Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

So what does $2,600 worth of turntable buy you these days? Well if you’ve chosen the ScoutMaster II from VPI you’ll be getting a deck that attempts to minimize vibrations through sheer brute force. The belt driven platter is machined from a single block of aluminum and weighs about 20 pounds, with the whole turntable coming in at around 52 pounds. So in laymen’s terms it takes the ‘heavy things are hard to move’ approach to vibration dampening.

It also comes with the updated JMW-9T Standard tonearm which features a unipivot design which results in less friction, a tapered arm which reduces resonance and standing waves and it’s filled with a special dampening fluid to further reduce vibrations. And while $2,600 might seem like a lot to pay for a record player to most of us, if you’re an analog audiophile, it probably seems like a steal.

[ VPI ScoutMaster II ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

First there was Tengu, then there was a wooden Tengu, and now you can get one of three new versions known as the Tengu All Stars. They pretty much do exactly what the original version of Tengu did, except these come with the addition of a rocking head of hair and actual personalities! From left to right you’ve got Rotten, Stardust and Woodstock and each one includes a set of decals allowing you to dress them up with sunglasses, facial hair, tattoos and other musical genre appropriate adornments.

All 3 are available from the Tengu website for about $40 each.

[ Tengu All Stars ] VIA [ technabob ]

By Evan Ackerman

If your iPod Nano is too small for you, you should ask yourself why on Earth you bought an iPod Nano. You do know what “nano” means, right? It means “tiny,” except about a million times smaller. The iPod Nano Converter TV won’t solve your problem, but it will help mitigate it by enlarging the Nano’s screen up to 2.8 inches (after you shove it up inside) and playing audio through built in stereo speakers. As retro sexy as the TV/VCR combo styling is, its bulkiness does have the side effect of de-nanoing your Nano, and without any obvious Apple branding on the outside, you’ll probably start to ask yourself why you’re bothering to use this thing at all. It’s about $23, with free shipping.

[ iPod Nano Converter TV ] VIA [ RFJ ]

By Chris Scott Barr

A few days ago I gave you my full review of the iPanda, and hinted that I had another similar device to check out. The other iPod dock that I was referring to was the iBoo, which is also from Speakal. This time around they have slimmed down a few of the features into a less-expensive ghostly shape. The main question is whether or not the lower price means lower quality.

So what are the main differences between the iBoo and iPanda? Well if you’ll recall the iPanda had 5 individual speakers (1 bass, 2 mids and 2 tweeters). In order to trim down the price the iBoo has only three speakers. The mids have been removed, while the tweeters are now picking up the slack. Another change is that the sub only puts out 9W, bringing the grand total to only 15 Watts of output.

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By Evan Ackerman

It’s been possible for a while now to set up your sound card to output fake 5.1 channel surround sound to your headphones. Theoretically, since you only use two ears, you should be able to do some fancy soundwave stuff and replicate 6 channel (or 5.1 or whatever) sound using only 2 channels of audio. I’ve tried a couple ways of doing this with software, and so far, it’s sucked.

These headphones from Zalman (the Zalman ZM-RS6F+M, to be specific) are also able to produce 6 channel sound. But, they do it using 6 separate drivers, which means that (I can only assume) it sounds a heck of a lot better than the fake stuff. You’ll need a sound card able to output discrete front, center, and rear channels, so it’s not like you can just jack these right into your iPod or something.

I can’t tell whether the drivers are that great, but you probably shouldn’t expect to be blown away by the sound quality. For movies or computer games, though, it might be a cool effect. The Zalman 6 channel ZM-RS6whateveritis headphones are $57 from Brando.

[ Brando ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I can think of few devices that have spawned quite as many accessories as the iPod. Seriously, I could devote my entire life to talking about nothing more than iPod stuff, and I’d still only scratch the surface. Since I like a bit of variety in my life, I won’t be bringing you new iPod accessories every single day, but I do have a couple of docks that I recently got in for review. Today I’ll share my thoughts of the iPanda. Those with an eagle-eye and a keen memory might recall it’s big brother, the iPig, which Evan saw at CES earlier this year.

Cute isn’t a word that I generally use to describe my tech toys. Unfortunately after spending several hours consulting a thesaurus and an English professor, I was unable to find a better word to describe the iPanda. Yes my friends, it is cute. Okay, so it’s got enough appeal to grab you when you’re walking down the isle, but when you finally get it home and plug in your iPod, will your feelings change? Read on for my thoughts.

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By Andrew Liszewski

While many people will tell you that vinyl produces a better sound than a digital audio file, there’s no denying that an MP3 player takes the cake when it comes to portability. So the DP-200USB turntable from Denon allows you to easily convert your old records to MP3 files, before your kids go all DJ Qbert on them. (Though the belt drive motor could hinder their DJ aspirations.)

Recording an album is as easy as inserting a USB flash drive into the front of the player and hitting the start and record buttons. From what I can tell, the DP-200USB creates a large single MP3 file of the entire record, but it comes with Trans Music Manager software which will automatically split the file into individual tracks by detecting the gaps between songs. The Denon DP-200USB is available now for around $300, and comes in your choice of silver or black.

[ Denon DP-200USB Turntable ] VIA [ Pocket-lint ]

By Chris Scott Barr

In case you missed it, yesterday was the first day of April. To those not in the know, some people call this “April Fool’s Day.” At one point this used to mean that individuals played fun pranks on other individuals. However, in the age of high-speed internet, it means that approximately 78.3%* of all news posted on that day is complete BS. Bear that in mind when reading about this product. I’m not saying that it’s fake, but if it ends up being such, at least I warned you.

Warwick Audio Technologies has created a nearly paper-thin speaker (which looks a good bit like ordinary tin foil) that can be hung on walls like pictures to shout at you as you’re passing by. While I’m sure that advertisers would love to get their hands on this stuff, I really don’t look forward to a time when ads are talking to me every time I pass one, ala Minority Report. I won’t pretend to completely understand the mechanics behind the speakers, so I’ve reposted the explanation in its entirety after the jump.

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By Andrew Liszewski

Here’s something a bit more useful from Hammacher today, a dock that lets you leave your iPod but take the speakers with you. Those wireless, 2-3/4-inch 3-watt spherical speakers operate on a wide 915 MHz frequency to ensure there’s minimal interference from other wireless devices, and they’ve got a half-decent range of about 120 feet. Each speaker is powered by a rechargeable battery that’s good for about 8 hours of playback, and when used together they operate in stereo mode, or old-timey mono when separated.

The dock itself accepts most iPod models, but also has a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting pretty much any other audio source as long as you’ve got the right cabling. $149.95 on the Hammacher Schlemmer website.

[ Wireless Speakers iPod Dock ]