While Aussie car makers stand still, Europe goes electric... #EV #Audi

It's an Audi, or an Audi on a VW platform (nothing new there). Most importantly it's an electric vehicle, and a prestige one at that... and it's real, and it's small. It's a 2+1, would you believe! And whilst it's offered with a range of motors, it's the electric one that'll steal the show. Whilst VW itself is banking on squeezing the last drops out of small, turbo-charged diesel and petrol motors, it obviously has a Plan B, too. If the US car makers (and their Aussie offshoots) don't wake up and smell the roses soon they'll miss the boat, let alone the mixed metaphor, completely.

A variety of engines will be offered, although the star of the show will be an electric powerplant. It incorporates lightweight lithium-polymer batteries and a punchy electric motor driving the front wheels. So the small, agile car will be ideal for city motoring, delivering 0-60mph in around 10 seconds. And with a full charge providing enough energy to travel up to 100 miles helped by regenerative braking, the plug-in machine will have real all-round ability.

Reaper, Anvil Studio, Audacity.. it's audio day #music #tech

It's audio install day for me. Actually every day seems like audio install day, but today I am installing Reaper and Anvil on the Core2Duo. (I loaded Audacity the other day, and configured the Behringer USB guitar link as well, along with the Native Instruments Virtual Amp. Should all run better than on the P4. It means copying over a lot of VST plug-ins and what-not but it'll be worth it. Why is it worth it? Where's the fun in editing and processing sound? Well it's like Photoshopping images - either you get a kick out of making stuff out of nothing, or doing just a little touching up, or you don't.

Easy computer audio to stereo amplifier link #gadgets

I usually like what I see at the old-school specialist online music shop theMusic.com, but I'm not so impressed with this particular product: The Music Streamer+ is an ultra high performance music interface that allows a computer and a home entertainment system to become perfect partners. With its unique topology, theMusicStreamer+ provides a completely isolated path between the computer and an audio system. No more audio contamination by the computer; your music will always sound its best. There are no external power supplies to worry about because the Music Streamer+ derives its power from the USB buss while completely regenerating power for all its internal circuitry using a sophisticated set of proprietary circuits.

Now I'm not sure it's that hard, is it? Many personal computers have the required outputs and you can simply run a wire... but they do claim "unique topology" and "completely isolated path between the computer and an audio system" so there must be something more going on, eh?

Actually I'm not sure how unique the "topology" is when I already have an AV Labs Music Studio that looks pretty similar. It too has a USB output as well as RCA audio connections in and out. (I also have a older Belkin Hi Speed USB 2.0 DVD Creator device that does much the same with both audio and video but is just data-in, rather than data-out as well) All you need to do is connect the USB on one side of the Music Studio box to the computer and connect an RCA cable to the other side, not forgetting to connect the other end of your RCA cable to your amplifier on your home stereo. If you are an audiophile you'll have a whinge about the quality but that goes with the territory, doesn't it?

As for that complete isolation, I guess they mean that the audio signal is not fed through your sound card or chip (ie you select "USB audio device" in your control panel and deselect your usual audio). That may be good or bad, depending upon your preferences. Sound cards/chips may have some funky hardware that makes things faster/better, that actually enhances the sound... but arguably that's not always the case. So is that it? Doesn't seem so fancy then... the Music Studio was far, far less than half the price of this Music Streamer. So what's new here? Anything? Nothing that I can see at this stage.

Here's a quick grab of images of the AV Labs Music Studio, FWIW...

The outputs.. which include the USB on the right and an audio out.. you can connect to your home sound system from here or just use your computer speakers..







The inputs.. including a microphone input.. you can connect any audio device as an input, if it has RCAs..








The 9 metre cable that connects the computer and Music Studio box to the home audio amplifier:









And an example of just one way to connect - in this instance via the front panel of a Desay PVR (but it could just as easily be the back of the amplifier itself)..