Holiday Gift Idea: Bowers & Wilkins C5 In-Ear Headphones

The Bowers & Wilkins C5 in-ear headphones is a great gift for the person that wants high-end sound in the most compact form factor possible.  As with all Bowers & Wilkins products, the build quality is as superb as the sound quality.   What really sets these in-ear headphones apart from the rest is the loop part — that fits against the cartilage of the ear giving it a secure fit.   While these are not active noise-canceling, the design amazingly blocks out noise as if they are.  The Bowers & Wilkins C5’s cost $180.

AMAZON.com - Bowers & Wilkins C5 In-ear noise-isolating headphones

For even more gift ideas be sure to check out my picks over at ESPN.com!

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Holiday Gift Idea: Zoom H2n Digital Recorder

The Zoom H2n is the perfect gift for a musician, videographer, student or anyone that like to record high-quality audio.  This is the latest revision of the original H2 and offers some major improvements over the original — specifically the LED display.  The old version had a LCD display which was really hard to see.  There are five “studio-quality” microphones in the H2n and even a built-in speaker.   All this for only $199 (currently $179 @ Amazon)!

AMAZON.COM - Zoom H2n Handy Recorder

For even more gift ideas be sure to check out my picks over at ESPN.com!

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2011 ESPN.com Holiday Gift Guide

My 2011 Holiday Gift Guide is now live at ESPN.com! I will be posting more gift ideas here at Mavromatic so be sure to check back starting Monday!

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Goodbye, Steve Jobs

It’s a sad evening for me.  Steve Jobs has passed away.  This event has really made me internalize how special of a man Steve Jobs was and how lucky we have been to live in a time when he was around.   It was Mike Davidson who really brought Steve Jobs to my attention back in late 1998.  I grew up a PC and Mike was the Mac.  When we worked together we’d spend countless hours “fighting” over which platform was the best.

My first exposure to computers was in elementary school on the Commodore PET, I loved it.  I asked my parents for one but instead got a used  Magnavox Odessey 2 (I know it’s technically a gaming console but to me it was a computer as it had a “keyboard”).  My passion grew and then got a Commodore 64 — I always wanted an Apple but they were to expensive.  I did manage to get an Apple clone, the Franklin ACE 2100.  My first “real” computer was an IBM PC-XT (8088) clone with amber monochrome monitor (which was later upgraded to CGA then EGA).

In high school I finally got to use a Macintosh.  I started a video magazine show that aired during lunch called Kang Magazine.  All the graphics and titles were done using the Mac and Macromedia Director.  At home I still used PC’s — I skipped the 286, but had the 386, 486, Pentium, and up.  I did manage to buy an Apply Newton but that wasn’t a Steve Jobs creation.  In 2002, My first Mac purchase was the “Mirrored Door” G4 paired with a 22″ Cinema Display it shipped with the last version of OS9.   Right when OSX was released, I quickly upgraded.  That machine was a brilliant work of visual art.

Mike would never miss a MacWorld and would sometimes take the mornings off just to watch them (something that I didn’t understand at the time) on other occasions he would come into work, lean back in his chair and crank the volume up so we all could listen to Steve Jobs’ work his magic in presenting the latest computer and OS update. No work would get done in that hour or so.  As I am an avid music lover, once the iPod was announced that was the tipping point for me.  I bought every single version of the iPod since it’s release.  I began watching Steve Jobs keynotes myself — but still used a PC for my day-to-day job.

Fast forward to today… I own Mac’s, iPad’s, iPhone’s, AppleTV’s.  I’m a Mac.  There a no more fights with Mike on the subject and I can’t wait for the next announcement from Apple.  It is all due to Steve Jobs and the team of people at Apple with a passion to create some of the best consumer products of our lifetime.  Even without Steve Jobs, I know Apple will still be able to create great products, much like Disney still continues years after Walt’s passing.  It’s heart breaking to see such an inspiring man be taken at such a young age. My thoughts and prayers to his wife and his children.

Goodbye, Steve Jobs.

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Obihai OBi100 – Google Voice To POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)

I’ve been on the look out for a device that can leverage Google Voice *and* offer up a POTS port that can be tied into my whole house Panasonic telephone system (Hybrid-PBX) as a CO line.  The search is finally over — Obihai’s OBi100 does exactly what I need for less than $50 and NO monthly fees!    I ordered the OBi100 from Amazon for only $43.99 when it arrived the setup was easy and was up and running within 30 mins. If you were to base the sound quality on looks alone, you’d suspect it’s terrible, however, it’s not! I couldn’t perceive any notable sound quality differences from my landline service and there were no issues sending or receiving faxes over the line either. This little device is a must have for any Google Voice user! If you have any questions feel free to post in the comments.

- Obihai: What is it?
- Obihai: How to use it with Google Voice
- Buy now via AMAZON: OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridge

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Fostex AR-4i Audio Interface for iPhone 4

Here’s a neat add-on that turns your iPhone 4 into a HD video (audio) recording rig at a fairly economical price of $150.  The key feature of the Fostex AR4i is that it brings excellent quality stereo audio recording via the dock connector and it’s built-in AD/DA converters.   The included microphones can be swiveled and located in many different configurations giving you the best possible audio capture.  Built-in LED input level metering, gain control and headphone monitoring, the AR-4i has been designed to turn your iPhone 4 into a high-quality audio and HD video capture device.   This little add-on is great for trips and family events where you don’t want to carry another device just for video capture, but want the higher quality audio and video stabilization (via form factor and included handle).

- Fostex AR4i website
- AMAZON: Fostex Audio Interface for Iphone 4 – Fostex AR-4I

[ via and as seen on MacBreak Episode 261 ]

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Vidabox iPad/iPad2 On-Wall Mounting Frames

Front view of frame shown with a white iPad2

Vidabox has been in the digital entertainment and control business for a while now and offers media extenders to complete home automation control systems. They have a product and/or solution for almost every A/V need — even turning your iPad into a wall mountable picture frame.

The Vidabox iPad On-Wall Mount Frame is actually a pretty good idea allowing you to add an on-wall control interface pretty much anywhere at a very economical price.

USB to Cat5 power extension kit

When I first opened the box the first thing that popped into my head was, “why didn’t I think of this!”. A genius concept, put an iPad into a high-quality contemporary picture frame and hang it on the wall. The kits come complete with everything needed to power the iPad using only a single Cat5 cable. The installation takes literally minutes after you get the cat5 cable fished through your wall. The frame design is clean and simple and great for anyone that wants a semi-permanent wall installation of an iPad (I call it semi-permanent because you don’t need to cut a hole into the wall) — that’s great because it makes swapping out iPad versions in the future very easy!  The kit is available for both the original iPad and the iPad2. The frame kit retails for $99 and comes in a variety of finishes.

iPad On-Wall Frame Kit

Back view of iPad frame

For more information and to order the frame kit visit VidaBox.

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The Audiophiles Digital Media Player – ColorFly C4 Pro

Sure, Apple is leading the digital media player space, but, ColorFly is not your ordinary media player trying to be an iPod. No. No. No… The ColorFly Pocket C4 Pro’s steampunk-ish good looks with real American black walnut backing is not what it’s about, but what’s inside is what really matters with this player. Starting with components only a true audiophile would recognize. The C4 Pro features a CIRRUS LOGIC CS4398 DAC chip and a CIRRUS LOGIC CS8422 SRC chip offering up Signal-to-noise-ratio’s (SNR) of up to 108 Db and Total-Harmonic-Distortion (THD) lower than 0.003% with a rate of jitter lower than 5ps. WOW! As for connectivity, the C4 Pro has a RCA SPDIF IN/OUT interface, a full 1/4″ and 1/8″ headphone jack, a micro-USB port and a microSD card slot. One of my favorite touches is the use of the famous Japanese made ALPS volume slider potentiometer. The C4 can play uncompressed 24-bit FLAC audio files and if you don’t know what those are then you have no business getting the ColorFly C4 Pro anyway!

The ColorFly C4 Pro 32GB will cost you $799 and it’s available now from ALO Audio.

– ColorFly C4 Pro Website
- U.S. Dealer for ColorFly C4 Pro

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Myro:Bridge – Kaleidescape to Russound RNET

I have been busy releasing a bunch of new firmware updates for Myro:Bridge and one that I’m especially proud of is the newest Kaleidescape to Russound RNET. The Kaleidescape is a very slick piece of hardware, not only for exact CD quality audio playback but for video (including Bluray). We have had a unit in for testing while we write the firmware and it will be a sad day when I have to ship the unit back. Until then, I’m enjoying every minute with it. Check out the video showing how Myro:Bridge tightly integrates a Kaleidescape with Russounds whole house audio controllers using RNET and the Myro:Bridge.

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PCB Design Demo Board

I’ve become addicted to our local maker space called Metrix Create:Space and while I’m there I always ask them what is the latest stuff they got in.  That’s when I was shown the PCB Design Demo Board which was designed by Jon Chandler.  Priced at $10, it’s a bargain because if you have ever made a PCB yourself, picking the hole, SMD pad, silkscreen lettering and trace sizes can be a challenge.  This $10 can help save hundreds in errors associated with picking the incorrect footprints in Eagle.  Also, if you are in the Seattle area peep Metrix Create:Space — just don’t hog the laser cutter!

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