New Products

JBL, one of the crown jewels of Harman’s portfolio of audio brands, has announced a retro-styled bookshelf speaker that draws on decades of experience building professional monitors for recording studios.

Baltimore’s Polk Audio has announced the launch of its Reserve Series loudspeaker lineup. Following in the wake of the company’s premium, and correspondingly pricey, Legend Series, which debuted in 2019, the Reserve family seeks “to retain as much of the Polk Legend flagship performance as possible within a moderately priced package,” according to the company’s press release.

‘Tis the season for micro-subs! SVS, a company known best for powerful, take-no-prisoners subwoofers, has announced the arrival of its new baby, the 3000 Micro. The latest from SVS features dual opposing 8-inch drivers in a compact 10.9 x 11.7 x 10.7-inch (HxWxD) enclosure. An 800-watt RMS, 2,500-watt peak Power Sledge STA-800D2 amplifier with discreet MOSFET output provides equal power to both drivers, which fire in opposite directions to cancel out any energy transferred to the cabinet that might result in vibration and “sub crawl.” Like other subs in the SVS family, the 3000 Micro benefits from the SVS subwoofer control smartphone app for advanced DSP tuning.

Canada’s Paradigm has announced its new Founder Series, the first speaker lineup to emerge from the company since it was reacquired by founder Scott Bagby two years ago. According to Paradigm, the new line, which is designed, tested, engineered, and manufactured at its Toronto, Canada facility, is an evolution of its Persona line and features new driver design and cabinet construction technologies.

Ohio-based speaker manufacturer SVS has launched the 1000 Pro Series, an entry-level subwoofer offering. Consisting of two models, the sealed cabinet SB-1000 Pro and ported cabinet PB-1000 Pro, the new subs feature all-new 12-inch high-excursion drivers, a 325 watts RMS/ 820-plus watts peak power Sledge STA-325D amplifier with fully discrete MOSFET output, Analog Devices DSP, and control via the SVS subwoofer control app.

In post a couple weeks ago, we focused on some of the wireless headphones introduced at last month’s virtual CES 2021, the first virtual gathering in the show’s 53-year history. We’re visiting the massively popular category again, this time with a look at headphones introduced at the show or shortly thereafter, including models that bring new form factors and technology into the fold.

Once upon a time, CES was a huge show for audio but those days are long gone and showed no signs of returning in the virtual world that was CES 2021, with one possible exception: Wireless headphones, a category that has made incredible strides in just the past year or so. A number of companies — some familiar, many not-so-familiar — used the world-class venue as a showcase for new headphones you can buy now and models you can expect to see online and in stores in the coming months. Prominent among the new entries were earbuds and full-size headphones with active noise canceling and features designed to improve wireless performance and the sound quality of music and phone calls. Wired models, as you might expect, were few and far between. Here’s a look at what a few of the more familiar brands are bringing to market.