audio quality

Apologies for being a little tardy on updating our long-running list of must-have Blu-ray movies, but here it is, refreshed for 2013. This month's updates entries include "Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection," "The Avengers," "Finding Nemo," "Jaws," "Lawrence of Arabia," and "Titanic."

Though my face is at the top of the column, the list was compiled with input from editors John Falcone, Matthew Moskovciak, and David Katzmaier, who look at a lot of video content in their day-to-day testing of products. We also keep an eye on AVS Forum's Blu-ray picture-quality and audio-quality threads, and have always appreciated the site's tiered rating system.

This list is not set in stone, and we'll be adding and removing discs as new ones come out. As always, feel free to make comments and suggest your own personal favorites. They may get added to the list in the future. … Read more

Certain genres of music sound better when the bass, treble, and other frequencies can be adjusted higher or lower. If you're on the Gingerbread flavor of Android, you're in luck.

Note: This how to blog post is for users on Android Gingerbread. If you're still on Froyo or older, you'll have to grab a music player with an equalizer built-in, since you can't adjust the settings across the entire device. PowerAMP is a great app to start with for Froyo users.

Grab Equalizer from the Android Market, and open the app. You will see several … Read more

HTC's acquisition of a majority stake in Beats Electronics amounts to nothing but a lot of white noise.

The Taiwanese smartphone maker said yesterday that it would acquire a majority stake in the famed headphone manufacturer--best known for its partnership with Dr. Dre--for $300 million. Sources told CNET's Greg Sandoval that the deal could eventually be worth more than $500 million.

HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou and Beats Chairman Jimmy Iovine touted the opportunity to integrate Beats' sound technology into HTC's mobile devices. But HTC, typically savvy when appealing to its customers' needs, may be missing the … Read more

I find it hard to evaluate an MP3 player until I've lived with it for a little while. Specifications, demos, and even quick hands-on tests don't tell you the most important thing: how does it sound? Can you listen to it for an hour? A week? The rest of your life?

On Tuesday, I spent a few hours with the 32GB versions of Microsoft's new Zune HD and Apple's latest-generation iPod Touch. To me, these are the top-of-the-line competitors in the MP3 player market--if you're a serious music listener with nearly $300 to spend, these are your two choices. … Read more

The iPod catches some flack for not offering much in the way of EQ and sound-enhancement features. Sure, Apple's standard list of iPod EQ presets are a nice gesture, but they won't perform any miracles on you iPod's sound (especially if you're still hanging onto those stock earbuds).

The SRS iWOW adapter seeks to solve the problem by catching the audio between your iPod and your earbuds and injecting it with some extra oomph. Personally, I wasn't bowled over with the results (especially for the $99 MSRP), but to see if the SRS iWOW is … Read more

When Jasmine and I evaluate MP3 players for CNET reviews, we always try to spend a few sentences describing any noticeable audio performance characteristics we detect during our subjective testing. We'll play around with all of the gadget's different EQ and sound enhancement options, listen back on our reference headphones, and run through a playlist of familiar music. We're only human, however, and hearing loss, ear wax, head congestion, and hangovers can skew our perceptions of audio quality from day to day. Thankfully, we have Eric Franklin.… Read more