Naxos Now On MusicGiants; PentaTone Coming – Naxos of America announces that its gigantic catalog of recordings are now being offering by hi-res music download firm MusicGiants as high-quality WMA-format lossless and DRM-free downloads. Naxos has also been offering some of its DRM-free selections as MP3 downloads at its own download store, Classicsonline, as well as selling its entire catalog on the emusic site. However, MusicGiants specializes in the highest-res, highest sampling rate downloads, and also provides 5.1 surround downloads. They will soon also carry the Naxos-distributed label PentaTone, which releases exclusively on hybrid multichannel SACD, and these downloads will also be DRM-free.
Hitachi LCD Projectors Offer Network Connectivity – Hitachi America has introduced two 3LCD video front projectors providing networking connectivity thru an RJ-45 port, to allow for control and management of multiple projectors from a remote location. The CP-X200 and CP-X300 projectors weigh only 8.8 lbs. and have a security bar and a sensor to detect when the projector has been moved – to deal with theft issues in school use.
Sound Enhancer for Mobile Music Players – As the realization begins to soak in that heavily-compressed MP3 audio files lack the quality sound of the original uncompressed recordings, more “fixes” are appearing on the market to try to ameliorate the deficiencies. Targus has launched its SoundUP sound enhancer which is designed to improved the sonic quality of compressed digital audio files on portable music devices. It separates and reprocesses digital music files to deliver a more three-dimensional sound envelope from players. The device employs Phantom Technologies’ circuit, which enhances audio quality up to 25%, revealing sounds that were lost during compression. The tiny unit runs on one AAA battery and weighs less than 2 oz. It allows inline connection of two headphones and retails for $30.