Pitchfork’s “50 Best Holiday Songs of All Time”

Pitchfork’s “50 Best Holiday Songs of All Time”

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The Holiday Season has arrived, and with it, come those same, familiar, Christmas songs played nonstop on the radio (and in every store) from Black Friday through New Year’s Day. Even if you’ve developed a frosty attitude towards them over the years, you have to admit, these melodies sure are catchy, and guaranteed to get you settled into the Season of Giving. And, as popular online music journal Pitchfork notes, there are quite a few Christmas tunes that make for excellent music. Check out the link below for Pitchfork’s list of “The 50 Best Holiday Songs of All Time.”

Didn’t see your favorite Christmas song on the list? Add yours in the Comments Section below!

Music Review: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Skeleton Tree”

Music Review: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Skeleton Tree”

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Skeleton Tree is the sixteenth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. During recording sessions in July of 2015, Cave suffered the unthinkable: his fifteen year old son, Arthur, died after falling from a cliff near the family’s home. Skeleton Tree is an album of mourning and eerie prophecy. The opening lyrics to “Jesus Alone,” the first track on the album, “You fell from the sky, crash-landed in a field near the River Adur,” was written before Arthur’s death. Throughout Skeleton Tree, Cave’s voice is wounded, the lyrics are longing, and the result is an album for the ages. http://www.nickcave.com/home/

 

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Throwback Thursday: Buddy Holly & The Crickets Go On The Ed Sullivan Show

Throwback Thursday: Buddy Holly & The Crickets Go On The Ed Sullivan Show

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59 years ago today, “Buddy Holly & the Crickets” made their debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing their rock and roll hits “That’ll be the Day” and “Peggy Sue,” which had been released earlier that year. This nationally televised concert marked the beginning of an intense touring schedule for the group, ultimately culminating in that fatal plane crash on February 3, 1959.

 

 

Powered by Blackfire: The Harman/Kardon Omni 10 Wireless Speaker

Powered by Blackfire: The Harman/Kardon Omni 10 Wireless Speaker

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Blackfire Research is proud to partner with Harmon/Kardon, a leading global manufacturer of audio systems, to make the best wireless speakers on the market. Blackfire’s technology can be found in any of Harmon’s wireless Omni speakers. Today, we’ll take a closer look inside the Omni 10, the wireless HD loudspeaker that started it all.

 

With its small, elegant design, the Omni 10, wireless HD loudspeaker, packs a lot of punch. Powered by Blackfire’s patented technology, the Omni 10 sets the bar for the industry’s best performing small room speaker. (Based on objective performance studies of currently available Wi-Fi speaker technologies as defined by the ITU Indoor Radio Propagation Model.) The Omni 10 supports superior, lossless HD audio without synchronization issues, playback lag or dropouts between multiple speakers, and streams up to 24bit/96kHz studio quality sound, all through Wi-Fi.

 

A multi-speaker setups allow for multi-room and multi-channel wireless surround sound. Harmon/Kardon’s user-friendly design allows you to enjoy your music from anywhere in your home, all with the touch of a button: enjoy the same song throughout the entire home through “Party Mode,” or Press “Link” to continue playing your music on another device. Multi-room and multi-channel wireless audio also lets you play different songs in different rooms, so you’ll never have to fight over music tastes again!

 

You can stream music from your smartphone or tablet through the Harmon/Kardon controller app, or, take advantage of the Omni 10’s Bluetooth capability by streaming music from your tablet or phone. While using Bluetooth, “the speaker will automatically translate the signal to Wi-Fi…all over your house for a truly flexible whole home audio experience**”so you never have to worry about range limitations, dropouts, or low quality audio. If streaming music isn’t your thing, the Omni 10 also has a 3.5 mm auxiliary input that allows you to connect your speaker to almost any audio device.

 

Harmon/Kardon’s Omni 10 wireless HD Loudspeaker powered by Blackfire comes in either black or white and can be purchased for $199.95 each.

 


Notes

*Based on objective performance studies of currently available Wi-Fi speaker technologies as defined by the ITU Indoor Radio Propagation Model.
** http://www.harmankardon.com/HKOMNI10BLKAM.html

The Pioneer VSX-1131 AV Receiver is Named One of 2016’s Best

The Pioneer VSX-1131 AV Receiver is Named One of 2016’s Best

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So Make Sure to Add it to your Black Friday Shopping List

Today marks the official start to the holiday shopping season and everyone is panicking. So many gifts to buy, so little time! Perhaps you’re looking for a fantastic gift for the music lover in your life? Or maybe you are searching for the perfect addition to your own home entertainment system to show off during holiday dinners? Look no further:  as a proud partner of top audio-visual company Pioneer, Blackfire Research is happy to announce that the Pioneer VSX-1131 AV Receiver, powered by Blackfire Research’s “FireConnect,” has been named one of the best AV Receivers for 2016 by Thewirecutter.com and Themasterswitch.com – so make sure to add it to your Black Friday shopping list!

The Pioneer VSX-1131, which features Blackfire’s FireConnent, placed “runner-up” for Thewirecutter.com’s “The Best Receiver” of 2016 award. On their decision to include the VSX-1131 as one of the year’s best AV Receivers, WireCutter expressed that “the VSX-1131 has AirPlay, Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, Dolby Atmos, and integrated Wi-Fi support. It will convert an analog video signal to HDMI, too, so you need to run only a single cable to your TV. It even offers…component-video and phono inputs…[and] features Google Cast for Audio support, which we really like to see.”

As if one wasn’t enough, Themasterswitch.com has ranked the AV Receiver as #10 on their list of “Best A/V Receivers of 2016,” stating that “[t]his is a good, solid all-round system” and that “it’s one of the more reliable units out there…We do like the increased HDMI ports, and we really enjoyed the room correction system, which calibrated the system nicely.”

The Pioneer VSX-1131 AV Receiver “has seven amplifier channels [and] the serious home cineaste can also operate a Dolby Atmos loudspeaker set with its additional ceiling speakers. With 160 watts per channel, the amplifier output meets higher demands, similar to the seven HDMI ports, one of which is located on the front panel. This allows you to quickly connect external players without much hassle. The VSX-1131 supports 4K UltraHD with HDR on every HDMI port, while it can convert Full HD into 4K using its powerful video scalers.” (Pioneer 2016)

The receiver also features “various streaming options [already] installed. With Spotify, Tidal and Deezer, all the payment streaming services are supported…TuneIn adds thousands of web radio stations, while AirPlay, Google Play and Bluetooth provide matching wireless access to every tablet or smart phone. And if you’re planning a multi-room system in the near future, you’ll be happy to know that the VSX-1131 is already compatible with FireConnect and so able to feed all connected sources into a corresponding system.”(Pioneer 2016)

Pioneer explains that Blackfire’s Fireconnect “enables any audio source connected to the receiver—from vinyl to streaming audio—to be sent wirelessly to a compatible speaker placed anywhere in the home.”

“The new Pioneer AV receivers with FireConnect enable the concurrent playback of every audio source connected to the AV receiver via an optional wireless speaker. Conveniently control the multiroom playback with track selection and volume via smart phone and tablet.” (Pioneer 2016)

Congratulations Blackfire Research and our partners over at Pioneer. Let’s keep setting the standard for wireless home entertainment.

You can purchase the Pioneer VSX-1131 on Amazon, Best Buy, or Walmart.