sound

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

Audio Hijack Pro is an affordable audio-recording workhorse for the Mac, capable of capturing audio from applications, devices such as microphones, or any other source that runs through your machine.

Audio Hijack Pro's clean, two-paned, iTunes-like interface focuses on sources that you can capture--which means just about anything, from software to hardware. By default, the left pane includes some of the usual suspects that you might want to record (DVD Player, iChat, iTunes, QuickTime Player, RealPlayer, Safari, Skype, your system audio, and default system input), but you can easily add additional sources, such as other apps or devices.

You … Read more

High-resolution formats like Blu-ray, DVD-Audio, SACD, and LP are all capable of delivering superb sound quality, but having music in those formats doesn't automatically guarantee great sound. The recording itself would first have to sound great, or to put it another way, a great sounding MP3 would sound better than a heavily compressed and studio processed 192-kHz/24-bit Master Audio Blu-ray.

Worrying about what sounds better--FLAC, WAV, or AIFF files--is a total waste of time if you're listening to an Adele or Black Keys album: the music's processing levels are so extreme, there's nothing for … Read more