Sennheiser HD 228 Headphones Review
Thursday, September 03, 2009
In-ear earphones are all well and good, but some people prefer cans that sit on the outer of the ear. For me the Sennheiser HD 228 headphones are ultimately comfortable. They look the part too. Check out the video review below.
Product: Sennheiser HD 228 Headphones
Price: £31 (average)
Supplied by: Sennheiser UK
Contact: +44 (0)1494 551551
Labels: MP3 accessories, Music Technology, Reviews
Sennheiser PMX80 Sport II Earphones Review
Sunday, July 05, 2009
If you run with your iPod, then you need effective earphones that stay in place. Check out the review below of the Sennheiser PMX80 Sport II earphones.
Product: Sennheiser PMX80 Sport II earphones
Price: £24.99 (average UK)
Supplied by: Sennheiser UK
Contact: +44 (0)1494 551551
Labels: Apple iPod, iPod Touch, Music Technology, Reviews
Logitech Squeezebox Duet Review
Monday, March 02, 2009
On the search for an elegant way of streaming music to your hi-fi system, there are a lot of options. However, one that is easily upgraded to stream to more than one room, is the Logitech Squeezebox Duet. Check out the video review below.
Product: Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Price: £269.00
Contact: +44(0)1753 870900
Labels: Music Technology, Reviews
Sennheiser CX 95 Style Earphones Review
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
If you want to get the most out of your iPod (or other MP3 player if you dare), then throw out those old earphones and check out a pair of Sennheiser's CX95. You can get the lowdown in the video review below.
**NOTE** This model has now been replaced with the CX 550 Style II. This is more or less the same earphone, except in silver metal finish.
Product: Sennheiser CX 95 Style Earphones
Price: £50 (average UK)
Supplied by: Sennheiser UK
Contact: +44 (0)1494 551551
Labels: Apple iPod, Music Technology, Reviews
Pandora Will Launch Wifi Internet Radio Device
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Pandora made a pre-announcement of an upcoming Wifi music player to be built by SanDisk and powered by Zing. The working prototype that CTO Tom Conrad demo’d tonight was physically similar to the Sansa Connect device launched last month with Yahoo, although it was slightly longer and thinner. Pictures included.via techcrunch read more | digg story
Labels: Music Technology
Upcoming - Traps Drums Review
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
We love bringing you alternative reviews here on Geekanoids. When we last reviewed the Roland HPD-10 the feedback we got was phenomenal, with literally hundreds of emails coming in. It is always nice to step away from the screen, do something a little energetic, whilst still keeping that creative edge.I am very excited to let you all know about the forthcoming review of Traps Drums A400 Drum Kit. This leading edge technology allows the A400 kit to deliver big drum sound in a flat compact package. Never having tried this type of drum before I really cannot wait to bring you the lowdown. Expect to see a review here around mid-June, in the meantime check out the Traps Drums website.
Labels: Music Technology
Creative Zen Stone - Shuffle the price down
Friday, May 04, 2007
Creative are due to launch the diddy Zen Stone for a paltry £27.99 that gets you a 1GB MP3 player. It is available in six flavours, have a simple navigation control (aka Shuffle), drag and drop your tracks, and upto 10 hours of music playback. We will bring you a review soon.Labels: Music Technology
Roland HPD-10 - Music Goodness
Monday, March 19, 2007
Today we are taking a look at the Roland HPD-10, something to bring out that creativity in you and get you away from those RSI induced aches.We love the fact that technology has progressed enough to bring with it the possibilities of cramming so much goodness into such a neat product. The HPD-10 is a fantastic instrument from Roland's hand percussion range. It is a little larger than a ream of A3 paper, measuring 323x427x75mm. It comes supplied with instructions and a power supply, but high up on the options list should be a PDS-10 stand, which makes the unit a lot easier to use and adjust to a comfortable height.
The best description of the HPD-10 is a really modern drum machine. It doesn't have any built-in recording functions, so it certainly could replace a drum machine if that is your requirement, but you can attach it to an external recording machine. It offer 400 built-in sounds, a metronome function (for keeping the rhythm spot on) and ten individual pressure sensitive pads. There is also a D-Beam controller, which is great fun, you simply wave your hand over the sensor at varying heights to achieve the required sound effect. Before I move on to how great the HPD-10 is, I should also mention the rhythm coach feature. This is great for adults and children alike, and shows an LED duplicate of the ten pads. It gets you to listen to a beat, whilst it shows you which pads to strike, then you have to repeat things at the correct rhythm to progress. This is a great training aid and makes learning fun.
Onto the sounds, and they really are fantastic. There are a lot of futuristic samples in there, with stunning special effects. You also get congas, bongos, tabla, cajon and steel drums, to name just a few. The fact that the pads are pressure sensitive adds to the realism and creativity. The harder you strike a pad, the louder the sound.
You can also turn the HPD-10 into a mini drum kit. Adding two external triggers allows you to add a cymbal and a kick trigger for that bass drum. There are also MIDI in and out sockets, so you can add extra functionality here too. For silent use and practice there is a headphone socket. But for rocking the house you need to connect either a single amp, or two powered speakers for stereo output. We used Roland's PM-10 personal monitor amplifier, which delivered stunning sound and clarity. Every small detail of the percussion instrument or effect was spot on, and when you hit those low bass drums, you really feel them. We also tried the HPD-10 with a Marshall MB30 bass amplifier. It was comparable to the PM-10, not quite as detailed, but certainly an option if you need to save a little on your budget.
Altogether I would put the HPD-10 into two camps, where it scores very highly indeed. If you are a pro musician and need to add percussion to your set-up, then look no further, you will not be disappointed. If like me, you love music, spend all day doing the same thing, and need some creative release at the end of the day, then spend you hard earned cash now. The HPD-10 has given me and my family hours of fun and I am very sad to have to send it back.Product: Roland HPD-10
Price: £449.00
Supplied by: Roland UK
Contact: www.roland.co.uk/buy.asp
Product: Roland PM-10
Price: £199.00
Supplied by: Roland UK
Contact: www.roland.co.uk/buy.asp
Product: Marshall MB30 Amplifier
Price: £105.00
Supplied by: Marshall Amplification plc
Contact: +44 (0)1908 375411
Labels: Music Technology
Sennheiser to Launch new PXC450 NoiseGard Headphones
Monday, March 12, 2007
Sennheiser have released details of their new high end PXC 450 NoiseGard 2.0 headphones, which should hit the shelves in April for £299.99.Using new technology and their High-end Hi-fi design skills, Sennheiser leapfrog the competition to deliver the World's best noise-cancelling headphones. Built to deliver the highest quality sound possible, the PXC 450s allow travellers to privately enjoy their own music, wrapped in a virtual 'Cloak Of Silence' however noisy a train or plane might be. And no sound leaks out, so fellow passengers stay happy.
In addition Sennheiser has analysed the problems afflicting other noise-reduction headphones and fixed them;
- PXC 450s work as headphones even if the batteries die
- One tiny and globally available AAA battery gives 20hrs use
- No charger to carry or expensive spare batteries to buy
- TalkThrough button lets you hear conversations and announcements, without having to rip the phones off your head
- The sound is clear and balanced with no heavy bass or muffled vocals
- Sennheiser NoiseGard 2.0 electronically removes 90% of noise (more than ever) taking out the drone and roar of engines, rails etc
- Exceptional passive noise-reduction from the closed-back design takes out voices, kids, mobile phone shouters and general noise
- Electronics and battery all inside the headphone, nothing dangles
- Ideal for planes, trains, tube and other noisy environments
- Noise leakage OUT is eliminated - stop irritating fellow travellers
Labels: Apple iPod, Music Technology
Marshall Amps - Get that bass pumping
Here at Geekanoids we will be bringing you some alternative reviews over the coming months. Something to get you away from that screen, maybe a little different creativity, or something for the weekend. Hot on the heels of this review will be some excellent percussion instruments, the RMP-5 drum practice pad and the HPD-10 hand percussion pad. We also have Marshall's excellent AS50D amplifier, and a Yamaha APX500 electro-acoustic guitar.To kick things off the kind people at Marshall Amplification lent us their MB30 bass amp, which we wanted to test with the Roland RMP-5 drum practice pad. Before I continue with my impressions here is a little about the MB series. There are ten different models in the range, starting with the MB15, which delivers 15 watts of amplification, right up to the MB4050H, a two box affair capable of up to 450 watts. All have similar styling, being black with white accents and controls.
The MB30 which we have on test, yes, you guessed it, delivers 30 watts of amplification via a single 10-inch speaker. It is a two channel amp, measuring 438mm x 400mm x 260mm, and weighing in at 13.6kg, so is pretty easy to move around. The front sports one input jack for your bass guitar (or in this case drum unit), plus there is also an input for a CD player or other suitable line-in device, like an MP3 player. There is also a headphone out socket, which when used mutes the internal speaker. The rotary dials from left to right control the volume, compressor control, classic gain and volume, bass, voice shift, voice and treble equalisation. There are also push buttons for turning the compressor on and off, and for switching between the MB30's two channels (modern or classic).
Around the back you will find sockets for connecting a footswitch, a send socket that could go to an external effects processor, return input for completing the loop between that external effects processor and a line out that can go to a recording device.
So, as you can see, the MB30 is very well endowed in socketry and controls, but how well does it perform? Well, when used with the RMP-5 this little amp really kicks ass. I was expecting things to sound a little muddy, as this amp really is not designed for the drum pad. At first things did sound a little flat, but upping the treble and moving the voice shift to position 3 to boost the mids and things seemed to fall into place. The low thumps of some of the RMP-5 effects were shuddering, whilst the MB30 still managed to deliver the intricacies of a cymbal almost to perfection.
It would have been unfair to bring you this review without testing an instrument that the MB30 was designed for, so we ran a Yamaha RBX774 bass through it. Again, the sound was very full, with plenty of authority and well controlled.
The features and control that the MB30 delivers at this price point and fantastic, and although 30 watts may seem at the low end, it goes plenty loud enough. For home practice it is ideal, for the percussion we tested it was surprisingly very capable, and with the RBX774 it performed way above its asking price. If you need a bass oriented amp then look no further than the MB30 or another model from the series.
Product: Marshall MB30 Amplifier
Price: £105.00
Supplied by: Marshall Amplification plc
Contact: +44 (0)1908 375411
Email: contactus@marshallamps.com
Labels: Music Technology
The Authors
Dave
Dave has been in the graphic design industry for 14 years. Long time reviewer of technology related products, he is Owner/Editor of Geekanoids.
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