Back in 2007, Bowers & Wilkins brought out the uniquely styled Zeppelin iPod speaker, which we described in our review as being every bit as sophisticated as Apple's iconic player, with detailed sound that largely lived up to B&W's high-end reputation. That Zeppelin remains on the market, but now it's got a smaller, less expensive--and more subdued-looking--sibling called the Zeppelin Mini.
While the $400 Mini is less determined to stick out, it's still a sleekly styled speaker with a swiveling, pedestal-like stand and a mirrored chrome top that's pitched at an angle and is slightly concave (yes, you'll end up having to wipe dust and fingerprints off it to keep it looking its shiny best). True to its Mini name, this is a compact iPod audio system, measuring 6.8 inches high by 12.5 inches wide by 4 inches deep. And while it's small, it does feel substantial when you pick it up, weighing 4.75 pounds.
How does it sound?
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SACD and DVD-A: A feast for your ears when you hear them over Oppo's stellar BDP-83.
Oppo's new BDP-83 player spins just about every type of "silver" disc under the sun: CD, SACD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video and Blu-ray. Cool!
I brought a stack of SACDs and DVD-A discs to the CNET listening room to check out the BDP-83 with our Denon AVR-3808CI receiver and Aperion Intimus 4T Hybrid SD 5.1 speaker/subwoofer system. I'll cover the high-resolution audio performance of the Oppo here, read Matthew Moskovciak's full CNET review for the rest of the story.
"The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East," recorded on March 12 and 13, 1971, was a trip. Sure, the original mix was stereo, but I loved the way the SACD's 5.1 mix opened up and clarified the sound, especially the band's two drummers, Jai Johanny Johanson and Butch Trucks. The entire rhythm section's dynamics and pulse came alive on SACD, it's more in the background on CD.
On one hand the 5.1 mix is fairly subtle, but the sound's open quality and spaciousness was remarkable. The sense of being in the 2,000 seat concert hall was a thrill that you can't get with stereo. And no, you can't get there by playing stereo in Dolby Pro Logic II, a discrete 5.1 channel mix, if it's any good, will always sound better.
Led Zeppelin's "How the West Was Won" double DVD-A set was very different. How? The band's dynamic energy was even more present and the front three speakers soundstage depth and dimensionality were better than the Allman Brothers' disc. Too bad the bass was thicker and muddier, which was probably the way it sounded at the 1972 Zep shows. I didn't like the surround mix much, mostly because I couldn't understand why Jimmy Page's guitar was sometimes coming out of the surround speakers. Strange. But it's still the best sounding Zeppelin disc I own.
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The zeppelin, Eureka, sits on the tarmac at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. The airship was dedicated Friday at an event celebrating the 75h anniversary of Moffett Field.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)MOFFETT FIELD, Calif.--NASA celebrated the 75th anniversary of this iconic airfield and research center on Friday by dedicating a brand-new zeppelin from a private company called Airship Ventures.
The zeppelin NT ("new technology"), which is one of just three currently functioning zeppelins that exist in the world, and the biggest, at 246 feet, was named "Eureka," a name that relates to the fact that the ship is based in California, as well as the fact that it is "rooted in scientific principles," said Brian Bell, a co-founder of Airship Ventures, the ship's owner, minutes before he revealed the new name.
At an event here to celebrate the two milestones, Alexandra Bell, also a co-founder of Airship Ventures, spoke of the experience of getting the zeppelin program off the ground. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), as well as Pete Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center, attended the event.
Airship Ventures is the first company in the United States to offer public access to zeppelins. And the company will be carrying paying passengers around the Bay Area, as well as helping NASA carry out scientific research.
The co-founders of Airship Ventures pull back the cover on the name of their brand-new zeppelin, the largest in the world, at the event Friday. The zeppelin is called the Eureka.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)Brian Bell explained that Airship Ventures had a naming contest and received more than 1,500 submissions, five of which turned out to be "Eureka," a name that those involved in the company had already been thinking about anyway.
But Alexandra Bell said that the Eureka may not end up being Airship Ventures' only zeppelin (See video below of the first flight of the Eureka after its dedication).
"We decided we just have to get a couple more," she said, "so we can name them with some of the other wonderful names" we got.
While the Eureka is the largest currently functioning zeppelin, the airships from the golden age of zeppelins were much, much larger. The Hindenburg and the Graf Zeppelin were about 800 feet long, and the Macon, which was based at Moffat for a couple of years in the 1930s, was 785 feet long.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may soon see a zeppelin wafting overhead. For a photo gallery, click on the image.
(Credit: Airship Ventures)Way back in the 1980s, I took one of those touristy helicopter rides over the San Francisco waterfront; very cool, in its way, but also very noisy. About 8 or 9 years ago, my wife and I flew in a glider over Napa Valley; that was breathtaking, but very cramped.
The next time I'm up for that sort of aerial adventure in the Bay Area and its environs, there'll be a new option for me to consider: a zeppelin. Within days, a company called Airship Ventures will have its namesake aircraft set up at its new home at Moffett Field in Mountain View and will start running "flightseeing" excursions; by sometime in November, it also plans to get Oakland International and Sonoma County Airport involved, although just with the one zeppelin.
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The Speaker of the Year!
(Credit: Zu Audio)The Zu Audio Driud Mk. IV is the Audiophiliac's Speaker of the Year! As a former hi-fi salesman and now as a professional audio reviewer for twelve years I've heard thousands of speakers, but the Druid hit me hard. A total rock & roll animal, the skinny monolith/tower feels tremendously powerful, and my samples look extremely cool decked out in brilliant red metallic paint. I initially reviewed the speaker in the March, 2007 issue of Robb Report Home Entertainment. I'm still listening.
A number of American and Canadian speaker manufacturers now outsource production while maintaining sky high pricing, but Zu's home grown speakers are built with outright lavish quality standards and still sell at the low-end of high-end pricing (starting at $1795 a pair for the smaller Tone speakers). Zu also offers a center channel, surround speakers and subwoofers for home theater fans. All are sold factory direct, with a 60 day money-back satisfaction guarantee.
The Zu Druid Mk.IV is a large speaker, 50 inches tall, 11 wide, but since it is just 6.3 inches deep, it does not seem all that imposing. Yes, at $3,400 a pair, it ain't cheap, but it's less than some folks paid for a pair of scalped tickets for last night's Led Zeppelin concert in London. And I have a feeling Druids will still sound great long after a $3,400 flat screen display winds up decomposing in landfill. High-end audio is built to last--video not so much. It certainly gets old real fast, anybody out there still have their $15K first generation plasma set?
Zu speakers are assembled and finished in Ogden, Utah, and almost all of the parts are made in the US including the Druid's 10-inch full range driver and tweeter (Zu assembles and tests the drivers in-house). Keeping production at home allows Zu to offer all sorts of custom options and finishes, and you won't find any plastic parts in a Zu design. The speaker's internal silver alloy wiring is made by Zu, and instead of typical speaker wire binding posts, the Druid features a nifty copper clamping system to secure the speaker cables. Every detail of the design is first rate.
Zu's design methodology is more musical and less measurement oriented than most, which is not to say Zu's engineering is completely seat of the pants, just that the end result produces a sound that is, well, different than what I am used to. That said, the rhythmic pulse of jazz, reggae and all sorts of dance music is communicated with an energy that is far ahead of any I've heard from speakers of the Druid's size and price class. And yet the speakers' poise on classical music reveals a wonderful sense of refinement.
Voices emerge fully formed, more believably human: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Jack White, Jeff Buckley, and Bob Dylan all but materialize in my living room. Stereo imaging is another strong point. On disc after disc the Druids display an uncanny ability to disappear as sources of sound. Depth and spaciousness are truly excellent. They sound great cranked way up loud, and yet sound awesome teamed up with the puniest of amplifiers.
Zu is clearly a force to be reckoned with.
Like many other suburban American males who grew up in a certain era, I [hearted] Led Zeppelin. And while my ardor's diminished considerably since adolescence, they're one of very few bands I discovered decades ago that I still enjoy today. (In contrast, I can't believe I actually own a half dozen Doors LPs.)
So when Led Zeppelin announced a one-show reunion (with their original drummer's son on drums) to celebrate the life of Ahmet Ertegun, the Atlantic Records cofounder who signed them, I expected it'd be popular. But apparently the registration site for tickets got so much traffic, they've extended the deadline a week. 25 million individual registrations have been reported. For 18,000 tickets.
Of course, as a friend pointed out this morning, some of these requests are probably automated programs sent out by scalpers and other opportunists--the registration site does not have any CAPTCHA system to weed out robots from humans. (CAPTCHA systems display an image file with letters and ask you to type the letters. The acronym stands for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart.")
Even so, with that kind of demand, I think the odds of a full tour are pretty good. Registration's here. Good luck.
(Credit:
SCI FI Tech)
Ever since we were kids, Crave has always been fascinated with blimps. To this day we still idolize the dirigible, though the atrocious Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow did its best to ruin the image forever.
That's probably why we're partial to the "Zeppelin" from B&W Loudspeakers, the first of its kind for the iPod that's shaped like the airship of yesteryear. SCI FI Tech says the 2-foot-long system backs up its design with some impressive acoustic muscle--"five drivers including a 5-inch woofer, glass-fiber cones and those sweet tapered tubes for the tweeters."
The $600 price tag makes it more than a novelty item, but how often to you get a chance to have your very own blimp? But the real reason for this post, we admit, is that it affords us another excuse to mention "Oh, The Huge Manatee."
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