day for music fans and Amazon customers. Through our partnerships with Sony BMG and EMI Music, Amazon customers have an even greater selection of music to choose from today," said Amazon VP of music and movies Peter Faricy, in a statement. "CreateSpace 'Disc on Demand' is not only making out-of-print albums available once again, but it's also enabling digital-only titles and international titles that haven't been released in the U.S. to be made available on CD."

Tags: Music

Edirol released its R-09 portable recorder way back in 2006 and it offered 'CD quality' audio recording in the palm of your hand. Musicians love it as a sketch book type of tool for songwriting, and business people love it for recording meetings etc.

Now Edirol are taking things up a notch with the R-09HR. An updated model that can handle 96KHz recordings (up from 48KHz) and support for SDHC memory cards with up to 8GB of storage instead of the 4GB maximum of the old model.

The recorder also includes a monitor speaker, remote control and playback speed control, which is great for slowing things down to work out a guitar lick, or for those who need to transcribe interviews etc. No word on a an Australian release yet, stay tuned!

Apple's has just confirmed they are the number one music retailer in the US. The stats so far: four billion songs sold, six million songs in the catalog, the most music sold in January and February out of any retailer.

CUPERTINO, California - April 3, 2008 - Apple® today announced that the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world's largest music catalog of over six million songs.

"We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone."

*Based on data from market research firm the NPD Group's MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008.

ATC's small range of amplifier's have just received an update, well at least the integrated amp has. The new ATC SIA 2-150 integrated amp delivers 2x150w, and it operates in Class A two-thirds of the way to full output. There's a fully discrete preamp section, and the power section uses four MOSFETs per channel fed by a massive power suplly.

The amp carries a six-year warranty, and has four stereo line-ins, one tape loop, and both line and preamp level outputs. A remote handset is also provided, giving control of volume, muting, source selection, and standby.