5 Awesome Music Innovations from CES 2014
Last week, thousands of industry insiders and geeks descended on Las Vegas to check out the 2014 International CES (Consumer Electronics Showcase). The who’s who of the electronics world were on hand to show off their next big thing. Everyone from Sony and LG to Boulder and Constellation Audio debuted drool-worthy technology. Here are 5 of our favorites!
1. ROCKI
This awesome little device connects to any existing sound system and instantly turns it into a fully functional wireless system which you can then control via phone, tablet, or PC. You can even have a ROCKI in each room then control each system’s audio individually or sync them all together. With its native audio software, your friends can also get in on the fun by adding songs from their libraries to the device’s que. It’s as affordable as it is adorable, priced at $49 or $89.
2. iRing
The IK Multimedia iRing is the world’s first touchless controller for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The small but mighty gadget allows you to use hand gestures that are read by the three dots on each side of the ring to control assignable parameters in a variety of music apps. Two of its coolest features are its connectivity with any DAW via MIDI and the ability for any app developer to download and play with the iRing coding. Its $24.99 price point makes it a good widget for any iOS musician to try.
3. AK240 Portable MQS Music Player
This jaw-droppingly sleek player goes way, way beyond MP3s. Astell&Kern’s latest high-quality music player holds an astounding 256GB of music with a microSD card slot for an additional 64GB of storage. It boasts WiFi capabilities, allowing you to purchase and download music directly from the player. If that’s not enough, the AK240 also contains a dual-core processor for lag-free listening and a DAC chip which converts your pre-existing library of music into high quality files. It’s set to hit the market by the end of March, and based on the price points for their past players, you better start saving up, uh, yesterday.
4. Signal Doctor
Among the sea of technology at CES, car companies stand tall, and many, such as Audi and Ford, included music-car connectivity in their showcases. If the thought of decreased audio quality churned out by the car-connected streaming services wigs you out, fret no more. Harman’s Signal Doctor is there for you. This awesome chunk of software analyzes the incoming audio signal, and in real-time, predicts and restores the loss of quality we all notice in the compressed files. The technology is currently available in the JBL Authentics line of powered speakers and will be made available to automakers. Your move, Audi!
5. Headphones
It’s impossible to pick a stand-out pair of headphones from the pack that were unleashed at CES. From Audio-Technica‘s new offerings to gamers, music fans, and atheletes alike, to Sennheiser‘s new HD6, HD7, and HD8 DJ cans, to Blue Microphone‘s first venture into the market – MoFi, to the awesome RunPhones and SleepPhones – flat headphones built into headbands, to Audiofly‘s beautiful AF140 and AF180, there’s going to be no excuse not to upgrade your listening utensils this year.