Channel Islands Audio (CIAudio) is now shipping for the Logitech Squeezebox Duet, an alternative power supply to the Logitech's one. Called the VDC 9.0, this upgrade is said to eliminate noise caused by the standard switching supply, which can contaminate the internal digital and analog circuits. The power supply unit provides an output voltage of 9V DC rated at 2.5 Amps, the design is based around a low noise/high current transformer, discrete Schottky diode bridge rectifier, AC line filter, precision voltage regulator circuit, and 13,600uF of filter capacitance.

The PSU is available in 120 or 240v input for $279.00.

The Chord's Chordette Gem is designed to integrate within an existing HiFi system and allow the transfer of music from a Bluetooth enabled phone, PDA or personal computer. The addition of a USB port also allows direct streaming of audio from a PC.

The Chordette Gen supports any A2DP (Advanced Audio Profile) Bluetooth compatible devices. Using a custom designed Bluetooth receiver Chord has been able to extract and decrypt the normally unused digital audio information and input this directly into a high quality digital to analogue converter. Unlike the analog audio outputs seen from other Bluetooth devices this gives us much better performance and enables CD like transfer of music from the Bluetooth device. The unit has a range of up to 30 meters and the USB port can be connected to a personal computer and will seamlessly appear as an audio device by the operating system.

The compact receiver measures 160x 70x 40mm and is available in several finishes for a retail price of £399.

Chord Electronics has introduced its new QBD76 digital to analog converter built upon the award winning DAC64. Using the very latest Field Programmable Gate Arrays the WTA filtering and Pulse Array technology has been taken to new levels. The improvements in performance are now reaching the theoretical maximums achievable with CD digital audio.

The QBD76 incorporates a Bluetooth receiver that gives HiFi quality playback of music content stored in A2DP (Advanced Audio Profile) Bluetooth devices and in particular mobile phones. Rather than using the analog signal found on other Bluetooth audio products Chord has extracted and decoded the digital audio stream giving a perfect reproduction from an uncompressed audio file stored in the phone. In addition to Bluetooth, the QBD76 also has two coaxial, two AES, two optical inputs as well as a USB port.

The new QBD76 DAC is available for £3,000 in silver or black anodized aluminum finish.

Roberts introduces the SolarDAB radio which is the world's first solar powered DAB radio. The SolarDAB radio has a solar panel integrated into the top of the unit and a level indicator on the display screen that shows the power level generated by the solar panel, if the sun is strong enough it powers the radio directly otherwise it recharges the internal battery. A fully recharged battery can run the radio for up to 27 hours.

The radio includes UK Band III and L, has a white backlight LCD which gives station and setting informations, a line-in jack for connecting a stereo or mono source (e.g. CD player, iPod, Mp3 player), plus headphone socket.

The Roberts SolarDAB radio is currently available in black, white, pink, red, and green colors, for £79.99.

Especially for the UK market, Yamaha has released the TX-761DAB DAB tuner. In addition to AM/FM bands, the tuner handles both band III and L-band with highly sensitive reception capability and superior tuning performance. This tuner lets you preset a large number of stations: 99 DAB stations and a total of 30 AM and FM stations. The TX-761DAB includes optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, and a remote control as well.

The Yamaha DAB tuner is now available from British stores at £249.

The Avid Acutus isn't new, but it's still a sweet-looking turntable. In brief, this is a belt drive, sprung subchassis design with a unique vibration absorbing mechanism. Vibration caused by the stylus during playback is transmitted to the subchassis directly through the bearing and not absorbed into the platter. This is achieved using a unique matting material and clamping system. External vibrations are isolated by a unique suspension system, now conveniently adjustable from above. Also, the Acutus features a massive 10kg platter driven by a unique hand made motor coupled to a custom power supply.

The Avid Acutus is available in polished chrome or plated gold finish for a price of $16,000 (tonearm and cartridge sold separately).

With the ION Audio IPTUSB you will be able to convert your vinyl records into digital media with ease with this portable USB turntable. It supports 33, 45 and 78 rpm records and includes Audacity software for editing your recorded tracks. The IPTUSB can be powered with 6 D batteries for stand-alone operation and there is also a built-in speaker and headphone output for private listening.

This portable USB turntable will soon be available at BestBuy for $99.

AMEX is launching an external model of the new SoundGraph's iMon HD, called the iMON HD Mobile, this sytem includes a remote control, an external VFD display (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) and the iMEDIAN an easy-to-use media center solution for Windows XP & Vista.

The iMON HD Mobile transforms your computer into a media center and allows you to remotely control it, the VFD device displays various useful information such as "Graphical EQ", "System Info", "Media Info", "Email Check", "News", "World City Time & Weather" and many more. It will be available in black or silver finish for $59.

Onkyo is launching the WAVIO KM-2W its second (one year after the KB-1) keyboard/mouse combo for media center, composed of a brushed aluminum keyboard and mouse. The whole system is wireless and comes with 2.4GHz USB receivers, the keyboard has a 106-key Japanese layout plus 7 shortcut keys while the mouse is equipped with a 800dpi sensor.

The KM-2W is due to become available early this month in Japan in both black or silver anodized finish.

JVC has introduced a couple of versatile HD video recorders, called the DR-HX500 and DR-HX250. Both models combine a HDD in 500GB capacity or 250GB along with a DVD burner and a VHS recorder. They also feature digital/anolog tuners that allows the recording of 2 programs simultaneously, EPG support, HDMI v1.2a with CEC, S-video and composite outputs, and two remote controls.

No release date was announced, but prices (converted from yen) are $890 for the 500Gb model and $710 for the 250Gb model.