speakers

Music Hall Marimba: An overachieving little speaker

Spunk, that's what Music Hall's Marimba speaker has lots of. No measurements are needed to confirm this is an exceptional speaker. Its low-key looks are deceiving; it's just a nicely finished "wood" grain black medium-density fiberboard box, measuring 6.6 inches by 8.7 inches by 11 inches, with rounded corners. There's a 1-inch silk dome tweeter and a 5.25-inch woofer lurking behind a removable black cloth grille. The internally braced cabinet feels solid; there's nothing exotic about the design, but the box feels more expensive than you usually get in a $… Read more

Get a Nyrius wireless audio transmitter for $59.99

Bluetooth speakers are all the rage these days, but when you stream your music library, Pandora playlists, and the like to a Bluetooth speaker, the audio gets compressed. And that makes audiophiles angry.

Plus, why listen to a relatively small sound system when you've already got a big, honking stereo? What you need is some Bluetooth-style way to beam your tunes from your iDevice to those sweet speakers -- but without the Bluetooth-style compression.

There's one way, and it's on sale! Through November 4, Shoptronics has the Nyrius NiAA300 Digital Wireless Audio Transmitter System for $59.99 shipped … Read more

Skype recorder works, but not worth the money or hassle

Skype Recorder is, as you would expect, an audio recording application that can record and play back any Skype call. Despite the name, Skype Recorder can also work with most other VoIP based apps such as AIM, ICQ, MSN, and so on. Skype Recorder installs without a hitch, but .NET Framework needs to be in place.

The Skype Recorder interface is pretty basic (and not very attractive). There are three buttons to record, pause and stop recording. There's a section of the interface for setting the function hot key for these capabilities, as well. Finally, you have three options … Read more

Poll: Is stereo on its way out?

What does a 120-year-old Thomas Edison cylinder record player have in common with a brand-new $299 Big Jambox Bluetooth speaker? Both play music in monophonic sound. Everything old is new again.

Home audio was strictly a single-speaker pursuit from the dawn of recorded sound through the late 1950s, when stereo changed the way we listen to music. Multichannel home theater's popularity peaked in the late 1990s, but starting with iPods and sound-bar speakers, mono was back in style. More recently sales of battery-powered, mono Bluetooth speakers started to take off. While these lo-fi systems may contain stereo pairs of … Read more

CNET Exclusive: Gogroove BlueSync STX Bluetooth Wireless Stereo over 50% off

Liza Maloy isn't a CNET editor, but she has a pretty fun job: She's the CNET Marketplace associate partnership manager, which means she hunts high and low for tech bargains to bring to the CNET audience. Each week, she blogs about deep discounts she brokers. Whenever she can, she gets discounts on products CNET editors love.

This week we have teamed up again with our friends at Accessory Genie to bring the CNET Exclusives members an awesome deal on a great budget Bluetooth speaker system. The Gogroove BlueSync STX Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Speaker System pairs easily with most … Read more

Desktop and hi-fi speakers, what's the difference?

Judging by the number of e-mails I get on this subject, a lot of folks don't understand the difference between computer and hi-fi speakers. For example, how is an Audioengine A5+ ($399 a pair) functionally different from a PSB Alpha B1 speaker ($300 a pair)?… Read more

Get a Vizio VSB200 sound bar for $29.99

This is an update of a deal I've posted before.

Most HDTV speakers sound pretty crummy. In their defense, there's just not a lot of room for cones and whatnot inside those skinny LCD and plasma panels. But it's disappointing! Here you spend all this money for a beautiful screen, and your ears pay the price.

One affordable way to improve the audio situation: a sound bar, which is a speaker/receiver combo that sits above or below the screen and does the work of two or more standalone speakers.

While supplies last, TigerDirect has the refurbished … Read more

CNET Exclusives: A chance to win a PS3 and much more

Liza Maloy isn't a CNET editor, but she has a pretty fun job: she's the CNET Marketplace associate partnership manager, which means she hunts high and low for tech bargains to bring to the CNET audience. Each week, she blogs about deep discounts she brokers. Whenever she can, she gets discounts on products CNET editors love.

Picture this -- you are sitting down with a bowl of popcorn to watch your favorite movie on a home entertainment system, hand-selected for you by the CNET editors. I know it sounds too good to be true, but for one lucky … Read more

iPhone dock extender solves the problem of bulky cases

All the hullabaloo over the iPhone 5's new dock connector reminds me of a problem I had long before Apple's Lightning struck.

See, my iPhone 4S lives inside a case just bulky enough that it won't fit in most docks. Consequently, I can't easily charge my phone or listen to music via one of the many speaker docks scattered around my house. I'd have to take the iPhone out of the case every time, and that's way too big a hassle.

So, what, am I supposed to switch to a smaller case? Or go … Read more