If you followed our CES adventures back in January, you might remember we introduced you to a very unique approach to the radio: the VOIZ AiRadio.
The company announced three new smart radios back then, dubbed AiRadio Poco, AiRadio Uno and the AiRadio Duo, all of them featuring retro-looking designs and bamboo cases with removable cloth grills.
To really come to grasp how the concept of this radio design came to be, we have to travel in time for a moment, with VOIZ CEO Hiro Ogura.
Ogura immigrated to the U.S back in 1985 with only just a few dollars to his name and dream of one day changing the way we interact with our radios.
Ogura, who had been building radios from scratch ever since he was a boy, started studying design and eventually became a product designer, creating a number of them for brands like Emerson Radio, Datexx, Aurora Impex and Onkyo.
As he designed products for others, his vision continued to grow, as well as his knowledge and understanding of technologies and superior design.
Thirty-four years later, he created the AirRadio we currently have today.
The radio features Amazon Alexa hands-free voice control, to begin with – all you have to do is ask it to play whatever artist or song you like, a genre or a mood. You can even search for music just by feeding the lyrics to it.
The radio was developed with the help of Andover Audio of Boston and benefited of some fine-tuning from Andover’s well-known sound engineer, Bob Hazelwood. This allowed the radio to deliver excellent quality and a Hi-Fi reproduction worthy of the New England Sound name.
The radio’s hardware is enclosed in a sustainable bamboo cabinet which can be personalized with either one or two 3-inch full-range drivers with oversized neodymium magnets.
AiRadio has a wide-soundstage feature that delivers room-enveloping sounds which make it feel as if you are actually listening to music or podcasts from separate speakers. You can even connect your record player to it and listen to your favorite vinyls through it.
Needless to say, its overall design will make it a welcome and eye-pleasing presence anywhere in your home.
The AiRadio has now officially launched an IndieGogo campaign that aims to gather the last $20,000 that are needed to cover the final development costs for the device.
The early birds who will contribute to make Hiro Ogura’s dream a reality will receive their radios at 54% off while the late birds will get them for 48% off.
You can check out the campaign over at this link.
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