Today, Audio Plus Services officially announced the upcoming availability of their new Focal Bird speaker system. They’re marketing as “a new and innovative concept for high-quality lifestyle audio,” pointing out that, while it projects clear audio, it’s also compact and has a user-friendly interface. It also comes with a Focal Kleer Technology wireless dongle in the package, so wirelessly streaming media is also an option.
As for the hardware, the Audio Plus Services’ Focal Bird speaker system consists of two small satellite speakers, which are connected to the “Power Bird” unified amplifier, subwoofer, and DAC. The speakers can be set pretty much anywhere you’d want: you can lay them flat, stand them up, or even hang them on the wall, depending on what fits your room best.
The whole set-up comes packaged with a Focal Kleer Technology wireless dongle, which should offer up some seamless connections with Apple’s iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. But, if the Kleer Technology isn’t good enough for you, you can add an option USB dongle (for $99.95), which will make it possible to stream music wirelessly from any device with a USB port. Audio Plus Services is including a universal remote inside the box, too. The Focal Bird speaker system will be available some time this Fall from Audio Plus Services in several configurations. You’ll be able to pick it up for somewhere around $995.
We’ve been banging on about Kleer and their CD quality Bluetooth-busting audio technology for ages now, and so it’s good to see it trickle through into more mainstream platforms. Mercedes has announced that Kleer-based audio systems will be used in its 2010 E-Class and S-Class cars, offering a choice of two audio streams from in-headrest LCD displays.
Because of Kleer’s multipoint technology, up to five sets of headphones can be paired with any one transmitter, and since its not infra-red like other in-car audio systems it doesn’t require line-of-sight and won’t be overcome on sunny days. Mercedes will be including a couple of sets of headphones in the car – as well they should, given how much an E- or S-Class will set you back – but any Kleer headphones you have will work too.
That means you could hook up a set of Sleek Audio Kleer-enabled earbuds or perhaps some cheaper DigiFi versions and still hear the same thing, only at higher audio quality and with longer battery life than Bluetooth cans. Meanwhile Kleer won’t interfere with the Mercs’ WiFi or Bluetooth, either, unlike other 2.4GHz systems.
No word on how much you’ll be looking for to equip your new ride with Kleer, but with the company being acquired by SMSC – who make audio equipment for Audi, BMW, Daimler AG/Mercedes- Benz, Hyundai/Kia, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Toyota and Volvo among others – we’re hoping it’ll trickle down into cheaper models.
Press Release:
SMSC’s Wireless Audio Using Kleer® Technology To Be Implemented in Automotive Infotainment System of Selected Mercedes-Benz Models
Model Wins Mark SMSC’s First Automotive Customer for Kleer Technology
Hauppauge, New York – June 24, 2010 – SMSC (NASDAQ: SMSC), today announced that its Kleer® wireless audio technology has been selected by Daimler AG as part of the rear seat entertainment system for the company’s 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class models. These two Mercedes-Benz models are the first automobiles to implement Kleer technology and add to the growing list of products consumers can choose from to enjoy the high quality wireless audio that Kleer can offer.
Kleer technology transmits CD-quality digital wireless audio from two video screens on the back of the seats to multiple wireless headphones in both the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class models. Each screen can display different content and occupants can select which audio stream their headphones receive. Multiple occupants can share the same stream. The ultra low power consumption of Kleer technology ensures many hours of enjoyment before headphone battery charging is needed. Mercedes-Benz owners have the choice of using the brand’s headphones provided with the car or using their favorite third-party Kleer-based headphones or earbuds as they are available for example from AKG, Sennheiser or TDK.
“We are pleased to announce Daimler AG’s selection of Kleer technology in these two prestigious Mercedes- Benz models,” said Dr. Christian Thiel, Vice President and General Manager of SMSC’s Automotive Information Systems group. “Kleer’s high quality audio, exceptional radio performance and industry-leading low power consumption make it an ideal choice for streaming wireless audio in the portable, home and automotive markets.”
Kleer wireless audio technology resolves the issues associated with analog Infra-Red (IR) technology, which has been the primary technology used in wireless automotive headphones to date. Analog IR transmission of audio suffers from low quality audio, interference from visible light sources like sunlight, and high power consumption. It also requires an uninterrupted line-of-sight path from transmitter to receiver. Kleer addresses these issues and adds the ability to have multiple audio streams transmitting in the vehicle simultaneously.
“Consumer demand for in-vehicle multimedia experiences continues to grow at a rapid pace, and wireless audio is a crucial element,” said Mark Fitzgerald, associate director, Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics. “Wireless solutions that offer high quality audio and low power characteristics are positioned well in this expanding market.”
In addition to its high audio quality and low power consumption, Kleer technology also offers excellent Wi-Fi and Bluetooth co-existence capabilities. This means that the vehicle’s infotainment system, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled devices can all be used simultaneously in the vehicle with no interference.
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class also feature the MOST® multimedia networking standard, which is the de facto standard for efficiently moving high-bandwidth infotainment content around the vehicle. MOST
and Kleer are synergistic technologies. While MOST represents the backbone of the whole infotainment system and moves all signal streams between the devices, Kleer is the high quality wireless link for headphones and remote controls.
About SMSC
SMSC is a leading developer of Smart Mixed-Signal ConnectivityTM solutions. SMSC employs a unique systems level approach that incorporates a broad set of technologies and intellectual property to deliver differentiating products to its customers. The company is focused on delivering connectivity solutions that enable the proliferation of data in personal computers, automobiles, portable consumer devices and other applications. SMSC’s feature-rich products drive a number of industry standards and include USB, MOST® automotive networking, Kleer® wireless audio, embedded system control and analog solutions, including thermal management and RightTouchTM capacitive sensing. SMSC is headquartered in New York and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia, Europe and India. Additional information is available at www.smsc.com.
In February 2010, SMSC acquired substantially all the assets and certain liabilities of Kleer Semiconductor Corporation, a designer of high quality, interoperable wireless audio technology addressing headphones and earphones, home audio/theater systems and speakers, portable audio/media players and automotive sound systems. Kleer technology powers the world’s best sounding wireless audio devices for use in the home, on the go and in the car. Kleer’s products are based on the first wireless technology to combine high quality audio and robust ISM band coexistence with low power consumption. Unlike Bluetooth and WiFi, Kleer technology’s sub-sampling radio architecture was designed from the ground up to communicate lossless, CD-quality, digital stereo audio over a robust 2.4GHz radio link while achieving several times the battery life of a comparable Bluetooth solution as well as audio coexistence with WiFi hot spots. Kleer technology is well suited for portable music players, iPod® and other personal media accessories, home audio/theater/TV systems, earbuds, headphones, speakers and automobile entertainment systems.
About SMSC’s Automotive Product Line
SMSC’s Automotive Information Systems is a supplier of TrueAutoTM infotainment and information semiconductor and software solutions to major automakers, including Audi, BMW, Daimler AG/Mercedes- Benz, Hyundai/Kia, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Toyota and Volvo. SMSC is a founding member of the MOST Cooperation, a cooperative of automakers, automotive systems architects and manufacturers and key components suppliers working to extend and refine the MOST® standard for the evolving requirements of automotive multimedia networking. Additional information is available at www.smsc-ais.com.
The iPad accessory market is on course to mimic the wildly successful iPhone ecosystem, but what are the must-haves? If you’re anything like us you’re a music fan and you want to use your iPad with an existing iPod speaker dock; we’ve just tried out the D&A RX1 iPod speaker dock receiver dongle we reviewed back in February, paired with a Kleer S5T transmitter, and – despite the iPad initially saying the accessory wasn’t compatible – we’re now enjoying our iTunes music (not to mention Spotify and other streaming services) in high quality and with no cords.
Of course, the iPad already has integrated Bluetooth with A2DP support, but then you’re dealing with limited audio quality and the trouble of finding an audio system with Bluetooth itself. Kleer, meanwhile, promises CD-quality audio and the ability to simultaneously pair one transmitter with up to four receivers; you could, for instance, have your Kleer-based headphones paired with the same transmitter, switching easily between private playback or routing audio through your speakers.
What doesn’t work is track control and menu navigation from the speaker dock’s remote. We can adjust volume, but not navigate the iPad’s music; still, since the tablet isn’t actually docked you can simply carry it around and control it directly. It would make particular sense for a party or any sort of gathering, where you could pass the iPad around and everyone have a hand in creating a custom playlist. Range is listed as 10m in open space; we got smooth playback even with a couple of walls in-between.
You can pick up the iFreeHifi kit – which consists of both the S5T transmitter and RX1 receiver – for £75 ($114); alternatively, they’re sold separately for £42 ($64) and £35 ($53) respectively. There’s also an iDock, for £15 ($23), which bridges your HiFi’s auxiliary input and the S5T.
Sleek Audio have been promising a new set of high-end in-ear monitors for some time now, and courtesy of Pop-Sci magazine we now have a better idea of what’s in store. The Sleek Audio SA7 IEMs slot in above the SA6’s, keeping the user-adjustable VQ system for tweaking treble and bass, but now machined from a single block of aluminum with a carbon fiber shell held on by titanium screws.
Inside, meanwhile, there are dual balanced armature transducers wrapped in shock-absorbing silicone that can apparently resist up to 14,000Gs. Whether you’ll experience that sort of shock in your general listening is a different argument, of course, but at least you won’t have to worry about dropping them in your bag and bumping them around a bit.
They’re also paired with the Kleer wireless system, though looking at the single photo above it seems Sleek have a new controller which has track skip buttons and other playback keys; that presumably means you’ll be able to control your PMP without having to whip it out of your pocket. Expected pricing is apparently in the $350 to $400 range, with the Kleer system another $100 on top; look for them to hit shelves within the next few months.
Awareness of the Kleer wireless alternative to Bluetooth A2DP is slowly growing, and the market for entry-level headphones (as opposed to, say, Sleek Audio’s range) is broadening. Into the fray comes DigiFi’s Digital Opera S5’s, intended specifically for iPod owners. Mediocre sound quality let DigiFi’s S2’s down; can the reworked S5’s pick up the slack?
If you the S5 headphones look familiar, that’s because they’re identical in design to DigiFi’s Digital Opera S2 set which we reviewed back in January. The earbuds themselves are tethered to a small receiver/power box, intended to hang at the back of your neck; there’s a USB charging cable to power it up. Where the two sets differ is in the transmitter: while the S2’s came with a generic dongle that plugged into a 3.5mm headphone socket, the S5’s come with an iPod-specific dongle that slots into your Apple PMP’s dock connector.
While that limits the S5’s to an Apple-owning audience, it also means DigiFi can add in some remote control support. Whereas on the S2’s one set of earbud buttons controlled volume and the other toggled the “3D” DSP on and off, the S5 earbuds control volume and track control. Since the dock connector provides power, there’s no internal battery in the transmitter either; that means one less thing to remember to charge up, which we’re always grateful for.
DigiFi supply the transmitter/receiver pre-paired, but there are instructions for associating one or both with other existing Kleer-based kit in the box. Similarly you can pair up to four receivers with a single transmitter, so that multiple people can listen in. If you picked up one of the D&A RX1 iPod speaker-dock adapters we reviewed in February, you could easily cut the cord between your iPod and its speakers, but still leave yourself able to turn on some headphones for private listening.
As we said of the S2’s, Kleer’s selling point is that the audio it transmits is CD-quality (16-bit, 44KHz) rather than the lossier audio you’d get with Bluetooth A2DP. However, that also means you’re at the mercy of the earphones themselves for the eventual sound quality; we went away disappointed with the performance of the Digital Opera S2 set. However, we were told that along with the new iPod functionality, DigiFi had reworked the S5’s to improve audio quality, and official resellers WireFreeHifi bundled a set of Comply ear-tips (which they sell as accessories) which they promised would make a real difference to audio quality.
To be fair, with the regular tips DigiFi provide, the S5’s do sound better than the S2’s. They still lack the richness of bass we’d prefer, and there’s a lack of top-end sparkle, but it’s not quite so muddy as the previous headphones. Swap out the standard flanged rubber tips for the Comply foam buds and things improve again, primarily because more outside noise is removed. They’re also comfier and feel more secure in your ear canals, which made us more confident about jogging and exercising while wearing them.
A single charge of the receiver is rated for up to 10hrs of playback, and we found – when we didn’t attempt to stretch the 10m wireless range – we could manage 8-9hrs of solid use. As with the S2’s you can’t use the S5’s while recharging them, however, a process which takes around 2.5hrs.
While the DigiFi Digital Opera S5’s are obviously narrower in their scope than the S2’s, the improvement in audio quality and the ability to control iPod playback add up to a better experience overall. Priced at £85/$129 they’re not cheap for headphones, and a wired set – at the same cost – will likely give you better audio quality; still, now at least there’s a better balance between performance and the useful freedom of cutting the cord. We can recommend them now, something we couldn’t with the S2’s, just make sure to budget an extra £6.25/$9 for the Comply foam tips.
Kleer wireless is gradually gaining momentum, and the D&A RX1 fills in another gap in the audio market: cutting the connection between your iPod and your iPod speaker dock without cutting out sound quality. A simple receiver dongle which plugs into an iPod dock and promises CD-quality wireless audio, we slapped the RX1 into our test system to see if this affordable Bluetooth A2DP alternative delivered on its promises.
A quick Kleer refresher for those unfamiliar with the technology. An alternative to Bluetooth A2DP, Kleer has a similar 10m range but higher audio quality; think 16-bit 44KHz CD quality rather than the sometimes crunchy sound you get from stereo Bluetooth headphones. You can also pair a single transmitter – which can plug into a standard 3.5mm headphone socket or into the 30-pin Dock connector of an iPod – with up to four receivers simultaneously.
So far all the Kleer receivers we’ve tried have been integrated with headphone systems, whether modular (but using proprietary plugs) as with Sleek Audio, or built into headphones as with Digital Opera. D&A’s RX1, meanwhile, is intended to plug into an iPod audio dock, streaming music from your iPod over to the speaker system.
Setup is straightforward, as it should be when you have a single button and a single LED as your user-interface. Pairing with a Kleer transmitter requires plugging each into their respective device (dock and iPod) and holding down the pairing button on each for 7 seconds; everything else is done automatically, and takes less than a minute. Subsequently, as soon as there’s power they’ll automatically reconnect.
Once that’s done, you basically operate the iPod as you would if it were in the dock, and the bottom line is that we noticed no difference in audio quality. D&A say the RX1 will work with most iPod docks, though whether the dock’s playback controls or remote will be functional seems to depend on manufacturer and model (obviously you’ll need to use a Kleer transmitter that plugs into the dock port if you want any chance of remote control). There’s a list of those known to be fully compatible here.
The main benefit is that you can be browsing the internet, emailing and generally using other features on your iPod while still playing music through the speakers. Another benefit, however, is that it opens up the iPod dock market to non-Apple audio sources. Use one of the generic Kleer transmitters, and anything with a 3.5mm headphone socket can transmit audio, be it your laptop, a non-Apple PMP or anything else.
If you’ve already got a Kleer headphones system and an iPod dock then – at £35 ($56) – the RX1 is a no-brainer addition. Rival Bluetooth systems do exist, and may even be a little cheaper, but you lose out on audio quality. If you’re yet to climb on board the Kleer wagon, things get a little more expensive; you can pick up an S5T wireless audio transmitter (which plugs into the iPod’s docking connector) for £42 ($67), or in a bundle with the RX1 for £75 ($120). Those with basic speaker docks might not deem the flexibility worth it, but if you’re using a more audiophile-friendly system and want to cut the cord, the RX1 blows Bluetooth A2DP out of the water.
More Kleer and less Bluetooth A2DP is definitely the way we’d like to see wireless music going, with the little-known lossless technology generally kicking the more common Bluetooth out of the ballpark. So we’re glad to see TDK jumping on board, with their first Kleer wireless enabled TH-WR700 headphones.
As with other headphones we’ve seen, the Kleer receiver is integrated into the cans themselves, and there’s a simple transmitter dongle with a 3.5mm headphone plug which slots into your computer, iPhone or PMP. Range is up to 10m and battery life up to 40hrs, and as with other Kleer products you can connect up to four receivers up to one single transmitter.
No word on a US or European launch as yet, but the TDK TH-WR700 headphones will arrive in Japan on March 1st 2010, priced at the equivalent of $190.
We’ve made no bones about our love for Kleer’s lossless wireless audio system here on SlashGear, far preferring its audiophile-pleasing quality versus Bluetooth A2DP. So far, though, we’ve only tested it when paired with Sleek Audio’s high-end headphones, themselves equally impressive; how much of a difference, then, does Kleer technology make on more affordable systems? DigiFi sent over their Digital Opera S2 Wireless Headphones, a sub-£70 ($112) set that use the same Kleer technology – check out our review after the cut.
The resemblance between DigiFi’s system and Sleek Audio’s W1 wireless adapter is obvious, neither much adapted from Kleer’s original reference design. Where they do differ is in the earbuds themselves; Sleek use their standard plug connector, meaning you can use any of the company’s range with the W1 adapter, while the S2 earbuds are attached with a springy coil section midway through the short length of cable. The right earbud has a volume control – the buttons a little firmer than we’d like – and the left earbud a “3D audio” mode control, while there’s a power button on the main receiver section.
The transmitter, meanwhile, has a single power button and a 3.5mm gold-plated plug, and DigiFi also throw a short extension cable into the box just in case you’re dealing with a PMP with a recessed headphone socket. Setup is basically as simple as plugging in a pair of regular headphones, since the Digital Opera S2’s come pre-paired; you’re also able to hook up a further three Kleer receivers to the single transmitter, all hearing the same audio.
Both halves charge using a miniUSB connection, and there’s a double-headed USB-to-miniUSB cable supplied. Finally DigiFi add a soft carrying pouch and a number of alternative rubber earbuds; we were able to get a pretty decent fit, thanks to their longer reach and pronounced flanges. The receiver section hangs at the back of your neck and can – if you’re jogging – bounce around a little distractingly. We did have a couple of occasions where an earbud was tugged out by the movement, but generally they fit snugly.
Unfortunately, while the Kleer system may be lossless, that still leaves you at the mercy of the earbuds themselves. The “3D mode” pseudo surround sound effect is unconvincing, and like many cheap headphones they lack bass and mid-range definition. It’s obvious that most of the money has gone on the wireless tech rather than the audio quality; DigiFi squander the Kleer advantage and deliver something more on a par with Bluetooth A2DP performance.
Range is roughly 15-20 feet, and held up better than we find many Bluetooth headsets can manage, while battery life came in around 8-9hrs of solid use. A recharge took around 2.5hrs, but it’s worth noting that you can’t listen to music while this is taking place.
We found it difficult to get enthusiastic about the DigiFi Digital Opera S2 Wireless Headphones. While the Sleek Audio system makes up for the slight frustration of the separate Kleer transmitter dongle (rather than Bluetooth, which many devices have built-in) by virtue of the improved audio quality, we’re hard pressed to notice the difference between a similarly-priced set of Bluetooth cans and the S2’s. Throw in the fact that you sacrifice hands-free call functionality, which most stereo Bluetooth systems include, and the argument for DigiFi gets more tenuous. Kleer deserves more market recognition, but pairing it with underwhelming earphones is a false economy.
