Technical pro has been consistently providing some of the highest quality audio and video gear in today’s sound and picture world. Technical Pro designs all of its gear with the fundamental aspects of reliability and professional craftsmanship. This can be heard and felt while using their equipment. From their microphones to their interfaces, the professional sound achieved is of the highest caliber!

Staying true to your needs and wants they have designed a professional recording and playback device to meet today’s demanding world of recording. The UREC7 is a professional rack mountable USB / SD recording device built to capture professional audio and also play it back at the highest level of quality! This is a must have for anyone recording professional sound! Record your DJ set, record your studio session or singer, record a religious sermon or record a board meeting or conference!

The UREC7 is and USB / SD recording & playback device. Plug in your USB flash drive SD card of up to 32GB and record straight onto them. This will give you approximately 136 hours of recording time at 128kbps. If you need to record a long meeting or a series of meetings you can put them all onto one USB flash drive! DJ’s, if you want to record your long set, no need to worry about any time limits like you had to with CD’s and tape recordings! Just hit record and you’re all set! The UREC7 is also a playback device. Using the same USB flash drive or SD card you will be able to play back your music and recordings. Input your recording device by using the RCA or 1/8” (AUX) inputs…this will allow you to send devices such as instruments, and DJ mixers, CD player or cassette decks. The output consists of a stereo RCA to plug this unit into your sound system’s audio input and playback your recordings in stereo!

The front panel of the UREC7 hosts all of the user controls. They are all very accessible and very user friendly. The controls consist of playback / pause, stop, next track and previous track. Organize your USB flash drive or SD card from the UREC7’s front panel interface…no need to jump back and forth from a computer! Use the bass and treble and bass knobs to fine tune the sound output. Complete with a headphone output and removable rack mounts, this professional recording and playback device can be integrated into any studio or showroom or mobile rig. This is a must have for anyone wanting to record and archive…and at a price that is too low to believe!

On top of that the UREC7 allows you to play your recording in either repeat or random playback. The unit is also equipped with a remote allowing you playback from or record onto a USB flash drive or SD Card from a distance. The built-in equalizer has four different settings allowing you to choose the most appropriate sound for your audio.

High performance is the very definition of Technical Pro CD, DVD, USB and SD players, and our engineers have designed them to deliver pure audio reproduction and exceptional convenience in a sleek Rack-Mountable housing. Our passion for quality ensures that you’ll enjoy accurate, noise-free playback and recording for years to come.

Transporter

• 
  $199.00

  Transporter (No Drive)

  Transporter is an online, but off-cloud storage solution for privately sharing, accessing and protecting all of your valuable files. By choosing the drive-less option, you maintain the flexibility of choosing the capacity you need and the drive manufacturer you trust….

• 
  $299.00

  Transporter w/ 1TB Drive

  Share, access, and protect up to a full terabyte of data with the 1TB Transporter. That’s enough space for 1000 HD movies, 200,000 songs, or 500,000 photos. Unlike the cloud, it’s completely private with unlimited sharing and no subscription fees,…

• 
  $399.00

  Transporter w/ 2TB Drive

  The 2TB Transporter allows you to share, access, and protect up to two terabytes of data. That’s 2x the movies, music and photos. Better than the cloud, the Transporter is completely private with unlimited sharing and no subscription fees, ever….

Still wary of uploading your precious media and memories to a cloud service? Create one of your own with the LaCie CloudBox ($120-$180). Available in 1TB – 3TB capacities, this dead-simple device plugs into the wall and your router — using Ethernet — and in minutes appears on your Macs and PCs just like a normal connected device. Thanks to its UPnP capabilities, it can stream music, movies, and photos to devices like the Xbox 360 and iPad wirelessly, and can also provide streaming service over the Internet with its MyNAS feature. The handsome Neil Poulton design is just icing on the cake. Source:LaCie CloudBox

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the first time I heard the word “DAC” I thought it was a misspelling of a company that used to send me catalogs of unusual electronic equipment made in dubious places for ridiculously low prices. Of course I eventually learned what a “digital Audio converter” was and that it’s now found in audio devices to convert a digital signal to analog — because the sound we hear comes through the air and impinges upon our ears. Cyborgs we aint yet.

Now devices created by Dr. Fang Bian are known for their level of sophistication when it comes to audio — the guy’s a certifiable genius when it comes to making electronics dance to his tune. And when you consider how crummy the DAC is that you’ll find in a so-called “high-Tech” device like your laptop, it’s no wonder that the sound is often the least thing the manufacturer is pointing to with pride.

But a standalone DAC can be expensive, not to mention cumbersome to use. But what’s the value in having a really good pair of headphones or powered speakers attached to your desktop/laptop when the DAC isn’t worth jack? So when Dr. Bian sent me the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC, I was expecting  some high-end tech that wouldn’t be lugged around because it’d be too bothersome.

Instead I’m looking at a little rectangular box that barely weighs enough to juggle with. And a under 3-inches in height and under 1-inch wide/deep, easier to toss in a pocket than my smartphone.

A quick spin shows me that there’s a USB socket at one end and a mini-jack and line output sockets at the other. As for the controls and power socket — there isn’t any! Nor any internal battery — oh, I get it, USB not only transfers the digital signal through the USB cable, but supplies the power too.

And because I hate manuals, I can easily figure out how it’s used: you plug a USB cable into the USB socket and the other end into a USB socket on the desktop/laptop. Then you insert a headphone plug or a mini-jack plug into the other socket and put on the headphones or turn on the speakers. Of course you have to select the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC in the desktop/laptop so it knows to output the sound, but that’s easy on a Mac and just a few extra clicks on a PC (if the blue light on the HIFIMAN goes on, you’ve got power).

The HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC is going to have impressive specs, according to the info I was told: inside there’s a Texas Instrument PCM2702 16 bit 48kHZ chipset. And conjoined to that a S/n (signal to noise) ratio of 96dB, 0.07% THD (total harmonic distortion) and stereo crosstalk (signal leaking from one program channel to another) of 78dB. Like my ear registers all that (Cyborgs R Us, not yet). But I certainly can do an “unscientific” test of listening with and without the HM-101 to hear whether there’s a discernible difference.

I’ll be using my MacBook with CD-quality audio files I ripped earlier. For listening, I’ve a pair of Audio Technica ATH-CP500i in-ear headphones (better than the junky pair you get with iOS devices, and in fact equal to or better than many pairs costing over $100, in my opinion). For the portable speakers, I’m going with the STEM Time Command Mini — a small portable audio dock for iOS devices whose speakers are not spaced very far apart. And because I’ve heard some reviews noting that there’s sometimes noise interference, I’ve a really good USB cable to work with, not some $2 junk.

So the Audio Technica in-ears are plugged in to the MacBook directly and I play the beginning track from Boston’s debut album with the volume set at the midway point. Stopping the track after about a minute, I plug in the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC and plug the in-ears into them. I then repeat playing the track. I immediately notice that the volume seems a bit higher and clearer. The stereo effect doesn’t seem to have been changed any (didn’t expect it to), but a lot of the harshness of the guitars, especially when using the Time Command Mini, seem to have been dissipated. Basically the track sounds “cleaner,” to use a decidedly unscientific term.

I then repeated this entire process, only playing Landslide by Fleetwood Mac and, for the kick of hearing how old orchestrial tracks can sound, The Last Reel from the Adventures of Superman 1950′s TV show soundtrack CD (first just with the MacBook and then through the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC). Those points I mentioned earlier with the in-ears now are even more pronounced, and I can turn the sound up a bit more without getting the distortion that otherwise would be the case. I’m even picking up little nuances that weren’t coming through before. Or to be more exact, the nuances in the audio were there but the DAC in the MacBook wasn’t picking them up. On occasion I did hear a bit of hiss between tracks when nothing was playing, but it wasn’t annoying or unbearable. And the level of the bass seemed more deep and vocals crisper — definitely the case with the Fleetwood Mac song.  I even found my Apple-supplied iPhone earbuds  sounding better with the HIFIMAN than without.

Editor’s Rating:

Great

Bottom line: At a retail of $39, the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC is compact enough to remove any barrier for being carried around. And the setup and use is a no-brainer. Plus it actually does what it says — improving the audio you’re hearing. If the whole idea of being an audiophile is to spend big bucks on components so you can show off — you’’ll have to fake it when displaying the HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC. But for sure you won’t have to fake how much better the sound now is.

Pros

• High-end digital to audio converter
• No computer driver needed

Cons

• Occasional interference during quiet passages

via HIFIMAN HM-101 USB DAC Review | GadgetReview.

By Mike Elgan

why the new, improved Bluetooth will change your house. The fourth generation of Bluetooth technology is revolutionary. It’s not just a little better than the Bluetooth you’re currently using. It’s massively better.  Today most chatter about Bluetooth 4.0 is about advanced gadgets, such as the highly anticipated Pebble E-Paper Watch (shown). The device will use Bluetooth 4.0 to let you control your phone, as well as household appliances and media devices like your TV, from your wrist. Bluetooth 4.0 is also called Bluetooth Smart Ready, and one of the best things about it is that it uses much less power. If you use a wireless mouse or keyboard, you know that the batteries have to be changed or recharged every few weeks or, at most, every few months. Bluetooth 4.0 would enable them to never have to do anything with the batteries. These devices would be charged when you open the box and remain charged for more years than you would want to use them. This is great news, and not just for lazy wireless keyboard users. I’ll tell you why in a minute.

Where Bluetooth 4.0 comes from. Bluetooth 4.0 isn’t something you buy at the store. At some point, one by one, a gazillion gadgets will add or upgrade to the new technology. The most aggressive company to build Bluetooth 4.0 into its products is Apple. This is surprising, because Apple often lags behind other companies in the introduction of new standards and new technologies.  The iPhone 4S was the first phone ever to support Bluetooth 4.0. The current iPad (shown in use above) is the first tablet to support it. In fact, every major Apple product, including desktops and laptops, shipped in the past year comes with Bluetooth 4.0 support. By the end of the year, we can expect every major Bluetooth device, from phones to tablets to peripheral devices, to support the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard. And that’s just the beginning.

Control4 7-Inch Portable Touch Screen – $999.00 » What happens when everything is connected. The reason Bluetooth 4.0 will completely change everything in the home is that it will accomplish the following feats:  1. It will replace proprietary technologies. A wide range of household gadgets, from TV remote controls to room temperature thermostats to doorbells, use nonstandard tech to communicate wirelessly. New capabilities in Bluetooth 4.0 will mean all these gadgets can just use the new standard. When that happens, you’ll be able to easily connect to, monitor and control things with your phone and tablet. Current tablet products, such as Control4’s 7-Inch Portable Touch Screen (shown) use Wi-Fi or proprietary wireless technologies. Because of those technologies, the use of tablets for controlling things is rare. Bluetooth will make home tablet remote controls and control panels commonplace. 2. It will enable more things to be wireless. Bluetooth 4.0 will make it cheap and easy for companies to add wireless connectivity to random things: lamps, washing machines, refrigerators, coffee makers, air conditioners, ovens and much more. You’ll be able to control and monitor things from your phone or over the Internet that you previously had to control by touching the object. 3. It will let you automate things. Once an appliance or piece of functional furniture can be controlled through Bluetooth 4.0, it can be easily automated. You just need the software to control it. Your smart phone and tablet are based on an “app” economy, so you can expect literally thousands of home-control apps to come on the market over the next few years. 4. It will help appliances talk to one another. With all your stuff connected via Bluetooth 4.0, the appliances in your house can talk to other appliances without your involvement. The thermostat can turn on the air conditioner. An incoming phone call can pause your TV show. The alarm clock by your bed can turn on the coffee machine. The cell phone in your pocket can turn on the lights in and around your house as you pull into the driveway. Futurists have been making bold predictions about the coming age of the “smart home” for decades. All these visions involve wireless technology for connecting devices to the Internet, to user control devices and to each other. Bluetooth 4.0 is that technology. And now it’s here.

via Manage lights, refrigerators and more through your phone or tablet when the latest wireless technology rolls into all your home devices.