Hercules punches into growing DJ speaker market with the XPS 2.0 80 DJ Monitor

By Caleb Denison Published September 27, 2011

The DJ monitor/project studio market has historically been served by the likes of M-Audio, Behringer, Mackie and Fostex, just to name a few. More recently, though, we’ve seen some familiar consumer electronics names like Pioneer, Paradigm and even high-end speaker-maker Focal jumping into fray, indicating there’s room for more players in what appears to be a rapidly growing product segment. Well now there’s yet another competitor and, based on what we’re seeing, this latest addition could end up redefining the term “entry level” for aspiring DJs and project studio masters.

Hercules, best known around these parts for their computer and desktop audio solutions, has just announced its XPS 2.0 80 DJ Monitor. The two compact satellites in the system are made of wood with larger woodgrain-finished side panels and a curved front baffle. Each enclosure is outfitted with a silk-dome tweeter and a 4″ Kevlar woofer. The back panel of the right-side control monitor is outfitted with stereo RCA inputs and 1/4″ TRS inputs but no XLR inputs are available. A spring-clip speaker wire terminal sends audio to the left-side monitor. Both speakers are ported to the front to minimize wall interaction with bass frequencies.

Recommended Videos

Controls dials are located below the woofer on the bottom of the control monitor to adjust volume, treble and bass. Flanking these dials is what appears to be a 1/8″ headphone output (why not 1/4″?) and 1/8″ auxiliary input so the speakers could be used with a wide range of devices. Hercules claims the pair of monitors are powered by a 40 watt RMS amplifier capable of 80 watts of peak power.

While the XPS 2.0 80 DJ monitor doesn’t offer some of the more advanced connectivity and control options of its more expensive brethren, it does offer a significantly lower price. Comparable speakers from M-Audio and Behringer usually start around $200/pair and rise steeply from there. Hercules says it will offer the XPS 2.0 80 DJ monitor for $169.95 starting in late October.

Topics

Editor at Large

Digital Trends Editor at Large Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched…

Cars

BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too

BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Cars

Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say

Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.

Cars

Waymo, Nexar present AI-based study to protect ‘vulnerable’ road users

waymo data vulnerable road users ml still 1 ea18c3

Robotaxi operator Waymo says its partnership with Nexar, a machine-learning tech firm dedicated to improving road safety, has yielded the largest dataset of its kind in the U.S., which will help inform the driving of its own automated vehicles.

As part of its latest research with Nexar, Waymo has reconstructed hundreds of crashes involving what it calls ‘vulnerable road users’ (VRUs), such as pedestrians walking through crosswalks, biyclists in city streets, or high-speed motorcycle riders on highways.