New Products at World Wide Stereo: November Edition

So many possibilities.

It would be quicker to list what the Decco125SKY can’t do, but suffice it to say “just add speakers” and just about anything is possible. Highlights include:

• The Decco125SKY creates its own wireless network easily accessible via your phone, so you control everything, wherever you are. (Though it does ship with a small remote.)
• Peachtree includes an excellent built-in DAC for your other digital devices – CD, TV, computer, whatever. So your music sounds like it should, no matter where it’s coming from.
• Separate power supplies drive both the phono section and the axillary inputs with full analog circuitry. (No shortcuts + no compromising = better sound.)
• Inputs set aside just for your TV, CD player, turntable and music server. Who doesn’t love inputs?
• A separate, dedicated amp just for headphones. (Thank you!)
• Access your music on your phone even if there’s no WiFi available in SKY Direct mode.
• Stream directly from TIDAL Spotify, TuneIn and all your go-to music sources.
• A little something for old-schoolers: a small but smart remote control that lets you navigate just like you would on a CD player.

Advanced tech plinth. Inside the Miracord 90’s plinth, the intricate series of sensors and bearings that gives the Miracord 90 it’s incredibly smooth rotation. The aluminum platter alone weighs in at 13 pounds 4 of 9 and sits atop a steel axis, which in turn rotates atop a ruby ball. The end result: a turntable as friction-free and perfect as it gets, not to mention totally spellbinding to watch.

Advanced cartridge and stylus. For the cartridge, ELAC made the very smart move of consulting AudioTechnia, who then designed and built an exclusive cartridge and stylus just for the Miracord 90. The cartridge features its own MicroLine diamond stylus and was contoured to better fill the record groove. The result is distinct: high resolution-like sound, freaky good reproduction and absolute pristine channel separation.

Advanced tone arm and controls. The Miracord 90 comes with a lightweight carbon fiber tonearm that aligns perfectly with the record. An oil-dampened mechanism lowers the tonearm in a way that’s butter smooth and pinpoint accurate, while a small weight balances skating / anti-skating. Both rotational consistency and wow & flutter are monitored and tweaked automatically, though you still control all via the Miracord 90’s manual controls through both a +/- 5% pitch control and 33 vs. 45 RPMs selector.

The best just got better. Way better.

There’s a lot to talk about with the Bose QuietComfort 35 II, but let’s hit the three biggies here:

1) They’re wireless. And they set-up with ease, thanks to voice prompts that walk you through pairing to your phone, tablet, or computer. Voice prompts will also let you access your phone’s own virtual assistant, a la Siri or Alexa, which leads us to the big news:

2) Thanks to Google Assistant built-in, you can tell your Bose QuietComfort headphones what to do by simply pressing the action button — and talking. (Google Assistant is like Apple’s Siri, or Android’s Alexa.) You can control your music, send and receive text, check appointments, check scores, whatever, by just talking to your new Bose QuietComfort headphones. No interaction with your phone needed.

3) The Bose QuietComfort 35s give you up to 20 hours of brilliant performance per charge. (Hallelujah.) And they’re comfortable, too – covered in Alcantara®, that really soft/plush material often used in yachts and high-end cars. Overall fit and finish is pure Bose, they feel as good as they look.

The Riva Festival.

The Festival is all about recreating big, authentic, lose-yourself-in-the-moment, concert sound. If dad was a Zeppelin freak, or loved Jethro Tull, give him the Riva Festival for the holidays and watch him light up when he hears the past come to life. If mom lived for Joni Mitchell, same thing.

The Festival is a wireless compact speaker that offers Stereophonic sound and 200 watts of power for a 106+db punch. Three woofers, three tweeters, four passive radiators and Riva’s patented Trillium Audio Technology – a way to enlarge audio images without inordinate compression – work together to achieve that unique, “live” Riva sound. Put a Festival in a large room, turn it up, and you’ve got front row tickets to thousands of the best concerts of all time.

The Festival comes with lots of connectivity options (Wi-Fi, AirPlay, Bluetooth, DLNA, DDMS) ands setting up via the Google Home app is easy. Stream audio via Chromecast built-in and Spotify Connect. The Festival also supports high-res audio, up to 24-bit/192kHz for amazing detail.

For a complete list of specs, check our Riva Festival product page right here.

The Riva Arena.

The Riva Arena is the Riva Festival’s little brother. The Arena offers all the same connectivity options, but comes with 50 Watts of power instead of 200. (50 watts is still more than enough to muss up your hair.) And, according to Riva, Arena’s three ADX drivers and three passive radiators reproduce more of the musical spectrum than any comparable product. For a more complete list of specs, check our Riva Arena product page right here.

Our opinion: both the Arena and the Festival are very impressive wireless speakers, and would still be worthy of consideration at twice the price. Surprise the music lover in your life – put a Riva Festival or Riva Arena under the tree. We’ll ship it totally free, right here.

The Riva Festival and The Riva Wand are both part of Riva’s WAND Series. At this year’s CEDIA awards in San Diego, Riva’s WAND Series won “best wireless audio speaker.”