Image used with permission by copyright holderOne of the more irritating first-world problems that many audio engineers and music-lovers face on a daily basis – especially in the Pacific Northwest – has to be the dreaded over-ear headphone vs. hoodie quandary. Will you put your cans on first and hood up second, transforming your dome piece into a monstrously misshapen lump? Or will you take the road less traveled and wear the ‘phones on top, sacrificing that crystal-clear audio you shelled out $200-plus for? San Francisco-based Betabrand hopes to eliminate this annoyance by creating a special type of hoodie, made of a speaker-like fabric that allows the wearer to put over-ear ‘phones outside the hood without compromising audio quality. It calls its new sonically sound garb the Audio Engineer Hoodie.
The stylishly studio- and stage-ready Audio Engineer Hoodie features acoustically transparent hood panels made for “when you need a barrier between you and the world but you still need to mix.”Image used with permission by copyright holder
The Audio Engineer Hoodie is more than just a standard piece of clothing with acoustic hood panels. It’s designed as a sort of audio engineer version of a wizard’s cloak. The hoodie is comprised of a water-resistant polyester/cotton blend to resist the elements, and sports a cassette-themed interior lining. Additional features include twin kangaroo pockets with headphone pass-through holes, an external and internal chest pocket, a loop in the left pocket to clip your keys/flashlight/multi-tool/drum key, etc., and even an internal pull-out wiring diagram to aid engineers working in the field that run in to wiring quandaries.
Currently this audio engineer’s wardrobe essential is gathering funds via Betabrand’s own crowdfunding/think tank community. The hoodie has already reached 162 percent of its original goal with 25 days left of funding, and you can pre-order your very own for about $140 (10 percent down from the eventual $160 price-point). The garment is slated to ship in late October.
In what's been one of the worst-kept secrets of the year -- mostly because subtly putting a product into the hands of some of the biggest stars on the planet is no way to keep a secret -- the Beats Pill has returned. Just a couple of years after Apple and Beats unceremoniously killed off the stylish Bluetooth speaker, a new one has arrived.
Available for preorder today in either black, red, or gold, the $150 speaker (and speakerphone, for that matter) rounds out a 2024 release cycle for beats that includes the Solo Buds and Solo 4 headphones, and comes nearly a year after the Beats Studio Pro.
Ifi’s latest DAC is the first to add lossless Bluetooth audio
Ifi Audio's new Zen Blue 3 wireless digital-to-analog converter (DAC) will officially be available to buy for $299 on July 9. When it is, it will be the first device of its kind to support a wide variety of Bluetooth codecs, including Qualcomm's aptX Lossless, the only codec that claims to deliver bit-perfect CD quality audio over a Bluetooth connection.
Admittedly, there are very few devices on the market that can receive aptX Lossless (and fewer that can transmit it), so it's a good thing that the Zen Blue 3 also works with the more widely supported aptX Adaptive, LDAC, and LDHC/HWA codecs (all of which are hi-res audio-capable), plus the three most common codecs: AAC, SBC, and aptX.
The new Beats Pill might replace Sonos on my back porch
If I were to build an outdoor stereo in 2024, I'd do it with a pair of portable Beats Pills instead of Sonos speakers. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
In 2017, after more than a decade in our home, my wife and I added a pool. With it came a covered deck, making what basically was a new outdoor room. Not uncommon at all in Florida, but new to us.
