Category: Audio

Ever wanted to play a theremin just so you could play the opening theme song from Star Trek? Most theremins are expensive and extremely difficult to master. On the other hand, this modern theremin by Moog is only about $300 and includes features to help you learn how to play it correctly.

Video killed the radio star, but podcasts revived him. Roderick Mann combined his love for podcasts with the beauty and tactility of old radios in Podtique. Podtique has the body of a 1936 Goldentone radio, but most of its guts have been replaced by modern components.

With their chicken-wire like appearance, I thought that electrostatic speakers like those produced by MartinLogan were the weirdest of its kind. Until now. Behold, the Viotone M One, a speaker that pipes its sound through a violin.

Fans of Marvel superheroes who want to take their favorite character with them on the road and jam out of their favorite tunes at the same time will want to check out these Marvel Rechargeable speakers that are at ThinkGeek.

I’ve tested and reviewed numerous pieces of audio gear over the years, and one company I’ve been really excited about over the last year has been Grain Audio. The company’s headphones and speakers have thus far bucked the trend of style over substance, perfectly balancing sound quality, build quality and design.

We’ve featured a record player made out of LEGO before, but that one was barely functional and resulted in a warped sound. This one made by Brickinside member Hayarobi is much better, because it can play at 33 1/3 rpm and 45 rpm.

Brockett Parsons plays keyboard for Lady Gaga, who is as famous for her outlandish outfits as for her songs. Brockett wanted to get in line with his star and be an eye-catching performer on his own.

As a geek I have always wanted my own communicator badges like the ones worn by characters in Star Trek – something that actually works and isn’t just decorative. Well, a company called OnBeep has a product called Onyx that could fit the bill.

Earlier this year we saw a couple of vintage radios that were turned into an Internet radio player using Raspberry Pi. Matt Brailsford’s cassette player Raspberry Pi mod is “only” a Spotify media server, but he makes up for it with an intuitive user interface.

Dust off your Walkman, because Peter Quill’s memento of Earth will soon be yours, thanks to Disney. The Awesome Mix Vol. 1 mixtape will have a limited edition cassette tape release this November. According to Billboard, this will be Disney’s first music cassette tape since 2003.

At last Catwoman has the perfect pair of headphones that match her outfit. UC Berkeley alumni Wenqing Yan and Victoria Hu developed these Axent Wear cat ear headphones to give cat lovers a new way to listen to music and be stylish at the same time.

A couple of weeks ago, after it unveiled the new iPhones and its smartwatch, Apple’s “one more thing” was… spam. The company gave away U2’s latest album Songs of Innocence for free to all iTunes users, making iTunes download it without people’s consent.

JBL’s recently released Synchros E series is designed to offer high quality sound, substance and build quality with reasonable prices. At the top of the line is the E50BT, a wireless Bluetooth model with large over-the-ear drivers.

Gyroscopes can be found in most modern mobile devices. They’re meant to help in motion-sensing, but a recent paper by researchers Yan Michalevsky, Dan Boneh and Gabi Nakibly shows that these sensors can also act as microphones. 

It looks like Amazon is getting geared up to offer a new unlimited reading and audio service called Kindle Unlimited. The service was tipped by a cached URL dug up from somewhere deep within the web.

Sometimes when you’re on a plane, you’ll experience a piercing pain around your ears shortly after takeoff or descent. Usually, the pain subsides in a few minutes, with relief preceded by the sensation of your ears “popping.”