Smart Home IO

The Audioquest Dragon Fly Red & Black Version USB digital audio converter is a new great gadget that can greatly improve your personal music listening experience. This cool device can allow you to connect to your laptop or smart phone to your preferred headphones or earbuds to greatly enhance the audio quality when listening to either Mp3 or high resolution music files. The DAC's are also preamplifiers and headphone amplifiers with great 32-bit digital performance. In the image above you see the dragon fly red edition which has a high gain output at 2.1 volts to power even the most needy headphones which is also paired with the Apple USB adapter to allow the DAC to connect to your iPhones lighting connection. The Red edition also has an improved DAC chip which is a little more higher performance than the Black edition. The Audioquest Dragon Fly Black edition gives us a medium power output at 1.2 volts and also has a built in analog volume control 

When putting together a smart home it can be very easy to skimp on the important stuff that can really enhance your smart home system like the quality of the wiring you are using. There can be a huge gap in cabling costs when it comes to options for your house. It is highly recommended to not just go with the cheapest cables and cabling as you get what you pay for as they say. Having a base line of quality to your smart home cabling infrastructure goes a long way when bringing your system together. Check out the company Audioquest for a look into the variety and options available to you and your smart home wiring needs. Audioquest has a high focus on audio quality including analog and digital cables to suit all the connection varieties you will need.

The newly released Sonos 6.3 system update brings new features to the Sonos eco system further advancing the application and streaming audio service. Now with the new iPhone 6s or 6s plus you are able to gently press the Sonos app icon from the home screen of your phone to get access to the short cut menu. The shortcut menu allows you to play and resume what you last listened to, choose a favorite from your starred favorites and/or search your Sonos system for music. The update also gives the Rhapsody streaming service a higher quality audio stream enriching and enhancing the sound With the new Sonos update you are able to now control the music from your iPhone or iPad lock screen. This gives easy access to changing the track or station, play and pause quickly and also the ability to adjust the volume on the fly. Sonos has also given the ability for the app to be shared via the split view and slide over Apple service. Finally with this updat

You are in need of a change of TV service because you are unhappy with what you are being provided with for the price you pay so you make the call to the satellite company. You place your order to switch over your TV services and an appointment is made for the following week. Finally the day arrives for your appointment and you wait until the third hour of your four hour time slot and right at lunch time the technician has arrived. He happens to be driving a personal vehicle with a magnet sign on the side of his vehicle which says authorized contractor, thats odd but ok. The installation seems to be going fine and you eventually get picture on all the TV's you have in your home which was the main goal for switching over your services. After a small tutorial and a show and tell on the new features of the system the technician has you sign for a job complete and he proceeds to the next job never to be heard from again. The next day you happen to go to your where your cable

The Ring video doorbell is a great stand alone smart home doorbell to give you eyes and ears on what is happening or who is at the front of your house or entry. The night camera view as shown above has built in infrared (IR) illuminators to allow the camera to be viewable at night. You can listen to the Ring's built in microphone by pressing the audio symbol in the lower right of the app to hear what is going on around the Ring doorbell. You can also press the green talk button when in a live camera view to communicate with whomever is at your front entry. The picture above is what the Ring doorbell looks like at night with the circle light being the doorbell button. The three red lights below the illuminated doorbell button are the infrared (IR) illuminators allowing the camera to see at night. The Ring doorbell is a great device and accompanied app to help bring your home to the connected