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Pulse!

Can We Know What the Artist Intends?

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Pulse!

December 2016

A pro-audio company recently asked me to run measurements on a prototype recording monitor -- the kind of speaker recording engineers and producers use to listen to what they’re recording and mixing. I thought the task would be simple. I own a pair of Genelec recording monitors, and they measure almost perfectly: nearly dead flat on axis, with a smoothly increasing treble rolloff as I move off axis. But the job turned out to be quite complicated, and it raised some questions about what, exactly, I should be listening for when I test speakers and headphones.

Read more …

How Audio Products Are Really Designed

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Pulse!

November 2016

The No.1 speaker brand in the US is now Amazon, with a 26% market share. It took Amazon less than two years to attain this rank.

Those shocking facts should tell you where audio is headed. While the AmazonBasics line of cheap Bluetooth speakers does well, Amazon’s meteoric success in audio is due in large part to the Echo, a voice-command speaker that has sold some five million units since its launch a year and a half ago, and is expected to sell twice that in 2017.

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Is It Valid to Say that an Audio Product Sucks?

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Pulse!

October 2016

One of the most dispiriting events in an audio reviewer’s life is when a reader sharply disagrees. It’s one thing if the reviewer praises, say, the AKG Q701s and the reader says, “Those headphones sound too bright to me.” Fair enough -- and useful feedback. But when a reader describes a product that the reviewer raved about as “awful,” or says that “it sucks,” that’s different. That’s a criticism not only of the product, but of the reviewer’s competence and judgment.

Read more …

Four Rules for Getting Great In-Wall Sound

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Pulse!

September 2016

In-wall and in-ceiling speakers get no respect. In fact, they barely even get any attention. I rarely think about them, but last week I was twice reminded what an important part of the audio industry these speakers represent. My first reminder came when I made my arrangements to attend the CEDIA Expo in Dallas in September, which I’II be covering for SoundStage! Global. CEDIA focuses on custom-installed media systems, of which in-wall and in-ceiling speakers are often an important part. My second came when I was asked to run measurements on and give a listen to a prototype pair of in-ceiling speakers.

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Why Most Audio Products Don't Deserve Glowing Reviews

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Pulse!

August 2016

Recently, while working on an article that sought to pick the best of a bunch of wireless speakers, I was struck by a question put to one of the article’s writers by a manufacturer’s PR rep: “Why wasn’t our speaker chosen?”

Read more …

What the USB-C Revolution Will Mean for Headphones

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Pulse!

July 2016

I’ve recently witnessed a lot of handwringing about Apple’s purported plan to eliminate the 3.5mm analog headphone output jack on its smartphones and tablets. Recently, I asked an Apple employee about it. “There have been a lot of rumors to that effect, from some very reliable sources,” he said, a big smirk on his face. What hasn’t been discussed much, though, is the possibility that Android devices might also soon eliminate the 3.5mm jack -- and how that might affect the sound quality of portable audio devices.

Read more …

The Future of Headphone Listening

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Pulse!

June 2016

For years, I’ve labored under a skewed perception of the headphone listening experience, thanks to two unique experiences, one of which took place two decades ago. But two experiences in the last couple of weeks have completely changed my beliefs.

Read more …

A Cheap Wireless Speaker Shows the Future of Audio

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Pulse!

May 2016

I buy a lot of the audio gear I buy because I think I should. After all, it’s part of my gig to know what’s going on in audio. Recently, one of those products I bought because I thought I should completely changed my ideas about the future of audio, and in just the first few days I owned it.

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A Shakeup at Sonos Shakes Up the Audio Industry

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Pulse!

April 2016

A recent article on TechCrunch about layoffs at Sonos caught the audio industry by surprise. Whenever it wants an example of “how to do it right,” much of the industry looks to Sonos. In just a little over a decade, Sonos has gone from a few guys in an office in Santa Barbara to a company with $1 billion in annual sales. Not only has Sonos kept up with the latest trends in music consumption, in some cases it has led them. So the news that the company is undergoing a major shift in direction shook up high-end audio manufacturers who would give their last EL34 for even a small fraction of Sonos’s success.

Apparently, Sonos isn’t shrinking, it’s adjusting. Two trends are pushing the company in new directions.

Read more …

Can You Trust Customer Reviews on Amazon?

Details
Pulse!

March 2016

I spend a lot of time on Amazon.com, partly because it’s a great place to research the consumer-electronics market, and partly because it’s often the most convenient and affordable way to find and buy things. I also read the Customer Reviews posted on Amazon, because they’re sometimes the only source of information about a product other than the manufacturer’s website. But three recent events left me doubting the reliability of these reviews -- and wanting to do a little checking for myself.

Read more …

  1. The Five Best New Headphones at CES 2016
  2. What We Can and Can't Tell from Measurements of Headphones
  3. Why Hi-Rez Audio Still Struggles
  4. The Five Best Noise-Canceling Headphones and Earphones (According to Me)
  5. Why Believing in Headphone Break-in Can Be Harmful
  6. The Most Promising (and Unexplored) Area in High-End Audio
  7. The Five Best Closed-Back, Over-Ear Headphones (According to Me)
  8. Does a Product's Backstory Matter?
  9. The Five Best Earphones (According to Me)
  10. Why Headphone Amps Drive Me Nuts
  11. We Need a New Definition of "Audiophile"
  12. How Bad are Digital Streams and Downloads?
  13. What CES 2015 Means for the Future of Audio
  14. The Biggest Audio Development of 2014
  15. Why Simpler Isn’t Always -- or Even Usually -- Better
  16. Audiophiles: Stop Hating on Science!
  17. Should You Listen to Someone Who Criticizes Your Taste in Headphones?
  18. Dolby Atmos: A Lot More than More Channels
  19. Do Subwoofers Have a Sound?
  20. Why Dynamic-Range Compression Is Not the Work of the Devil
  21. Why Designing Wireless Speakers and Soundbars Is So Different . . . and So Much Harder
  22. What Measurements Really Tell You About Headphones
  23. The Point People Are Missing About Pono
  24. Why You Shouldn’t Ridicule the Bluetooth Speaker
  25. Are Headphones for Serious Listening?
  26. Binaural Recordings
  27. A Modern A/V Receiver: The Onkyo TX-NR808
  28. Cheap Stuff Can Be Surprisingly Good
  29. All About the 6th-Generation Apple iPod Nano
  30. ThinkFlood RedEye Universal Remote Application and Transmitter
  31. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Home Audio
  32. Is Bipolar Dead?
  33. Media Players and Servers: Something for Everyone
  34. (Don’t) Look Before You Leap
  35. In Praise of 5.1
  36. 3D Home Theater: Should You Wait?
  37. iPod Touch Apps: Free is Good
  38. The Apple iPad and Alternatives
  39. New Integrated Amps Are Truly Integrated

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