In the past, when I’ve been asked to name manufacturers of high-end headphones, several names would immediately spring to mind - among them AKG, Sennheiser, Grado Labs, and Audio-Technica. Recently, however, I’ve added another ‘name to know’ in high-end headphones to my list - the German maker Ultrasone.

A relatively new company as compared to the other four I mentioned, Ultrasone’s offerings range from the relatively Spartan HFI-15 on-ears to the opulent Edition 9, trimmed in brushed aluminum and rich high-gloss plastic, with sumptuous Ethiopian sheep’s-leather earpads. What does $1500 sitting on your head feel like? Like Ethiopian sheep leather, I suppose.

For our first review from their product line, Ultrasone kindly sent along their $249 (MSRP) HFI-700, an elder sibling of the HFI range. The HFI-700 headphones feature around-the-ear design and closed earcups, as well as the company’s proprietary ‘S-Logic’ technology, which is said to enhance the listener’s perception of a three-dimensional sound field, like one experiences when listening to a pair of high-end stereo loudspeakers.

Other than that, these headphones are fairly ordinary - only two channels, without any crazy multi-driver surround effects (which, I find, generally tend to backfire from a sonic standpoint). Simplicity, however, can be strength, and more than that, it can be a sign that real attention has been paid to the details.

At the $249 price point, the Ultrasone HFI-700s rub shoulders with the Beyerdynamic DT 770, the Sony MDR-7509, and the Grado Labs SR-225 - some very stiff competition from respected names in the business. However, as we’ll see, the HFI-700 headphones bring quite a bit to the table sonically as well, with some characteristics that make them especially appealing for music listening and home studio use.

We took our first look at the ASUS Xonar range of audio products with the Xonar D2, which we reviewed in September of last year, and the first impressions of ASUS’ approach to high-quality desktop audio were highly favorable. However, the first round of Xonar parts, the D2 and D2X sound cards, were decidedly high-end parts, commanding a high-end price as well, though priced competitively in relation to Creative’s top-end Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro.

I was responsible for that first review of the Xonar D2, and as I tried to gauge our visitors’ responses to the product, I soon found that while enthusiasts were impressed by ASUS’ initial Xonar product offerings, they longed for a budget-conscious offering. ASUS released the Xonar U1 soon afterward, an affordable external USB sound card based on the same C-Media chipset as the other Xonar products, but the void of an affordable, high-quality Xonar card still remained.

In response to the continual requests for a value-oriented Xonar product, ASUS developed the Xonar DX sound card - a budget-priced card which contains much of the same technology as the reference-quality D2 and D2X cards, but with a few tradeoffs made in order to keep the cost low. These tradeoffs are primarily in the area of component quality.

Where the Xonar D2 and D2X used cost-no-object reference-quality Burr-Brown DACs and opamps in the output stage for all seven channels, the DX uses components more typical of the mass market offerings from Creative, Sondigo, Razer, and others. We’ll explore these differences in more detail later.

The Xonar DX also differs from the D2 and D2X cards in its form factor - while the D2 and D2X are full-height cards, the DX features a low-profile design that allows it to fit inside some smaller home theater PC cases. It also leaves the PCI bus by the wayside, offering only a PCI-Express version that occupies a single 1x slot. It claims a lower 116dB signal-to-noise ratio, but only on the front left and right channels, following the rating convention used by many other high-profile sound card manufacturers.

The ASUS Xonar DX sound card debuts with version 2.0 of ASUS’ DirectSound 3D Gaming Extensions (DS3D GX), a competitor to Creative’s EAX. In fact, ASUS’ claims that DS3D GX 2.0 could duplicate EAX 5.0 functionality within a software driver extension pack drew some controversy earlier this year, when the Xonar DX was first introduced. We covered this story in April, in a separate article comparing the two approaches to environmental DSP in games.

The burning question in the minds of those who’ve lusted after the more expensive ASUS Xonar sound cards is this - exactly how much of the high-end experience is sacrificed with the lower-priced DX card, when compared to the D2 and D2X? In this review, we’ll take a look at this newest product in ASUS’ successful Xonar line, and discover the answer to that question.

A recent report stated that teens no longer find a new car to be the best way to portray their personality, but instead the shift has moved towards their cell phones and other electronic gadgets. Cell phones, MP3 players and other fun electronics used to be bulky and ugly, but no more. Compare a first-gen iPod to the latest-gen models and the difference is scary. In the natural progression of things, styling is constantly improved, as well.

I’ve been a fan of Samsung for quite some time now, because they implement a style into their products that I can’t seen to find elsewhere. Clean looks, smooth design and definitely eye-catching. I primarily find this with their line of point-and-shoot cameras, but their MP3 players are also reaping the stylish rewards.

Today we are taking a quick look at their YP-K3 player, a 2GB flash-based offering, which is also available in 4GB. I’m not normally one to oogle over a simple MP3 player, but the K3 seems to have done everything right in terms of styling. It’s glossy black all over with silver trim. Made even better, the player includes a 160×128 OLED 1.8″ screen with a blue color scheme.

As far as support goes, the player can use MP3, WMA, ASF and also WMA DRM music formats. It can also support JPEG files, for picture-viewing. The 2GB model promises upwards of 25 hours of playtime, while the 4GB version cuts that down to 20 hours.

The K3 comes in a modest box, with an inner box that slides out. The inside black box says, “For you” in stylized writing, which is quite disturbing to say the least. But hey, if it’s a gift, you have one less thing to do.

Included inside are ear buds, a USB cable, Windows driver and also the manual. More than likely, the manual will never need to be touched, at usage of the player is rather straight-forward.

The player uses an MTP connection to interact with your PC, so for Windows, you will need to make sure you have at least Windows Media Player 10, or use some other software that includes support for it. Linux users are not so lucky, since MTP is hit or miss under the OS.

When plugged into Windows though, you will find a new drive under My Computer, that goes by the players name. There you will see a few different folders, and you can simply drag and drop your music into the Music folder, or use your favorite media player to do it.

Overall the player is quite simple to use. With it gripped in your hand, you can use your thumb to control everything. You shouldn’t really need to shift your hand at all to reach a certain option.

After holding the power button down for a second to turn on, the screen glows a bright blue. Regardless of where you were in the player when you turned it off, it will be right back there when powered back on. So if you half-listen to a song and turn the player off, you can turn it back on and continue from where you left off. In addition, if for whatever reason your headphone jack hauls out of the player while in use, the song will automatically pause. After a minute of inactivity, the player will turn itself fully off.

Below the screen, there is a simple directional pad, in addition to a back button and also a menu button. At main screen, you will have Music > FM Radio > Photo > Settings. When switching from one to another, the blue dots merge to form the new shape. It’s fun eye candy.

Once in the music menu, you can choose to view your music by Artist, Albums, Tracks, Genres or load a playlist, of which you create on your PC. Navigating in between the menus could not be made any easier. I didn’t have a single issue with accidentally hitting the wrong key, or hitting a key and not having it react.

The “Enter” button is the blue dot in between the directional pad. While music is playing, you can hit it to pause the music, and hit it again to continue playing. While playing music, you can push the menu button to load up a few options, including Sound Effect (Normal, Vocal, Bass Boost, 3D Sound, Concert Hall), an option to disable the EQ and lastly another option to change the play mode (repeat, shuffle, etc).

Sound quality is impressive, and I don’t have any complaints. Even the include ear buds offer rich, loud sound, without any distortion at higher volumes. Since I primarily used the player at home, I stuck with using my SteelSound 4H headphones which offered bassier music, naturally.

The FM Radio worked far better than I expected as well. When compared to my clock radio, it’s really night and day. The player picked up on all of the popular local radio stations, without any audible static whatsoever.

Overall, I am quite impressed with the K3, more so than I expected to be, actually. It works quite well, is easy to navigate, sounds great and has a fantastic color scheme. My primary complaint is that the ear buds are a wee bit on the large side, so with jogging, I could see them falling out of most ears.

Compared to other 2GB players on the market, the K3 is priced competitively at ~$120. By comparison, Sandisk’s Sansa 2GB player retails for an average of $100, while Apple’s iPod Nano hovers around ~$140. The K3 has a few benefits though. It’s smaller and lighter than the others, and features a bright OLED screen. It also turns out to be quite simple to use, which is a huge plus. In the end, I am awarding it 8 of 10.

At first Robbie touts the fact that Windows Mobile devices will continue to outsell the iPhone and the Blackberry. But then he goes on to state that, “We don’t make phones ourselves. We don’t have any plans to make phones ourselves.” He goes on to explain that Windows Mobile is currently in the position to take advantage of their belief that, “…a phone is a very personal thing. Different people want different types of phones.”

While this rules out the possibility of a Zune branded phone, it may not rule out the Zune as a piece of software or service on a windows mobile device. When discussing the MP3 player market Robbie goes on to state that Microsoft has a broader goal not just including hardware but also software and services. He states that, “…software and services, at least in theory, can be used on a lot of different types of devices.” This I think is a ways off, but it does show the future of the Zune brand.

So what did he have to say about the Zune “Touch”?

While Robbie does not directly confirm the Zune touch he confirms it in a side step media interview way, allowing a proper unveiling when they are ready to officially announce it. “Take the device independent for a second and just assume that over time where there’s a screen, touch will be part of it. It’s not going to matter what the product line is. You’re going to see it be a cornerstone of the work we do.” So it’s a statement of inevitability, almost as if you were to ask, “Are computers going to get faster?”. So when can you expect a touch screen Zune? Likely, right around the corner.

Specifications:

Supported audio formats: mp3, wma, wav, ape, flac
Supported video formats: rm, rmvb, avi, flv, mpg, mpeg, dvd, asf
Supported image formats: jpg, gif, png, bmp
Display: 2,9 inch (16:9) LTPS, 262000 colors, resolution 400×240
Integrated flash memory: 4/8/16 GB
Flash card type: MicroSD
Interface: USB 2.0 (mini USB connector)
Video rate: up to 30fps
MP3 bitrate: 32-320Kbps
WMA bitrate: 22-128Kbps
FM-radio: 87,5 - 108MHz
Voice recording: MP3
Equalizer: 8 positions
Battery life time: up to 10h
Dimentions: 91×50,5×10,5mm
Weight: 65g

Aria S7 has bright display, and you can choose integrated flash memory from 4 to 16GB, anyway it’s expandable with MicroSD slot. Device could be also used for carrying and keeping your digital photo albums, pictures can be viewed as slideshow. Rover Computers did not forget to integrate some games into it.
It won’t be available for purchase until July for a price of “under $140″.

www.techday.info

The MX-760HD came along with network support solving my one major complaint. But the 5000U was still running strong so I felt no need to upgrade. Now enter the MX-780HD. I spotted the newest member of the family at CES 2008- it added HDMI and best of all it was black so it matched the rest of my entertainment center (Trivial, to some, but I know there are some of you that understand). I recently got a new TV with more HDMI ports so I decided it is time for an upgrade.

• Quick Look
• Video Formats: DivX, XviD, DVD (ISO/VOB/IFO), MPEG, VCD(DAT), WMV(WMV-9), ASF(WMV-9), TP, TS, TRP
• Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, PMC, AC3, M4A, DTS decoding (down-mixing / Pass though)
• Image Formats: BMP, JPG, PNG
• Subtitle Support: SMO, SRT, SUB
• Video Out: HDMI, Composite, S-Video, Component
• Audio Out: RCA, Digital Coaxial, Optical
• TV System: NTSC, PAL, Auto
• HD Support: 720p, 1080i, 1080p
• Networking: 802.11b/g (WEP/WPA), 10/100 Ethernet, NDAS
• Internal Disk: 3.5” IDE or SATA
• USB: Slave (for connecting to computer) and Host (for additional storage)

Inside The Box

In the box comes with everything you need to get started: the media player with detachable antennae, remote, userguide, NDAS configuration disc, power adapter, standard usb cable, RCA AV cables, SATA cable, and finally a power cable for the SATA drive. I was disappointed that there was no IDE cable included. Granted SATAs are more common, but most of us are more likely to have a spare IDE drive hanging around. I salvaged a short IDE cable from a USB hard drive case.

Set Up / Installation

Hard Drive

Installing the hard drive could not be any easier. As you can see from the video it takes just a minute or two. Tech savvy people would be able to do this with their eyes closed, but it is even easy enough for tech noobs to simply watch this video once or twice.

Firmware Update

Once you get the hard drive up and running you may want to go to the Mvix website and grab the latest firmware. The firmware has been stable for me and only experience one lock up in the initial firmware. But you will want to keep checking for firmware updates since Mvix will be adding more features, functionality, and fixes.

Back at CES I reported that the 780HD was going to get a Bittorrent client. Right now it only exists in the labs at Mvix; they do plan on releasing but want to make sure its rock solid before it is release. It may be some time yet, so don’t bank on this feature. Treat is as a possible bonus feature for the future.

Network

Setting up the wireless and wired network was a matter of going to the set up menu and selecting auto config. You are also able to inter IP address, netmask, gateway, and DNS manually for more complicated networks. For wireless it is equally straightforward and does support WEP/WPA encryption.

When my network was configured, shared drives on all my networks immediately showed up. Even Windows Home Sever publicly shared folders showed up.

NDAS (Network Direct Attached Storage)

I thought this was going to be complicated but to my surprise it took but 10 min. The steps are basically this: Install NDAS software included with the Mvix, start NDAS on the setup menu, select configure NDAS by clicking on the trey icon on your desktop, then finally enter the key that is found on the inside of your Mvix. The wizard on the desktop will also automatically mount the drive for you showing right there under “My Computer”. That is pretty much the only manual you need.

Overall set up and installation was an absolute breeze. Do keep in mind however, that networks are not always the easiest things to work with, so you may need some patience depending on how complicated or how old your gear is.

User Interface

The UI is fairly crude but no worse than what you would find on your cable box. Menus and navigation are simple in a familiar file folder browsing type interface. It is a really easy “pick up and use” interface which I find easier to use than my Comcast cable box. The only real learning curve is the remote. But, I tossed the remote to the side and programmed my Logitech Harmony remote to control the Mvix; working it seamlessly into my home theatre.

I would also like to mention that transition of menus to and from video is very smooth. There is absolutely no screen flicker or jumpy video when transitioning in and out of video. It is a smooth fade in and out.

I think the biggest disappointment to me is that the UI does not take advantage of HD resolutions. The menus could be much more user friendly with the ability to sow so much more information. I’m not sure what the GUI’s resolution is but it looks to be less than even 720×480. But also, it does not take advantage of 16:9 screens. It is full screen but the navigation is confined to the 4:3 area.

Playback Methods

Hard Drive / USB

The most straightforward way to play media is through the internal hard drive. You can load it one of two ways: plugged into your computer over USB or over the network connected as a NDAS drive. Additionally, you can plug in two additional flash drives or hard drives into the back of the Mvix. They show up automatically in the media browser and can be navigated just as the main hard drive would.

Network

There was a little bit of latency differences of maybe a second or two over wireless, but not enough to deter the use of the wireless option. Over wireless all media content played back great with the exception of DVD ISOs. If you are planning on creating a DVD ISO library and connecting to you network wirelessly, you should use the internal hard drive or external USB drive.

Streaming / Internet Radio

Hard drive, external USB, and network all work similarly playing your own media. With the Mvix you can also tap into internet radio. I really like this feature and use it the most for background music for around my whole house.

Music

There is not a whole lot to discuss with music playback since features aver limited to the very basics. Navigating music is like every other menu as a simple file folder structure. Music is played by selecting the file and once done it moves on to the next in the list ordered alphabetically. There is simple play list where you simply press “add” on the remote, adding to the queue. Additionally, there is support for M3U playlists.

I understand that the Mvix is primarily a video player, but I would have been nice to see a little bit more attention to music playback. Sure it works fine as it is, but things like a simple now playing type screen or the ability to add and edit multiple playlists would have been nice. I could however see the Mvix working well at a party with this basic browsing and simple playlist paired with the photo slide show.

Photo

Like music basic features are at your disposal, but basic features are common with photo viewing on media players- really that is all you need. Navigation is familiar to the other media, with a simple playlist to create a slide show and it does have the ability to play music at the same time. Slide show intervals can be set to various increments in the options.

Video

The Mvix is built around a Sigma Designs EM8620L family of processors, a chip commonly found in set top boxes where video quality is important. While the main menu screens look like something from the C64, video playback is fantastic. Its smooth, crisp, and many times better looking that what is coming out of your cable box (of course this depends on your source media). I compared a Toshiba DVD upconverter and an Xbox 360 to a DVD ISO on the Mvix all over HDMI. There was absolutely no difference between the Mvix and the upconverted DVD player. The Xbox 360 fell short of both with a little more jaggedness in the video.

One of the best ways to use the 780HD is as a DVD jukebox by ripping you entire collection to ISOs. Granted you don’t get album art like the more expensive systems, but the upconversion quality is a perfect stopgap until the price of Blueray hardware and discs drop to a reasonable price- $30 per disc is a little hard to swallow when DVDs are half the price or less.

All of my media that fell within the specs of the Mvix played without problems. Content that is ripped and converted with 5.1 audio channels work including DivX encoded 5.1. Video playback is really the Mvix’s forte; it does it very well and it is owed to the solid Sigma Designs EM8620L platform.

Note that I am using a Samsung 46” 1080p full HD (1920×1080) TV to test. It can reveal a lot about the video source.

Conclusion

Even though the 780 is a big improvement over the 5000 it is still rough around the edges in terms of the UI and media management. I really wish the UI would take advantage of my HDTV 16:9 screen width. It is on the other hand a very easy to use interface that anyone would be able to pick up an use. Also on the downside the Mvix is missing more robust playlist features, something very important when you can potentially connect to a collective terabyte over the network. On the flipside, the 780HD does a fantastic job with video playback many times doing a better job than your set top box. The wireless and the networking gave me no troubles at all. I had instant access to all shared folders on my desktop, laptop, and Windows Home Server- so storage space is not confined to a single hard drive but will span your shared network space. Overall, it is a welcome improvement over the old 5000 Mvix and definitely worth the upgrade.

Pros

• Many Media Source Options
• Smooth Video Playback
• Simple and easy to use interface
• DVD ISO playback matches quality of a DVD upconverter

Cons

• Lack of H.264 and MVK Support
• UI doesn’t take advantage of 16:9 output.
• IDE cable not included
• Limited Playlist functions

SansaLinux is a port of iPodLinux, and only works with the V1 e200 players. It’s still being developed, and so far LCD, audio and keys are working, while other features are planned or in development. It’s always nice to see custom firmware for players, so hopefully this project will make it all the way through.

The Cube3 is physically similar to it’s predecessors and the specs are also familiar. The player will come in 2GB capacity and sport both a FM radio with recording and a normal voice recorder. The player itself is only 1×1x1 inches big, but the tiny OLED screen will still support both video and photo viewing. Other features include SRS WOW and TruBass sound enhancements along with a standard equalizer. The Cube3 will arrive May 1st with a price tag of $99.

Though it measures 1.3 x 4.7 x 2.5 inches, the camcorder includes a 10x optical zoom lens and uses a 2-megapixel ClearVid CMOS Exmor sensor to capture images. Sony interpolates the stills up to 4MP. The company includes its BIONZ processing engine to crunch the bits and to power noise reduction and dynamic range optimization. Sony says that the camera can record sound in Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround, though the amount of channel separation you’ll realistically get from any built-in camcorder microphone can’t even remotely match a cinematic surround sound experience. It is a zoom mic, though, so that’s definitely a plus. The TG1 also includes face detection, so it can find up to 8 faces in a scene and adjust focus, exposure, and color controls based on those faces. In still mode, face detection can also automatically adjust flash output. Video geeks might want to note that the HDR-TG1 doesn’t do progressive-scan recording, only interlaced.

Sony will begin shipping the Handycam HDR-TG1 in May. They’re also going to offer a custom-fit case for $50 and an optional travel kit, which will cost $100 and includes an extra battery, travel charger, and a pouch to hold it all.