Lacie Release USB Speakers

LaCie have created USB versions of their cool FireWire speakers, and at £39, they are half the price of the Firewire versions. Designed by Neil Poulton, who's had a long history of designing for LaCie. The speakers have a frequency response of 90Hz-20kHz and the cables can be tucked in under the speakers allowing for an uncluttered desk. They take their power via the USB port and can also be used with an MP3 player, via an optional adaptor. For more info visit the product page at LaCie.

Harman To Be Acquired For $8 Billion

Harman International has announced that it will be acquired by KKR and Goldman Sachs for a whopping $8 billion. Harman are the makers of Harman-Kardon, AKG, JBL, Lexicon, Revel, Mark Levinson, and other well-known brands of consumer, auto, and pro audio gear. They will be acquired by private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Goldman Sachs Group's private equity firm for about $8 billion.

Spotlight On . . . Edirol R-09 Portable MP3/WAV Digital Recorder

How can a compact, iPod-sized portable digital recorder with a pair of built-in stereo condenser mics possibly be any good for location recording? When it's an Edirol-R09. Holding the lightweight, plasticy device in the palm of your hand does not immediately inspire confidence. A few clean and well defined field recordings will change your mind however. Have students, lawyers, police and news reporters discovered the Edirol-R09 yet? Close examination reveals the presence of a headphone jack and both mic and line-in jacks. The Edirol R-09 can run on its AC adapter or (for hours) on a pair of AA batteries. The LCD user interface that's controlled by the main navigation button pad is highly intuitive, which makes configuration settings (and quick changes on the fly) easy and quick to accomplish. You can record in uncompressed WAV format or in a variety of MP3 quality levels including VBR. I was delighted by the excellent quality of the built-in stereo mics and also pleasantly surprised at the clean input using a Shure condenser mic via the external mic input. The built-in mic sensitivity can be switched between high and low gain. Line-in quality is also very good, offering excellent signal to noise ratio and broad compatibility with a wide range of input signals. Output to headphones and earphones is clean and well modulated. I found no switching noise in any of my recordings; just clean WAV and MP3 files suitable for import into Sound Forge or Audacity or whatever you use for audio editing. If you're looking for a portable digital recorder for almost any application, consider the Edirol-R09. 4 out of 5 stars

New Panasonic Headsets

Akihabaranews announced that Panasonic will be releasing about 16 new headsets. The headsets can be viewed on the Akihabara News website...