audioXpress June 2014 Highlights

This month we bring you a report on some of the highlights from the Prolight+Sound 2014 show in Frankfurt, Germany. The show provided several innovative proposals for the professional audio industry.

Like many technology companies in Silicon Valley, OPPO Digital is continuously working on bringing new ideas and new products to customers. Over the past 8 years, OPPO has developed and released a series of award-winning universal DVD and Blu-ray players. But just as video has entered the Ultra HD era, OPPO Digital acknowledges audio is evolving with the rise of high-resolution music and a renewed interest in personal audio. Aiming at demanding customers in the personal audio space OPPO has announced the new PM-1 Planar Magnetic Headphone and HA-1 Headphone Amplifier. The PM-1's became available middle April and the HA-1 one month later.

Soundcraft released updates for its Si Expression, Performer and Compact digital mixer series, introducing BSS Soundweb London Control and other new features. The focus of the upgrades was on improving performance for networked audio and monitoring applications.

audioXpress is deeply rooted in the R&D and DIY audio communities. So is Elektor, our sister publication that originated in Europe

New England Audio Resource (N.E.A.R., which was originally called New England Audio Research) was founded in 1988 by Bill Kieltyka. Interestingly, the company purchased a lot of the transducer tooling from Rudy Bozak, and its line was always based, as with Bozak, on aluminum cone woofers and tweeters. (For a period of time, I designed the networks for the entire N.E.A.R. line of two-channel and home-theater speakers).

At Prolight+Sound 2014, Harman’s Soundcraft introduced its brand new Vi3000 ‘all-in-one’ digital live sound console, offering a host of state-of-the-art features including the groundbreaking internal DSP Soundcraft SpiderCore, a new industrial design, 96 channels to mix, onboard Dante network compatibility and much more in a very compact footprint.

Liverpool based Adlib Audio launches a new specialist division – Adlib Speakers – to manufacture and market its AA brand of speakers, which are very proudly made in Liverpool, England. Hand-crafted and designed to perfection by a dedicated team of individuals who know their audio, using quality components, precision engineering and innovation, the AA series intends to be the ultimate ‘boutique’ brand for those who understand that their sound really matters.

NTi Audio confirmed the release of Data Explorer, a new PC reporting software for precision-grade noise measurements. With a design inspired by users of the XL2 Acoustic Analyzer, the Data Explorer is an ideal sound level meter companion offering clear visualization, fast data analysis and professional reporting of environmental noise measurements.

At Prolight+Sound 2014 in Frankfurt, Italian manufacturer Powersoft launched the Powersoft X amplifier Series, which the company describes as “a real evolution in pro-audio amplification, much as the seminal K Series did back in 1995 when technologies such as Power Factor Correction (PFC) and switch-mode amplification were introduced for the first time into the professional audio industry”.

This month’s audioXpress reviews the different approaches in microphone placement techniques for capturing and recording unamplified acoustic music, particularly classical music. A recent study and AES presentation has reignited this issue and our author Gary Galo decided an historical perspective was needed in his article “Stereophonic Recording: What Do Listeners Prefer?”