#portable-music

#portable-music

The Mix speaker features a built-in carrying handle and a place for a strap, allowing for easy transport. The top-hat mounts enable use with traditional PA pole stands, enhancing versatility for events.

The ring-like portable speaker has a lanyard that lets users hook it onto a backpack or simply carry it around the wrist. Another option is to wear it around the neck, turning the device into a personal stereo system that surrounds the user with sound while remaining lightweight and portable.

The MPC Sample features a four-by-four grid of 16 RGB backlit pads that respond to pressure, allowing for dynamic sound manipulation. A full-color display and three knobs provide hands-on control over effects and sound.

The Denon Home 200 houses three drivers and three amplifiers for 'natural, room-filling sound' in a compact speaker, featuring two tweeters and a woofer.

The collection includes two wireless speakers that both feature Bluetooth 5.5 with Auracast support, an IP67 rating so they can survive the occasional short dunking, 24 hours of battery life, neon colored buttons, and multicolored LED lighting. Cassette tape functionality hasn't been carried forward from Philips' original '80s Moving Sound devices, but both speakers have color LCD screens displaying a stylized animation of spinning cassette reels, and other playback details.

The Bromley 450 carries over its larger sibling's 360-degree audio trickery. Like equivalents from other companies, Marshall's "True Stereophonic 360-degree sound" fools your brain into perceiving more directionality than its form factor allows. Lighting effects ("inspired by '70s stage shows") also carry over from the larger model.

Listening to music has mostly collapsed into phones and streaming apps, buried between notifications and multitasking. Some people still crave a single-purpose device that treats listening as the main event, not background noise. The MP-1 is an independent concept study that asks what a modern Walkman could look like if it borrowed Teenage Engineering's design language, without being affiliated with the company or trying to become an official product at all.

But to anyone tracking the data over the past few years, it was inevitable. In 2022, Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti redefined the market, driving Latin music's streaming growth to new heights. It later became the first Spanish-language album nominated for Grammy Album of the Year. The takeaway is simple: When you have accurate, real-time data, you don't guess where culture is going, you know.

The original KEF Muo launched back in 2015 and felt like a turning point in portable hi-fi. Serious, designer Bluetooth speakers from a respected hi-fi brand were rare back then-with only a few brands like Bang & Olufsen and Loewe interested in combining pretty and portable. These early designs were still given the side-eye by most traditional audio.

What's wild about this jump in stamina is that it's disproportionate to the battery's capacity. The Kilburn II ships with a 5,200 mAh cell, while the new model is only about 5% bigger: 5,500 mAh. Clearly, some big efficiencies have been gained.

The Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro is too weird to exist. It takes the excellent 4K projector and karaoke microphones from Anker's Nebula X1 and stuffs them inside a powerful five-speaker Google TV party on wheels. It's so absurd that it feels like a gadget fever dream - and I'm here for it. At the heart of this system is the same liquid-cooled, triple-laser, auto-image-correction-everything projector I reviewed last summer.

Chances are this does exactly what you need. It will play your old CDs, your new CDs, your homemade mixtapes, the whole nine yards. You can even listen wirelessly thanks to onboard Bluetooth. It's got a decent battery life that can last you up to six hours, and it uses a USB-C to recharge. We usually have one of those on hand.

They're called open earbuds (or open-ear buds, depending on the brand), and just about every audio brand has a pair (or three). They come in a slew of styles, but most either loop around your ears like older Beats buds, or clip on like funky-futuristic earrings. Whatever the style, they're designed to deliver satisfying sound while keeping your ear canals open to the sounds of the world around you.

There's something oddly comforting about watching the vinyl resurgence happen in real time. We've collectively decided that convenience isn't everything, that sometimes the ritual matters as much as the result. But while turntables have been getting their moment in the spotlight, another piece of audio history has been quietly staging its own comeback: the dedicated digital audio player. Enter the DAP-1, a concept device from Frankfurt-based 3D artist

A compact, rectangular body with a looped carrying strap makes it easy to hang, grab, or slip into a bag when you're ready to go. It's built to be rugged, dustproof, and waterproof (IP67), allowing it to handle wet, sandy conditions and random rain showers without interrupting your music. Plus, its battery lasts up to 20 hours, providing solid playtime for your playlists, podcasts, and background music until you need to recharge.

The writing was always on the wall -- from the moment the London-based tech company debuted with a pair of earbuds with a transparent design. Yet, somehow, I found myself taking a step back when I unboxed the . To an extent, Headphone 1 represent the pinnacle of Nothing: a playful, finely tuned pair of headphones with Teenage Engineering influence, a seamless software experience that leaves no iOS or Android user behind, and a feel and finish that could split any room into two.

Rather than use Wi-Fi to get multiple speakers playing the same audio, though, the Marshall Heddon uses Auracast. The hub connects to services like Spotify Connect or Tidal over Wi-Fi, or other devices through Google Cast and AirPlay, and then shares that audio over Auracast to the Marshall Acton III, Stanmore III and Wobrun III speakers. You can control playback over a connected Marshall app and the Heddon also has RCA ports to connect other speakers or a record player to the system.

Amazon has - quite generously - dropped the price of the JBL Xtreme 3 speaker by 39%. You can now pick it up for $200, after a whopping $130 discount. The offer applies to all three color options, including black, blue, and camo. The deal is open to all shoppers (both Prime and non-Prime members), but we're expecting it to wrap up soon.

Despite the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) releasing the Bluetooth 6.2 core specification in Nov., you'll find that many headphones released as recently as this year still feature Bluetooth 5.3 or 5.4. Not every specification brings mind-blowing features, but there are connectivity, latency, and performance improvements to look forward to within the 6.0+ specifications. This year, several smartphones but fewer headphones debuted with Bluetooth 6.