The latest two awards include the 2013 A Design Award and 2013 Plus X Award achieved for: High Quality, Design, and Ergonomics.

You can see find more details about ZTONE In-Ear Monitors here at I-MEGO.com at this link.

Pronounced “stone,” ZTONE are built for superior clarity and bass with two 10mm speaker drivers, 20-20,000 Hz frequency, 16 ohms impedance, and 105 ± 5dB.  Braided cables made from genuine silver carry impeccable audio to the studio-tuned monitors. The earphones include additional silicone fittings, stereo and airplane adapters, and a durable metal carrying case.

“Professional musicians use monitors to hear their music while they perform but their level of customization can be prohibitively expensive,” explains Matt Altschul, President of US Operations. “With ZTONE, we are bringing this concept to everyday life, offering a solution that will work for anyone.”

ZTONE is a 2013 CES Innovations Honoree.  The Innovations entries are judged on engineering, aesthetic and design, use/function and novel features.  IMEGO’s ZTONE will be displayed in The Venetian at the 2013 International CES January 8-11, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada and the full range of premium audio accessories can be found at CES booth 4237 in North Hall.

The Ztone earphones are $99.99 and are now available at www.i-mego.com.

The master minds of Pandora created a system they call the Music Genome Project, which consists of human analysts that examine every aspect of music every which way and then record specific songs and artists into a database that precisely creates a musical haven customized for each listener. Pandora streams from the internet and is available anywhere there is an internet connection. Pandora gives the listener power to deny, approve and star-rank specific songs, however it limits the amount of songs users can skip in a row but offers helpful advice on trying different stations for alternative musical stylings.

With great ideas come great imitators and just as Bing tries to compete with Google, Spotify is trying to get a piece of Pandora’s blessed musical pie. Spotify is a service that offers the streaming of specific songs, albums and collaborations through an operating system through the users electronic devices. Spotify can directly connect with Facebook, musical news sources and also offers a radio function. Spotify’s radio feature differs itself from Pandora because there is no limit on how many tracks can be skipped at any given time and it does not offer a ranking system. Spotify radio reminds me of an ADHD child who was given sugar behind his mothers back; it is random and doesn’t make any sense. For example; as I am writing this article I click on the artist Fun. and I get Chris Brown… a close second to banging my head against a brick wall.

Essentially it is up to the listener. It’s like learning to play the guitar; would you rather have a teacher who was classically trained in guitar but can be slightly predictable at times or that dude down the street in his mom’s basement who rocked with the Rolling Stones cover-band in the 1980’s? Pandora is safe and you know what you’re getting; whereas Spotify is as unpredictable as your crazy uncle.

For those of you who are unaware of the name associated with the artificial sound that has consumed the sound waves on your local radio station for the past few years; welcome to the curse of Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune is a way to alter vocals through a device which takes a sound that is less than perfect and fixes it to be immaculate. In all reality Auto-Tune takes something that is originally five steps down from perfect and makes it sound pleasant; in Tucker Max terms it takes a 4 and makes it a 9. This style of sound is primarily heard in rap and pop music; shoved down our throats by artists such as T-Pain and Will-I-Am from the Black Eyed Peas.

Auto-tune is criticized by talented musicians of all genres as a way of cutting corners and cheating hard work; in turn destroying the art of creating music. It is hard to disagree with Jay-Z, not just because of fear of a posse knocking down your door, but also artists like Death Cab for Cutie, with their million dollar careers, insane lyrics and musical stylings. I respect and agree with these criticisms and will not jump on a bandwagon that credits any person living in his mother’s basement with musical editing equipment an artist.
Here’s to keeping our fingers crossed and ears clean for a new musical phenomenon that encompasses our time on earth and doesn’t involve anyone with grills, hyphenated first names and careers based around a single witty lyrical phrase.

So why are so many people attracted to such an old school technology? One of the main topics of debate is the quality of sound. The vinyl nuts of the world claim that record players simply produce a more accurate and higher quality sound. Scientifically the difference between your Bon Jovi record and the online download, is the physical sound. A vinyl record holds an analog recording whereas an online file holds a digital recording. According to howstuffworks.com; “…by definition, a digital recording is not capturing the complete sound wave. It is approximating it with a series of steps. Some sounds that have very quick transitions, such as a drum beat or a trumpet’s tone, will be distorted because they change too quickly for the sample rate.” Round one goes to the record player.

However, The digital connoisseurs of the world love the convenience, speed and developing technology that is associated with a digital music file. So, being able to download an album seconds after it’s released and at lightning speed as oppose to driving to the store, purchasing the album, opening the package, playing one side of the album and flipping it over twenty minutes later, is appealing. With the popularity of Pandora, Spotify and iTunes, even those who would die for the continuation of the production of vinyl, appreciate the ease of MP3’s and digital music. And in this crazy world we live in, music is one of the few positive influences that merges generations, genders and ethnic backgrounds to a common love. Just know as you are enjoying the new Mumford and Sons album on Spotify, you bet your ass i’ll be doing almost the same thing-ish but instead i’ll be adjusting my record needle with one hand, a glass of wine in the other and a couch full of my favorite people behind me. Long live Vinyl.

Who is Leah Chyma?

Leah Chyma is a Texas implant hailing from the land of corn, cows and creative writing. After absorbing the studies of english and art at the University of Iowa, Leah followed her passions of writing, music, art and the outdoors to the live music capital of the world. Now, she lives and breaths by the code of Austin spending much of her time creating art, articles and a life worth envy. For more about the talents of Leah Chyma visit leahchyma.com.

I-MEGO focuses on creating products with you in mind. We believe the exploration of music should be limitless so we mold our headphones around you. Our headphones range in design, fit and audio response so you can always find a model that highlights your personal preference and style.

Developing these great products is driven by the innovation and inspiration we gather from our surrounding lives. The I-MEGO blog is our way to shine a spotlight on some of the products, events, places, people, and MUSIC that we own, attend, visit and love, to give you an idea of what inspires us.

Do you have a favorite artist, album, product, place or person that you think fits our criteria of excellence and pursuit of all things music? Leave it as a comment or shoot us an email and we’ll look into posting it here on our blog.

We look forward to pouring out our ideas and inspirations for all the enjoy. Cheers!