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Sound as a fifty-nine pound?

What colour is the sea? A strange question to ask at the beginning of a headphone review, but you’ll soon see where we are going with this. You see, on a good day, the sea can be green or blue, on a bad brown or grey, and that’s before you start looking at what variant of green or blue. Difficult isn’t it? Now take that question to your headphones and you start to ask whether the one-sound-fits-all solution is the best option out there.

That’s the premise behind the Radiopaq custom headphones. Rather than a one-sound-fits-all offering, Radiopaq has opted for four different sets of headphones designed for different types of music. It’s all, it seems, about choice.

So instead of one choice you get four, aimed at those who primarily listen to pop, classical, rock and jazz. Each music fan gets their own pair of headphones creating a slightly different sound as Radiopaq attempt to emphasise or balance-out certain sounds within the music.

Radiopaq state that “the Rock offering will provide a warm sound with a tightly controlled bass, while the Jazz offering will give rhythm, pace and a perfectly recreated soundstage. Classical promises 25% more detail in the mid to high-end range than standard earphones while Pop will give you a strong vocal, balanced with up to 30% more detailed mid range.”

In practice what that means is the Jazz headphones strip out all the bass, all the fluff and give you a clean sound as if you are there in the cafe listening to Coltrane do his stuff. The Rock offering is a bassier, more rounded offering that attempts to bring out the guitars and drums. Pop is well “poppy” with high tones and the bass accounted for and the Classical offering is well a bit more subdued on the bass.

Actually picking out the differences is something of a challenge, but they do sound different. Ok, it doesn’t take that long with a clear difference between Rock and Pop, which sit close together and Jazz and Classical, which sit at the other end of the scale. Moving beyond that and decided which sound you prefer is another challenge all of its own.

To help you out, for our test we chose Resolution by John Coltrane from the Love Supreme EP for the Jazz headphones, Cathy Dennis’ All Night long from the Move to This album for pop (old skool we know), Michael Nyman’s score from the movie Gattaca, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt for the Rock. Beyond that we also tested the headphones on a number of other songs, but these where the ones we listened to the most.

The double bass at the beginning of Resolution was the easiest to spot when switching between the four headphones. I personally preferred the Jazz headphones followed by the Rock headphone offering here, the Jazz set do give it a clean sound, but then you might prefer the more subdued Classic offering or the more jumpy Pop offering.

It’s hard to make that choice. Harder still given that you probably have a selection of music in your collection. Radiopaq informed us that the idea here was step around the need for digital equalisation in your music player, favouring the tuning of the headphones themselves. Each set has been tuned and constructed to suit a different type of sound. Even if you do have different types of music in your collection, you might prefer a rock sound overall, and therefore the Rock headphones would probably suit.

Get past the slight differences in sound and you’ll find that all of the headphones perform well, especially for the £50 price tag. The cable is long enough for most and the fit is standard in-ear stuff. There are different buds in the box to fit your ears (more choices), however they are all standard dome shape, rather than offering you those ones that look like Christmas trees as found in Shure sets or foam offerings as found in the boxes of Sennheiser.

Verdict:
Just as it is hard to determine the colour of the sea, it’s hard to determine which headphone set you should opt for, if at all.

The trouble with such choice, and such slight choice, is that you need to hear what the differences are to decide which one is best for you. That’s something you’re unlikely be able to do without buying all four sets (probably the master plan) and testing them for yourself. Not very helpful we know.

That not knowing is more than likely to make you opt for none of the custom headphones rather than settle for the wrong ones. Yes you might listen to a lot of jazz, but what happens when you then want to listen to some pop on the jazz headphones?

So what’s the final recommendation? Well probably the best all rounders of the four for me where the Rock headphones, although the Jazz deserve a mention too, but not when listening to Nirvana. Compared to other one-sound-fits-all offerings from Shure and Sennhesier, both hold their own, however I think the one-sound-fits-all leave little room for error.

As for the sea, I always think it’s a lovely blue.

Tags:
Audio Headphones Radiopaq

Radiopaq Custom Tuned headphones originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:00:00 +0100

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Does this deliver a superior sound experience?

If Philips are guilty of one thing, it’s overlooking a decent product name. That trend seems to be changing, which is a good thing considering the GoGear Opus could also be known as the SA1OP08K. So what we have here is the latest 8GB version of their GoGear MP3 player with video.

The Opus bears more than a passing resemblance to the previous generation of pocketable music and video players from the company. The front is dominated by the screen with controls sitting across to the right. The controls are kept basic, with a power/play button sitting in the centre of a four-way navigator, accompanied by “Options” and “Back”.

The Opus itself is slim, measuring 107 x 57 x 11, which means that it’s about the size of a mobile phone, if not a little larger. The black and silver design is attractive and it feels well constructed: the plastics feel ok and it is free from creaks as you grip it. At 95g it feels weighty enough in the hand to feel like a quality product.

We like the brushed back of the Opus as it keeps it free from fingerprints. Around the sides you’ll also find a volume control and a “Hold” slider which is strangely located on the bottom alongside the Mini-USB and 3.5mm sockets.

But the real interest is in the 2.8-inch 320 x 240-pixel LCD display on the front. It isn’t the highest resolution, or the latest OLED technology, and we’d like something a little sharper. Colours are vibrant, but it struggles against some of the sharp mobile phone screens we have seen recently.

Power on and the Opus always seems to need to “update”, something we found previously with Philips’ players. The menus are clear but basic and break down the main functions (music, video, pictures, radio, recordings) and then giving you access to a folder view and settings.

One thing we like about the menus is that they’ll pickup a background image from the cover art or video thumbnail, so it is fleshed out a little better than a straight texted-based menu, but doesn’t have the wow-factor that you’ll find elsewhere.

Navigation and control through the menus is easy, although one minor niggle is the length of time it takes to get from power on to listening to music. Not only do you have to wait for that update/startup cycle, but you then need to click through the levels of menu before music starts, because the play button doubles as the ok button – you can’t power on and press play like you can on an iPod.

The bundled headphones themselves are actually very good and capable, which is a positive point over some of the leading MP3 players out there. You get a choice of three different sized rubbers. Find the right fit and you’ll find the performance is impressive: good rich bass that is characteristic of Philips headphones, which is great for pop and dance music, but can be a little heavy for voice or classical music.

Philips are pushing their FullSound technology in the Opus, as they have in other players in the past. We’ve seen a number of devices featuring FullSound and generally it is a good system, enlivening music somewhat. We found FullSound to be preferable over the other EQ presets and the best setting for general listening.

Format support on the audio front is reasonable with MP3, WMA, AA and FLAC, but a little restrictive on the video front, only supporting AVI and WMV, but you will be able to download BBC iPlayer content and sideload it. The bundled software will convert other common formats for you, but in this world where simplicity rules, we’d rather see more support in the player itself to save uses the time spend in the conversion process.

If you are a Mac user you’ll not benefit from this software (although you could easy download a free video convertor) and then simply use the drag and drop approach to load-up content.

The GoGear Opus also comes with a 30-day free introduction to Napster To Go and is AudibleReady. An FM radio and voice recorder are also present.

Battery life is pretty good at 30 hours of music and 6 hours of video, although you don’t get a charger in the box, although the Mini-USB connection will work with many last-generation phone chargers. A short USB cable is supplied, as is a cover to stop your player getting all scratched up.

Verdict:
The audio quality is something that we liked, working well with those better-than-average headphones: it’s rare to find an MP3 player where you are happy to stick with the supplied headphones and we were luckily enough to find a perfect fit with those supplied. Yes, we did find better results with higher quality headphones, but uncharacteristically, we’d recommend giving the bundled ones a go first.

The Philips GoGear Opus doesn’t do anything drastically wrong but it doesn’t really excite either, and priced at £99 for an 8GB (or £129 for 16GB) it finds itself in close range of the Samsung YP-P3, the iPod nano and Sony Walkman NWZ-S638F, against which competition, we think it struggles as an overall package.

Tags:
Audio MP3 players Philips

Philips GoGear Opus MP3 player originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0100

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Philips goes Blu

Philips hasn’t really made an impact in the high-def player market so far but the BDP7300 could put the Dutch manufacturer on the Blu-ray map. It’s a fully-fledged Profile 2.0 affair, which puts BD-Live downloads at your disposal (the quality of which is getting better all the time, by the way) and offers a decent range of other features for a competitive price.

After lifting the BDP7300 from the box, the excellent build quality is immediately apparent – it’s weighty and solidly bolted together, which bodes well for performance. It’s also one of the best-looking Blu-ray players you’re likely to see, not quite up there with Samsung’s latest, but a devilishly good-looking piece of kit all the same. The flat fascia and minimal clutter give it a modern yet classy air.

On the rear panel is a healthy range of connections, the highlight being a set of 5.1-channel analogue outputs. You might find these useful if your AV receiver lacks HDMI, as you can enjoy the benefits of Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio soundtracks (both of which this deck can decode internally). Yes 7.1 outputs would have been better, but for £250 we’re not complaining. Also included is an Ethernet port for BD-Live and firmware updates (wot no Wi-Fi?) plus an HDMI v1.3 port that delivers 1080/24p video and HD audio bitstreams.

On the front panel is a USB port that’ll provide hours of fun for anyone with a sizeable digital media library – plug in a USB flash drive loaded with content and away you go. The superb graphic-led main menu makes it easy to find your content and the player accepts DivX, MP3, WMA and JPEG.

Weirdly, it even supports high-def WMV files, which is a rare talent among Blu-ray players. However, with our test files it would only play the video and not the audio, and with some SD WMV files only the audio could be heard. A firmware fix might solve the issue but it’s a bit of a let down, particularly as there’s no DivX HD or MKV support to make up for it.

But the Philips does boast two other stand-out features – the first is 1GB of built-in memory, which means you don’t need a USB stick to store BD-Live downloads; the other is fast disc loading, which gets even the trickiest Blu-ray discs up and running in around 30 seconds.

In operation the deck is peppered with lovely touches like large playback icons that appear in the middle of the screen then fade away, and a slick, funky setup menu. The remote also sports a comprehensive array of buttons without feeling cluttered, and helpfully emphasises the most-used keys.

The deck’s Blu-ray pictures are imbued with deep, vibrant colours, smooth gradation and no noise to speak of, while detail is as crisp and focused as you’d expect. Diagonal lines are rendered with no unsightly stepping and it keeps judder to a minimum at 24p. Excellent contrast keeps detail clear and visible in dark scenes, putting this player almost on a par with the likes of Panasonic and Pioneer in performance terms.

Upscaled DVD playback is also impressive, benefiting from strong colour and detail presentation, but we’ve seen Blu-ray decks that do it better. As for its sound quality, internally decoded HD audio tracks are detailed and slickly orchestrated, but for the best results pass the raw bitstream to your AV receiver.

Verdict:
It might lack the extensive features and design pizzazz of the Samsung BD-P3600 or the pristine pictures of the Panasonic DMP-BD60, but the BDP7300 it still a solid Blu-ray proposition. The quick disc loading, built-in memory and surprisingly sturdy build quality are welcome at this price, and help to gloss over the temperamental WMV playback and lack of Wi-Fi web connectivity.

Tags:
Home Cinema Blu-ray Philips

Philips BDP7300 Blu-ray player originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100

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Does this netbook offer anything different?

Coming along a little late to the netbook party is Stone. Their launching of a netbook is typical of the recent move of smaller companies to get in on the act where larger organisations like Acer, MSI and Asus have lead the way. But is there any reason to pick the Neo over the others in an already saturated market?

Out of the box, you’ll find typical netbook specs here. The Neo is running the Intel Atom N270 processor at 1.6GHz, with 1GB RAM, and a 160GB hard drive and features a 10.1-inch 1240 x 600-pixel resolution display and runs Windows XP.

Adding into the mix you get the normal connection options. The chassis is carrying the Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections to hook into your networks, as well as VGA around the back to connect to a larger display or projector if you choose.

Other physical connections give you two USB connections, one on each side of the device and the front sees the mic and headphone 3.5mm jacks. It’s a good layout of connections, thoughtfully placed for real world use, unlike some models that just cram them in anywhere. It also has an SD card slot.

There is also an Express Card 34 slot, which is a less common feature on netbooks, but does add the potential to expand the netbook a little further, perhaps with a 3G modem, although you’d probably have more success in that department with a USB modem.

The screen itself is rather good. Shunning the trend towards glossy finishes, the Neo has a matte finish. It handles reflections well and is practical to use whilst on the move outdoors, but it is not unique in offering this.

The keyboard itself reasonably good too. It gives a nice firm typing action without the sort of flex to blights many small format keyboards. Stone have also been mindful of the layout, so you’ll find the likes of delete in the top right-hand corner and control in the bottom left, so it favours those moving over from a regular-sized keyboard.

The keyboard also stretches from left to right using the entire width available, which we always like to see. One oddity is a strip of foamy material along the bottom of the keyboard. At first we thought it was part of the packaging, but it seemed too firmly attached. Whatever the purpose, we couldn’t figure it out.

The trackpad is rather small however and has individual left and right click buttons underneath. To the right side of the trackpad is a scroll area, although it is not marked in any way – leave a finger in the top right-hand corner and it scrolls up, and down in the bottom corner. The trackpad is easily bettered by a portable notebook mouse for any serious work.

Stone have also included some shortcut buttons on the deck of the Neo, which will launch the webcam, email or browser. For the type of device this is, it targets your needs rather well, so it’s a good additional feature here.

The webcam is the standard bezel-mounted type, accompanied by a mic below the screen, so you are ready to rock with Skype or any other online video application. The onboard stereo speakers give a reasonable level of volume and we found them fine for watching films whilst ensconced in hotel rooms.

The performance is typical of netbooks of this class. They are great for light computing work and getting things done on the move, but it doesn’t take a step beyond this remit. Open too many windows and the machine quickly starts to drag its feet. It handles standard definition video with no problems, but it can’t handle HD content, either from a camera or of the YouTube HD variety.

So on to the design and materials, which in many cases is the only differentiator for netbooks. The Stone Neo is a bit on the chunky side it has to be said. Whilst competitors are slimming down, the Neo is quite fat at the back end at 36mm, with an otherwise regular footprint of 262 x 184mm. It weighs 1.3kg, which is a little heavier than average.

It is constructed from plastics, with a gloss lid, but a matte finish inside so you are spared the fingerprints that some other models present you. The result of the extra chunk, though, is that it feels pretty sturdy. The display doesn’t flex easily and the hinges feel solid. Yes, it’s big, but is feels more substantial with it.

It does tend to run a little hot however, with noticeable warmth under the palms as we type this, with a stream of hot exhaust blowing out the side when you start to get demanding. It’s relatively quiet to run though, with disc noise and fan noise never being excessive.

Battery life is average at around 3.5 hours. It would typically see us through a movie with some time spent browsing around this, but it simply doesn’t compare to the 6 or 7 hours that some models are now offering, albeit with a larger battery.

Verdict:
So overall this is an average spec netbook with average performance. It follows the tried and tested formula and merges together specifications that can be found from a number of manufacturers. We like the keyboard and we like the matte display, but we liked them last year on the MSI Wind too.

The Stone Neo doesn’t push the boundaries where many others in the netbook space are, so it perhaps won’t get too many people excited. The £316 price point is a little higher than some competitors like the Advent 4211c or Samsung NC10, which have similar specs in a slimmer package.

It might not be the best looking of recent netbooks, but what the Stone Neo does give you is a 3-year warranty, which let’s face it, is likely to see you through the life of the device. If you are not worried about the latest and greatest and value the security of a warranty, then it might just be for you.

Tags:
Hardware Laptops Netbooks Stone

Stone Neo notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0100

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Affordable Atom-powered all-in-one?

ViewSonic aren’t the first company you’d think of to release an all-in-one PC, but given their experience in displays, it’s a move that perhaps makes sense. But can they challenge the likes of Sony, offering a cheaper alternative all-in-one?

The VPC100 picks up the Intel Atom platform, similar to those found in the likes of Asus’s Eee Top or MSI’s Wind Top. Of course the model presented here is a regular display, rather than the touchscreen offered by both those mentioned.

But the hardware specs breakdown in a familiar way: an Intel Atom N270 processor running at 1.6GHz, with 1GB RAM and 160GB hard drive. Wireless networking of the b/g variety is included.

The design is interesting and perhaps won’t appeal to some. It is finished in black gloss plastic, which isn’t a problem in itself as you won’t need to touch it much so fingerprints won’t be a problem. The problem is the size of the screen compared to the overall unit, means you have a large expanse under the display that looks pretty ugly.

In fact this space under the screen houses pretty much all the computing hardware, with a chrome-effect line drawing out a divide (73mm up) which we think looks like the end of a regular 18.5-inch monitor slapped on top of a netbook, which is essentially what we have here.

The result of the decision to elongate things vertically is that the unit is pretty slim – slimmer than rival offerings, at only 35mm deep at it’s thickest part. Otherwise it measures 360mm high by 450mm wide.

These slimmer dimensions mean the VPC100 doesn’t have a lean-on stand like some AIOs, instead having a regular stand, which offers a small degree of tilt fore and aft. In effect, this outlines it more as a desk-based computer and less as a home computer for your kitchen like the touchscreen rivals.

However, you could remove the stand completely and take advantage of the VESA mount on the back and mount the VPC100 on the wall, allowing space for the connections on the back of course.

In terms of connections the back panel gives you Ethernet, 2x USB 2.0, headphone and mic sockets and – perhaps unusually – PS/2 connections for the keyboard and mouse. It’s perhaps a little antiquated and we’d have rather seen the PS/2 connections swapped for more regular USB connections.

The location of the mic and headphone 3.5mm jacks is fine for a permanent installation of higher-quality mic or speakers, but for occasional headphone use a connection on the side would have been more practical.

However, you will find 2x USB 2.0 connections on the side along with a multicard (xD-Picture, SD, MMC, MS), providing easy access. A 1.3-megapixel webcam is built into the bezel at the top of the screen accompanied by a mic, so you’ll be good for video calls over Skype or the application of your choice.

But taking a step over some of the other cheap all-in-one offerings around, you’ll find a DVD rewriter in the side of the unit, making it a little more versatile for those who want to backup or store files on DVD. The build quality looks a little questionable here as there are gaping holes around the DVD player, so it does look a little messy.

The other advantage you get here is a great 16:9 display. With a resolution of 1366 x 768, Windows XP has a noticeable sharpness that will follow through into viewing documents and images, although it lacks the power to exploit the display to any extent, so you won’t be playing games or able to watch your HD content back.

But that said, the colours are natural and vibrant, with a noticeable punch to things as after all, this is pretty much an average 19-inch monitor. What you don’t get in that regard is any sort of monitor controls – you can’t change the brightness, the contrast, colour or anything else, except what can be adjusted through Windows XP itself.

There are two on-board 3W speakers that are a little boomy, but are perfectly good for system sounds and the odd bit of internet video. We found BBC iPlayer watched in the office was fine, but if you are looking at regular music playback, you might want to invest in some speakers.

Those two PS/2 connections on the back are put into play with the bundled keyboard and mouse. Both bear the hallmarks of cheaply sourced items. The mouse is a lightweight two-button scrolling mouse which can cheaply and easily be bettered.

The keyboard is much worse, with a disturbing clatter to the keys and a cheap plastic feel. It does have some media controls which are useful, but it is not nice to use and we’d recommend swapping it for a third-party keyboard at the earliest opportunity, our preference would be for wireless versions in keeping with the VPC100’s all-in-one status.

Performance is pretty much as you’d expect from a low-powered PC. It is happy online, which is where this spec of machine is useful, but step into more demanding territory and it really drags it’s feet. Software is at a minimum, with NTI burning software bundled and a Trend Micro security trial.

It does run quietly enough however with only the occasional chirp from the drive accessing and we found it would sit happily enough in the corner of the office without being a distraction.

Verdict:
Overall you pretty much get what you expect from the ViewSonic VPC100. It lacks the novelty of touchscreen models which can be had for a similar price which might be more appealing to home users, who want the simplicity of steering clear of the mouse or keyboard for basic tasks.

The other question you have to ask is whether the VPC100 stands-up against the sort of offering being made by a new wave of boxes, such as the Acer Aspire Revo or the Packard Bell equivalent, which when connected to a similar spec monitor, would give improved graphics handling for much the same cost with an equally small footprint on your desk.

As a low powered all-in-one it performs much as a netbook does, but with the added boost of sharp display. Whilst good for low-level computing tasks such as surfing the internet, basic word processing or watching DVDs, the performance won’t match that of an entry-level desktop model, which could be had for less, making the £499 price look a little high.

Tags:
Hardware Desktop PCs All-in-one PCs Viewsonic

ViewSonic VPC100 desktop PC originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:00:00 +0100

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