Transcript
LIFESTYLE AUDIO
S O U N D O F B O DY SOUND OF MIND Enough is enough. The assault on sound quality has to end. As Neil Young recently pointed out on MTV, “I’m finding that I have a little bit of trouble with the quality of the sound of music today… It just makes me angry. Not the quality of the music, but we’re in the 21st Century and we have the worst sound that we’ve ever had. It’s worse than a 78.”
PORTABLE SPEAKERS If you travel a lot, or have a boat, a camper, a second home, and you want your sounds to go with you, the sheer portability of GenevaSound’s Model SX or Soundmatters’ FoxLv2 palm-sized speakers will astound you. They’re tiny, yet they’ll go loud enough to provide you with decent sound in, say, a hotel room that’s otherwise equipped only with some cheap, industrial clock-radio. The GenevaSound SX actually contains an alarm radio, so its indispensability is assured. Attach either to a computer or any other wired or Bluetooth source and you’ll have a sound system worth listening to that fits into your pocket.
A
udiophiles have been saying this ever since the CD, the computer and their music-making progeny – MP3, the iPod, downloads and other digital formats – first appeared. For most people, convenience has replaced sound quality as the primary attraction, and a generation of listeners weaned on the iPod and earbuds have no idea what their beloved artists can sound like when played through decent gear. For the best part of a decade, the huge hi-fi separates granddad used have been supplanted by compact systems made of plastic, selling for less than the cost of a pair of trainers and sounding like a telephone on steroids. But the backlash has started, and the latest in headphones, portability and wireless connection offer superior sound quality, despite the ignorance or resistance of consumers and (worst of all) retailers. Better still, this stuff is cool. High-end audio needs these guys. There’s a huge disconnect between an iPod with the supplied headphones, or some cheesy iPod dock barely louder than a PC’s speaker, and the close-to-reality sound of proper hi-fi equipment. Nothing, unfortunately, can defy the laws of physics, so the best sound does come from large components, but this new wave of products has been conceived to extract the maximum performance from whatever device you care to use: Android or iPhone, iPad, iPod or other MP3 player or computer. Price and size aren’t major issues. The new wave of better-than-basic components address both with style, aplomb and largesse. All are affordable, easy-to-use, and – in the case of the latest travel speakers – so compact that they won’t upset your luggage allowance. And it’s travel that makes some of these so desirable.
by ken kessler
FoxL GenevaSound
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© PLAYBOY - 03/2012 - REF: JM0312SPIRITONEAFR4.PDF-1 Sélectionné par / Selected by Focal-JMlab - Tel. (+33) 04 77 43 57 00 - Fax: (+33) 04 77 37 65 87 - www.focal.com
CREATING THE PERFECT HEADPHONE
HEADPHONES Earbuds come in all forms, up to custom-fitted models that cost R5,000+, but the best and most realistic sounding – as well as the most comfortable – are on- or over-the-ear types with deep bass, clean highs and decent isolation from the outside. Focal, one of the leading manufacturers of full-sized loudspeakers, has entered headphone production and their first is a stunner. The Spirit One looks, feels and sounds like classic cans of yore, but they’re lighter, easier to drive and designed to work with, well, just about anything – including in-flight systems.
Focal
Anyone who’s ever used headphones knows that the sound is fundamentally unrealistic because it’s inside the listener’s head, not in front of or around you. The best headphones do their utmost to make it seem as if the sound is emanating from outside of one’s head. The trouble is, the ear determines not just what we hear, but how we locate sounds. Headphones can sacrifice the way the ear defines spatial relationships, because the sound is directly injected into the ear canal – even more so with tight-fitting earbuds. Using what is called a “dummy head,” a skull-shaped device with microphones in the position where the ears would be, Focal and other headphone developers can select the directivity zone of the ear. For Spirit One, Focal engineered a wide frontal zone that corresponds to traditional loudspeaker reproduction, to match their quality criteria of realism and accuracy. Unlike most headphones, you’d almost swear that the sound is in front of you, thus avoiding the unnatural feeling that the sound image is inside the skull.
BOTTOM LINE? All of this ensures that you maintain the convenience of your most up-to-the-minute sources without sacrificing sound quality. And even ol’ Neil would approve.
LOUDSPEAKERS And now there’s a serious attempt at doing away with wires entirely between system and loudspeaker. High-end manufacturer Dynaudio – they produce speakers for the Bugatti Veyron – just announced the Xeo line of loudspeakers that work with any components you care to access, thanks to the Xeo transmitter.
Dynaudio 117
MARCH 2012
© PLAYBOY - 03/2012 - REF: JM0312SPIRITONEAFR4.PDF-2 Sélectionné par / Selected by Focal-JMlab - Tel. (+33) 04 77 43 57 00 - Fax: (+33) 04 77 37 65 87 - www.focal.com
