Design Ideas for you Home

I’ve spent a good month+ with Joey Roth’s Ceramic Speakers purposely avoiding all other reviews of it. I wanted nothing to influence me. I was steadfast in going with my gut. No cerebral analyses or intellectualizing what a modern $400+ speaker should look like. Sound isn’t tangible. You have to feel it to know it and that’s how I approached this review. These speakers enabled me to “experience” resplendent audio.

The speakers come packaged in what’s become Roth’s signature style – a specially made egg crate box tied with a natural woven cord. It’s like receiving a big gift. Everything you need to get set up is included. Two speakers, one amp, cables, and speaker stands.

The speakers are made of gorgeous porcelain. They’re so stunningly white and hefty that they seem at odds. It’s very durable but by material virtue, you instantly take pride in handling them, like a chef with his ceramic knife. The amp is cut from sheets of brushed steel set in an iron base. There are no fancy controls here; just an old school on/off switch, a volume slider, and basic audio inputs.

The design is externalized. Every major component looks as if it was crafted to be on display. The speakers remind me of old school gramophones. They’re topped off with cork to provide better sound dampening. The cables are unabashedly creamy pink protecting an array of copper wiring. The binding posts and input heads are gold plated. Even the way the input heads connect into the binding posts look like a practice in symmetry; a study in minimalist, utilitarian design. The only things you can’t see are some of the electrical components, paper diaphragms, and speaker magnets.

Now I’m not gonna fool anyone into thinking 15 watt speakers are going to blow your minds but it will make all vinyl records and lossless audio sound so rich and full, you’ll never want to go back. The ceramic and cork properties seem to naturally amplify sound in a way plastic and rubber can’t. The only problem with this setup is with today’s rapid consumption of downloable audio which isn’t lossless. I can clearly hear the difference between an MP3 and a lossless file weighing in at over 40 MB. Normal speakers can full you into thinking MP3s sound as good. This is for the true audiophile who loves brilliant design.

Okay so I saved the best for last, $495 for some speakers. Yes you can buy speakers that will give you amazing sound for much less money. If you’re someone interested in balancing quality, design, and cost – keep looking. This is not for everyone. You’re going to have to love sound and design in a way a normal person doesn’t. You have to be someone who respects originality and is willing to put up the cash to own a piece of it. This is art manifested in two ceramic cones set on birch plates, powered by a big block of steel and iron. If that juxtaposition makes you smile, then these speakers are for you.

What we loved:

Stunning designClear, rich soundQuality constructionNo proprietary connections, works with anything

What could be improved:

Needs a subwoofer to matchPrice prohibitive to some

Designer: Joey Roth (Buy it here)

There are different genres of cool gadgets that we come across every day, and some are simple and utility-oriented whereas rest are extra-engineered to an extent that some of the functions which will never be used by a layman; The HiJack Headphone Splitter Keychain was born out of a genuine necessity to share music with friends and connect at a different level.

I am sure everybody has been through the trouble of sharing a single pair of headphones while trying to prove a point about a rock number to a friend. Firstly, you dont get the required sound experience and have to get you head stationed in one direction because if you move too much, the headphones would fall off the ears. The HiJack Headphone splitter is a little jewel that turns your music players (with a standard output jack) single jack into double.

The tiny size and the keychain loop makes it portable and can be hooked to your backpack, bag or the belt-loop. Its sleek design coupled with the white and Grey color combination will make sync with iPods particularly. People who dont own iPod might just whine about this and insist why Black isnt in to make it more versatile, but more or less all music accessories are iPod (read industry) standard.

It makes for an excellent gift idea this Christmas owing to ever-present need of sharing your favorite numbers. For as much as $9.99, its a steal and a good way to garner admiration from onlookers. For more music accessories check out Handsfree Nikon Media Port, Custom 3G iPhone Headphones and Replug Earphone Attachments.

This is a post from Walyou, who bring you the best New Gadgets gadgets, Cool Gadgets and Hi Tech News.
Hijack Headphone Splitter Lets You Share Music with Friends

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Aimee Wilder is one name each you geeky nerd out there loves to hear, reason being her amazing tech inspired designs. Adding to her list of these tech inspired products she is here with the Analog Nights Pillows. Pillows silkscreened with home audio

Sponsor: Altec Lansing

Enviable style and epic sound, the Mix for iPhone and iPod brings the house down. Pumping your anthems from specially engineered tweeters and mid-range drivers, this sound system delivers towering volume and perfect clarity from the heart of every party. The XdB bass-enhanced 5.25 side-firing subwoofer packs a heavy punch, pumping thunderous bass to shake the foundations. Let your friends jump in by connecting up to three different sound sources. Join the crowd and still control the playlist with the clip-on remote that can be hooked onto your jeans.

Audio Alignment
Drivers, enclosure and electronics are balanced for optimum sound.

Crystal-clear high end
Specially engineered horn-loaded polypropylene tweeters designed for smooth, wide dispersion.

Full mid-range
Two custom-designed drivers push room-filling mids and mid bass.

Fierce bass
XdB bass-enhanced side-firing subwoofer and tuned passive radiator deliver formidable bass.

Digital FM radio
Tune in to clean reception with telescopic antenna and 4 station presets.

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Inhabitat readers might remember that we interviewed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom back in October over a live webcast that was open to any of our readers who wanted to attend.The finale of our Green Talks series of live chats with green thought-leaders, this interview touched on subjects such as mandatory composting, electric vehicle infrastructure and political leadership in CA.Our interview with Mayor Newsom was provocative and inspiring, and was a can’t-miss bit of Inhabitat journalism, if we do say so ourselves.Happily, for those of you who missed this amazing interview – we finally have the videos together of the interview in its entirety.We’ve chopped the full 35 minute transcript down into 4 shorter, themed segments for easier viewing.

PART ONE: The Big Picture & Mandatory Composting & Recycling

PART TWO: How to Make Your Cities (And Your Politicians) Greener

PART THREE: Renewable Energy & Electric Car Infrastructure

PART FOUR: How to Get to Carbon Neutrality in 2020

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

PS- Big shout out to the awesome band Tanlines who provided us this great audio track for our videos. You can find out more about Tanlines here >

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A common misconception about the hearing impaired is their inability to experience the joy of music. They may not hear and process sound audibly but they certainly can feel it. In fact, studies have shown the sense of touch is heightened allowing them to perceive music in a totally different way. SOUNZZZ is a visual, audio, tactile MP3 player designed for the hearing impaired but universal enough for all to.

Sound is translated into a series of vibrations. One hugs the device to feel the music and it even plays an equalized light show along with the sound. A very unique device I would love to see on store shelves.

Designer: Sungwoo Park

A neat room divider with loads of storage for media stuff. Double duty furniture from Phil.

“We ripped out all the walls of our living room, dining room and kitchen and then added a new kitchen.  We ended up with a living/dining area 33 feet long and almost 19 feet wide. We needed a cabinet to house all the AV system including the front speakers that was not tall so that the space still felt large.  So we dug a channel through the concrete floor and installed a tube from the attic to an island cabinet. The tube carries power, rear speaker wires, speaker wires for the library and a component A/V cable to a projector for projection to a 7′ wide pull down screen that is recessed in the ceiling above the cabinet.

The cabinet was designed to use Ikea kitchen cabinets. They are actually the same cabinets used in our new kitchen with different hardware. It consists of four 24″ sink bases with the sink frame cut off the tops. This brought them down to 24″ high. There is one 12″ cabinet that was also cut down to 24″ high which created space for a center speaker. The layout is two 24″ cabinets at each end with the 12″ cabinet in the center. Since wiring A/V systems is a hassle, to say the least, we decided to have the back of the cabinet facing the dining area all doors that accessed all the equipment.
Ikea was smart enough to make the shelf support holes in the back of the cabinet the same distance from the outside edge as the front holes so the backs could be eliminated and replaced by doors. However, this created a horizontal stability problem so panels were installed in the middle of right speaker cabinet, the 12″ center cabinet. A shorter internal panel was installed in the left speaker cabinet to permit the woofer to pass under it.
Doors for the cabinets that have loudspeakers were purchased from the cheapest line that has framed panels. The inner panel was cut out leaving only a hinged frame over which speaker cloth was stretched. Only one cabinet on the dining room side need speaker cloth to permit maximum sound out put form the woofer whose cabinet has speaker cloth both sides.
The ends and top of the cabinet were constructed from 88″ high cabinet end panels. We lucked out as there was shipment damage on quite a few of them and got them from the defective goods section.

The cabinets with doors back and front created a problem in that they are about 25″ deep. The tall end panels are 24″ and we wanted a little overhang both sides. The system is built with Nexus yellow brown doors. To make an “extension patch” seem like a design element we cut the yellow brown top down the middle and installed a 2 1/2″ “stripe/extension using Nexus black-brown which gave us the overhangs on both side we wanted. The top could have been made with one 88″ high cabinet end cover panel and one 36″ high end cover panel but due to the damaged panels the top had to fabricated in three parts. All joins were made with biscuit joiners. This was my first use of biscuit joiners which are great but I’m yet to master perfect joins.”

This is the strangest audio device I believe I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s just bizarre. It’s called the “Asspeaker” and it’s probably not for your average home. The main unit is the subwoofer and the control station. The smaller units are speakers and connect to the controller through bluetooth technology, they work as single cheek units and can be connected to store as one small butt. To activate the unit, one must tap the unit.

Tap the main unit to turn the speakers on. Once tapped, the unit shows that it’s received the command with a small red light (kind of like what happens when a cheek is smacked). This light goes away after three seconds. Rubbing the unit on either cheek in a circular motion turns the sound up (rotating right), and turns the sound down (rotating left.) The speakers are connected with bluetooth, and the distributor label AltecLansing is “tattooed” on the cheeks.

Any votes on what song would be best played on these?

Designers: Younes Daneshvar and Javad Yazdani
Rendered by: Mohsen Tafazzoli

X-Mini Max II speakers are available in three colors, Black, Red and White. The one I have is red and when I hold it for the first time, it gave me an impression that I am holding a hippopotamus egg. I must appreciate this expertly designed ultra-portable speaker that is precisely engineered to provide superior quality sound with around 12 hours continuous playback battery life. [Buy it here]

The speaker pair remains attached with one another and can be detached with easy twist and lift. The connecting cable contains two mini USB ports that go to both speakers, one USB 2.0 goes to the PC for charging and the 3.5mm audio output jack to the source of music, whether it is an iPod, Mac or usual MP3 players. Both the speakers have LED lights to indicate it as switched ON. The pop open Bass Xpansion System mimics the resonance of a powerful sub-woofer and enhances the style of these speakers.

Difference between these speakers and X-Mini 2nd Generation is quite clear. First one is X-Mini Max comes in two pieces, whereas X-Mini 2nd Generation offers a single speaker only. Another remarkable difference is the volume controller is embedded with the connecting cable in X-Mini Max, on the other hand, you can find it on the body of X-Mini 2nd Generation. Moreover, the tiny connector cable in X-Mini 2nd Generation that remains tucked with the base is absent in X-Mini Max. Finally, the size is also an important factor about these two. Max is larger in size, therefore, it is able to produce louder sound as well. Aside from the identical shape, there are few similarities among them too, such as both of them are using 40mm driver and features Buddy Jack design, allowing connecting many speakers like a chain. So, when buying one of them, you should consider the portability along with your need of greater sound.

The making of these speakers seem quite strong to me. I can feel that it is strong enough to survive minor fall in the ground or any rough surface. There are rubber soles under the base to make it slip-resistant. Overall, I think as a portable mini speaker set, the X-Mini Max has it all.

[Buy it here]

From : X-Mini

Hello Folks, I have received my X-Mini 2nd Generation portable speaker a couple of days earlier and have really amazed with what I got for as low as 15 pounds. Let me be a bit more elaborative

Starting from the package I received, a cool sleek package with the heading Audio Revolution in a Box, which really enhances the attention. I have opened the package and yeah I got a bit disappointed since almost all the portable speakers come in a pair. Well I must say this feeling got away as soon as I plugged in the little monster with my iPod. But still, I wish I had 2 X-Mini 2nd Generation speakers to make better comparison with X-Mini Max. [Buy it here]

The compact, innovative, capsule shaped design combining with the superb sound clarity it delivers through its large 40mm driver; this is a perfect audio enhancement that can make any sort of music or video player into an individual or group entertainment point. If features high capacity rechargeable battery that can offer around 11 hours of continuous playback which is three times more than its predecessors.

Since I have only one X-Mini 2nd Generation, I couldnt check but found online in several reviews of this speaker that it can be connected to another and so on, forming a bass-enhanced, self-powered chain of speaker system. This is obviously a cool feature which is quite rare too. In fact to get the experience, I am already searching if any of my friends bought it. It features a built-in volume control too which I personally prefer to keep in max and adjust the volume as much I want from my media player. The LED light shows that its turned on.

When it comes about the cables, it is handy in many ways. The main connecting cable has three ports; the mini-USB end goes to the speaker, the 2.0 one goes to the pc and the 3.5mm jack to the media player, whether its an iPod, MP3 player or a laptop. Aside from that, the speaker contains a tiny audio connecting cable that can be neatly tucked into the base. Even though, the minimum use of wire has eliminated the hassle a lot, I just wondered a wireless connection using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or any other means would have made the gadget out of the world.

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