Lenbrook Corp., a diversified, privately-owned Canadian enterprise with activities in brand development, technology, and distribution in both residential and commercial audio and the communication sectors, has acquired the assets of MQA, a UK-based industry leader in high-resolution audio encoding.

This acquisition enriches Lenbrook’s intellectual property portfolio with an assortment of significant patents and introduces two prominent audio codecs – MQA and SCL6. This merger further solidifies Lenbrook’s commitment to excellence and innovation in the evolving landscape of audio technology.

“Lenbrook’s vision is of a thriving hi-fi industry where technologies that promote both consumer choice and the pursuit of the highest sound quality are deserving of investment and nurture,” states Gordon Simmonds, Chief Executive Officer of Lenbrook. “We view this acquisition as an opportunity to ensure the technologies developed by the scientists and engineers at MQA continue to serve the industry’s interests rather than be confined to any single brand or company.”

George Massenberg, Grammy winning producer and recording engineer, reacts saying “I’m so relieved that MQA and SCL6 will continue under Lenbrook. MQA’s technology, with its faithful rendering of detail, complexity, and sound stage, gave us the reason to go back into the recording studio and reverse a 20-year decline in the quality of audio delivery methods.”

Founded from the insights and support of record industry executives, recording artists, and audio engineering experts, MQA sought to provide creators with the means to efficiently preserve the detail and nuance of their works in high resolution recorded formats, which at the time pushed directly against the trend toward heavily compressed music.

“I’m delighted that MQA will continue in good hands with Lenbrook,” adds Morten Lindberg, Grammy-nominated Master Engineer at 2L. “For 2L, using MQA has allowed us to enhance the experience of our recordings, beyond the raw capture, with increased access to sonic details, transparency and lower listening fatigue.”

“MQA is the only technology that considers the entire audio signal chain, from studio to listening room, to assure consistent quality of reproduction. The patents and research that underlie MQA represent significant contributions to digital audio quality due to their focus on time domain issues that have not been well understood until recently,” explains Greg Stidsen, Chief Technology Officer of Lenbrook. “We’re determined to continue to develop our marketplace and encourage the possibilities these technologies can achieve.”

Lenbrook has established a position as a stable and well capitalized organization that takes a long-term view of investments and market development. MQA had amassed over 120 licensees and several content partnerships, so Lenbrook’s primary objective in this acquisition was to provide certainty for business and technical developments that were underway prior to MQA’s administration. As a result, Lenbrook retained a core group of engineers and developers and sales and marketing personnel including Andy Dowell, previously the Head of Licensing for MQA, who will continue to lead business development activities.

“As one of MQA’s most significant licensees and also the owner of the award winning BluOS high-res content platform, Lenbrook is well positioned to build on what was started,” reflects Dowell. “Its BluOS platform work has proven that the Lenbrook team understands it takes a certain amount of neutrality to be a licensor, but it can also take a customer view when it comes to the wants and needs from a product development standpoint.”

The post MQA sold to Lenbrook Corp appeared first on Audio Media International.

The Sonos Era 300 is the first Sonos speaker with both Bluetooth connectivity and support for spatial audio. By David Phelan.

With the Era 300, the Sonos range of speakers embraces spatial audio with a vengeance: no longer is it just the preserve of the company’s soundbars. The Era 300 is a curious-looking speaker, an oval lozenge that slopes in to the middle, as though somebody put their belt on way too tight. Its shape reflects the positioning of the six drivers inside, including four tweeters that are configured to fire forward, sideways or upwards – again, to make spatial audio a possibility.

It also introduces a new control mechanic: a recessed capacitive volume slider for your finger to swipe the sound up and down. Sonos has had capacitive sliders before, but they’ve been flush and often gone unnoticed. Here, it’s highly inviting and satisfying to use. Much more functionality is found in the Sonos app.

Sonos has always had a reputation for super-easy set-up, and that’s the case here: plug in the speaker, launch the Sonos smartphone app and follow a few onscreen instructions. The brilliant room-tuning system, TruePlay, works automatically, using built-in microphones. There’s also a fuller version available to users with an iPhone or iPad. Trueplay’s effects can be dramatic and are worth doing. For spatial audio, the company suggests placing the speaker at least 20cm from the wall.

Spatial or stereo?

Sonos says that for its ultimate stereo sound, its bigger and pricier Sonos Five is still the best. But the Era 300 has spatial audio. At launch, this is only compatible with Dolby Atmos music from Amazon Music Unlimited or Apple Music’s spatial audio content. That’s one more service than the HomePod can manage, and this is the first non-Apple speaker to support Apple Music’s spatial audio. However, Tidal’s suitable content is not supported.

By the way, BBC radio enthusiasts will enjoy a slam-dunk benefit over the HomePod with this speaker: listening is as easy as saying, “Alexa, play Radio 4”.

Bluetooth at last

Apart from its portable Move and Roam speakers, Sonos has always spurned Bluetooth, saying that streaming over wi-fi offers better sound quality and no interruptions when the connected smartphone rings. The company still believes that, but the addition of Bluetooth here is welcome, and skilfully implemented with near-instant pairing. Spatial audio tracks only work through wi-fi, though, so you can’t stream them except via the Sonos app’s Amazon or Apple channels.

Audio quality

The soundstage here is big, reaching much further than you might imagine from a smallish single speaker like this. Vocals are consistently crystal-clear with mid-notes effective and bass solid but not overpowering. Stereo is better on the Sonos Five but it’s still decent here.

Then there’s the new format, spatial audio. The idea behind spatial is you can hear individually placed instruments or performers, to create a more immersive experience.

And that’s what you get here, again with a sense that the music must be coming from a much bigger speaker, filling a room without being just noise. Not all spatial audio remixes are perfectly done, but when you hit a good one, the results are stunning. Apple Music’s featured spatial playlists are a good place to start, ranging from pop to classical.

Miracle from Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding is beautifully balanced, with the vocals shining through, while Sam Ryder’s latest, Put a Light on Me, is supremely present and immersive.

The Sonos sound is impressive whether it’s an all-around big orchestra you’re listening to, or something smaller. An acoustic solo like October Sky by Yebba is superbly present and almost overwhelming in its simplicity.

Home Cinema

Of course, much Dolby Atmos comes in the form of movie and TV soundtracks. The Sonos Arc soundbar already delivers strong spatial audio, and the company recommends that for your best home cinema surround sound, you really need a compatible soundbar like the Arc plus two, yes, two Era 300 speakers to act as rear speakers, connecting wirelessly to the source. Oh, and a sub-woofer wouldn’t go amiss.

The results, thank goodness, are truly magnificent. In Top Gun Maverick, jet engines screaming overhead really do feel like they’re rushing across your ceiling. Which is all very well, but a set-up like this will cost you £1,700 even before you add the sub. That’s a lot more than a pair of the second-gen HomePods (£600) which won’t be as fully all-enveloping but do a pretty great job, too.

Verdict

One glance at the Era 300’s curious shape tells you this is going to be something different. Even so, it’s not so strange-looking that it will jar with a home décor. The trademark easy set-up is highly and quickly successful. And the Sonos is Android-compatible, not to mention that it plays nicely with BBC radio.

Stereo is good but where the speaker stands out is blow-your-socks-off spatial audio quality, which is wide, tall and immersive. You can adjust EQ levels but, really, Sonos has done a deft tuning job and the music sounds faithful and realistic. If you don’t plan to listen to spatial audio, the allure is less compelling – but only by a little, and the range of spatial content is growing fast.

Good

The new speaker looks eye-catching, has outstanding sound and the trademark simplicity of set-up and use. Unlike Apple’s HomePod, it works perfectly with Android phones. Great as a pair.

Bad

The design could be divisive, and for the full home-cinema experience, the costs mount up quickly.

Verdict: 5/5

The new Sonos looks unlike any other speaker and sounds terrific. The addition of Bluetooth makes it more accessible than ever. If you already have Sonos speakers, this is a great addition to your collection.

The post Review: Sonos Era 300 appeared first on Audio Media International.

Apple is having another crack at the smart speaker market, with a second generation HomePod. Has this new high-end all-in-one got what it takes to succeed? Steve May reports

“Hey Siri, impress me with some spatial audio…”

With its second generation Homepod smart speaker, Apple hopes to seduce music lovers already sold on the convenience of voice control, with the immersive allure of spatial audio and higher-fidelity.

Smart speakers may have sold in their millions, but this particular combination has been difficult to crack.

Outside of the Echo Studio from Amazon, well regarded because it touts a trio of 51mm mid-range drivers (one of which is up-firing), a downward-firing 5.25-inch bass woofer and 25mm tweeter, smart speakers are largely cheap and monophonic.

Those that want to enjoy spatial audio, will probably listen with headphones, taking their chosen Dolby Atmos streams as a binaural render.

It would be nice to think consumers are lining up to buy the HomePod Mk 2. The smart speaker market could do with a fillip.

According to the analysts at Futuresource, the sector is currently in the doldrums, as ownership levels in the Western world, and China, reached saturation. Back in 2021 Bloomberg reported that Amazon had concluded that the market for smart speakers had already ‘passed its growth phase.’

Analysts estimate that around 104 million smart speakers and displays shipped last year, with the market expected to decline slightly to 103m in 2023. The category appears to be at something of a crossroads, says Guy Hammett, Senior Market Analyst Futuresource, with both Google and Amazon seemingly questioning the benefits of the current business model which sees them selling devices at or below BOM (Bills of Material) cost.

Could spatial audio provide a much needed growth spurt? Even as users were tiring of asking Alexa to jump through hoops for fun, a shift to Dolby Atmos music production was already well underway.

Amazon may be the market leader in the smart device industry, selling nearly 10 million smart speakers in the first quarter of 2022 alone, but Apple remains in a strong position, thanks to its smartphone dominance.

So does this second gen HomePod have what it takes to untether spatial audio from headphone ubiquity?

Retailing for £299/$299, the new speaker certainly ticks a lot of boxes.

Design is an obvious Apple strong point – available in white or Midnight, the latter made with recycled mesh fabric, the new HomePod looks suitably premium – but there’s some solid audio hardware under the hood, too.

To bring spatial audio home, the new Homepod employs a custom-engineered high-excursion 20 mm woofer, with a fistful of beamforming tweeters arranged around the base.  The speaker is able to determine if it’s up against a wall or freestanding, recognising sonic reflections from nearby surfaces, and then adapts its sonic output accordingly. Buyers are promised ‘a groundbreaking listening experience’ through advanced computational audio. Not exactly a rock ‘n’ roll endorsement, but we’ll take it.

Dolby Atmos audio can be delivered by a single HomePod, or from two paired speakers. It’ll also do whole-home multiroom audio using AirPlay.

We asked John Johnson, Chief Technology Officer at pro audio equipment supplier HHB, if Apple has got the mix right with this pricey new smart speaker entrant…

“I think Apple has done a great job delivering what is essentially a Dolby Atmos immersive audio experience from a single box,” he told us, “while integrating with the wider Apple ecosystem – much in the same way that Amazon had the Echo Studio as an enhanced and immersive audio version of its Echo speaker range.”

As for the asking price, Johnson is sanguine: “Very few smart speakers which are capable of spatial or immersive audio are cheap. While the binaural headphone experience is easy to deliver to the mass market with a low barrier to entry, smart speakers have to do the heavy lifting in a very different, competitive and variable consumer space.”

While Amazon’s Alexa may boast the lion’s share of skills, this new HomePod channels smart home automation with equal conviction. It can notify users if it hears a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, and it will issue temperature checks. The HomePod also integrates with accessories that conform to the Matter smart home interoperability standard. It’s eyes are very much on the future.

However, Ardit Ballhysa, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, believes that Siri is still too basic, and this second-generation HomePod too expensive, for it to significantly shake up the smart home speaker status quo

“It offers no features that are not present in either the original HomePod or the HomePod Mini. Moreover, at $299, users will do well to avoid it, particularly during the current economic climate,” he says.

“After experiencing low sales driven by its high price, Apple discontinued the original HomePod in 2021. Therefore, its decision to re-introduce the HomePod into its portfolio at exactly the same price, with no exclusive features, is worthy of a good head-scratch.”

For the same price, suggests Ballhysa, consumers can purchase three Nest Audio’s from Google or one Echo Studio and an Echo from Amazon.

“Aside from having multiple products, consumers would also get smart home speakers that are compatible with thousands more smart home accessories.”

Ballhysa believes that Google Assistant is far superior to Apple’s Siri in terms of its smart features and capabilities.

“Competition aside, Apple’s decision to remove the number of tweeters in the new HomePod from seven to five does not serve it well. Yes, there is a case to be made that software is just as important to sound quality as the hardware itself, but would it have been too much to ask if, alongside the new software, Apple kept the same number of tweeters as before?”

Clearly, Ballhysa doesn’t put a great deal of store in the HomePod’s spatial audio talents.

Is this indicative of public awareness when it comes to spatial audio? Johnson tells Audio Media International that the business is getting there, albeit at a leisurely pace.

“In my opinion, Apple more so than any other company, is pushing spatial audio,” he says. “If anything, they took a technology with roots that go back a long way and rebranded it with a modern production twist.”

Ironically, Apple is also helped by having Amazon champion spatial audio. “Realistically, not everyone is part of the apple ecosystem, and Amazon is probably the next biggest player in that market, which covers a good percentage of the population.”

Of course Dolby Atmos isn’t the only immersive music format in town. Sony continues to push its own 360 Reality Audio standard with a gusto that recalls the format battle heyday of VHS and Betamax. It has also released its own 360 Reality Audio compatible standalone smart speakers, including the compact £234 SRS-RA3000 and the living-room centric £499 SRS-RA5000. The Sony system is also supported by the Amazon Echo Studio.

Creative traction for Sony 360 Reality Audio seems to be low, though, according to HHB’s Johnson.

“Speaking honestly, it’s pretty rare that people come to talk with us about Sony 360 Reality Audio who haven’t already been delivering in Dolby Atmos, though it has happened!  Most of our clients have a tendency to be working in Dolby Atmos first due to its wider adoption in industry and being a more mature tool set for content creation.

“360 Reality Audio can usually be re-rendered (broadly speaking) from the Atmos mix and use a subset of a standard Dolby Atmos speaker layout. It’s also more headphone oriented and works on smart speakers, whereas Dolby Atmos came from a theatrical cinematic background and then scaled to home entertainment for film, television and eventually music. Very generally when it comes to resolution of audio or video, it’s easier to scale down than up…”

When asked about the future of spatial audio, and the appeal of products like HomePod, Johnson suggests the industry should actually be looking beyond music.

“I believe that podcasts could be the next platform to benefit from spatial audio branding,” he says. “There’s plenty of binaural content already out there. Platforms like YouTube also have  a lot of content that is flagged as ‘headphone only’ or ‘best experienced on headphones.”

Indeed, Johnson believes there needs to be a genuinely platform agnostic standard which can fully recognise the presence of headphones (wired or wireless) in order to better optimise the consumer experience.

Futuresource Consulting’s Simon Forrest agrees. As clever as the second generation HomePod is, smart speakers need to evolve further to stay relevant and allow the spatial audio business to thrive.

“To really take off again and reach the next stage of growth a new approach may be needed,” he says. “The underlying voice technology needs to advance to a stage where it becomes truly conversational and anticipates the user’s needs as opposed to the current command and control model.”

“Siri, what’s your favourite spatial audio album – and why?”

The post Can the new Apple HomePod reboot interest in smart speakers and spatial audio? appeared first on Audio Media International.

On November 9th, What Hi Fi (part of the Future Network) revealed the overall winners of the consumer audio Awards ceremony as voted for by editorial members of the magazine and site.

Notable mentions go to PMC who were given the Temptation Award for their new Fenestria speakers and speaker designer Karl Heinz Fink who was given the Outstanding Contribution  Award for his work on products for Denon, Yamaha, Mission, Tannoy, Mordaunt-Short, Naim Audio, Wharfedale and Bentley.

KEF took the award for best standmount speaker once again and Wharfedale (IAG) for best floorstanding speaker.

Audio Media International attended alongside Revival Audio (picture above). The event was sponsored by audio PR agency Starscream Commications. Check out the full gallery below.

Best soundbar
Sony HT-A7000

Best standmount speaker
KEF LS50 Meta

Best floorstanding speaker
Wharfedale Diamond 12.3

Best turntable
Pro-Ject Debut Pro

Best wireless speaker
Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation

Best wired headphones
Grado SR325x

Best wireless headphones
Sony WH-1000XM5

Best music streamer
Bluesound Node (2021)

Best CD player
Marantz CD6007

Best radio
Tivoli Model One Digital Generation 2

Best speaker package
Wharfedale Evo 4.4 5.1 pack

Best stereo amplifier
Cambridge Audio CXA81

Best home cinema amplifier
Denon AVR-X2800H

Best accessory
Chord Company Rumour X

Best DAC
Chord Mojo 2

Best multi-room system
Sonos

Best portable music player
Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII

Best system
Technics SA-C600

The post What Hi Fi announce 2022 Product of The Year winners at the What Hi Fi Awards appeared first on Audio Media International.

NAD Electronics, the highly regarded manufacturer of high-value, high-performance audio components, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1972. The brand will mark the milestone with a series of virtual and in-person events, as well as the launch of a vintage-inspired limited edition integrated amplifier, starting in October 2022 and rounding off around the Munich Hi-Fi Show in May 2023.

Over the past 50 years, NAD Electronics has been celebrated for its commitment to producing award-winning and future-oriented and high-performance electronic components that include amplifiers, source products such as turntables, CD and cassette players and more recently, streamers and A/V receivers – all while bringing music lovers and hi-fi enthusiasts enormous value and truth in their specifications.

The brand became a household name in hi-fi with the success of the 3020 integrated amplifier, which over time became the highest-selling budget amplifier in history, achieving the feat by astounding hi-fi enthusiasts with its dynamic power despite its modest 20 watts per channel rating, and exciting music lovers with its detail and clarity at an affordable price point. In so doing, NAD ushered in a completely new generation of hi-fi customers and drove the creation of a strong foundation for the continued growth of the industry.

In the decades since, the brand has pioneered many amplification technologies, including its ground-breaking work to perfect class A/B and class G amplification, class D digital and hybrid digital amplification, and the introduction of early protocols for network streaming for audio. Throughout, NAD Electronics has championed truth in specifications, creating its own Full Disclosure Power standard that rates amplifier power based on real-world listening scenarios versus laboratory conditions, which sometimes put it at a “disadvantage” on the retail floor versus competitors who did not share that same commitment to transparency in measurements.

“Rating power at one frequency, one volume level, using a simplified test load is fine for submitting documentation to regulators but in reality, music impacts our emotions by being complex and dynamic,” says Greg Stidsen, Chief Technology Officer of Lenbrook International, the parent company of NAD Electronics. “It’s easy to create an amplifier that performs well in narrow conditions, but we are music lovers designing products for music lovers, so we rate our amplifiers across the whole frequency band and dynamic range to give our consumers a realistic expectation of amplifier performance for all the music they enjoy. That often meant the power rating on paper of NAD’s products were lower than what our competitors would publish, but our ratings better reflect the full and rich sound that great recordings contain.”

This principled way of designing products comes from deep within the core values of the brand, which include value for money, performance, simplicity, and innovation, and were present from the very beginning with Founder, Marty Borish, and legendary amplifier genius, Bjorn Erik Edvardsen. Both have since passed away – Borish in 2017 and Edvardsen in 2018 – but not before they mentored a global team who now carry on Borish’s market development work and Edvardsen’s innovative approach to technology development. Today, the brand remains one of the most respected and award-winning brands in the hi-fi industry.

The brand has already kicked off the North American portion of its anniversary activities at Toronto Audio Fest with European portion happening at the Paris Audio-Video Show the weekend of November 4-6, 2022. At these shows, NAD will debut a limited-edition anniversary product, the C 3050 LE Stereophonic Amplifier.

With only 1972 being manufactured, the retro-look integrated amplifier harkens back to the heyday of hi-fi and incorporates LED illuminated left and right VU metres, as well as a satin walnut veneer wooden case that conceals fully modern features like hi-res multi-room streaming, ability to decode MQA studio master recordings, and Dirac Room Correction via the included BluOS-D MDC2 module, as well as AirPlay 2, two-way aptX HD Bluetooth, and HDMI eARC. Other inputs and outputs include a phono stage and dedicated headphone amplifier. It is powered by the latest version of NAD’s HybridDigital amplifier rated at 100 watts per channel of Full Disclosure Power and features a high-resolution audiophile-grade DAC.

The NAD C 3050 LE will have a suggested retail price of USD $1972, and each unit is uniquely numbered from 1 through 1972 and will come with a certificate of authenticity. These very special and very limited amplifiers will be available at select NAD Electronics retailers around the world starting mid-November, 2022.

“The C 3050 LE is based on a 1974 industrial design of the original 3030 stereophonic amplifier, which in its day, produced 30 watts per channel using a class A/B design and offered audiophiles and music lovers an affordable performance-oriented amplifier option versus its contemporaries,” says Cas Oostvogel, Product Manager for NAD Electronics. “The original 3030 had a matching companion tuner but the C 3050 LE modernizes it as a ‘just add speakers’ product that comes equipped with BluOS, a hi-res multi-room streaming platform, giving music lovers access to thousands of internet radio stations, as well as over 20 music streaming services.”

Stretching into 2023, the brand will continue its celebrations in March with the launch of the NAD C 3050 integrated amplifier, the more widely available version of its “LE” sibling. Offered at a lower suggested price point than the limited-edition version, the C 3050 will retail for USD $1299, allowing consumers the choice to upgrade the unit to include BluOS and Dirac via its MDC2 feature for an additional USD $549. The C 3050 LE will be available at all NAD Electronics retailers worldwide. Rated at 100 watts per channel, the C 3050 includes line inputs, HDMI eARC, two-way aptX HD Bluetooth, phono stage, and a dedicated headphone amplifier.

The arrival of the C 3050 will be accompanied by a series of global retail events jointly sponsored by NAD Electronics and its dedicated network of distributors and retailers, kicking off the weekend of March 3-5, 2023, and concluding the weekend of May 18-21, 2023, at the Munich High End Show, where the idea to create NAD Electronics first germinated back in 1972. During this period, NAD retailers around the world will throw open their doors and welcome consumers for unique listening events, as well as exclusive promotional offers, all in celebration of the brand’s 50th anniversary.

“NAD’s success is a result of the dedication to the values the brand was founded on, that Marty & Erik led and mentored us with, and that we have maintained throughout our 50-year history,” says Gordon Simmonds, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lenbrook International. “The mutually profound relationships amongst our present-day team and our global industry partners, together accounts for many hundreds of years of NAD experience, and that means that the multiple generations of hi-fi enthusiasts that form NAD’s fan base continue to benefit from excellent value for performance, without sacrificing the modern conveniences of music enjoyment. This is something few remaining brands can claim and something we are very proud to be able to claim.”

As the various activities for the anniversary are launched, fans of the brand can keep up to date with the details by visiting https://NADelectronics.com/50years.

The post NAD Electronics Celebrates 50 Years of Truth in Power appeared first on Audio Media International.

A Starscream Communications report extract on an important industry launch in the headphone market. By Richard Melville.

An introduction

Launching a headphone to the global media isn’t simple. Being one of the most competitive sectors in tech in 2022, there are four key strands of media that need to be managed, supported and briefed to avoid a problematic launch and generate best-in-class earned media coverage.

First is the mainstream and lifestyle media, from The Guardian to The New York Times. Second is the hi-fi media, from What Hi Fi to eCoustics. Third is the tech media including The Verge and Tech Radar. Finally, YouTube media is the last piece of the puzzle. It’s important to note that you ideally need to have a presence across all of these media sectors before considering a social strategy or attempting influencer outreach.

Bowers & Wilkins Px range of headphones have always been popular with media and consumers as an alternative to models by Sony, Bose and Apple. Other brands aiming for a seat at the table include Shure, Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser.

The Px7 arrived in July at a £379 / £399 price-point, which is where the action is in terms of premium consumer headphones. A good selection of news and reviews followed.

The Px8 sits at the top of the Bowers & Wilkins 2022 headphone range (£599/$699) and launched on September 28th.

Launch

A typical Starscream Communications launch strategy for media involves a news cycle, review cycle and a features cycle. News coverage would ideally run across media for a month, while review samples would be supplied to selected key media under embargo to run on the day of launch. Then more samples would be sent to the next wave of media when requested. For every brand/product, these media lists may vary depending on price, target demographics and the more general aims of the brand. A brand may want to target Amazon sales while another may have a list of media they need to be in, suggested by a retailer such as John Lewis.

The Px8 launch is interesting as it comes after the more affordable Px7 and its collection of excellent reviews. We would always suggest launching the hero headphone in the range first. The Px8 faces two key rivals at launch – the Sony XM5 and the AirPods Max but arguably the Px7 should also be listed.

At the time of writing (3/10/22), one review for the Px8 has landed – a 3.5 star review in PCMAG.com which has 22 million visits per month. For context, What Hi Fi sits at 7.8m, Tech Radar at 44m and T3 at 6.7m. Naturally, being first out of the gates means the PCMAG review will sit on the first page pf Google for a while and will be seen by specialist and mainstream media alike, as well as consumers. For reference, The Guardian has 354m monthly visits and featured a Bower’s & Wilkins review in 2020,

Review strategy

As an ideal launch strategy, Starscream Communications would suggest at least 5 reviews on launch week across What Hi Fi, The Guardian, The Verge, CNET and Tech Radar. The demographic is a good match and the numbers hit 500m across all sites before syndication to other news outlets. Some of these sites rely more on new launches for traffic and affiliate sales than others and that influences how quickly a review may be published.

The question we asked ourselves at Starscream Communications was ‘where are the other reviews?’. During my time as Editor at What Hi Fi, we would often be given Bowers & Wilkins products in advance of launch and aim for launch day for a review to meet the needs of the readers. In 2022, the reasoning is the same for media but decisions can be driven by affiliates as much as readers. This is perhaps why media (who have samples) are slow to post reviews because, at the time of writing, the Px8 is available direct from Bowers and Wilkins but not Amazon or John Lewis in the UK.

Richer Sounds told us they were expecting stock at the end of October and a Bowers & Wilkins customer service rep told us our headphones (ordered directly from Bowers & Wilkins) would arrive a day late on Oct 1st which they did. The rep also said they would arrive late due to ‘huge demand’.

A quick Google for ‘Bowers & Wilkins press images’ around the Px8 brings up a couple of press sites, a US agency and the Bowers & Wilkins site, neither of which host Px8 images at the time of writing. We always suggest that images are clearly marked and accessible for media and Starscream has a dedicated press site for media. This avoids various confused asset banks for media globally but also allows us to track interested parties etc.

Starscream Communications has seen a global email press release around the Px8 which carries no lifestyle photography and points to a Dropbox folder for further assets rather than a press site. The problem with that strategy is that mainstream media may pass the headphones by without seeing the brilliant lifestyle photography they need, a publisher may block Dropbox links and the brand and two PR agency contacts listed on the email could leave mainstream media confused about who they should contact for review samples.

Photography and video

It’s no surprise that the lifestyle photography for the Px8 is excellent – we rate photography highly when we can see it’s exactly the type of images that both specialist and mainstream media would use without question.

The promotional video series using artists is well done but aimed at the consumer rather than media. There’s nothing wrong with that of course but they are two very different audiences. At the time of writing, the video starring Moses Boyd has under 3,000 views on the Bowers & Wilkins YouTube channel which boasts 19,800 subscribers. There’s no video on the channel showing the px8 in detail in contrast to the Px7 launch video. In our experience, the latter is something that most media would like to see and occasionally media will embed or point to such a video if they believe it serves their readers. The current lead video on the Px8 on YouTube is from channel called AV Atmos.

To read the remaining chapters below, please email hi@starscreamcommunications.com.

You can see our work, results and examples at www.starscreamcommunications.com

 Next Chapters

·        Sustainability and the media

·        Benchmarking against rival products

·        Who are the five most important journalists for the Px8 and why?

·        How many people have read a Px8 review?

·        How many news stories originated in the US Vs the UK and Europe?

·        How does Px8 coverage compare to the Sony XM5 at launch?

·        What do the forums say?

·        Any key wins on social?

·        An interview with a key media picture editor

·        An interview with a national newspaper journalist

The post The launch of Bowers & Wilkins Px8 headphones: key learnings and thoughts from a PR perspective appeared first on Audio Media International.

What is it?

The Mojo 2 is  the latest version of Chord’s widely admired Mojo portable-ish DAC and headphone amplifier.

What’s great?

Thrillingly open, detailed and musical sound. Good connectivity options. 

What’s not?

Charges via microUSB. Not as portable as it thinks it is. Arcane control interface.

The bottom line

Some connectivity improvements are helpful, but fundamentally the allure of Mojo 2 is in the profound improvement it can make to your desktop or (at a push) your portable sound 

Equipment

Chord Electronics has been setting audio standards and establishing bewildering control methods since its inception in 1989. And with the original ‘Mojo’ DAC/headphone amp, the company arguably legitimised the entire ‘portable DAC’ sector – even if it was a pretty chunky device by ‘portable’ standards. 

So successful was the  Mojo from the moment it hit the market in 2015, in fact, that it inspired a slew of imitators (most of them a fair bit more portable, admittedly) from companies both venerable and upstart. Imitation is a form of flattery, certainly, but unless the Mojo 2 can put some distance between itself and all the very many alternatives it’s ‘inspired’, it could well find itself flattered into irrelevance.

Build quality

The majority of Mojo 2 is made of anodised aluminium – which feels almost as good as it looks. The casework itself is 23 x 83 x 62mm (HxWxD), but its rounded-off corners help it feel nicely palm-sized. Whether or not it’s pocket-sized is a different question, and whether or not its weight of 185g is pocket-friendly is yet another question.  

It looks and feels like a premium product, though, no two ways about it. And if you’re not the one who has to interpret the dozens of different colours in which its polycarbonate control ‘spheres’ can glow to find out what Mojo 2 is up to, the control interface is uniquely decorative too. If you are, though, lots of luck – the size of digital file Mojo 2 is dealing with, volume level, EQ setting and more besides are all indicated only by variations in colour. 

Mojo 2 is a strictly hard-wired device. The addition of a USB-C input is very welcome, and there are digital coaxial and digital optical inputs as well; analogue audio is available via either (or both) or the two 3.5mm outputs. The battery is good for roughly eight hours of use between charges – Mojo 2 still has to be charged using the elderly microUSB standard, which is a pity, but at least it doesn’t (unlike the product it replaces) get disconcertingly hot while it’s charging. 

Sound

And here the gripes and criticism come to a screeching halt. Attach Mojo 2 to your laptop, smartphone or whatever at one end,  attach an appropriately talented pair of headphones at the other (or an analogue connection to a full-size system) and the difference this DAC makes to the unassisted sound of your source player is never less than significant. In the right circumstances, it can be profound.

It creates a big, well organised soundstage. It has absolute authority over dynamic shifts both broad and fine. It expresses rhythms with the certainty of James Brown. And it knows exactly what’s going on even in the depth of a mix – no detail is too fleeting or too minor to elude it. And it does all of this while maintaining an attitude that’s all about entertainment rather than analysis.

At the bottom end, bass sounds are deep, swift and packed with information. At the opposite end of the frequency range, treble is similarly substantial, similarly rapid and similarly stacked with detail. And in between, Mojo 2 can reveal all the character, all the attitude and all the details of technique that your favourite vocalist has to give.

Integration of the frequency range is smooth, with nothing overstated and nothing underplayed. There’s a unity and coherence to the way Mojo 2 presents music that gives a strong impression of ‘performance’ – even if the music you’re listening to never previously existed outside its creator’s laptop and headphones. 

Naturally enough, the bigger and more information-rich the digital file you serve it, the more convincing and confident Mojo 2 sounds at its output stage. But it’s by no means snobby – if a bog-standard Apple Music stream is what it’s given, it’ll do its utmost to make the best of it.

In short, it seems unlikely in the extreme that you can make a more significant pound-for-pound difference to your digital audio experience than the one Mojo 2 can give you. 

Price and availability

The Chord Mojo 2 is on sale now, and it’s priced at £495.

The post Chord Mojo 2 Review appeared first on Audio Media International.

Some call it the next tech gold rush. After the market for true wireless headphones has hit a high, segmented and driven price down to levels not seen since budget wired headphones, hearing aids or assistants are the next big opportunity for some big audio brands.  Naturally brands like Bose have had experience in this field for some time while the consumer arm of Sennheiser now belongs to hearing aid giant Sonova after a buyout last year. You can see the direction of travel and now the starting line is coming in to sight as the FDA has issued a final rule which will allow over the counter purchases without a prescription or exam.

You can read their report and plan below…

“Last week, U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule to improve access to hearing aids which may in turn lower costs for millions of Americans. This action establishes a new category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, enabling consumers with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment to purchase hearing aids directly from stores or online retailers without the need for a medical exam, prescription or a fitting adjustment by an audiologist.

The rule is expected to lower the cost of hearings aids, furthering the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of expanding access to high-quality health care and lowering health care costs for the American public. It is designed to assure the safety and effectiveness of OTC hearing aids, while fostering innovation and competition in the hearing aid technology marketplace. 

Today’s action follows President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, which called for the FDA to take steps to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter and set a swift 120-day deadline for action, which the FDA met. In 2017, Congress passed bipartisan legislation requiring the FDA to create a category of OTC hearing aids, but it was not fully implemented until now. Consumers could see OTC hearing aids available in traditional retail and drug stores as soon as mid-October when the rule takes effect.

“Reducing health care costs in America has been a priority of mine since Day One and this rule is expected to help us achieve quality, affordable health care access for millions of Americans in need,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Today’s action by the FDA represents a significant milestone in making hearing aids more cost-effective and accessible.”

Close to 30 million adults in the U.S. could benefit from hearing aid use. Individuals with permanent hearing impairment can use hearing aids to help make speech and sounds louder, improving the ability to communicate effectively with others. Many hearing aids can be expensive. The final rule aims to stimulate competition and facilitate the sale of safe and effective OTC hearing aids in traditional retail stores or online nationwide, providing consumers with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss with improved access to devices that meet their needs and are less expensive than current options. 

“Hearing loss is a critical public health issue that affects the ability of millions of Americans to effectively communicate in their daily social interactions,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. “Establishing this new regulatory category will allow people with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss to have convenient access to an array of safe, effective and affordable hearing aids from their neighborhood store or online.”   

The OTC category established in this final rule applies to certain air-conduction hearing aids intended for people 18 years of age and older who have perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment. Hearing aids that do not meet the requirements for the OTC category (for example, because they are intended for severe hearing impairment or users younger than age 18) are prescription devices. 

The FDA finalized the rule after receiving and reviewing more than 1,000 public comments on the proposed rule issued on Oct. 20, 2021. Comments submitted by consumers, professional associations, hearing aid manufacturers, public health organizations and advocacy groups, members of Congress, state agencies, and other stakeholders are summarized in the final rule, along with the FDA’s respective responses. In response to public comments and to assure the safety and effectiveness of OTC hearing aids, the final rule incorporates several changes from the proposed rule, including lowering the maximum sound output to reduce the risk to hearing from over-amplification of sound, revising the insertion depth limit in the ear canal, requiring that all OTC hearing aids have a user-adjustable volume control, and simplifying the phrasing throughout the required device labeling to ensure it is easily understood. The final rule also includes performance specifications and device design requirements specific to OTC hearing aids.

Furthermore, today’s action correspondingly amends existing rules that apply to prescription hearing aids for consistency with the new OTC category, it repeals the conditions for sale for hearing aids, and it includes provisions that address some of the effects of the FDA OTC hearing aid regulations on state regulation of hearing aids.

Concurrently with issuing the final rule, the FDA also issued the final guidance, Regulatory Requirements for Hearing Aid Devices and Personal Sound Amplification Products (PSAPs), to clarify the differences between hearing aids, which are medical devices, and PSAPs, consumer products that help people with normal hearing amplify sounds.  

The effective date for the final rule is 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. Manufacturers of hearing aids sold prior to the effective date of the final rule will have 240 days after its publication to comply with the new or revised requirements. For hearing aids that have not been offered for sale prior to the effective date, compliance with the new or revised requirements must be achieved before marketing the device, including obtaining 510(k) clearance if applicable.”

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McIntosh Group will serve as anchor for new Highlander luxury technology platform

Highlander Partners, L.P. (“Highlander”), a leading private investment firm, today announced the acquisition of McIntosh Group, through a newly-formed holding company (“the Group” or “the Company”).  McIntosh Group has been a leader and innovator in the high-end audio category for decades and today manufactures and globally distributes the world’s finest amplifiers, speakers, turntables and other audio products under several renowned brands.  The Company is driven by its dedication to quality performance, sophisticated technology, refined design, and artisan manufacturing.  These tenets have resulted in brands known for incomparable design, product quality and consumer experiences.

The Group is anchored by the legendary McIntosh brand.  Since 1949, McIntosh amplifiers have been engineered and handcrafted in Binghamton, New York and have undergone an incredible history, having powered events ranging from presidential inaugurations to Woodstock ’69.  McIntosh amps are globally renowned both for their iconic signature design – classic tubes, knobs and the beloved blue metered faceplate – as well as their unparalleled, powerful audio quality.

The Group also features Sonus Faber, a luxury designer and manufacturer of premium speakers.  Based in Vicenza, Italy, the brand’s heritage centers around its artisans’ craftsmanship, which leads to the creation of the most world’s most elegant audio products.  Sonus Faber offers a range of products spanning from masterfully designed loudspeakers to custom installed solutions and cutting-edge wireless streaming speakers. Like McIntosh, Sonus Faber blends design and innovation to create superior technological products that are also works of art, revered by audiophiles and design-minded consumers alike.

In addition, McIntosh Group provides fully integrated distribution services across North America, Central and South America, the United Kingdom, and Benelux for their owned brands as well as several third-party brands including Pro-Ject (premium turntables), Rotel (premium amplifiers and electronics), and Bassocontinuo (Italian-crafted audio racks).  The Group also boasts a thriving automotive entertainment business, providing audio technology for select premium models, including the Grand Wagoneer and Jeep Grand Cherokee L under the McIntosh brand and the Maserati Grecale and MC20 under Sonus Faber.

Jeff L. Hull, Highlander Partners President and CEO commented, “We have been evolving our investment strategy around consumer-focused brands and luxury goods over several years.  The opportunity to acquire brands as strong as those within the McIntosh Group does not come often and we are very excited to be part of the Company’s next chapter.  We believe there is a unique opportunity to acquire other consumer luxury technology brands and intend to stay active in the category.”

Jeff Poggi and Charles Randall, co-CEOs of the McIntosh Group commented, “We are thrilled to continue to pursue our growth trajectory alongside the Highlander team.  Across all brands and product categories we continue to see remarkable results and an excess of opportunity; we believe Highlander’s financial approach and operational expertise can help seize these prospects.”

Ben Slater, Partner at Highlander added, “McIntosh Group sits at the intersection of several strong trends that we are eager to be a part of.  The residential environment is rapidly evolving, with technology becoming an integral component throughout the home.  Moreover, consumers across the demographic spectrum are demanding high fidelity audio now more than ever, and premium brands such as McIntosh and Sonus Faber are increasingly viewed as functional pieces of art.”

Lincoln International LLC acted as financial advisor, and Shearman & Sterling LLP served as legal counsel for the McIntosh Group. Highlander Partners was represented by Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP as legal counsel.

McIntosh Group is a leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of high-end home audio equipment worldwide. The Company offers a broad suite of premium audio products across multiple brands, catering to a highly loyal base of audio enthusiasts and music lovers. The common denominator of all the McIntosh Group brands is the goal of bringing sound to life through quality products built to perform. McIntosh Group strives to ensure the long-term development of each of its brands in keeping with their identity, their heritage, and their expertise. For more information, visit www.mcintoshgroup.com.

Highlander Partners, L.P. is a Dallas-based private investment firm with more than $2 billion of its own proprietary capital. The firm focuses on making investments in businesses in targeted industries in which the principals of the firm have significant operating and investing experience. Highlander Partners employs a buy and build investment approach, creating value by helping companies grow both organically and through acquisitions. For more information, visit www.highlander-partners.com.

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Leading Pro Audio loudspeaker specialist Genelec is inviting UK creatives who work with sound to try its SAM (Smart Active Monitor) system at home for 10 days, free of charge, as part of a new Pro at Home initiative, so they can explore its potential as part of their own system set ups.  

The active monitors are able to adapt dynamically to any given environment Using Genelec’s room correction software and kit – GLM4, ensuring playback sounds as accurate as possible. Designed for musicians, audio engineers, producers, sound designers, DJs and vloggers, Genelec is so confident you’ll appreciate using these compact enclosures as a sonic reference, you’ll want to make the change permanent. 

The Create with Genelec proposition has been a huge hit in the Nordics and the USA,  and is now being rolled out across the UK from September. 

Take up the Pro at Home system offer and you’ll get one pair of 8330 Smart Active monitors, complete with stylish RAW finish (more on that below), and a GLM room calibration kit with microphone stand. The whole shebang is delivered in a rugged hard-shell PELI case, you’ll also get a full set of interconnects. 

So how does the Create with Genelec programme work? 

In the UK, Genelec will deliver your kit to a participating Genelec dealer. You can register your loan request with Genelec here.

When a request is received, it’s allocated to a local Genelec specialist who will then manage the logistics, delivering a system to your chosen space. At the end of the trial, that same dealer will arrange a collection. 

If you’re in the USA, or the Nordics, things work slightly differently. Genelec will send the Pro at Home kits to you direct.

Genelec is encouraging users to share their Create with Genelec SAM trial setups, so be sure to check out the hashtag #createwithgenelec on Genelec’s Instagram and Twitter channels. Finish DJ Geoff Fitzgerald enthuses about the GLM4 room calibration software – “It really makes a difference!” he says.

 The Genelec SAM 8330A: What you need to know

Genelec’s networked Smart Active Monitor systems are tailor made for media creators. With an understandable trend toward more confined working environments, reliable audio creation becomes more of a challenge as acoustic problems become more pronounced and impacts the reliability of monitoring. 

More than ever, professional audio engineers need a monitoring system able to reproduce sound neutrally, without distortion.

The Genelec SAM systems are built on the same electro-acoustic foundations of the brand’s acclaimed 1200, 8000 and 7000 Series products, but offer a unique feature set for flexible monitoring. 

Working with Genelec’s proprietary Loudspeaker Manager (GLM) network and software, the SAM series can adapt to any acoustic environment, and automatically correct for levels, delays and room anomalies.

The GLM 4 software provides the monitor control backbone for all connected SAM studio monitors and subwoofers. More than 80 can be managed on a single network.  

Options include adjustment of levels, distance delays and flexible room response compensation equalization, as delivered by the AutoCal 2 automated calibration system. 

If you need to break a system down, or move it to another studio, that’s not an issue, as all parameters and settings are stored in system setup files, or saved in each individual monitor or subwoofer.

The SAM 8330A in particular has developed an enthusiastic following amongst creatives, thanks to its power and flexibility. The active monitor boasts 100W of Class D amplification, split equally between bass and treble drivers. 

The SAM enclosure may be compact, but it offers formidable SPL (104dB, 100 Hz to 3 kHz at 1 m) and has a deep LF extension (-6dB, 45Hz – 23kHz) . Its uncoloured character will ensure you’ll always make accurate mix decisions, says the brand.

Fashioned from recycled aluminium, the special RAW aluminium colour finish that distinguishes the Pro at Home packages is particularly noteworthy. It boasts the manufacturer’s Minimum Diffraction Enclosure (MDE) design, developed in collaboration with leading industrial designer Harri Koskinen. 

The RAW 8330A requires no painting, and involves less finishing than standard painted models, making it an exceptionally environmentally friendly loudspeaker, with a unique look and feel.  

Additional features include Iso-Pod Stands and Directivity Control Waveguide (DCW) technology.

Vibration decoupling Iso-Pod stands improve sound image definition. The Isolation Positioner/Decoupler attaches to the aluminium enclosure. It has four shallow feet and is made from special lossy rubber-like material. It also allows for a ±15° tilt of the loudspeaker. The resulting vibration isolation and damping properties reduce midrange coloration.

Genelec’s proprietary Directivity Control Waveguide (DCW) has been steadily refined over more than 30 years. DCW shapes the emitted wavefront in a controlled way, minimising early reflections and providing a wide and controlled listening area, both on- and off-axis. This makes the Genelec SAM 8330A ideal for small studios and near field monitoring.

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