New Products

Of all the Bluetooth speakers introduced today, the new Nicki Minaj-endorsed Pink Pill from Beats by Dre has to be the most significant. Faithful (really faithful) readers of this website may remember Ken Pohlmann and Leslie Shapiro's review of the Pill (as well as my measurements).

It's tough for a new TV brand to get attention unless they launch with something really special. And in today's TV world, making something really special is really tough. Seiki Digital, a brand new to the U.S. market, seems to have done it with its very first TV: a 50-inch model with 4K resolution and a low list price of $1,499.

Emotiva has announced that it's now shipping its new top-of-the-line monoblock amp, the XPR-1. Each $1,499 XPR-1 is rated at 1,000 watts into 8 ohms and 1,750 watts into 4 ohms.

$2,289 for a set of headphones? Sure, we've seen big, clunky audiophile headphones selling for prices in that range, but never a mainstream product priced so high.

Speaker Standouts
An old-school category sees surprising innovation

One could argue that this spring will see as much innovation in the speaker category as in headphones. But when you think about it, that's not really so surprising. After all, speakers can be almost any size, almost any shape, almost any weight, while headphones will always have to be small and light enough to fit on your head.

Speaker Standouts
An old-school category sees surprising innovation

One could argue that this spring will see as much innovation in the speaker category as in headphones. But when you think about it, that's not really so surprising. After all, speakers can be almost any size, almost any shape, almost any weight, while headphones will always have to be small and light enough to fit on your head.

No matter what your taste in music, movies, or sound, the goal of every speaker is always the same: to recreate the ambience and excitement of the original performance. However, recreating every type of musical performance-from a world-famous rock band performing in a sports arena to a folk artist playing in an intimate coffeehouse-is a task very few speakers can accomplish.