Audio Video News

Bluesound, the high-performance, hi-res audio-centric multiroom audio system, introduced its Gen 2 model line in New York this week and included something budget-minded audiophiles can rally around: a $299 standalone speaker designed by PSB celebrity speaker designer Paul Barton.

Although you may use it every day, you probably never stop to think about Bluetooth, the wireless signal-transmission standard that connects your earbuds to your phone or your phone to your car’s electronics system and makes it possible to stream music from your phone (or laptop/PC) to a compatible speaker. Well, here are a couple facts that may surprise you:

First it was Samsung’s self-igniting Galaxy Note 7 phones. Then it was an exploding headphone. Yesterday in New Jersey a battery-powered Bluetooth speaker began smoking before bursting into flames.

More than 5 billion smartphones and other Bluetooth-enabled devices are at risk of an invisible hack that spreads an infected device to nearby Bluetooth devices without any user interaction such as clicking on a booby-trapped link or downloading a malicious file, according researchers at IoT security firm Armis Labs.

BluOS and Sonos have announced software updates that expand surround sound options on a number of products.

Lenbrook, the Pickering, Ontario-based parent company of NAD, PSB, and Bluesound and developer of the hi-res-capable BluOS music operating system, has introduced a two-way BluOS control module for the URC Total Control system.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 goes to Bob Dylan, 75, for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."