O-shaped speakers are apparently in fashion these days. I recently reviewed Philips' SoundRing and now I notice Iriver is about to release its Sound Donut here in the U.S.
The speaker comes in a chocolate flavor, as well as a version that's a bit chocolate and mostly vanilla. As you might have already guessed, this is a Bluetooth speaker and it has a built-in microphone for making cell phone calls.… Read more
Soundscapes can be used for a wide variety of purposes: to relax, to block out annoying noises, to set the mood at parties, and much more. Atmosphere Lite is an easy-to-use program that lets you create custom soundscapes or simply choose from a wide variety of presets. We think this program is a great choice for anyone who enjoys nature sounds but often ends up stuck in front of a computer instead of outside.
Atmosphere Lite has a simple, intuitive interface. The preset soundscapes include deep forest, rainy day, ocean night, thunderstorm, night stream, forest stream, dawn chorus, rainforest, ocean'… Read more
This might be a tough question for a lot of people: defining what good sound is, and separating sound from music isn't easy. It might be impossible to distill it to just one album or song. We tend to like the sound of music we like, and conflate good sound with good music. That's understandable, but when the sound jumps out and draws your attention, take, for example, the sound of Jimi Hendrix's feedback. It was Hendrix's distortion, not his songs, that forever changed the sound of electric guitars.
Paul McCartney said it was the sound … Read more
CEOs of digital music startups often strive for diplomacy when it comes to talking about the major powers that control most of the world's music. Not Paul Campbell.
"Simon Cowell is Satan, and the major labels have become antique dealers," says Campbell, a 53-year-old former BBC TV and radio producer turned entrepreneur. "We don't touch the labels and never shall. The key is to cut yourself free from the labels."
Which is exactly what Campbell has done with his company, Amazing Media, and it's why he's having such success.
Unless you're … Read more
HDTVs have notoriously bad speakers. That's understandable, if only because there's just not a lot of room for cones and whatnot inside those skinny LCD and plasma panels. It's also disappointing: here you spend all this money for a beautiful screen, and your ears pay the price.
The best way to improve the audio situation is to invest in a surround-sound system or a good set of stereo speakers plus receiver -- but that gets expensive.
A more affordable option: a sound bar, which is a speaker/receiver combo that sits above or below the screen and … Read more
RightMark AudioAnalyzer is a free audio testing tool that takes the place of a bench-top full of equipment, including spectrum analyzers, tone generators, and test records. It can test the analog and digital signal paths of most any audio device, especially sound cards but also CD and DVD players, MP3 players, and recording devices. Using your sound card as a reference, it can evaluate other sound cards as well as audio devices connected to your sound card's inputs and outputs. It can even self-test audio cards that can handle separate inputs and outputs simultaneously. Several of its modes require … Read more
Dome tweeters, cone woofers, metal ribbons, planar magnetic and electrostatic panels all do the same thing: They vibrate air to make sound. Those technologies have all been around for decades, but the goal of making a perfect-sounding speaker has yet to materialize, so it's pretty easy to tell the difference between a real piano and the sound of a piano reproduced over speakers. Same for drums, acoustic guitars, basses, violins, flutes, horns and voices.
Electric instruments and synthesizers should be easier to reproduce in part because they don't make sound on their own; we always hear them over amplifiers and speakers. Even so, it's next to impossible to make your home hi-fi sound like a big Fender guitar amp. … Read more
Not surprisingly here at CNET we get a ton of press releases e-mailed to us announcing new products. Most are fairly bland, but Creative's media pitch for its upcoming Sound BlasterAxx line of speakers is one of the more amped-up ones I've received lately, reading like an ad for a new energy drink. In fact, I think the PR person who wrote it had three Red Bulls before he or she started typing.
Here's a little taste. Careful, it's rich:
Creative Technology Ltd today announced the Sound BlasterAxx, a whole new generation of Sound Blaster and … Read more
Many sound bars offer a shockingly small number of inputs, with often just a single digital and analog audio input on the back to handle your gear. That's hardly enough for a modern home theater packed with a DVR, game console, Blu-ray player, and streaming-media box.
Luckily, you can get around your sound bar's limited selection of inputs by using your TV as a switcher. You'll be able to connect as many devices as your TV supports, and it will even simplify the input selection process.
Here's how to do it:… Read more
Sound bars are an excellent compromise between shelling out for an expensive surround-sound system and settling for the tinny sound from your TV's built-in speakers, but that doesn't mean they're perfect. In fact, sound bars have quite a few real-world problems and limitations that are often glossed over, only to rear their heads after you've got one set up at home.
Here's what you should know before you make the jump to buying a sound bar.… Read more
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