Question: The BeoSound 2 is a digital audio player supplied by a company that was founded in what year?

Context articles: Audio boot
MP3
MP3 player
BeoSound 2
Rio Karma
Rio 500
Zire 31
Bang &amp; Olufsen
Rio Riot
Audio control surface

An audio boot or audio shoe is an electronic device used by the hard of hearing with hearing aids; hearing aids often come with a special set of metal contacts for audio input.
 Typically the audio boot will fit around the end of the hearing aid (a behind-the-ear model, as in-the-ear do not afford any purchase for the connection) link these with another device, like an FM system or a cellphone or even a digital audio player.
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3 (or mp3), is an audio coding format for digital audio.
 It uses a form of lossy data compression to encode data using inexact approximations and partial data discarding to reduce file sizes, typically by a factor of 10, in comparison with a CD while retaining a sound quality comparable to uncompressed audio.
 Compared to CD quality digital audio, MP3 compression commonly achieves 75 to 95% reduction in size.
 MP3 files are thus 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the original digital audio stream.
 This is important for both transmission and storage concerns.
 The basis for such comparison is the CD digital audio format which requires 1411.2 kbit/s.
 A commonly used MP3 encoding setting is CBR 128 kbit/s resulting in file of 1/11 (=9%) of the size of the original CD-quality file, that is with 91% compression.
An MP3 player or Digital Audio Player is an electronic device that can play digital audio files.
 It is a type of Portable Media Player.
 The term 'MP3 player' is a misnomer, as most players play more than the MP3 file format.
The BeoSound 2 is a digital audio player supplied by Bang & Olufsen.
 It plays MP3- and WMA-format audio stored on Secure Digital or MMC media.
 The device is finished in polished stainless steel.
The Rio Karma is a digital audio player originally made by the now defunct Rio.
 It was released in August 2003.
 It measures 2.7 × 3 × 0.9 inches (6.9 × 7.6 × 2.3 cm) and weighs 5.5 ounces (160 grams).
 It has a 20 gigabyte (18.6 gibibyte) hard drive.
 The Karma is notable for its support of Ogg Vorbis and FLAC playback in addition to the usual MP3 and WMA formats, however it will not play MP2 format.
 It's one of the few digital audio players that is able to play MP3 tracks gaplessly (not inserting audible gaps between them) making it popular among audiophiles.
 It also bears the distinction of supporting file transfers via Ethernet through its docking station (as well as the standard USB 2.0).
 It is not supported as a plug & play removable drive (although the program Rio Taxi does allow any data to be stored).
 Like many Rio players, the Karma's firmware has an equalizer (notably a 5-band parametric one), cross-fader, animated menus, dynamic playlist generation, and visualizations.
The Rio 500 is considered the first of the Second Generation MP3 digital audio player (portable digital audio player), and was produced by Diamond Multimedia.
 It shipped September 22, 1999.
 The Rio 500 was the successor of the Rio PMP300, and provided a number of user requested features (including USB and higher audio quality).
 There were many reviews of the Rio 500.
The Zire 31 is a Zire Handheld from palmOne.
 The product was first released in April 2004 as a replacement for Zire 21.
 It runs Palm OS 5.2.8 and features a color 160×160 display, a SDIO slot and a standard 3.5mm stereo headphones jack.
 The improved PIM apps (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Memos) are supplied.
 The ROM includes RealOne Player giving the device some digital audio player capabilities.
 They can be extended with 3rd party software, such as TCPMP.
 The Zire 31 has a 5-way navigator pad, but still only 2 quickbuttons, as opposed to the standard 4 on the mid-range Zires 71/72.
 It was replaced by the Z22, which lacks the SD/MMC/SDIO Expansion and headphone jack.
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) (stylized as BANG & OLUFSEN) is a high-end Danish consumer electronics company that designs and manufactures audio products, television sets, and telephones.
 It was founded in 1925 by and Svend Olufsen, who designed a radio to work with alternating current, a product of significance at a time when most radios were still running on batteries.
 In 2004, the company opened a factory in the Czech Republic where it employed approximately 250 staff producing mainly audio products.
The Rio Riot was an MP3 digital audio player (portable digital audio player), and was produced by Diamond Multimedia.
 It shipped in 2002.
 It was an early competitor to the Apple iPod.
In the domain of digital audio, a control surface is a human interface device (HID) which allows the user to control a digital audio workstation or other digital audio application.
 Generally, a control surface will contain one or more controls that can be assigned to parameters in the software, allowing tactile control of the software.
 As digital audio software is complex and can play any number of functions in the audio chain, control surfaces can be used to control many aspects of music production, including virtual instruments, samplers, signal processors, mixers, console automation, DJ software, and sequencer applications.