Purist audiophiles always come back to the DAPs and high-resolution audio players to enjoy their favorite music collection in high definition. Sony has a foothold in the hi-res audio game for as long as memory goes back, and they continue to offer some of the best players for music listening. Walkman MW-A306 released last year is a favorite one for music lovers.

Teenage Engineering resonates the same value for its consumers with a broader portfolio of innovative and unconventional audio gadgets. Both Sony and TE have things like modern design, Gen-Z targeting and sublime quality at their helm to attract a niche set of audio lovers. We certainly love TE and so does the community of designers who have been mustering up cool concepts inspired by the Stockholm-based electronics company. If you’re a purist audiophile, this portable CD player with built-in speaker is a must-have addition to your collection.

Designer: Evgeniy Vakulich

This cool concept of collaborating together the two loved brands is surely going to bring the heat to the likes of Astell&Kern, Fiio, iBasso and Shanling. Interestingly called the Pony Project, the DAP has the design DNA and color theme of Teenage Engineering. It gets a digital display to show the currently playing music and library elements to search for tracks. All the other buttons for toggling the elements like the tempo, loop, mode or FX. The tactile input for the L-Shift, R-Shift, Mic, Select and Start is heavily inspired by the Teenage Engineering aesthetics.

The top of the gadget has the volume rockers, bass and treble, power and stop buttons. A lot of mind has been put into the design and conceptualization of the music player by Evgeniy. The popular color theme of the TE products is so good to see in a DAP which usually comes in contemporary dark hues. If you’ve already not noticed, the audio player comes with the Pony branding which dupes the Sony brand name.

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Hot on the heels of the new Beats Solo 4 headphones and Solo Buds earbuds, eagle-eyed fans spotted F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo and basketball star LeBron James carrying what appears to be a brand new Beats Pill speaker. This has ignited speculation about a potential revival of the popular portable speaker line, discontinued in early 2022.

The original Beats Pill, launched in 2012, quickly gained a loyal following for its compact size, bold design, and surprisingly good sound quality. After Apple acquired Beats in 2014, they introduced the slightly larger Pill+ in 2015, addressing some sound quality concerns and adding a Lightning port for charging (likely to be replaced with USB-C in the new iteration).

These celebrity sightings with the new Pill come across as a calculated marketing strategy, similar to how the Beats Pill gained traction in the past. The new Beats Pill maintains the familiar pill-shaped design of its predecessors, measuring roughly 8 inches long and 2.5 inches wide. It retains the clean look with just the Beats logo adorning the front grille. A continuous rubberized strip separates the front and back speaker grilles, and rubber feet on the bottom keep it from rolling around.

For reference, the discontinued Pill+ earned praise for its significantly improved sound quality thanks to an internal redesign. It also sported a Lightning port for charging, which will likely be swapped for USB-C in this new iteration. The Pill+ offered a respectable battery life of 12 hours. While details remain scarce, the leaked images show a design that stays true to the classic Beats Pill silhouette. A lanyard attachment hints at portability remaining a key feature.

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With almost everyone owning a smartphone these days, the need for dedicated media players has plummeted significantly. That’s not to say they’ve completely disappeared, especially those types that can be placed and displayed on desks or shelves. The retro design craze has breathed new life into old products like turntables, but these aren’t the only designs from bygone ages that deserve to be rediscovered. Some of these old-school designs come from the digital realm, where some software have achieved near immortality thanks to their distinctive user interfaces. Winamp is one of those iconic faces when it comes to music player applications, and this concept turns that into an actual device that, just like the digital original, can somewhat be configured to suit your needs and moods.

Designer: Eslam Mhd

By modern standards, the original design of the Winamp media player app is clearly outdated, but it remained a darling until recently because of its flexibility. It supported using different skins to personalize the software’s appearance, which naturally led to hundreds of designs, some of which might even make you want to gouge out your eyes. At the very least, Winamp followed a LEGO-like design where you can move parts of the app around or even remove them completely, depending on your needs.

This concept design for a device of the same name follows the latter aspect of Winamp’s design, particularly the ability to move its three main panels around or even leave one out. Like the original Winamp, the media player device has a component for the actual media controls with a single-line display for the current music, one for the equalizer, and another for displaying album art and the playlist. All three can be stacked together for a tall device that is propped up on a desk using the built-in kickstand of the equalizer. Or you can switch them around leaving only two components visible, as long as the equalizer is there to act as the base.

You can, for example, only have the media controls and the equalizer if you don’t mind not seeing the list of tracks and the album art. Or if you already have a fixed equalizer setting, you can put either the media player or the album display above it and then snap the other component in front of the equalizer to hide it. You can even show only the media player itself, with the other two hiding behind it. These components connect using strong magnets, so no rewiring is needed to make instant changes to the combination. And at the end of the day or if you want to take the device with you, you can simply collapse all the components in a sandwich and carry it around.

What’s interesting about this particular design is that it uses physical controls like sliders and buttons instead of simply employing a touch screen to offer the same interface. It’s like reverse skeuomorphism, where the digital user interface mimics the appearance and behavior of physical controls. Of course, this more physical design means you don’t get to use skins anymore, but it’s a small price to pay for such an intriguing device.

The post Modular media player concept brings iconic Winamp design to the physical world first appeared on Yanko Design.

Not everyone likes listening to music, but even those will perhaps begrudgingly agree that certain kinds of music can have different effects on one’s mood or mental state. Next to entertainment or the sheer joy of listening to favorite tunes, the most common use of music is to set the right mood, whether it’s to relax, to get pumped, or to be more productive. That said, musical tastes can be quite subjective, and even the kind of harmonies that you like could be affected by your mood at any given time. It can be quite taxing to change playlists or tracks every time, so rather than relying on your fingers and your own mind, why not let your phone do the work for you? This desk speaker concept does exactly that, analyzing your mood and picking the right music to help you finish your work, studies, or any other task you need to get done.

Designer: Junyoung Lee

People who love playing music while they work most likely have a library of tunes selected to help massage their grey matter, especially during slow hours. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of music can be thwarted by moods, emotions, and physical conditions. Sometimes we’re just stuck in a slump and manually picking out a more appropriate playlist only adds to the stress and traps you in a vicious mental cycle.

MIX:X is a smart speaker system that uses the power of your smartphone and machine learning to automate that process so you won’t have to lift a finger when your brain or heart is just too tired to care. You simply dock the phone in front of the tall, boxy speaker to start the process. The large camera at the bottom keeps a constant watch on the person’s face in front of it, particularly their facial expressions, and using computer vision, machine learning, and algorithms, it tries to identify the mood that the person is in. Depending on what mood that is, it will switch to a different playlist that will help get you into a more productive working state.

Part of the MIX:X speaker’s solution is actually not the device itself but the app that comes with it. Here you select the songs that you like and associate them with certain moods. The app’s AI analyzes the music selection and uses that as a pool to choose from when your mood shifts one way or another. It doesn’t simply get music out of thin air (or the Internet), giving you some amount of control to limit the choices to your preferences.

In that sense, the MIX:X speaker is simply a box with speakers facing sideways and a camera, though it definitely has an interesting aesthetic. It has transparent panels for its sides and back, putting the sophisticated electronics inside on display. The rest of the device’s design is pretty minimal, with a single dial for the volume. If there’s one glaring flaw in its design, it’s the fact that it seems to support only a specific model or size of a specific phone, namely an iPhone, which severely limits how much this concept can be used outside of that single device.

The post Phone-powered smart speaker concept reads your mood to play the right music for work first appeared on Yanko Design.

Consuming music in digital format is as easy as compressing thousands of MP3 files into your phone storage and playing it with just a few taps on the screen. This is not the case with long play discs that ensure the unmatched sensory experience of sliding a record from the sleeve – featuring an artful cover design, – placing it on the turntable, adjusting the needle on the groove, and then enjoying the clean, clear music watching the disc rotate in visual ecstasy.

With vinyl disc players, you are treated to analog music where sound revibrates unlike any other medium. This fascination in the otherwise digitalized world has triggered a resurgence of record players in the last decades. Now, with the booming sales of vinyl, designers are willing to take the dive, presenting digital ways to playback LP’s and make them time-relevant without compromising the rich sound quality.

Designer: found/Founded

Case in point the Vibrary Digital LP Player that is more than its vibrant orange color and pleasant design. It is a modernized high-quality player for your vinyl collection that features a modular design you can customize with colors and materials of choice to match the artist’s official color and more. Of course, it’s not the most fascinating collector’s item still, but if you’re someone who is generally on the move and wants to carry their love for LPs along, the Vibrary Digital is a remarkable option.

While turntables offer a warm vinyl sound; this new design offers a tangible click-through operation for ease of use, and promises to match the sound experience through its long speaker body that houses the record.  The new Vibrary Digital concept digital album player, as it is referred to, is designed to enjoy your favorite records whenever and wherever you want.

It is envisioned with a detachable – cylindrical – wireless controller stationed next to the speaker (also with onboard controls), which would allow you to play music from the slotted record from a distance. Digitalizing the idea of a record player is not limited to size and altered vertical design, it is presented with state-of-the-art listening modes including spatial sound mode and a voice-specific mode that would allow you to customize sound according to the artist’s content.

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It gives Tiny Desk Concerts a run for their money!

They say that your creativity is probably the highest as a child, and the world introduces you to logic, practicality, and adulting through the years, diminishing that creative spirit. You spend years honing your skills, learning how to paint properly with the right technique, color theory, etc. and by the time you’re a master of your craft, you’re an adult who wasn’t as creative as your younger self. With music too, you spend years learning instruments instead of just expressing yourself, which is why the myTRACKS is such a remarkable little device. Designed to be a highly capable synth that’s good enough for even seasoned musicians, this tiny MIDI device introduces you to all the aspects of music-making, including melodies, filters, audio processing, sampling, looping, etc. It isn’t that tiny toy xylophone that we played with as kids – it’s the world’s first child-friendly music production studio that allows kids to intuitively express themselves musically.

Designer: Playtime Engineering

The myTRACKS isn’t your average kids’ toy. It’s a genuine groovebox – a miniature music production studio packed with features that would impress even seasoned musicians – but intuitively packaged in a design that’s kid-friendly and encourages curiosity. It boasts a built-in microphone for sampling sounds, just like the SK-1, but with a significant upgrade: 50 high-quality instrument sounds at their disposal. These sounds can be triggered by hitting any of the 25 pads, allowing kids to create rhythmic sequences and melodies with ease.

myTRACKS boasts an impressive collection of 48 instruments, from classic acoustic sounds like pianos and guitars to cutting-edge synthesizers perfect for crafting electronic music. But it doesn’t stop there. Built-in effects levers allow users to experiment with filters, delay, and pitch bend, adding texture and personality to their creations. This level of control goes beyond simply playing pre-programmed melodies – it opens the door to crafting unique sonic landscapes. You can make a simple piano melody sound ethereal with a touch of delay, or transform a basic synth line into a pulsating lead with a filter sweep.

The real magic lies in myTRACKS’ ability to record and arrange complete songs. Aspiring musicians can layer instruments and samples on the five-track studio, creating a dynamic composition. A dedicated drum track helps lay down a rhythmic foundation, perfect for creating anything from a driving beat to a laid-back groove. The colorfully lit play pads allow for recording custom melodies or rhythmic loops. This intuitive interface makes it easy to translate musical ideas into reality, fostering a sense of accomplishment and encouraging further exploration. Don’t have a piano in hand? No problem! myTRACKS allows you to sample any sound with the built-in microphone, turning a beatboxed rhythm or a household object into a unique musical element. Modify your samples with cool effects to create otherworldly sounds or recreate the ambiance of your favorite video game soundtrack. The bright purple levers on the side function as mod wheels, just like those found on professional synthesizers. These allow budding musicians to control and manipulate sounds in real-time – a feature any electronic music producer would appreciate.

myTRACKS isn’t afraid to break free from the stereotype of being a “kid’s toy.” The 5-pin MIDI Out port allows for seamless connection to external synthesizers, like the Blipblox, for even more creative possibilities. Imagine layering the warm sounds of a Blipblox analog synth over your myTRACKS composition, or using an external MIDI keyboard for more precise control over your melodies. Battery-powered portability with a built-in speaker means you can create music anywhere, whether it’s jamming with friends in the park or capturing inspiration on a camping trip. The universal USB-C port allows for power and sound pack upgrades, ensuring myTRACKS can grow alongside your musical ambitions. As you develop your skills and explore different genres, you can expand your sound library with additional instrument and effect packs, keeping your musical creations fresh and exciting.

The post This MIDI Controller for kids turns your toddler into a bedroom Coachella headliner first appeared on Yanko Design.

A good night’s sleep is the best way to wake up energized and fresh the next morning. But if barking dogs in the neighborhood or a snoring partner alongside is giving you sleepless nights; noise-blocking sleep earbuds could be the go-to option to save yourself from any more nights spent tossing and turning.

If you are aware of noise-cancelling sleep earbuds, you may have already landed on the Anker Soundcore Sleep A10. An average option against a Bose or an Apple, the Soundcore A10 is now getting a refreshing uplift with the upcoming pair of Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds that are designed to block out as much outside noise as possible; deliver extra comfort while sleeping; and offer battery life that competitors don’t match.

Designer: Anker

Sleeping while wearing earbuds has not been a comfortable experience for me. I’m predominantly a side sleeper and the earbuds tend to hurt the ear when pressure is exerted. Anker believes it has worked its way around this problem with the new Twin-Seal ear tips that fit snuggly within the ear canal to ensure they are comfortable to wear in bed.

Even though the Soundcore Sleep A2 wireless earbuds are meant specially to block the outside noise while sleeping, the earbuds do not support active noise cancellation feature. Instead, it features a four-point noise-masking solution to ward off common disturbances such as snoring. This is made possible by the buds’ two-layer silicon construction with ear wings that offer “three times stronger passive noise blocking“ and “blend perfectly with the shape of your ear” spreading the “pressure evenly” for night-long comfort.

The new Anker earbuds can pair with Bluetooth device to play music, though information is scanty about the specs the Soundcore A20 would support. Things will become clearer in mid-April when Anker would start a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for its wireless sleep earbuds. Anker informs, the device will be offered at 40 percent discount through Kickstarter, and will go on sale for $150 after the crowdfunding campaign is over.

Until then, what we know from the company’s product page is that the device will feature a library of sleep noises that you can play to cancel out any seeping ambient sounds or perhaps to sleep to a piece of soothing music playing directly into your ear. Soundcore Sleep A2 touts a whopping 80-hour backup with a charging case in support. A companion for peaceful, disturbance-free sleep, it offers 14 hours of playback in Sleep mode and 10 hours of playback with Bluetooth.

The post Anker’s new Soundcore Bluetooth sleep earbuds guarantee unmatched noise blocking… Yes, Snore Please! first appeared on Yanko Design.

When companies mention the term “backward compatibility”, it seldom means revamping their products from 30 years ago… but Bang & Olufsen’s managed to pull off the unthinkable. You see, people who own B&O sound-systems do so because they’re passionate about audio quality – and if there’s one thing all audiophiles will agree to, it’s that analog sound systems from the years gone by are still the gold-standard in sound quality. The only problem is that they aren’t designed to be wireless. Not that any audiophile would dream about listening to Spotify on their state-of-the-art sound system, but there’s admittedly a certain convenience to being able to play any song directly from your phone on wireless speakers. Announced just this month, Bang & Olufsen’s latest device lets you do just that. The Beoconnect Core, priced at £999 ($1150 USD), is an intermediary wireless hub that turns all of B&O’s older speakers wireless, connecting the rich, auditory legacy of Bang & Olufsen with the convenience of today’s streaming culture.

Designer: Bang & Olufsen

Not to be confused with the BeoSound Core from 5 years ago, the Beoconnect Core is B&O’s latest accessory designed to be infinitely backward compatible with the company’s entire speaker catalog. The Beoconnect Core transforms legacy speakers, some dating back more than 30 years, into modern wireless systems capable of streaming music from any app, connecting to turntables, or even enhancing TV audio for a cinematic experience. This device is a celebration of the brand’s heritage, ensuring that the beloved sound systems can continue to create memorable moments in the digital age.

“Our aim is to build product icons that can last a lifetime, and Beoconnect Core is an important addition to our product offering, that enables us to deliver on this longevity promise. Beoconnect Core connects our past with our future and comes with our replaceable Mozart streaming module that can easily be upgraded to the newest technology”, says Michael Henriksson, Vice President of Product Marketing at Bang & Olufsen. “This means that the products that our customers love can be used for years to come and continue to provide memorable moments”.

The Beoconnect Core’s understated design complements any room’s aesthetic. Its gently curved, pearl-blasted aluminum chassis is as stylish as it is functional, efficiently dissipating heat. The non-conductive cover ensures clear and uninterrupted antenna reception. For a truly integrated experience, the Core can be seamlessly docked into a BeoSound Shape tile using a custom-designed bracket. The Core’s design prioritizes easy upgradeability too. Its functionality is future-proofed by the replaceable Mozart streaming module, ensuring your system stays compatible with the latest streaming technologies. This commitment to longevity extends to the Cradle-to-Cradle design principles used in the Core’s construction, minimizing environmental impact and maximizing serviceability.

As far as compatibility goes, the Beoconnect Core offers a variety of options to integrate your B&O speakers seamlessly into your existing setup. Powerlink and USB connections ensure optimal performance with Beolab 50 and Beolab 90 speakers, while a line-in port allows for the connection of turntables and other audio sources. But the Core’s capabilities extend beyond pure audio. It features an HDMI eARC connection, enabling you to connect your B&O speakers to any TV and experience the immersive power of Bang & Olufsen sound with your favorite movies and shows. So if you’ve got yourself some B&O speakers from more than a decade ago (when wireless connectivity wasn’t really much of a priority for high-end audio companies), the $1150 Core is a worthwhile investment in future-proofing your sound system to be compatible with latest streaming apps while still retaining its ability to default back to the glorious analog playback whenever you want.

The post Bang & Olufsen’s wireless hub turns even their 30-year-old speakers into smart Bluetooth devices first appeared on Yanko Design.

Wireless earbuds generally have no more than one driver, and it might be safe to assume that the TE-ZX1, featuring five drivers, is among the highest, if not the highest, number of drivers currently available in wireless earbuds. Having more drivers can enhance sound quality by allowing for more precise sound separation and clarity across different frequencies. According to the company’s recent update, this project is already in the mass-production stage.

If you’re an audiophile like me, you’ll appreciate the analog technology used in custom in-ear monitors (IEM). Their entry model typically starts with a 3-driver setup, designed to deliver balanced sound with a dedicated driver for lows, mids, and highs. On the high end, they offer a model with 12 drivers per ear – yes, 12! Considering this, the introduction of wireless earbuds with 5 drivers in each ear, priced under $300, is a game changer.

Designer: AVIOT

Click Here to Buy Now: $251 $335 (25% off). Hurry, only 31/100 left! Less than 72 hours to go.

The newly developed system is known as the “Tribrid 5-Driver”. It includes a planar magnetic driver, three balanced armature drivers, and one dynamic driver. Planar Magnetic Drivers, Balanced Armature Drivers, and Dynamic Drivers each uniquely contribute to the audio quality. First, the Planar Magnetic Driver is known to produce superior sound quality, by utilizing a thin, lightweight diaphragm that’s able to cover a large surface area to deliver clear, detailed sound and excellent response times. The diaphragm’s size and thinness allow it to produce sound evenly across the frequency spectrum, contributing to a smoother, more natural sound.

Enjoy Wireless High-Resolution Audio with LDAC

Second, the three Balanced Armature Drivers are smaller and more efficient than other types. Due to their size, they are often used in in-ear headphones. These drivers can be tuned to specific frequencies, making them ideal for producing high-frequency sounds with precision. Multiple balanced armature drivers can be combined in a single earphone to cover a wide range of frequencies.

Lastly, the Dynamic Driver in the TE-ZX1 earbuds is 10mm in diameter, which contributes to superior sound quality and realistic low frequency. Dynamic drivers are known for their ability to produce strong, impactful bass and handle a wide frequency range. A significant advantage of dynamic drivers is their ability to handle a lot of power without distortion, which contributes to a louder, more powerful sound.

When working together, these three types of drivers should deliver dynamic and expansive sound quality across the frequency range, thanks to their complementary characteristics. I’m a big fan of in-ear-monitor (IEM) earphones, mainly because of the near-custom fit they offer. They provide a more enjoyable listening experience during long flights, extended office hours, or lengthy hiking trips. The high-speed combat ship “Swordfish II” from the hit anime series ‘Cowboy Bebop’ inspires the design, presenting a balanced yet high-tech and cutting-edge feel. When a product’s weight is distributed throughout the entire device, particularly something that sits in a compact space like your ear, it needs to feel balanced. This balance is what the designer has strived to achieve. The semi-hard case housing the earbuds is well-designed and features an integrated recharge function, providing up to 20 extra hours of listening enjoyment. The earbuds alone offer up to 8 hours of playtime and require only a 10-minute charge to gain another 60 minutes.

Regarding listening pleasure, having high-end drivers alone won’t guarantee rich sound quality without LDAC technology. Meanwhile, thanks to the 5 drivers, the use of a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) has been meticulously minimized By using LDAC – an audio coding technology developed by Sony that enables the transmission of High-Resolution (Hi-Res) Audio content, even over a Bluetooth connection. Unlike other Bluetooth-compatible coding technologies, such as SBC, it operates without down-converting the Hi-Res Audio content and allows approximately three times more data than those other technologies to be transmitted over a Bluetooth wireless network. This results in enhanced sound quality, more detailed and nuanced audio reproduction, and an overall superior listening experience.

Click Here to Buy Now: $251 $335 (25% off). Hurry, only 31/100 left! Less than 72 hours to go.

The post A Groundbreaking 5-Driver Wireless Earbuds is Sweet Music to Your Ears first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ken Pillonel takes consumer satisfaction a little too seriously. Famous for hacking previous versions of the AirPods to give them USB-C ports and make them more repairable, Pillonel has now turned his sights to the AirPods Max (which hasn’t received an update in over 3 years, as he points out). The regular AirPods and even the iPhone have both made a concerted shift to USB-C, but Apple surprisingly forgot to upgrade their flagship headphones, leaving it in the lightning era.

No stranger to hacking (ahem, upgrading) Apple’s accessories, Pillonel decided to build a USB-C AirPod Max before Apple did. The video above takes us through the journey, showing how Pillonel disassembled the existing AirPods Max, designed a new PCB with a USB-C port, and mounted it (with relative ease) in the headphones, giving them the upgrade they severely needed. The best part, Pillonel even sells his PCBs on his own website, encouraging other people to hack their AirPods Max too and upgrade them to USB-C.

Designer: Ken Pillonel

The AirPods Max debuted in December 2020, which means they’re one of the only mainstream Apple products to not have received a major upgrade in years (they were announced even before the AirTag). Realizing that now was a better time than ever, Pillonel decided to take his AirPods Max for a spin, cracking them open to see the assembly inside and whether it would be easy to upgrade it. Luckily, the lightning port was relatively easy to upgrade without any invasive procedures to the headphone’s body itself. Apple designed the port with a removable metal lip that allowed it to magically become wider (it’s almost as if Apple was preparing for this transition in advance), and knocking the lip out made the hole perfectly sized for a USB-C port.

Pillonel simply unplugged the lightning connector from the existing motherboard and designed a new one that housed the USB-C port. He shared the new PCB design on PCBWay, and had the circuit boards sent to him. An older iteration featured a single-piece PCB that worked, but was susceptible to wear and tear, so Ken redesigned the PCB with a flexible ribbon cable, allowing it to bend without applying pressure on certain parts. The new PCB is available in Pillonel’s shop for 39.9 CHF ($45.3 USD).

The older PCB was prone to wear and tear if used roughly

A flexible ribbon cable on the new PCB made it much more resistant to regular daily usage

The upgraded AirPods Max (Pillonel calls it the AirPods Max 2.0) only has the one design upgrade, although knowing Pillonel, he’ll soon make the entire thing repairable and probably even figure out how to replace batteries on them. You can visit his YouTube channel here, or read our coverage on his other interesting projects here.

The post Apple AirPods Max get a USB-C port thanks to this clever engineering hack first appeared on Yanko Design.