LiveSound

I've never been a fan of cramming things in my ears, save the occasional cotton bud, but after receiving a set of LiveSound headphones from the good folks at Iris Digital/Sony Ericsson I'm planning to cram something else into my earholes.

Touted as the very latest thing in music audio technology, check out the blurb from SE:

Hear your music as it was meant to be heard. Experience LiveSound™ hi-fi headset. 
Genuine Sony Ericsson sound. Deep, punchy bass. Balanced, clean and dynamic audio reproduction. LiveSound™ hi-fi headset boasts premium design. Flat tangle-free cables. LiveKey™ app control. And remote on-cable music and call-handling. These sleek stereo headphones were engineered for music lovers.

They're not far wrong with their description. Since getting mine yesterday, I've certainly put them through their paces with a selection from the great variety of albums I carry on my Arc:

• Hans Zimmer: Inception - Original Motion Picture Score
• Daft Punk: Tron: Legacy - Original Motion Picture Score
• The Answer: Revival

I can safely say these are awesome headphones. Firing up the latest album from The Answer, Revival, I was treated to punchy bass, and crunchy guitars. I keep the EQ on the Arc set to rock as I'm fan of heavy bass, high treble and scooped mids. Sound reproduction was fantastic and really stood up well to the high-octane musical extranvaganza unleashed from this album.

Firing up the End Titles from Daft Punk's stirring, atmospheric opus for Tron: Legacy, I heard shimmering strings and bass that was (saucy innuendo aside) perfectly balanced, deep, tight, smooth and liquid.

Taking the dog out for a 45 minute hike this morning I listened to the soundtrack from Inception and again, it was a fantastic experience. This is an enormous sounding score and the LiveSound really did it justice.

My one gripe with these headpones is the cable could've done with being maybe a foot longer. I keep my phone in my trouserpocket and tucking the cable under my t-shirt then trying to read a text, I did feel a little wrench on the cable. A minor niggle, especially if you keep your phone in your breast pocket.

At £69.99 RRP these are expensive earphones, twice the price of Apple's similar in-line remote/mic earphone, but they are worth it. Considering these come as standard with the Xperia Ray, currently retailing for £279.99 on play.com, if you're looking for new earphones and/or a new phone, either way this makes for essential purchase.

Highly recommended!

Everybody Loves Ray

The Xperia Ray has launched here in the UK, and while I am loathe to write a gushing review about something I've only played with for about half an hour...to hell with it; whole albums have been reviewed based on a opening single, I'm going to give it a whirl anyway!

 

I first saw the Ray back in July at a meeting with Sony Ericsson, and was immediately taken by the styling of the device. I've always been a fan of phones with a matt finish and a slight feeling of 'grip' - the finish on the X10i was a perfect example of this and somthing I feel should've been carried over to the 2011 range of phones, had the environmental concerns of GreenHeart and recycled plastics not prevailed.

 

The 3.3in screen is tiny (compared to say, the 4.2in Arc) but still retains a wonderful brightness and clarity that I wouldn't have expected from a screen of this size. Of course there could be a problem typing messages if you've got stubby sausages for fingers; you might need something like Swype to make things easier and this is where SE have played something of a trump card...as they've introduced their own version of the software, which should make swipe-typing messages an absolute doddle. This will be coming to all 2011 SE Android handsets with the 2.3.4 update in the next few weeks - although it has started rolling out across Europe as I type this!

 

What fascinates me with the Ray, like I've said in previous posts, is how much the technology onboard the phone has changed/improved in the last six months, really since the release of the Arc:

• The Ray has dropped the HDMI out and LED flash (replaced with a dirty photo light) in order to slim things down, but is still packing in the same 1GHz processor and 8MP camera (with 720p video recording) as the Arc/Neo, yet is almost half the surface area of the Arc, if not more.
• Comparing the Neo to the Ray, the Neo is slightly bigger than the Ray, (but smaller than the Arc) and has a chunkier body to compensate for the smaller frame, whereas the Ray has hit the gym and lost the flab! All in all it's an impressive leap in technology in just six months.

According to bits and pieces I've read about the phone and its release, SE are aiming this handset at female users; not a bad idea, considering it's such a dinky phone it would happily fit it the tiniest of clutch purses. I must admit, I wouldn't mind a Ray - I could grumble about the low amount of onboard memory or sacrificing the HDMI out and LED flash but...I won't! To have a 'slim and lite' version of these excellent phones embodied in the Ray is very cool indeed.

 

Add to this the Ray is launching, at least here in the UK (according to rumours and an unboxing vid at Xperiablog), with the fabled LiveSound Stereo Remote headphones which not only offer unprecedented sound reproduction but are also retailing for between £40 and £50, that's an even better deal!