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The shortlists in each category were whittled down from our top-scoring reviews by a leading panel of tech experts, including representatives from Sky News, MSN and Mobile Choice.
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Cast your vote now and let us know who you want to walk away with TechRadar's first ever awards.
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T-Mobile and Orange cleared to merge
The European Commission has ratified the agreement between T-Mobile and Orange to combine in the UK.
As part of the new agreement, T-Mobile was asked to strengthen its network sharing agreement with 3 prior to the merge, so that the UK's smallest operator is not forced out of business by Orange joining the party.
The new deal struck between the two networks means that 3 will, according to the EC, "secure its position as a competitive force on the market".
The EC also mandated that T-Mobile and Orange give up part of its spectrum allocation.
These shares were previously bid for by the networks independently, and allow them to provide data and calls over 3G.
Big cheese
If merged, T-Mobile and Orange would hold a large portion of the data networks in the future, which would likely mean a significant advantage when high speed 4G internet is introduced into the UK.
So Orange and T-Mobile have agreed to give away 15MHz of their spectrum allocation, which presumably will be offered up for auction between the remaining networks.
The Office of Fair Trading in the UK previously stated that it wanted to take over the handling of the prospective merger between T-Mobile and Orange as it fell within its territory and interests.
However, with this new announcement from the EC, the OFT has withdrawn this request, meaning the future is now bright for T'Orange to start life as a new entity.
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Court order fails to sink Pirate Bay torrent ship
A court order to rid Pirate Bay of all copyright-infringing torrents has been ignored, despite the promise of hefty fines if the links stay on the site.
The ruling stems from owners of The Pirate Bay losing an appeal back in October, against Dutch anti-piracy lobbyists BREIN, which meant that the site had to be blocked from the Netherlands and all offending links cleared.
This was to be done by 1 March, but it seems that the site is exactly the same as it has always been.
Currently, there are links to all the latest episodes of 24 and FlashForward. The top movie download is the movie From Paris With Love, which has only just hit cinemas in the UK.
No longer in control
Unfortunately for the three members of The Pirate Bay caught up in the legal proceedings, there is a 3,000 Euro fine a day if the ruling isn't upheld.
Speaking to TorrentFreak just last week about what would happen after the 1 March deadline, Peter Sunde, one of the defendants in the case, noted that even if they wanted to, the people who were behind The Pirate Bay are no longer in control of it so can't comply even if they wanted to.
The Pirate Bay was apparently bought by Global Gaming Factory X AB back in June 2009, but there has been no clear indication what this company wants to do with the site or whether it has been asked to take down the myriad links to torrents.
Considering the new/potentially new owners were struck off the Swedish Stock Exchange back in September, it's unclear just who will be punished for not doing what the courts tell them to do.
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Review: LG Chocolate BL20
LG has introduced a more sweetly priced slider phone – the Chocolate BL20 – to try and tempt style-savvy phone buyers not interested in the more feature packed (but higher-priced) Chocolate BL40.
Sporting a similarly sleek design, the LG Chocolate BL20 is the latest update of the original LG Chocolate phone (KG800) that first appeared in mid-2006.
Central to the chic look is a smooth, glossy piano-black casing that features hidden touch-sensitive controls on the front panel that glow red through the casing only when the phone is activated.
It's a more refined look than earlier Chocolates, echoing the BL40's design – although the Chocolate BL20 has fewer high-end features than its touchscreen range-mate.
The new Chocolate BL20 instead offers a more typically mid-priced mobile package – including HSDPA high-speed 3G data connectivity, a 5MP camera, media player functionality and an FM radio. But the real headline on this new phone from LG is certainly style.
Design
The minimalist bodywork of the closed Chocolate BL20 is certainly attractive. Its black bodywork is offset with metallic red trim on top and bottom and on the slide-down number pad, plus some subtle chrome edging.
Measuring 105.9(h) x 50.8(w) x 12.3(d) mm, it's a slimline slider that weighs a reasonable 115g and is nicely balanced in the hand.
However, all that glossy bodywork does mean it can be slippery in cold or damp conditions. Covered in a single plastic sheet, the front panel is also a finger-smudge magnet.
The display is a 2.4-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixels), 262K-colour LCD, which is bright and zingy enough for most applications. It's not as big as a smartphone-style screen, but is acceptable for this type of mid-range device, especially with no touch control.
The original Chocolate phone was one of the first to introduce a touch sensitive navigation pad, and the BL20's similar digit-stroke control panel takes up most of the space under the screen.
A central select button surrounded by four direction arrows glows out from behind the black casing when the slider is opened or the phone activated, delightfully fading again when the phone goes into standby mode.
These buttons work conventionally to navigate around menus, albeit requiring light touching rather than pressing. They each also do typical phone shortcuts for calling up features, including text messaging, contacts, ringer profiles and a quick menu grid (you can select up to nine apps or functions for fast-touch access).
Other buttons include two regular softkeys, a button that shows active features as icons on a toolbar, and a widgets key.
This key pulls up five mini apps you can scroll between on screen, wherever you are in the menus. Functions include an alarm clock, memo writer, calendar, favourite contacts list and an online-based weather forecast app you can define for your preferred location.
A light finger glide is all you need to use the controls, like stroking a mobile phone version of a duckling. Dabbing around the menus is similarly effortless, although the sensitivity of the controls to even the merest of touches can cause accuracy issues if you're not handling it carefully.
A stray thumb or finger brushing the pad (generally your own) can accidentally activate a shortcut or the select button.
It's not particularly troublesome in most features but has potential for irritation in some, such as if you accidentally select send while composing a text.
LG has included touch activated volume/zoom controls around the BL20's side, plus a camera key and a screen lock button.
A single microUSB socket on the side takes care of charging, PC data connections and earphones; there's no standard 3.5mm headphone socket on the phone (boo), though an adaptor is provided in-box (slightly quieter boos).
The sprung slider mechanism revealing the number pad feels sufficiently robust. The pad itself provides large keys with plenty of finger room, and despite being flush against the surface are very responsive for fast, accurate texting. The metallic red finish is arresting too.
Despite the snazzy touch sensitive navigation controls, the LG Chocolate BL20's user interface and menu structure is conventional stuff. New users should find few problems working around the features and functions.
Pressing the central select key brings up the main menu in a colourful 12-icon grid, which can be changed to a list if you're that way inclined. As you move through the menu grid, the icon you're on enlarges to help the less mobile-phonic understand what's going on.
This partially obscures the label of the icon directly above, although it doesn't cause any real navigation issues.
Select an icon and, unless you're opening the camera or browser options, you're taken into further sub-menu lists, which are numbered in regular LG fashion for quick keypad selection. It's all very familiar phone navigation, especially if you've grown up with any kind of Nokia phone. The graphics are functional and sensibly arranged, and you can tab sideways between most sub-menus.
Calls
The LG Chocolate BL20 hits the mark for high-quality voice calling, delivering a first rate performance throughout our tests.
There's no forward-facing video camera on this model for video calling, though that's unlikely to be an issue for most potential buyers seeing as the last person to (probably) perform such an action did so accidentally back in 2007.
As mentioned, the keypad has a simple and effective layout, while the phonebook is easily accessible from a D-pad shortcut. Up to five favourite contacts can be assigned to one of the widgets for quick carousel-style access.
The phonebook contact details are adequate and provide more than the basics, though they don't offer as extensive a rundown of contact info input options as some higher grade phones – although if that's your bag, perhaps you should consider the higher end LG Chocolate BL40.
Messaging
The LG Chocolate BL20 offers standard text and multimedia messaging options, plus email.
An email wizard enables you to set up your regular web-based POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts on the phone simply by tapping in email address and password details, the phone automatically installing appropriate settings where available. If unavailable, account details can be chucked in manually.
Viewing new emails is reasonably easy, though there's no document viewer software to view downloaded attachments. Managing emails is average for this sort of phone, with only three email message headers viewable on the screen at one time – but we'd be surprised if the hardcore email user opted for a mostly shiny phone like this.
With the slider keyboard, typing out messages is a breeze – it's responsive and has a good springy action. It's straightforward to operate too – if you want to send an MMS you can simply insert an image or other item into the message from the menus found at the bottom of the screen.
There's no Wi-Fi capability on the LG Chocolate BL20, so high speed data comes courtesy of its HSDPA 3G network connectivity.
The browser is swift at negotiating mobile-optimised sites, and can open full web pages, with flash support too. They look good on screen and are well rendered for the screen size, automatically re-sizing to give you an overall page view of the site. The text is small, but can be speedily zoomed in and out using numberpad shortcuts.
However, some web pages can take time to fully load – so you'll probably end up hanging around the mobile web unless forced out into the big wide World Wide Web.
Although navigation involves the usual type of mobile menu option lists, the keypad is configured for several useful browser shortcuts – including zooming, switching to a full screen landscape view, viewing recently visited pages as selectable thumbnails, and so on.
Two browser windows can be opened at one time and toggled between, and you can also do text searches in web pages, and even save a page to look at later, should you need to have dinner or wash your cat or something.
It makes for more efficient operation than most mid-tier conventional phones, although inevitably it's not as slick and intuitive as some touchscreen browser efforts we could mention (including LG's own, such as on the LG Viewty Smart GC900).
The Chocolate BL20 has a reasonable camera for this class of ultra-slim, mid-priced style-heavy device. A press of the side button has the 5MP shooter ready for action in just a couple of seconds.
It has a two-step autofocus system and an LED flash. The autofocus system provides a bit of versatility in getting crisply focused shots on particular subjects in a composition, enabling you to get an item in focus and hold focus before taking the shot.
However, the camera shooting button on the side isn't the best for doing this, as it has an almost touch-like action, barely depressing when focusing and shooting.
The lack of 'feel' when pressing means heavy-fingered users could snap before they're ready, and it requires a delicate touch to get it right. It's a bit too fiddly for our liking, with the shutter lagging when pressed, so you can easily miss that shot of your friend 'hilariously' falling out of a window.
The user interface is mid-level LG, not offering the raft of neat features used on its higher grade camera phones. There's the usual supply of effects, white balance tweaking, brightness and basic ISO settings plus night mode, timer and multi-shot options.
In addition, a Text Scan option enables you to take snaps of handwritten memos or drawings by converting shots into bright, high contrast black-and-white images from close-up shots.
Bright background: The 5-megapixel camera on the LG Chocolate BL20 is capable of achieving decent results. Here, shooting into a rising sun, colours are bright and subtle in places
The LG Chocolate BL20 delivers decent image quality. Colours are bright and well balanced, and there's sufficient detail in images for acceptable prints.
Contrast and exposure are also handled capably by the auto-metering system. It's not comparable to the best 5MP camera phones however, and would likely be slapped down in a techno-cage fight with standalone 5MP cameras.
Decent detail: The camera does provide a decent amount of detail for this grade and longer range images are reasonably sharp
Low light performance is not particularly impressive, and the flash offers only limited illumination over short distances – although that's perfect for capturing far off, blurry photos of possible UFOs late at night.
Darker side: In lower lighting conditions, the camera doesn't perform as well. The flash can deliver short range illumination brightly, but images aren't as crisp
The BL20's video facility is limited to capturing MPEG4 video at QVGA resolution at maximum 15 frames per second, so self-recorded footage is mediocre on playback.
You can watch sideloaded or downloaded video clips too, although the phone is limited here, too, supporting 30fps playback of just MPEG4 and H.263 files – DivX fans, you're sadly out of luck.
The MP3 player fielded on the LG Chocolate BL20 is standard issue mid-tier fare. It doesn't do anything particular whizzy, presenting music playing categories in a regular list format, while the player controls are operated by the touch navigation pad.
There are a familiar set of options for equaliser sound tweaking, plus shuffle and repeat, and cover art is supported if available.
The BL20's software automatically identifies new music and files it accordingly, with the likes of MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA files supported.
Music can be loaded onto the phone using the USB sync cable and supplied LG PC Suite software, via Bluetooth, or slipped quietly in through the optional MicroSD card (optional because you have to buy the thing – damn you LG).
The phone has a modest 60MB of internal storage, although it supports MicroSDs up to 16GB, slipped in under the back cover. Mass storage drag-and-dropping is another file transfer option.
There's no 3.5mm headphone socket on the BL20's bodywork, although the supplied 2-piece headset does have an adaptor that allows you to plug in your own ear-gear via the awkward side-mounted multi-purpose microUSB socket.
We say awkward, but what we mean is hair-tuggingly frustrating when you try to pull the phone out of your pocket when listening to tunes, only to find it caught on that pointless little coin pocket – forcing you to wiggle and dance and realise you should probably lose some weight.
Sound quality through the supplied earphones is decently acceptable, with a reasonably well balanced sound across the frequency range; it can be a touch toppy however, but has punchy bass underpinning it.
Try better quality headphones, like our reference affordable Sennheiser CX300's, and you'll get a much richer audio experience – something we'd definitely recommend trying.
In addition to the music player, the Chocolate BL20 includes a serviceable FM radio with RDS that's simple to tune either automatically or manually.
This can be played through the loudspeaker, though earphones need to be plugged in. The loudspeaker isn't particularly pleasing on the ears, in typically tinny mobile fashion – so it's a no-no on the bus or Tube.
Battery life is acceptable on the LG Chocolate BL20 - with LG calculating that its 900mAh battery pack can keep the phone running for up to 450 hours on standby or provide up to 5 hours talktime.
With fewer power-sapping features than big-hitting high-end touchscreen phones, we found it delivered a steady two to three days of power with our typical use, though heavier usage of features like the music player will take a greater toll on power consumption.
Organiser
LG doesn't spring too many surprises on the organiser and tools front. The memo and calendar widgets may be useful extras, but most of the organiser apps are standard functional stuff – calendar, tasks, memo, plus there are alarm clock, voice recorder, stopwatch, calculator, unit convertor and world clock tools onboard.
There's also a photo memo option that works with the Text Scan camera tool, and a date finder, which enables you to look up a date a certain number of days ahead - which could be handy for some cool and happening hip-cats, we guess.
Connectivity
The LG Chocolate BL20 is equipped for dual-band UMTS 900/2100 3G and tri-GSM 900/1800/1900 network usage (meaning it will work in the US).
It supports HSDPA high-speed 3G mobile data connectivity (up to 3.6Mbps) and GPRS/EDGE on GSM networks.
As a mid-tier phone, it doesn't have Wi-Fi onboard. Bluetooth 2.1, with A2DP, is supported, and synchronisation can be carried out over the air with a PC using Bluetooth and the supplied LG PC Suite software, or via the supplied USB data cable.
Other
LG has kept the Chocolate BL20 minimalist in the extra apps department. There's a Yahoo search facility pre-loaded, which when selected takes you online, but there were no other apps to speak of in our review sample.
On the games front, there were just a couple of Java options – Sudoku Café and Mini Game Planet, which offers a selection of simple games – but don't go expecting the dizzy-making blowing games from the Chocolate BL40.
While the LG Chocolate BL40 was a stunning-looking touchscreen headline-grabber, the Chocolate BL20 is more a mid-tier style phone.
That's not to say the BL20 hasn't got plenty of design pizzazz to make people sit up and take notice, but its features rundown marks it as a steady mid-range 3G handset than anything more wow-worthy.
Visually, it certainly has a glossy chic appeal about it, though the glow-through touch navigation pad maybe doesn't have quite the shock of the new that the original Chocolate had.
Style-conscious users who aren't drawn to the obvious fashionable touchscreen contenders may find this sleek slider attractive, particularly at its mid-range price point.
We liked
The bodywork design of the LG Chocolate BL20 is impressive – minimalist chic that's given a distinctive look by the glowing touch-sensitive controls.
Its responsive slider number pad makes texting a breeze, and the menu system and interface will be intuitive for most mobile users.
The 5MP camera, while not top of the camera-phone class, produced decent enough results too for a style-majoring handset.
The music player performance through the supplied earphones was okay too, and the 3.5mm headphone adaptor enabled us to improve that significantly by adding our own headphones.
HSDPA connectivity was welcome, and it presented pages reasonably well for a feature phone like this.
We disliked
Some people love touch sensitive controls, others feel the opposite way.
We found that they were generally fine for navigation, though they could get accidentally brushed in passing during everyday use, inadvertently selecting options or opening functions. Not a deal-breaker by any stretch, but a trait that's not so common in more conventional slider phones.
As an upgrade to LG's Chocolate range, we'd have liked to have seen a few more high-end features – such as Wi-Fi and GPS – to make it stand out from other 3G mid-rangers for more than just its looks.
We'd have preferred, too, a dedicated 3.5mm headphone socket on the bodywork rather than an awkward side-mounted multi-connector for earphones, but at least LG supplies an adaptor in-box.
Verdict
As sweet-looking as the LG Chocolate BL20 is, it's not as tempting as it might have been had LG stacked it up with more functionality to go with its fine design.
Its feature rundown is decent enough for a mid-level 3G phone, but it's not innovative or particularly exciting, and touch sensitive controls, while eye-catching, aren't as in vogue as touchscreen operation.
Nonetheless, the design is still distinctive and stylishly elegant, and this will no doubt draw many admirers looking for a minimalist chic alternative at a mid-range price.
Related Links- More mobile phone reviews
- TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
- Search for the best LG Chocolate BL20 deals at Omio
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In Depth: 10 social networks they don't want you to join
"FYI Bobsy. Seychelles. West Beach Bar, North Island. Sunday. See you there 12-ish? David and Victoria send their love. Ciao. Danni"
If that's the kind of message that pops into your inbox on an average week day, chances are you're a member of the one of the growing number of elite social networks designed to connect the rich, famous, powerful and/or beautiful. Sometimes all four.
What distinguishes the following social networks from the likes of Facebook is that they're designed to be exclusive, attracting a few thousand or even a few hundred like-minded individuals.
Oh, and you usually have to be invited by a member to join or go through a rigorous approvals process. Jealous, much? We'll see. But just remember what Groucho Marx said when he telegrammed his resignation to the Friar's Club of Beverley Hills - "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member."
Here are 10 social networks you probably won't get to join…
1. ASmallWorld
One of the first and most exclusive European social networks around, consisting of 'culturally influential people who are connected by three degrees [of separation]'.
You have to be invited to join by one of its existing 55,000 members - and, even then, there's no guarantee that you'll be accepted. The management team is headed up Patrick Liotard-Vogt, who can't live without his iPhone.
2. Decayenne
One of the first social networks to cater to an elite membership, Decayenne was founded in 2001 by a trio of German entrepreneurs. Membership is usually by invitation, although you can also apply to join.
Decayenne describes itself as an 'oasis of inspiration and entertainment' for 'cosmopolitan, independent, value-driven, tolerant, liberal, non-conformists.' Not many Premier League footballers, then?
3. Beautifulpeople
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say, so make sure you're scrubbed up before you submit your photo and membership application to this exclusive website. Your details will be reviewed and rated by existing 'beautifulpeople' so if you don't get in you only have your parents and genetics to blame.
4. Qube
Another private social network for the world's elite, brought to you by London-based concierge service Quintessentially. It's stuffed full of business opportunities, travel guides and exclusive social events for its members, of which there were said to be some 20,000 in 2007.
5. HotEnough
Like Beautifulpeople, HotEnough is a social networking /dating site for the physically attractive, and you have to go through a rigorous screening process to become a member. This includes submitting three photos of yourself, which must be approved a judging panel before your pics are put in front of other HotEnough members.
Get a score of 25 or more and you're in - although you then have to maintain a score of at least six to remain one of its 'attractive, fit and trendy singles'. No, a paper bag and a mankini will not do.
6. Teazel
'Hey dude, wanna join my social network?', 'Radical man, that's gnarly.' Yes, Teazel is a invite-only social network for (non web) surfer types so you'll be able to enjoy lots of stimulating conversation about 'waxing your board' and 'pumping'. Teazel has members all around the world, but they're probably all called Brad.
7. Squ.are
Describes itself as the 'most definitive, comprehensive, all-encompassing yet exclusive medium through which one can perceive, understand, enjoy, appreciate and share the Luxurealism of this world.'
In other words Squ.are features lots of home-made videos from very rich people (including Hayden Panettiere), with an emphasis on fashion, fast cars and far-flung destinations. Oh, and it's invite only.
8. LifeAt.com
If you live in a posh condo in places like London, New York or Los Angeles you might get an invite to this community website shoved though your door. The aim is to help people in the same building to meet up, attend parties and swap gossip about each other. Get the butler to RSVP on your behalf.
9. Affluence.org
You can guess from the name that this private social network isn't aimed at your average Joe Beergut. Membership of the 2,000 strong group is free, but you have to have a net worth of over $3 million (£1.94 million) or have an annual income of $300,000 (£195,000).
If you can get five existing members to recommend you, you might just scrape in as being someone of influence. Benefits include the usual high society shenanigans and a 24/7 concierge service for those times when you really, really must have a diamond tiepin in the middle of the night.
10. Angel's Circle
This VIP luxury social network is so secretive you have to email them just to find out what they do – in which case you've already failed the first test. Of course, you have to have an invitation from an existing member to join and, no, they don't accept Tesco Clubcard points.
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Legal film downloading on the decline
The amount of consumers getting their movies online has slowed, with the lack of format compatibility cited as one of the reasons for the slowdown.
A report by Screen Digest has noted that digital movie downloads in 2009 hit $291 million in the US – some $70 million off of the projected target.
While movie distributors are hoping that digital is the next big thing for getting movies into homes, the names behind the technology don't seem to be doing enough to plug the gap left by dwindling DVD sales.
Blu-ray sales may be improving but price-wise it is still very much a premium product – unlike the relatively cheaper alternative that is digital.
Interest isn't there
There is a worry, however, that various DRM implementations putting people off purchasing digital copies of movies.
"Digital downloading is characterised by its restrictions – it's all about what viewers can't do, rather than what they can do," said Arash Amel, a Research Director with Screen Digest.
He continued: "The market just cooled off… This wasn't caused by economic factors – the level of interest in digital downloads just isn't there."
Hollywood will just have to set its sights on another emerging technology to give it the home entertainment boost it needs.
3D, anyone?
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Google Nexus One gets April UK release date?
Google's Nexus One looks set for an April UK release date, arriving on the Vodafone network.
The new phone, which will only be sold via Google's www.google.com/phone portal, has already launched in the US, but the UK had no release date until now.
The Nexus One's April UK release date might mean that it's actually beaten to market by the HTC Desire.
Battle royale
HTC have manufactured both, but with the latter the Taiwanese firm had put its own branding and own Android overlay on the mobile, meaning a clone-style battle for consumers' phone of choice.
However, the Nexus One will only be available through the Google portal, with little-to-no marketing push from Vodafone, so it will be interesting to see if Google actually markets the phone at all in the UK, given it hasn't in the US.
Early indications state that the Nexus One (which can already be purchased from Play.com) will cost between £500-£600 without a contract, although we haven't found out the cost if you sign up to a contract deal.
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Review: Moon 750D
Simaudio claims that the Moon 750D contains not only its most advanced digital-to-analogue converter yet, but that it's the first true 32-bit fully asynchronous digital audio player to reach the market.
It also describes this substantial machine as a DAC plus a transport, which is odd given that in most respects it seems to be an integrated player. It's the plethora of inputs and the fact that it can accept high-res digital signals that explains this approach.
The 750D is a superbly built player from a company that has extremely good form, so expectations are high for this new midrange model.
DAC or player?
Not many companies claim 32-bit conversion for their DACs. In fact, we could only find one other, namely Cary, whose Exciter DAC uses an AKM chipset.
In practice, there is no such thing as a 32-bit DAC, because all contemporary DACs are low-bit types that oversample at a high enough rate to give what is usually 24-bit resolution, but there's no reason why you can't run them faster.
MSB's Platinum DAC operates at 80-bits in its DSP, but the company only claims a bit depth of 26-bits and that's because it builds its own converters.
Ultimately, 'bits' are misleading because however many the DAC claims to use, any advantages are going to be lost in noise, so dynamic range is a more useful description of a DACs capabilities.
Moon claims the SABRE DAC, is greater than 130dB, while the best result that can be achieved with a good 24-bit DAC is just 144dB. Moon's description of the 750D as a DAC with a transport rather than a regular integrated player is backed up by the unusual range of digital inputs provided on its back panel.
As well as RCA phono and Toslink for electrical and optical S/PDIF inputs, it can accept AES/EBU inputs via XLR and has a USB socket. This should mean that if you have high-res music files on your laptop and the software to play them back, you can do so via this player.
I discovered, however, when talking to Moon's Dominique Poupart, that as it stands the USB input is limited to 16/44 operation. The other inputs will accept sampling rates up to 24-bit/192khz, so all you have to do is find a source that can output such a bitstream.
According to Moon, the SABRE DAC/filter achieves 'unprecedented jitter immunity and low-level linearity'. I don't know about the measurements, but it certainly sounds uncommonly clean, which would suggest that there is substance to this claim.
The transport side of the 750D is isolated by Moon's M-Quattro suspension system. This is a gel-based mounting that dampens resonances produced by the transport mechanism and the disc's rotation. The latter is useful because the majority of CDs aren't centred and can create quite a lot of extraneous energy when spun at a CD's high revs.
Analogue output connections are high quality examples of RCA phono sockets for single-ended and XLRs for balanced, while digital outputs come in electrical coaxial and AES/EBU forms.
Unusually, the 750D has two XLRs marked for external power supply, presumably something along the lines of the Cyrus PSX-R, which the manual says will be made available for this player in future.
Heavy metal
As you have a right to expect at this price, the Moon 750D is extremely well put together and suitably hefty. Its chassis is made up of aluminium slabs that have been precision machined to fit together perfectly.
The triangular section corner posts have threaded holes in their bottoms and Moon supplies four conical spikes to screw in. It also supplies little dimpled discs to put under the spikes to stop them from damaging a wooden surface.
The drawer is particularly nicely machined from a slim aluminium section and it opens with the sort of smoothness that you only get with high-end players – there are no clunks or whirring of motors here.
The front buttons are logically laid out for the most common functions, but the inscriptions are a little on the small side for more in-depth use. Most are replicated on the remote handset, which is another slab of alloy – this time powder coated, rather than machined.
This is intuitive to use and has volume and source functions that operate other Rc-5 protocol components. It also has an eject button, but none for track entry.
In its price range, the Moon 750D has some serious competition to contend with, such as the Wadia 381i, which also has plenty of digital inputs, albeit not USB, and can seemingly everything about itself when the music is fairly simple, yet when things get dense there is no sense of blurring or rush – everything is presented in a coherent and precise fashion with a degree of effortlessness that is rare even at silly price points.
It has something of the character of Boulder's 1021 in this respect, but manages to bring a little bit more of the soul of the music to the party. The Boulder is extraordinarily quiet and detailed, but somehow lacking in heart, while the Moon is a little warmer and less digital.
While not quite as musical as the Rega Isis, which is something of a master of this particular art, the 750 has a decent grasp of timing as it does with all the detail on the disc, or so it seems. Sometimes the sheer quantity of information can distract you from the musical message, but not in a bad way – it's more a case of hearing elements that had previously been masked.
Steely Dan's Boston Rag has a guitar solo on it, for instance, that has not really made much of an impression in the past, but here it becomes quite engrossing thanks to the new layers of tonal and textural detail that the Moon reveals. It also images with great precision.
Some discs like the aforementioned 'Dan' number are pretty constrained, but more up to date tracks, such as Antonio Forcione's Tears of Joy, produce a soundstage that's pushing at the walls and ceiling and coming well into the room. The Moon has plenty of dynamic range, albeit not as much as the best in class.
It doesn't get noisy around the edges in the way that many dynamic players do. You can keep turning the wick up, safe in the knowledge that digital edginess is not going to turn up. Detail With a spectacular recording it can create a full scale, 3D image that beggars belief and it can show you the precise nature of all the sounds on the disc.
Resolution revolution
This is unquestionably a superbly built and remarkably revealing CD player, or even DAC and transport in one box, and it allowed me to properly hear the constituent parts of well worn discs that have rarely been apparent in over 20 years of reviewing.
There are more musically engaging players, but you trade quite a bit of resolution for that elusive quality. If you enjoy true high-fidelity qualities this is a hard player to beat.
Add to this, its broad range of digital inputs and fabulous build quality and you have a star player even at its elevated price point.
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Guide: How to turn an old netbook into a NAS drive
The network-attached storage (NAS) business is booming. Everyone needs a convenient storage pod for the gigabytes of data they accumulate, and they want to be able to access it from anywhere on the local network and the wider internet.
As a result, the hardware is getting increasingly powerful. High-end NAS boxes for small businesses and large homes are moving from ARM processors to Intel's Atom platform, and turning simple file servers into far more capable mini-machines in the process.
One of these expanded NAS boxes could operate as a web server, a media transcoder, a UPnP streaming hub for your PS3 and Xbox, and even a virtual desktop. The only problem is that these boxes are expensive – and that's before buying the hard drives.
Fortunately, there's a cheaper way. These NAS boxes aren't the only hardware to use Intel's Atom: it's also used in many netbooks. These machines are often cheap, accessible and easily configurable, and they're all well suited to the task regardless of their age.
They're energy efficient, unburdened by extra hardware, feature both wireless and wired interfaces, and are small, quiet and cool. Attach a hard drive or two to a USB port, configure the operating system and you're ready to go.
We're going to turn one of these netbooks into a super-powered NAS using some external USB storage, a LAN connection and some install media.
1. Install UNR
Not all Linux-based operating systems for netbooks are equal. Linpus, as bundled with the original EeePC, is particularly ill-equipped for updates and customisation, so don't mess around with your default install if you ever want to use your machine as a netbook again.
For these reasons, and to keep your current netbook data safe, we're going to create a NAS configuration that will sit on a USB flash drive rather than your netbook's internal storage. This will enable you to return your netbook to normal laptop duties whenever the need arises by simply removing the USB stick.
However, you could omit the USB flash drive requirement and just install a new operating system over the old one if you prefer.
There are two popular netbook distributions that we could easily shoehorn into NAS operating systems. The first is Intel's Moblin, a finely tuned version of Linux that makes good use of a netbook's limited capabilities. The only problem is that it's not that easy to modify with simple packages.
That leaves us with Canonical's Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), a special version of its Ubuntu operating system tailored for netbook hardware and screen sizes. The great advantage that UNR has over Moblin is that it has access to the massive library of packages that are available to any Ubuntu user, so installing and configuring these packages is an identical process on both systems.
To install UNR on your netbook, you need to get hold of an ISO of the latest release. You then have two options. If you've got a Windows machine handy, burn the ISO to a disc and run the usb-creator.exe application from it. This will automatically install the distribution onto a USB stick without any further hassle.
The second option requires a machine running Ubuntu. Use the Synaptic package manager to download and install a package called usb-creator. After this is done, run USB Startup Disk Creator from the Launch menu. In the top panel of the window that appears, click on the 'Other' button and point the file requester in the direction of your UNR ISO. In the lower panel, make sure you select your inserted USB device and click on 'Format'. Get the wrong device and you'll lose any data it contains, so be careful.
The end result of both methods is that you'll have UNR installed on a USB stick. You can now boot into this operating system by simply inserting the USB stick into a spare port on your netbook and rebooting. When the UNR desktop appears, you're ready to reconfigure.
2. Add connections
Your netbook is going to need to be connected to your LAN, either through a wireless router or a wired one. The connection is configured through the Connection icon in the top-right border of the main UNR screen.
Wireless connections are easier to achieve. Your netbook hardware will be detected and your computer will join the network automatically after you've entered any required passwords. However, the wired connection is better for both power use and performance.
If you've got a spare Ethernet port on your wireless router, for example, you can use this to bridge the wireless connection from your network to the wired connection on your netbook. The wired connection will stop your wireless bandwidth becoming saturated if your NAS box is uploading or downloading from the internet, and will provide other wired devices with a faster route to your data.
UNR is designed to be easy to use on smaller devices. Instead of the old desktop metaphor used by standard Ubuntu, you'll find a large array of icons arranged to mimic Ubuntu's standard Launch menu. Click on a category in the left panel, for instance, and your screen will fill with the icons for the applications contained within the menu.
And when you launch an application, UNR cleverly merges the titlebar into your screen's top bar, saving space on small screens. But these are only cosmetic changes, and you'll find the same old Ubuntu beneath the surface. Now we need to configure it to automatically mount your remote storage.
When you connect your external USB storage device, UNR will automatically mount the device and launch the file manager to display its contents. Your device's actual location on the filesystem will depend on its type and name, but you can find any automatically mounted devices listed under the '/media' branch from the File System icon in the manager.
When you've identified your drive, make sure you remember its location; you'll need this to enable either the mount point (or, more sensibly, a folder within the mount point) to be shared across your LAN.
3. Install Samba
Before augmenting your NAS with any other features, it's important to get the basic functionality right. To share files on your netbook USB drive with all the other machines in your network, you need to install a server called Samba.
This is the open-source implementation of Microsoft's network protocol, which means that it will work with all of the Windows, OS X and Linux machines on your LAN. It's the most common fileserver system and it's used by many NAS devices.
UNR doesn't waste netbook space installing Samba by default, so you need to install it manually. As with the desktop version of Ubuntu, this is best done through the Synaptic package manager, which can be found in the Administration section of the System group of applications. Just search for samba and install the resulting package.
After the package has installed, switch back to the file manager view for your USB storage device. Create the directory you want to be shared across your network and rightclick on the folder. You should now see 'Sharing Options' listed in the menu that appears. When you select this, a window will open.
From that window, enable the 'Share this folder' and 'Guest Access' options. The latter could be a security risk, as it means anyone with access to your LAN will be able to read the files on your NAS. This is fine if you trust your network, but unacceptable if your network is shared. In those cases, leave 'Guest access' disabled and make sure that each machine you want to share the folder with has a user account and password that has an identical name and password to an existing account on your netbook.
You might also want to tick the 'Allow others to create and delete files in this folder' box, unless you want your file sharing to be read-only.
When you've finished with the options, click on 'Create share' and 'Add the permissions automatically' in the window that pops up. You should see that the folder icon for your share now has two arrows across it to indicate that the folder is being shared across your LAN.
4. Access your files
You can now access your files from other computers on your LAN, and your NAS box should appear within their network folders.
If you need to specify an address, such as from OS X's 'Go | Connect to a Server' menu or Gnome's equivalent 'Go | Location' menu option, then type smb://ubuntu into the location field. This is the default hostname for our new installation, and 'smb' is requesting access through the Samba protocol.
After a few seconds, you'll see the folder you just created appear, and you'll be able to access files and folders within that directory as if they were local. Congratulations, your netbook is now a NAS device!
5. Add online backup
To bring your NAS in line with more functional boxes, it's time to add some packages. Backup is at the top of our list, and UNR has a feature called Ubuntu One that's perfect for this job.
This service automatically copies your local files to a remote server. You can then download them from the server to any Ubuntu machine with an Ubuntu One account.
Configuration is easy: just look for the Ubuntu One logo in the Internet category, click on it and either enter your account information or create a new account. You'll then be asked to verify your computer's name and say that you'd like the data to be synced. A free account can store up to 2GB of data, but you can subscribe to the commercial service if you want to store more.
Switch to the file manager and you should see a new Ubuntu One folder. Anything you place here will be synchronised with the Ubuntu One server. Rightclick on it to enable it as a shared folder.
6. Security and remote access
There are many security issues surrounding opening your NAS box up to the internet, but UNR should be up to the task as long as you keep your system up to date and install any patches. You should receive automatic update alerts, but this can be a problem when using your netbook as a NAS if you end up not looking at the screen very often.
The easiest solution is to enable a mode where updates are applied automatically. Find and click on the Software Sources icon and in the window that appears switch to the Updates tab. This page manages the background update tasks, and you need to tick the 'Install security updates without confirmation' box and change the update frequency to one your connection can handle. 'Daily' is fine for most installations.
If you want internet access to your box, the safest way is to use SSH (the secure shell). This provides command-line access to your NAS box using a tool such as Putty on Windows machines, or the 'ssh' command in Linux. You'll need to install the opensshserver package on your box.
To connect, forward TCP port 22 to your NAS box through your router and log in with your standard account details. If you prefer a graphical desktop, install the tightvncserver package on your NAS and type tightvncserver:1 into the command line to create a new session.
Any VNC client on your LAN can now access a desktop on the NAS using the address 'ubuntu:1'. To access your desktop from the internet, use SSH to pipe the VNC port through the SSH connection with ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 ubuntu. address and use a local VNC client to access localhost:5901.
7. Add more functionality
The best reason for using UNR on a netbook to create a NAS is that you can augment your installation with all kinds of functionality, from web servers to media players.
One of the most popular is MediaTomb, a UPnP-compatible media streamer and transcoding tool that's easy to install and configure.
Install it by opening the Synaptic package manager on your netbook and searching for mediatomb. There will be several dependencies.
After installation has completed, switch to the Sound and Video application launcher window and you'll find a new MediaTomb icon. Double-click this and Firefox will launch, loading the MediaTomb web-configuration panel.
From MediaTomb's web page, you can navigate to your media files on your storage device. Click on the '+' symbol on the right to add them to the MediaTomb library.
MediaTomb supports all the most common media formats. After a few moments, you'll be able to view or listen to your content on any UPnP-compatible client such as Windows Media Player, RhythmBox, a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360.
To run a web server from your NAS box, install the apache2 package, then type http://localhost into Firefox to see a web page that declares 'It works!'.
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Nokia C-Series finally set for CeBIT launch
Nokia has offered up a huge hint (so huge that we're pretty sure it's true) that it will be launching the C-Series at CeBIT this week.
The new phone range, which we still have only limited information about its target audience, looks set to be unveiled on 2 March.
The series has been spotted in FCC submissions as well as being leaked in photos too, so it's pretty certain to be coming soon.
C you next Tuesday
In its Nokia Conversations blog, Nokia writes:
"This year's CeBIT 2010 event swings open its doors on Tuesday morning in Hannover, Germany.
"The show runs from 2-6 March, so scribble it in your diary as we'll be reporting from the frontline…Of course, we don't comment on rumours or leaks, but we are looking forward to C BIT for the next series of Nokia announcements.
"Right we're off to pack our rucksacks and lederhosen, C you there."
We have no idea why CeBIT, a mostly-component related event, would be a better time to release a new phone that, oooooh, we don't know, Mobile World Congress, but that seems to be Nokia's thinking at the moment.
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Bi-hourly Windows 7 RC shutdown begins
Microsoft is to begin bi-hourly shutdowns of the Release Candidate version of Windows, a process which is set to continue until 1 June.
We notified you last week that this was about to begin but the official date for the shutdowns is today – 1 March.
Up until 1 June these shutdowns will take place, then they will be replaced with a permanent 'cheapskate' branding on your computer.
This will come in the form of your wallpaper being removed, in its place the statement: "This copy of Windows is not genuine" will appear.
Clean install
If you have managed to wing your way through the bi-hourly shutdown by saving your work every other hour and waiting for a restart, then you will not be allowed to do any updates or downloads that need Windows validation.
In short, you are going to have to buy a copy of Windows 7 and do a clean install. Or, if you are really desperate to keep Windows 7 on the cheap, Microsoft is allowing a 90-day trial of its Windows 7 Enterprise edition – but this is recommended for IT professionals only.
But this is just delaying the inevitable, so you might as well cough up the money for the OS at some point.
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Review: JBL Everest DD66000
The Everest DD66000 is JBL's ultimate state-of-the-art hi-fi loudspeaker, a magnificently massive monumental affair that effectively doubles up the already dramatic K2s.
Indeed, if asked to nominate my all-time favourite among the thousand or so speaker systems that i've tried over the past twenty something years, I'd definitely pick the Everest's predecessor, the JBL K2 S9800. I was, therefore, unlikely to say no when asked whether i'd like to review a pair of DD66000s for the christmas holiday.
A quick Google, however, indicated some inevitable practical problems. This 'flagship' model is not only very expensive, it's also extremely heavy. Weight aside, it's also exceptionally large, though not unduly tall, while the front-to-back depth is surprisingly small.
It's also quite beautifully styled, in the way the large midrange horn is integrated into the front and in the classy veneered bass enclosure that forms a continuous curve around the sides and back. The result is very elegant and not unlike a large and beautifully made item of furniture. Construction is complex throughout to combat any possible colorations.
Non-Conformity
Nostalgia plays a part in an unusual shape, which harks back to the very successful 1950s Hartsfield corner horn design. This really put JBL on the Japanese audiophile map and Japan remains the major market for JBL's high-end Project designs.
A more prosaic and fundamental reason for this speaker's width lies in a driver line up that places two 380- millimetre bass drive units side by side across the front. These sit below a wide, but vertically quite narrow midrange horn (giving 100- degree by 60-degree directivity), which in turn sits below a tiny horn-loaded supertweeter (60-degree by 30-degree directivity).
That unusual collection of drivers and their disposition certainly doesn't conform to any current US 'high end' stereotype, but to JBL's history, which goes back to the 1920s. It's successful across every possible speaker category and has learned a thing or two along the way.
This Everest DD66000 might be large, heavy, very costly and decidedly different, but all aspects of Greg Timbers' acoustic design have undeniable logic, and industrial designer Daniel Ashcraft has also done a very neat job from a difficult brief.
Compression
This is at heart a two-way design, albeit "augmented" (as JBL puts it) with some extra help at both ends of the audio spectrum. The crossover points listed in the specifications explain how it operates.
The main crossover point, set at 700hz, transfers the signal from the inside 380-millimetre bass/mid driver to the horn-loaded 100-millimetre mid/treble compression driver.
The other (outside) 380-millimetre unit only operates up to 150hz, albeit with a relatively gentle six decibel/octave roll-off above that point. The 25-millimetre compression horn 'supertweeter' only comes in (and at a rapid 24-decibel/octave rate) at 20khz – effectively above audibility.
Whatever one's views about horn-loaded compression drivers, which are certainly regarded with some suspicion by some sectors of the hi-fi industry, using one allows JBL to place that major crossover point down at 700hz. That's some two octaves below the 2.5-3khz frequency used by the vast majority of conventional two-way direct radiator designs and a far better frequency for delivering properly coherent voice reproduction.
White paper
Using two 380-millimetre drivers to supply the bass for a domestic hi-fi system might seem over the top. But, having enjoyed the single example used in the K2 S9800, i too was nervous that this Everest would deliver altogether too much bottom end.
There was some excess to be sure, but not sufficient to be distracting, and thinking it through, such a large bass driver area actually makes plenty of sense. After all, the larger the area of the cones, the less the excursion required for the same loudness and the more closely it resembles the behaviour of a musical instrument.
Indeed, in some respects the bass driver area here has something in common with that supplied by horn-loaded bass, which has got to be a good thing. The sheer quantity of information in the Project Everest DD66000 Technical White Paper is rather overwhelming, with far more detail than we have space to cover properly.
Heavily edited highlights include very advanced drive units. Both horn-loaded units use beryllium dome diaphragms, 100 millimetre and 25 millimetre in diameter, while the 380 millimetre bass drivers have 320 millimetre diameter doped paper cones with concentric ring stiffening, and a complex motor with an Alnico magnet.
Uniquely, the crossover network uses two nine volt batteries to polarise key capacitors and improve their linearity. The horn enclosures are largely made from precision moulded SonoGlass, with a measure of mechanical isolation from the main enclosure.
The main carcase is made from different thicknesses of MDF, totalling 25 millimetres and with extensive bracing, while an extra leather-covered layer takes the front baffles up to 45 millimetres.
The ultimate top end
The speakers were positioned with normal left/right separation and as far from the rear wall as possible without blocking the doorway. Although a little closer to the wall than might have been desirable, I doubt it was much of a compromise, and the weight and bulk rendered further exploration impossible.
There was a bit too much bass when measured under our usual far-field, in-room averaged conditions, but around six decibels below 250Hz didn't seem too excessive. However, what was totally impressive was the remarkably flat and even tonal balance further up: the response from 300Hz all the way up to 10kHz was held within remarkably tight +/-1.5 decibel limits. The ultimate top end roll-off was mildly marred by a small 17kHz spike.
Not unexpectedly, sensitivity is generous, especially below 300Hz, if not quite as high as the specified 96 decibels above 300Hz. Furthermore, it's achieved alongside a fairly easy amplifier load, which stays between six and eight ohms over most of the range, only falling below five ohms at ultrasonic frequencies.
The pair match was very close indeed and the ports are tuned to a relatively low 28Hz, ensuring good response down to 20Hz (at 92 decibel sensitivity under our in-room conditions).
Headroom
The truly marvellous feature of this extraordinary speaker is its utterly magnificent headroom. There's no stress or strain at any level and if you start winding up the volume, it's pretty certain your ears or your amplifier will give up long before the Everests do.
In fact, until this degree of headroom is actually experienced, it's hard to believe it makes much difference, but believe me it does.
Tied in with this headroom is quite brilliant overall consistency. Play it whisper quiet so you don't disturb the household in the middle of the night and you still hear everything that's going on, albeit quietly. Turn it up as loud as you can, to near disco levels, and every note is clear as crystal. The JBL doesn't mind. It'll simply do its thing with impeccably smooth neutrality, and wonderfully coherent voices.
The overall character might err on the bright side for some tastes and systems and its openness is not kind to poor quality signals. Top quality amps and sources are essential here, even if the trim control helps a little.
Bass Monster
But the Everest's best feature for my money was the way it handled the bass guitar. This instrument is the foundation of truly great rock music and I've never heard a speaker deliver bass lines with better poise and delicacy as well as power. Strong but not heavy or intrusive, they're also exceptionally clean and subtle.
I dug out most of my Grateful Dead discs, simply because Phil Lesh's bass playing was so engrossing, and took similar pleasure with recordings featuring Jack Bruce, Jaco Pastorius, John Entwhistle and Jack Cassidy. Massive Attack's Mezzanine did sound rather too bass heavy, but conversely Mingus Ah Um seemed somewhat bass light, so one can hardly blame either on the speaker.
Coloration is exceedingly low, dynamic range is wide, dynamic expression is always vivid, while the speakers proved surprisingly involving and informative when handling notoriously 'difficult' material like early Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart recordings.
Horns do it differently, especially in imaging terms. They treat sound a little like lenses do light, focusing it into a beam. This reduces the proportion of room reflected sound in the total sound compared to conventional direct radiator designs. The result is remarkably sharp, precise and well focused images, giving great insight into the recording itself, but less of an illusion of musicians coming into the room.
Rattling the windows
Delivery and installation coincided with Rage Against the Machine's brilliant Killing in the Name download making the coveted christmas Number one slot. I celebrated by digging out my eponymous 1992 LP and using it to 'break in' the Everests.
Although my regular Naim NAP500's 150 watt falls somewhat short of the everest's stated 500 watt power handling, it still generated unfeasibly high levels, to the point where the the listening room windows started rattling while the JBLs showed no signs of stress whatsoever.
High sound levels come naturally to the Everests. They just go on getting louder without complaint or compression, make a great speaker for those into heavy dance/techno music and will go seriously loud without ever tending to sound aggressive.
The massive headroom and lack of strain is always very welcome. The generous sensitivity means that low noise amplifiers are preferable – some faint hiss became audible via the Naim amplifier when the world became after-midnight quiet, though not sufficient to spoil things. However, despite what JBL says, very low power valve amplifiers are also entirely practical.
The first watt matters most
The manual (with, one detects, a slightly sniffy air) suggests that the speakers: "will operate adequately with an amplifier or receiver of 70–100 watts", before going on to recommend 100–500 watts to "ensure optimal system performance".
In my experience, although the most powerful amplifiers are also usually the most expensive, they only rarely offer the best sound. Clearly the single-ended triode valve amplifier doesn't figure on JBL's radar, but i spent many delightful hours enjoying the Everests with a pair of three watt rated PX-4-based monoblocks, via a passive Music first pre-amplifier. Simplicity has its advantages.
While this is certainly a speaker for those who like to play their music loud, the Everest is also beautifully smooth and delicate at low and very low levels. Despite the undoubted qualities of my regular PMC's iB2i references, the JBL DD66000 does indeed go a long way towards justifying its much higher price and actually seems rather good value by high-end speaker standards.
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Review: Beyerdynamic T1
Beyerdynamic has decided to set high-strength magnets at the core of the design for its flagship headphone, the T1.
Nestling inside its sculpted foam aluminium flight case, the T1 is a handsome beast, all svelte, business-like industrial design, which leaves a lot of other pricey cans looking almost crass by comparison.
Behind the classy mesh grilles on the satin aluminium and plastic earcups are diaphragms made of two-ply foil, which features low moving mass and good inherent self-damping.
Fastened to the diaphragms are 600 ohm voice coils, again lightweight examples of the breed designed to optimise the T1's dynamic response.
The drivers are fitted to the front of the earcups, angled back towards the ear. What Beyerdynamic has tried to achieve with these drivers is a similar trick to that managed by the classic F-15 fighter plane – very high power to weight ratio.
The F-15's party piece is accelerating through the sound barrier whilst climbing vertically – the T1's skill is a very low-mass diaphragm in a very dense magnetic field of 1.2 Tesla. The result should be a very crisp, fast and transparent sound with low distortion (quoted at 0.05 per cent).
Made in Germany
To hold the T1 is to want a pair: it's that simple, as these really are very well-built 'phones. The laser-cut headband with its firm, but forgiving padding has minimalist good looks in abundance.
The three-metre cable, a double-sided, six-core balanced type terminated in a gold-plated Neutrik 6.35mm jack, feels reassuringly proofed against unintended tugs.
To cap it all, despite not being a featherweight item, the T1 remained comfortable to wear for hours on end, though comfort varies, so has to be checked on a listener-by-listener basis. For the price they command, I have to say I was already tempted to shell out on a pair, in the hope they'd sound as good as they look.
Tesla to the test
In a nutshell, the T1's sound mimicked its appearance: clean, crisp and persuasive. Hooked up first to Beyer's own A1 headphone amp, midrange and treble were detailed and revealing without being in any way fatiguing. Bass had an attractive weight to it, especially on electronic music like The Knife's Silent Shout album.
On the other hand, imaging and soundstaging were both a little restricted, indicating the need to put some more hours on the drivers. Over the course of three or four days with various CDs on repeat, the extra hours paid off in a better controlled bottom end, more finely detailed treble and midrange, and superior overall transparency.
Now the T1 had a more fluid, natural sound, which was musical in a way which kept me listening. In one respect, the T1's character (and it does have a definite character) reminded me of Lowther's DX5 driver. Sharing high magnetic flux density and neodymium magnets, the two have a very crisp, detailed sound with an emphasis on the upper midrange, which brings detail forward.
While the T1 could never be described as slow, its dynamic agility is less obvious, the boost to the upper midrange balanced against a lift in the lower bass to give subjectively a slightly slower sound.
The final analysis
The T1 may not be a strictly accurate headphone, but it pays its way sonically. Those high-sensitivity drivers uncover a lot of detail and the lift in the midrange gives them a real sense of presence.
The sum of these parts is a welcome new arrival among the ranks of high-end headphones, one which should definitely be auditioned alongside Sennheiser's acclaimed HD800.
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LG bringing 15-inch OLED TV to Europe
LG has announced that it will be bringing its 15-inch OLED TV to Europe in the near future.
The Korean electronics firm is going to launch the EL9500 OLED panel TV into Austria first this May, as it seeks to push the nascent TV technology.
Previously, the only OLED TV on sale was from Sony, the XEL-1, but this was only 11-inches big and cost nearly £3,000 in the UK.
Beating Sony
Sony has since withdrawn this model from the shelves in Japan, likely spreading to the rest of the world, meaning LG's EL9500 OLED TV will be the only one on the market.
The new model will also 'only' cost €1,999 (£1,750) when it arrives, which might sound a lot for a TV that only has a 1366x768 pixel count.
We've sadly not got a UK release date or price, but we're hoping that it won't be too long before this 15-inch TV is gracing our local Curry's.
But inch-for-inch it's a lot cheaper than Sony's effort, and at 1.7mm thick, it may even provide enough wow factor when you try and explain to the other half why you spent so much on a new TV for the shed.
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Review: Clearaudio Emotion SE
The Emotion was Clearaudio's first budget turntable when it appeared two years ago. This new SE version is the German acrylic meister's grown up incarnation of that simple, but beautifully executed record player.
It comes complete with Clearaudio's Satisfy carbon Directwire tonearm and a Beta-S MM cartridge as a fit and forget package with a good pedigree.
Clearaudio, after all, makes some of the most ambitious designs in the high end market. The original Emotion continues at the lower price of £1,140, so the question is does this SE version represent the same great value?
Ceramic magnetic
For the SE, Clearaudio has upgraded a number of key aspects of the standard Emotion. For a start, the platter is 28 millimetres thick, an increase of 10 millimetres, a change which will add mass and thus increase inertia.
The company is using CNC-machined GS-PMMA (Perspex) for the platter and a ceramic alloy for the bearing; the shaft that sticks up from the bottom half of the bearing is white and only needs lubricating once every few years. It avoids the need for a thrust pad by using opposing magnets to take the load of the platter.
The main plinth is precisely hewn from 20-millimetre acrylic and supported on rubber-tipped aluminium feet. The standard Emotion has acrylic cones which, while they look cute, do little to keep out resonance. The new feet also offer precision adjustment, a useful feature for a turntable with a dynamically balanced arm like that supplied.
The freestanding motor comes in a very solid metal case, which has a separate stainless steel base to provide some mass damping and gives the motor greater stability. The drive pulley is acrylic again and is held on to the ceramic drive shaft by three nylon grub screws – screws that have slot heads in and are rather vulnerable to excess force.
The same is true of the grub screws in the new arm base – the standard incarnation has a hole in the acrylic plinth, but here CA has added the type of base found in its dearer models.
The arm itself is a well-executed, simple design with gimbal bearings and a magnetic anti-skate system, which consists of a lockable bolt with a magnet in its tip. The arm's appearance is deceptive in some ways, because it has sapphire and ceramic bearings and a woven carbon fibre arm tube for low mass and high rigidity.
The Directwire in the name points to the fact that the arm wiring runs unbroken all the way from the cartridge tags through to the phono plug. It's something which is not uncommon in many arms, but represents a variation on the output sockets approach found in other CA designs.
Also included in the well-designed packaging is a Souther clever clamp, a plastic record clamp which uses friction to pin the vinyl down. Although the clamp looks a bit like a cheap plastic coaster, it does work effectively.
Clearaudio supplies a spare belt too, as well as bearing oil and a dedicated alignment gauge for ease of set up, not to mention a selection of Allen keys and jeweller's screwdrivers to do the job with.
The supplied Aurum Beta-S cartridge is the top model in CA's moving magnet range and retails for £455 on its own. The cartridge mount is attached to the Satisfy arm tube with CA's distinctive single bolt fixing.
Vorsprung Durch Acrylic
The build and finish which Clearaudio consistently achieves is a good enough reason on its own to buy a turntable like this: if you like the look of matt acrylic, it's a real winner.
Attention to detail is excellent wherever you look. The adjustable feet, for instance, have three holes around their periphery where you can slip in a suitable lever (a screwdriver or allen key) and then turn to achieve the desired height. It's a stiff turn – hence the need for leverage – but that's because the thread is damped to kill resonance.
The motor casing is also superbly cast and finished with bead blasted chrome that looks bullet proof by audio engineering standards. The ceramic magnetic bearing is also quite a luxury and not something I've seen on turntables in this price range before.
Analogue thrill power
There is no shortage of good and very good turntables available for this sort of money, the one which immediately springs to mind is last year's award winner, the Townshend Rock 7.
Although the Townshend is a little bit more expensive when an arm and cartridge is included, without doubt it sets the standard at this cost. There's the Linn LP12 Majik for the same price, and Funk Firm's remarkably nimble V2, which offers a stack of analogue thrill power for £1,390 including an arm if not a cartridge.
Sound quality
The Emotion SE is not particularly difficult to set up thanks to the supplied alignment gauge, but it does reveal any shortcomings in that department, as I found out when I set downforce at what appeared to be the recommended two grammes. This resulted in occasional groove-skipping, which I managed finally to eliminate only once I'd screwed the counterweight further onto its threaded stub in order to take the tracking weight up to a not inconsiderable 2.4 kilograms.
Properly fettled, this turntable produces a full scale and open sound which is strong on timing and imaging, but not quite so hot on absolute precision, there's a slight halo around voices and instruments that adds a bit of life and presence to proceedings, but it's not there in the grooves themselves.
That said, the Emotion SE is a very enjoyable and engaging listen which does a fine job of pulling out fine detail across the band. Phantom Limb's percussion work is fully evident on Don't Say A Word, and the acoustic guitar is extremely convincing: I found it easy to let myself be carried away to another time and place by this song.
The Clearaudio is also very good at revealing the sense of 'being there' that live recordings can deliver, the extra air that it adds to the mix sounding highly realistic especially if you don't push the level too hard.
You can only really tell that this stylish turntable is elaborating slightly on the recorded truth by comparing it with something better, specifically the Townshend Rock 7 with a Rega arm and Goldring 1006 MM cartridge onboard. This combination delivers a cleaner, more substantial overall result which benefits from a wider dynamic range as well.
Judged on its own terms, the Emotion SE is a very capable turntable that's as much at home playing Beethoven piano sonatas as it is Led Zeppelin. Indeed, I was quite surprised at how much foot-thumping it dug out on the LZ track Hangman, there's clearly little restriction on bass depth.
In addition, its presentation also lower level listening, where the air and sparkle it finds on the disc serves to provide contrast and timbral richness.
Resolution revolution
While not as good as the very best performers in its class, the Clearaudio Emotion SE is no slouch either, and it's beautifully put together – rather more so than the Townshend, it has to be said.
Its sound is clearly a marked upgrade on that provided by the regular Emotion, and elements like the adjustable feet and arm base make it a lot easier to install and set up. I enjoyed the life it brings to the party without adding too much of its own character as acrylic platters sometimes can.
At the end of the day, I found myself playing the Prodigy far too loud which is always a good sign.
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WIN! Three Humax HD-FOX T2 Freeview HD boxes worth £180 each!
Good news - Freeview HD is finally rolling out across the UK during the next few months!
To celebrate, TechRadar has teamed up with the set-top box experts at Humax to give away a Humax HD-FOX T2 Freeview HD box to three lucky winners in time for the HD switch-on!
High definition programming has, of course, been available from the likes of Sky and Freesat for a while.
Freeview HD has been a long time coming though - but the wait for free-to-air HD TV through standard TV aerials is nearly over.
- Read: Humax HD-FOX T2 review
By June 2010, around 50 per cent of UK homes will be able to enjoy Freeview HD. To check whether you can receive Freeview HD in your area use the Freeview HD coverage checker.
The one drawback, of course, is that current Freeview boxes will not be able to receive the HD channels. So while they'll still work with existing standard definition stations, you'll need a new HD box if you want to enjoy the HD content (BBC HD, ITV HD and Channel 4 HD at first, and Five HD coming soon).
The Humax HD-FOX T2 is one of those very boxes – the first, in fact, to hit the UK market.
It's not just a simple set-top box either. The powerful and lightweight unit comes packing some nifty features – not least an Ethernet port for connecting to the internet.
In the future, Humax will issue firmware upgrades to the T2 via this Ethernet port. And this will eventually enable you to access video-on-demand services like the BBC iPlayer.
A forthcoming firmware update will also turn the T2 into a PVR - you'll be able to plug in USB storage devices and not only play back digital video files and pictures, but also record TV programmes you don't want to miss.
Click here to enter the competition
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Please note that this competition is only open to UK residents over 18 years of age.
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Online news now more popular than print in US
A new survey reveals that more people read their news online in America than in a printed newspaper, although local and national TV is still the primary source of news for most.
Online news is now the third most-popular form of news according to new reports from the Pew Research Center for people and the press.
"News awareness is becoming an anytime, anywhere, any device activity for those who want to stay informed," said the new report.
TV, radio, online
61 per cent of readers surveyed said they got their news online, 78 per cent from local TV news and 71 per cent from a national TV network such as NBC, CNN or Fox News.
Interestingly, 90 per cent of those surveyed use more than one method to get news.
"Americans have become news grazers both on and offline - but within limits," said Amy Mitchell, deputy director for the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
"They generally don't have one favourite website but also don't search aimlessly. Most online news consumers regularly draw on just a handful of different sites."
Only 50 per cent of those surveyed were regular readers of printed newspapers.
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Final Fantasy XIV closed beta launch plans
Fans of Square Enix's forthcoming MMO Final Fantasy XIV will be glad to hear that the game is set to enter beta testing as soon as March 11th.
Square Enix has announced that its upcoming MMO will get a closed beta launch this month at VanaFest 2010, a fan event for Final Fantasy XI Online.
More FFIX testing opps to come
Square Enix said that the invite only beta would limited to only a small number of players, adding:
"Those who were not selected in this drawing, fear not, for there will be other opportunities to come."
VanaFest attendees were also given details on three upcoming add-ons for Final Fantasy XI: Vision of Abyssea, Scars of Abyssea and Heroes of Abyssea.
As far as Final Fantasy console gaming goes the latest rumours suggest that Square Enix may well be prepping a 3D version of Final Fantasy XIII. Yet another reason to invest in a new 3D telly!
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Natal set to revolutionise much more than gaming
The co-founder of games developer Naughty Dog has indicated that the non-gaming uses of Microsoft's Project Natal will present the company with a massive opportunity to appeal to casual and non-gamers.
Speaking on GameTrailer's Bonus Round, Jason Rubin has said Natal could "revolutionise more than gaming" and that he believed that motion-based games were going to come to dominate gaming and that Natal could make the Xbox 360 more appealing to casual and non-gamers.
"I think Natal and things like Natal are going to revolutionise more than gaming," said Rubin.
Things you can do outside of gaming
"Putting Natal in the Xbox gives it the opportunity to become a lot more than just a gaming machine... the things you can do outside of gaming justifies buying Natal."
"If Microsoft plays its cards right it can sell far more Xbox's ... to people who don't buy games."
Rubin left Naughty Dog in 2004 and is now Chief Executive of studio Monkey Gods.
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Read More ...
Natal set to revolutionise much more than gaming
The co-founder of games developer Naughty Dog has indicated that the non-gaming uses of Microsoft's Project Natal will present the company with a massive opportunity to appeal to casual and non-gamers.
Speaking on GameTrailer's Bonus Round, Jason Rubin has said Natal could "revolutionise more than gaming" and that he believed that motion-based games were going to come to dominate gaming and that Natal could make the Xbox 360 more appealing to casual and non-gamers.
"I think Natal and things like Natal are going to revolutionise more than gaming," said Rubin.
Things you can do outside of gaming
"Putting Natal in the Xbox gives it the opportunity to become a lot more than just a gaming machine... the things you can do outside of gaming justifies buying Natal."
"If Microsoft plays its cards right it can sell far more Xbox's ... to people who don't buy games."
Rubin left Naughty Dog in 2004 and is now Chief Executive of studio Monkey Gods.
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Universal Music loses 'cute baby' YouTube case
Mother Stephanie Lenz got into a spot of bother with major music label Universal Music Group back in 2007, after posting a YouTube video of her cute toddler dancing to Prince song "Let's Go Crazy."
Universal were quick to send out a letter demanding removal of the clip and YouTube complied.
EFF to the rescue
Lenz did not take too kindly to this move, however, contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to get a judge to declare that her video was "fair use" and thus demanding damages against Universal for sending out their takedown request.
Universal is now required to pay Lenz's attorney's fees, deems a new ruling by a California district court judge, in a case that is sure to set an important precedent for "fair use" of copyrighted material online.
Lenz can now recover all legal fees associated with fighting the takedown, but not necessarily fees the fees associated with the cost of pursuing Universal for damages in follow-up litigation.
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Microsoft offers browser choices to Europeans
Microsoft is to set to ask millions of Europeans if they wish to use a browser other than Internet Explorer this week, as part of a deal with the European Commission.
A pop-up window will prompt users to choose one of 12 different browsers or simply stick with Microsoft's own Internet Explorer.
The browser choice software will be delivered to users of Windows XP, Vista or 7 as part of Windows Update system this week, although users of non-IE browsers such as Opera, Safari, Chrome or Firefox will not see it.
An important choice
The software will give the user the prompt: "An important choice to make: your browser" leading to a screen with the list of the 12 web browsers available, with Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer randomly ordered on the first section.
Seven lesser-known browsers - Sleipnir, Green Browser, Maxthon, Avant, Flock, K-meleon, and Slim - are randomly ordered on the rest of the screen.
Each listing contains a small amount of information on the browser in question and a download button.
The choice screen will keep appearing until a user has selected their preferred browser. Anyone wanting to stick with IE will be prompted to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8.
Net Applications currently claims that Microsoft IE is used by around 62 per cent of web users worldwide, followed by Firefox which has a 24 per cent market share.
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