sound

The fact that the operator of this car stereo has to wear protective ear-wear and keep the driver's door of his 1989 Nissan Pickup Truck open to fully demo the system should be your first warning sign that the outcome of the YouTube video below will be either disastrous or hilarious.

The sound-off competition starts about the way you'd expect: with a whole lot of shaking. Then, at around the 20-second mark, the bass (which is already overwhelming the camera's puny microphone) proves to be too much for the Nissan's 23-year-old glass windshield and...well, just … Read more

Do you like wires? Neither do we. And thankfully, you don't really need them anymore when you're using a smartphone.

No matter your preference -- iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry -- any decent modern smartphone is equipped with wireless Bluetooth capability. In addition to hands-free calling with headsets and stereo headphones, phones can also be used as wireless music sources for an increasingly large array of Bluetooth speakers -- perfect for listening to MP3s on the phone, or Web-based audio services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Cloud Player, iTunes Match, or anything else.

As someone who uses Bluetooth gadgets daily, I'd frankly feel lost without my handy assortment of hands-free mobile toys. And I've collected a list of some of CNET's favorites. … Read more

When you listen to stereo speakers, you always hear both channels with your two ears. Headphones don't have that problem; the left channel is only heard by the left ear, and the right channel only by the right ear. That's why stereo sounds smaller over headphones, and of course it's all, or mostly, in your head.

And once the sound is there, the headphones' job is done, but with speakers you're always hearing the speakers' sound, plus the sound bouncing around the room. The closer you are to the speakers, the more direct sound you'll … Read more

iMovie started out on the Mac, and the desktop is still the best place to create movies, but the slimmed-down iOS version of iMovie ($4.99) keeps getting better with added features that bring something more to your clips.

The big new addition to the app is the capability to make fun trailers for your movies. While you might wonder why you would want a trailer for your vacation movie, once you make one using the included themes, you'll see just how charming they can be.

You can choose from several trailer types that run the gamut of movie … Read more

It wasn't as if Pandora investors needed much to send them stampeding out of the stock.

Pandora shares are trading this morning at $10.82, down more $3.43 or 24 percent, a day after the company failed to meet analyst expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended January 31.

Skepticism has dogged this company ever since it announced plans to go public a year ago. Any misstep was bound to spook Wall Street.

Pandora's revenue for the period fell short of estimates while the company's losses grew from the same time a year earlier. Fourth-quarter … Read more

CNET's Steve Guttenberg goes by a couple nicknames like "The Gutman," "The Audiophiliac," and "Sphere," but today we'll hear from the more tender side of our favorite audiophile as he tells us the story of how his life changed on this day back in 1972.

After he accepts our challenge to explain leap year in three sentences or less, he'll tell us why he can't stop laughing when hears the phrase "Mastered for iTunes," and we're both surprised to hear that he has a special thank-you message for Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre, and Monster Headphones.… Read more

When Boston Acoustics first came out with its TVee line of sound bars , its modest pricing and focus on simplicity were a welcome addition to a market filled with overpriced models.

A few generations later, the TVee Model 25 faces a much different set of competitors: tons of cheap sound bars that are good enough if you just want something that sounds better than your TV. That's essentially the rub with the TVee Model 25, which is an all-around decent sound bar with better-than-average sound quality (and some design flaws), but its $350 street price seems out of sync with the market.… Read more

Back in the day a hi-fi was simply a pair of speakers, an amplifier, a turntable, and maybe a radio or tape deck. Nowadays even the speakers are optional, and the rest of the system is an open question.

With "regular" speakers you have to think about getting an amplifier or maybe a receiver, and this is where it can get a little complicated. And what sources are you planning to play through the system: a turntable, CD player, iPod, radio, TV, games, or Internet radio?

You can eliminate the amp/receiver if you buy self-powered speakers (with … Read more

When multitasking in OS X, sometimes the programs you are using might output notification sounds or otherwise use the OS X audio system in ways that could interfere with your other tasks.

If you increase the volume to watch a movie while you have Mail open in the background, then when you receive a new message, Mail will output a loud New Mail sound. While you can disable Mail's notification sounds or quit the program, you might wish to keep it open and hear when the Mail arrives, but just not as loud.

Other similar scenarios might also benefit … Read more