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Sony has taken the covers off of a bunch of audio peripherals including two sets of noise cancelling headphones — one in-ear, one on-ear — and a pair of speakers that are just aching to link up to your smart phone to play some Bluetooth tunes.
Both the in-ear MDR-NC100D headphones and the on-ear MDR NC200D on-ear ‘phones clearly hate ambient noise so are packing Sony’s Digital Noise Cancelling System that aims to take a more precise sample of background to better drown out the sound.
They also both use the sci-fi sounding Artificial Intelligence Noise Cancelling that supposedly reacts to differing levels of noise to automatically select the most effective mode — how that pans out in the real world remains to be seen when we take them for a walk through central London in the rush-hour.
The MDR-NC100D’s use 13.5mm drivers in the ear-bud cases while the MDR-NC200D’s have 40mm drivers, both of which Sony claim offer a rich, clear sound. We think we’ll be the judge of that, thanks.
The SRS-BTV25 and RDP-V20iP speakers are two more entrants into our list of ‘most awkward product names’. They both use what Sony calls ‘Circle Sound’, which along with being a totally stupid name also means that they apparently throw out strong sounds around the whole room regardless of its positioning. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not ‘Circle Sound’ is worth our pounds.
The SRS-BTV25 will connect to any Bluetooth device to stream music which is handy as you don’t have to leave your phone plugged into it while playing your music. There’s also a standard 3.5mm headphone jack if you want to use it with a non-Bluetooth music player.
The RDP-V20iP also uses the daft-sounding Circle Sound technology, but doesn’t have the same Bluetooth connectivity, instead relying on a more old-school dock. There’s a remote control though so at least you don’t have to get up off your comfy chair every time you want to change the track.
The internal rechargeable battery on this guy boasts 5 hours of playback which is good news for picnic enthusiasts and bad news for people who hate kids playing appalling music on the backs of buses.
Both models are designed with portability in mind, so you can plonk their fancy-looking circle bodies down in any room without too much fuss. They also both have bass-boost functions for when you really want the party to get going. We suggest handing out some glow-sticks and cheap alcopops too.
There’s no word on pricing for any of these items yet, but we expect to hear more closer to their release around October.
