Since this year’s CES is about to begin, we are already hearing from a few companies which will showcase their products at the event this week. Pioneer, which sold their audio and video division to Onkyo in 2014, is planning to announce three high-end audio products at CES 2016. We already knew about these products, but the company is now ready to demonstrate their functionality. The brand is often associated with home-audio equipment, so they won’t disappoint users who like these kind of products. They will introduce the Elite SX-N30 Network Stereo Receiver, featuring a wide range of wireless connectivity options such as WiFi and Bluetooth. This receiver supports DLNA and it plays many formats including WAV, FLAC and MP3, among others. There are some streaming services available and internet radio built right in. The receiver has four digital inputs and six analog inputs, all of them plated in gold and this device can emit 80 watts from each channel.
The SE-Master1 headphones feature 50 mm drives with Parker Ceramic Coating over the aluminum diaphragm that could produce up to 85,000 Hz, which is more than double of what most high-end headphones can produce. The headphones are designed to reduce distortion as their build minimizes vibrations, they also create better separation between left and right channels. They might be used by regular consumers and professionals alike, as they would be good for recording, mixing and mastering audio.
Of course, much of the audio experiences have gone mobile, so the company is releasing a portable audio player running Android Lollipop. This isn’t the first time the company has used Android in their products, as they have a a few Android Auto-powered Systems which allow cars to connect with smartphones. The XDP-100R Digital Audio Player features a 4.7-inch display and it is the first one in the market to support MQA lossless format. It comes packed with 32GB of internal storage, and in addition Pioneer added two memory card slots for expandable storage, and each one supports Micro SD cards up to 200GB. This digital player can download songs directly from OnkyoMusic, so there’s no need to plug it into a PC. There’s support for 24bit/192kHz high-res audio from the headphone jacks. Other devices can benefit from this music player as it can be connected with WiFi, Bluetooth or a line-out jack. The digital player features an aluminum build and an integrated speaker, its battery is said to last up to 10 hours. All of these products will be available in North America, the receiver costs $600, the headphones are priced at $2,500 and the music player will be $700.
