The 404 Show 1,596: It's the end of an era with Steve Guttenberg (podcast)
The 404 Show 1,596: It's the end of an era with Steve Guttenberg (podcast)
36:33

The 404 Show 1,596: It's the end of an era with Steve Guttenberg (podcast)

Culture
[MUSIC] What's going on, everyone. Welcome to The 404 Show on this very special day at the end of an era. It's Wednesday, December what, 17th? Yeah, all day. Is that what today is? Yeah. Okay. December 17th, 2014. This will be the last official video version of our podcast video thing that we've been doing for a few years. Yeah. It's a little sad, but I think it's gonna be okay. I think it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be alright. I like radio. Good, that's gonna work out for you. [LAUGH] Maybe not so much for everyone else. Joining us to send us off, Steven Guttenberg. Who, who better than, than the seer himself to be here. Wearing his corn on the cob shirt. Special occasion, you can actually see this on radio. Right, like, it's pretty loud, you could probably hear that on a radio. You might be able to hear it over the radio. That's amazing. I, Zachtar, as always, and then filling in for Ariel, whose last video show was yesterday. Oh. Richard Peterson, [INAUDIBLE] Hi. In the control room, filling in. Thanks for doing that Richard we appreciate it. So this is it. You know. And I guess it sorta like a bittersweet thing. I you know, how do you feel about it? I know you like ,. You sort of Been here almost since the beginning. Right so, so the first time we asked you to come on to video, Mm. it was like, I feel like you were a little apprehensive about the whole thing. Yeah. I, cuz it, I, you know, the thing about radio, or audio podcasts is that it's very intimate. Right. The voice thing too. This, not so much. And this is less so. It's- Yeah. It, it's weird, it should be the other way around. I agree. Cuz you can see it, but actually the connection is stronger with just audio. Yeah, we've been doing I've, I've done two audio-only episodes in preparation- Oh. For the time off. Uh-huh. We did one with Giant Bomb that'll go up on Friday talking about games. And then we did a show yesterday with two TV Guide editors, talking about the TV shows of 2014. And I, and I, and I like got back into the groove a little bit. Oh, yeah. You know? It feels right. It just feels right. And I know there's a lot of people who've written into the show and they've expressed their distaste with our decision. Oh. But, I mean, look, you know, it's, we, we, know what the deal is and we knew that all, some people would be upset. Mm-hm. And rightfully so. Mm-hm. They stuck with us. And they've earned that. Mm-hm. You know, right. But it's just something we gotta do. You just gotta give it a chance. What, what I was upset that a lot people were writing like, we like seeing your faces, or we like seeing every- Mm-hm. Well, like that's, you're gonna see us in, on other videos. Other things. You know, we're gonna be a part of a lot of [CROSSTALK] You can apply those faces, we'll just have this sheet. Yeah. You know what, I'll give you a thing. When Howard Stern was only on the radio, and when he started doing TV things- It changed. I thought it diluted it actually. Yeah, it changed. Yeah. I- Because when it was more the theater of the mind thing. Right. You could imagine more. And when you just saw him, and you know what was weird about seeing Howard that you never got on the radio? When he was doing all these horrible things to people. Yeah. He was smiling. [LAUGH] Right. Okay. So when you saw, you didn't imagine that he was smiling when he was- Sure. Berating. Sure. Sure. Whatshisname. Baba Booey, right? Yeah. But when he was like, basically laughing as he was saying things, it kind of diluted it, you know? Right, cuz it, it just lifts the veil on this sort of magic factory. Right. So when it's just audio it's better. Yeah, I mean, you know everyone's like, oh, the future is video. Well like, yes that's exactly why we're doing this. Because we've been filming. I thought the future was texting. Like, people can talk, and they don't even talk. They just text. [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] You know, I don't know if they heard about this invention. It's called a telephone, and it can call us back and forth. Well you know what? I'm sure there's like, I'm sure there's conversational purists that would, that called the telephone a tool of the devil as well. Oh, okay. You know, like. How dare you be able to speak to someone so far away? Those things are terrible though. They interrupt your life. Can you imagine, there's no other technology that literally will like, ring a bell in your ho, in your home. [LAUGH] Ring a bell. [LAUGH] Like, you right now. Yeah. You will pay attention to me right now. Totally. I like that. As opposed. Could be. I guess a doorbell would be the other one. Right. But at least they came to see you. They, they visited. And they're there. And they're like oh, hang on. You're here, and I know you're, you're hanging out in my house. Hi, person's who's just ringing and invading in my home. Right. It's just so weird. I think phone calls still happen to this day where they aren't scheduled. Right. [LAUGH] I freaked out. I'm like, why are you calling without an appointment? So you, [LAUGH] So you don't like when people call you. You're saying- Just text me first. First. I need, I need notification. Otherwise I'm like, what has happened, you guys. Can I call you? Do people do that? Do people text, can I call you now? Yeah. Yeah, well I think it's I think if it's not urgent, it's, it's a semi-polite thing to do. Really? You don't agree? So it's just barging in. [LAUGH] Calling them unannounced is like a. [CROSSTALK] Well, it's like [CROSSTALK]. No. It's like showing up at someone's house and ringing the doorbell. Unannounced, it's unannounced. Like hi, here I am. [LAUGH] Look, I understand where you're coming from. It's more of like, a- Generational [CROSSTALK] Comedy kind of thing. But at the same time, you gotta respect like, everyone's got a schedule, you know. Especially in, you know, you work a lot. You're a busy guy. I work a- You don't always have time to shoot the **** on the phone with somebody. I'm sorry, I can't talk now. Right. Well, those 20 seconds are valuable. You can, you can just flick your thumb up and just hit that preset, too. I'm sorry, I can't talk now. Yeah, you could. I don't want- [CROSSTALK] You have to have direct communication. Save a lot of time doing that. But maybe it's something really. Important. Well that's usually what happens with phone calls. That's why I hate them. [LAUGH] It's like, why are you calling me, cuz somebody's dead. Right. It's like, oh, could you just call me and say everything's fine, but it never happens. Yeah. Nobody does that. Bummer. Anyway, speakin' of bummers, it's the end of an era today. Yeah. It's okay. Show's not goin' anywhere. Yeah. It's, you know. Changing. It's good. It's going way to the other room. Change is good. Just going literally seven feet, you know, west. Mm-hm. Oh, it's right over there? Is what's happening. You're gonna get that like, chilled back west vibe. Oh, I'm gonna feel, I, when I come back for the audio only I think that's gonna be really interesting. I think it's, yeah, I think you're really gonna pop then. Oh, yeah? It's gonna, you're just gonna shine. [UNKNOWN] Yeah. Cuz I think I have [LAUGH] been a little restrained. Yeah, [CROSSTALK] I've always said, like, man, Steve's not out there enough whenever he's [UNKNOWN]. Yeah. I'm gonna get out right now. All right, so, so lead us off. So I had a dream last night. [LAUGH]. And you know sometimes you have a dream because you're thinking about something that has happened during the day. Sure. And you anticipating something. Sure. You're nervous about that. So I was anticipating this. You know, I was anticipating sitting here and talking to you. We're the last thing you think of before you go to bed? Well, in this case. No, I wasn't thinking about it but in the dream I was. Okay. Right? So the thing is, you know, this is one of those hyper realistic dreams. Okay. [LAUGH] I am cautiously. [CROSSTALK] Question, question, real quick, we were talking before about your site, are your dreams in focus? No. That's intense right? I know, but. You can't tell in a dream. Cuz a lot of people don't even dream in color. They, they see in color. I think almost nobody dreams in color, right? Right. So it's not a, it's not a one to one relationship. So, what's weird is like what you see in your dream. Uh-huh. Is not necessarily through your eyes. Oh, oh, but remember, I, about a year ago, I talked about my dream where I had. Perfect vision. Because I was dropping- But you don't know what No, no. perfect vision is. No, no. But in the dream I did. [LAUGH] I fantasized that I did. So- Cuz I was killing people. Remember, Oh, right. when I was killing people and I was dropping You murderous- it off peop, off a building Yeah. and was dropping Bluetooth headphones Yes. and watching them explode? explode. [LAUGH] So I was like 50 stories up. [UNKNOWN] And I could see perfectly, and I could line it up and hit them every time. What a mind f that is to, like, understand inside your head. Uh-huh. You've never seen perfectly. Right. You simply don't know what that is. Right. And then in your own head through your mind's eye. Right. Having a dream where you believe it to be perfect vision. Well because I was doing something I couldn't do in real life. Right. Because I couldn't see well enough to, to line it up and hit them. Yeah. Anyway, we digress. Back to your dream last night. Yeah, so back to the dream. So in this dream. Yeah. No here's, because it's dreamlike, right? It's not a real thing. It's fantasy. It's fantasy. So in this dream. Mm-hm. I'm. Talking to you. But I'm in your dream. Yeah, yeah you're in my dream. But you are somehow conflated into being Bill Maher. Okay. Okay. And we're on television. I'm, I'm not mad at that. We're, we're on, you know, HBO. On his show. On Politically Incorrect. Which is not his show anymore. He has Real Time. I meant Real Time. Okay. So [CROSSTALK] So now, I'm, so is it a world where I'm, I've taken Bill Maher's place? Or No, no, you look like Bill Maher. Am I just like a meshed You look like Bill Maher. You So not just [CROSSTALK] And Bill Maher [CROSSTALK] It's Bill Maher. It's Bill Maher, right? But you, but, so where do I come into play then? Because I still, I'm connecting somehow you and Bill Maher in this dream. All right. [CROSSTALK] very You're, you're, you've become one. There I am. There I am. You've become one. There's a photo of him up on the screen now. All right. So we're on TV. There's a studio audience. Sprite going. Cool. I am dressed in basically like a bath robe with sequence. Like glittery, shiny, things. [LAUGH] Cool. Like a boxer. Yeah, like a boxer, exactly. Like a boxer. Cool, all right. That's the perfect analogy. Anyway, yeah? And we're, we're, we're, we're, we're like this. Sure. Actually, the, we're like directly facing each other. Okay. And we're talking slash arguing [COUGH] about. Vegetable juicers. And you, and you're a guy who, you don't drink, right? You don't do drugs. [LAUGH] No. You're [NOISE] sober as a priest. Barely. For many years. And, and you, this is what happens. Yeah. So we're. Arguing, we're, we're discussing. [COUGH] And it's a very heated discussion. Over vegetable juicers. [CROSSTALK] And the entire, [COUGH] Yeah. Cuz in real life I am very into vegetable juicers and juicing. And the entire Slow juicing. [UNKNOWN] audience is riveted. They're riveted, yeah. I think there's some cat calls. I think there's, they're carrying on. Like you call out a vegetable juice Yeah. And someone's like ow. Oh yes. slow juicers especially. Ow. That really, that got a rise out of the audience. What. You know, there's slow juicers and fast juicers. Yeah. What knowledge did you think that the Bill Maher, Jeff Bakalar combo guy had? Or it could add to the- No, he was into it. Okay, but he said. Bob reciprocated. He had information, okay. No, I was saying slow juicers are the best part. Can I say? ****. The ****? Yeah, cuz they're the ****. Yeah. And he's like, no, no, fast juicers. They're like, the high speed juices are like the thing. This is, you can identify if this is a. Faster slow [CROSSTALK] Remember if you could see that. No, you can't see that. Okay. You make up just finished talking about that. Okay. [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] Where it starts so we. So we're getting into this. Yeah. And then I bring up the thing that when you, when you juice. And you're really healthy and you're doing a lot of juice, you have incredible sexual pow. Like, superpowers? Superpowers. Well no, just extraordinary. Super human. Sure. Like exceptionally good super powers. Okay. Okay. And I, and so I said you know, enough talk, Bill. Let me just demonstrate my, my prowess. Right? Is that when you're wearing a robe? Yeah, that's when I'm wearing a robe, right. Oh God. Careful here. So then these beautiful women come out and disrobe me. No. [LAUGH] This is his dream, okay? Come on it's my dream. All right well hopefully your dream is like PG-13. Yeah well there's no visuals. Okay. Right. Yeah alright go on. So, I stand up. [LAUGH] And you're. And I'm exposed. You're, you're completely nude. And what does the, the Bill Jeff thing doing at this time? And I'm just like, can- All right. I'm like move on. Go for it man. Carry on. Right. So that we, we move this way. Yeah. And here's a bed. [LAUGH] That just, it comes out of the shadows? No, no. It's been there. It's part of the set. Of course, of course it is. Okay, okay. And you know, there's a woman there, waiting for me. Just ready to accept you. Ready, ready to accept, exactly. Yeah. And I proved to Delmar and the studio audience with great like, cheering and everybody's really into it. Like, more, more! [LAUGH] It was the more, more. Like- It was the more, more? Like everyone's like, yeah, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve- And even Bill, Bill comes over. Yeah. You know, and he's like, okay, okay, okay, we've got it, you know? You starting on the back? [LAUGH] He's like you proved your point. Right. Right, and that, and then after that it gets kinda fuzzy. As most dreams do. As most dreams do. There's more, and I really tried to remember. I started taking notes when I wrote, woke, woke up this morning because I knew it was so, you know it's weird with dreams, I can't remember them. So I like immediately start writing them down. But anyway. So, [CROSSTALK] really good. Well, I'm glad cuz, I'm glad to be there. And, and of course I was gonna be here today, that I had that dream. And it's because of slow juicers that gave you these numbers, right? No, slow juicers was [CROSSTALK] 84 RPM. Okay, interesting. Good to know. Wow. Right. Take notes everybody. Cuz, you know the, you've, you've. Seeing faster is the ones that whine. Yeah. When you put them in, and they're seeing triple [CROSSTALK] That's a fast juicer? That's a fast, cuz the, the, the vegetable goes in. And it just gets obliterated. And it gets chopped up into little pieces. And then it flies out against the strainer. Hm-hm. Which by centrifugal force, forces the juice out. Got you. So like, the faster it's going, the more juice is extracted. Faster- So a slower juicer- A slow juicer is going, those are going at 8,000 rpm. Slow juicer's going at 84, and it basically has like a, a corkscrew inside. And it just slowly grinds up the vegetable and then presses it against the strain of the, the strainer around [UNKNOWN]. There is a lot of sexual innuendo with [CROSSTALK]. Pressure, straining. Yeah, corkscrewing. Corkscrewing. Well. I'm not sure how you're gonna top that one then. Way to go out on top. Okay. Big show today. All right. There's more, let's keep it going. Well, I gotta, I mean I started with my biggest thing. Yeah. That's, that's the key. You always start with your closer. Should I build. That's what you do. That's what. Oh no. Cuz you told me many times that I shouldn't do these things late into the show. Right. No. For sure. You said start. Start with the finale. Cuz they may not be able to tune out when I start talking. Yeah. About like. Who knows what the drop-off rate is. You know, titles. Yeah. Yeah and the second half of the story at the end. You break it up. There you go. You know, okay. And then the juicer shows up. And then I'm gonna talk about the one. To be continued. The sequel will be at the end of the show. Game number two. Alright. What else you got. This is basically your show so we're following your lead. I don't even have a freaking computer today. Practically naked. Practically naked. Mm-hm. Here. [LAUGH] He's gettin' the vapors. My oh, my. So, I want, speaking of my powers. Yeah. You know, here's one actually that does sorta segue. So I had this guy from this speaker company, and he has a weird name. Can, you, you should try to find this. It's called K-V-A-R-T. Kvart? Kvart, and, ampersand. And B-O-L-G-E. Now I did a blog about this guy. What's his deal? So he made this crazy speaker. Its really skinny. Okay. Its an aluminum tube. Its an aluminum tube. Its a tiny little driver. And it, you know, he contacted me, emailing me saying that he wants to review my. Speakers eh. And then he just kept bugging me. So finally I said okay. Send me the stupid speakers. So he sends me the speakers and I had a lot of other stuff going on. They're weird. They look like air purifiers in a weird way right. Little tower. Yeah. Little, little. I'm on my blog. Yeah, whip up his blog here. But your face shows up when you go to Kvart and Bolge. And there it is, Steve Audiophiliac Guttenberg. So, so anyway. So he, he sends me the speakers. But I had a lot of other stuff going. He's emailing me and calling me like, did you listen to the speakers yet? [COUGH] No, I, I will. I will, I will, I will. So one day, I just had them in my basement. So I go down to my basement. I open some like, oh, ****. [CROSSTALK] You;ve got a basement? These things. In my apartment building, I have a locker in my building. Oh, that's cool, okay. So I go, and I open up the speaker. As soon as I open up speaker, and I take a look at this thing. I say, hey, you know, this could be cool. Cuz the whole, it's a skinny little tube, and it's wrapped in what looks like Kel, Kevlar weave. Okay. It's not real, but it loo, it looks like that. Right. And I started listening. I thought these are really good. I'm, I'm really glad this guy, you know, bugging me all the time to do this. Sure. Cuz it's a very unusual, very [UNKNOWN] technology. Pleasantly surprised. Very interesting. Definitely an exceptional speaker for $280 a pair. Right. So I do the review and suddenly he's getting order, he's getting crazy amounts of orders for a guy who just, you know, is making these in his kitchen. Yeah. So. And, and the result of my review, he sold I think 280 pairs of them. You gonna get a little cut of that, get a little taste of that? No. [LAUGH] Highly unethical. Go on. But then, [NOISE] I had a conversation with him the other day, and he said. It's too successful I can't, I can't make [CROSSTALK] You put him out of business. Yeah, he, his, his wildest dream came true. Right. But now, he can't do it. He can't make them fast enough to fulfill all these orders. So what does he do? So, what did, did you gonna do? I mean he was asking me, I thought he was asking me what I should do. And I was like I have no idea. But he actually came up with the solution. He's gonna stop making them and then start a Kickstarter thing. Does that always gotta be the answer? Well in this case it is. Yeah. It does sound like the organic, perfect calling for it. Yeah. Like, he can't make them. Right. I, I already have a succesful product. Right. I know it's gonna do well. Right. Just help me out. Right. All right. Cool. I don't, I mean I don't like it when established companies do Kickstarter. No, it's ****. Yeah. But this is just a guy in his kitchen kind of thing. That's, that's great. It's good, so. Are you gonna be like a testimonial? I gotta find out if I can do that. Yeah. Can I do that? I think, I don't think you should endorse it to the point, like, I think you should buy it and, but I think maybe it'd be appropriate. For you to be interviewed about your review. I think that's, I think that's appropriate. I gotta ask John about that. Yeah. You gotta ask John. John's kinda the go to. So yeah. I'm really excited about that. Very cool. Its not everyday that somebody ends up You don't hear about these like organic Kickstarters. You always hear about like, I got a great idea. Potato salad. Yeah. Exactly. He's got a legit product that's. Sounds great. All right. It's selling well, and he simply cannot meet demand. Yeah. Good for him. Yeah. So another really unusual speaker that I had a hand in making successful is this- [LAUGH] Why is that funny? It's funny that you- They owe me royalties. Yeah, it just sounds like you're, I don't know. It sounds like you're just like you're responsible for- [CROSSTALK]. Crowning victory. Well here at CNET, I have a lot of, I reach of lot of people. You kind of have a pull. And when I find unusual products, that are exceptional one way or another. And people hear about it and they start buying them. Right. It's not my ego. It's just the luck of me being here. Yeah. No, I guess so. You're a trendsetter. How should I, how do I parse to somebody that, that thinks I'm [CROSSTALK] No, no [CROSSTALK] No, and I'm not, and I'm not saying you're, what you're doing is unethical. It's not at all. Oh, good. Thanks. I'm saying like, it's. It's interesting that you're, the way you sort of led into the thing. All right, all right. [CROSSTALK] Like, here's another company that owes their entire revenue to me. Well. Not entire. Yeah. Just a good chunk of it. Just a good chunk of it. Yeah. All right. But they make really cheap, good stuff. Right. Much cheaper than than [UNKNOWN] actually. So I have this new speaker called the Dayton B. 4-5-2. Okay. [COUGH] $30 a pair. Oh, what is this thing. Tiny little thing. Can we, can we pull this up here? I'm getting it. For the last time ever. Pull it, get up a visual aid. Trying to get the speakers. So, they're $30. A pair. A chet, a pair Yeah. Okay. It's a little bookshelf speakers? It's a little bookshelf speaker. Okay, I've got it. And what's really interesting about it is, is that it's for this little tiny thing, it makes a, a mammoth amount of base. Okay. That's interesting. And it's, it's a good, not great, sounding speaker. but the fact that they can, you know, make something that inexpensively that can be that exceptional. Right. It's definitely something of interest. So if they can do this for $30 for a pair then why the hell is not every single manufacturer doing something like that? They're greedy. They're gre. Is that it? No. But there's crap out there. Like you can get a $30 pair of speakers that sound like ****. Mm-hm. But these guys seem to figure out. They do try harder. They really do. Huh. Cuz. Oh, the speaker that I discovered from them originally like two years ago was the B652. And that has like turned into a whole phenomenon. Cuz that one is now $39 a pair, but it's actually much bigger. It's like this big. And that's a great speaker [CROSSTALK] Why don't you make speakers, man? Nah, you know, I can only write about them, I can't make them. All right, all right. But anyway, so it's fun to find, you know, cuz I have to, I have to go through a lot of crap to find one that are good. Sure. Cuz most of the time people send me speakers and tell me how great they are then they're not very good. Right, and then you put them on, you're like they're too expensive. Tower speakers only $40? The, the power speaker in that video. 652. Yeah. Is $100? 100 bucks pair that's. That's still pretty do-able. If you like it, it's gonna be good. >. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. Although I, I mean, people are always like, you know, they write in and are like, Steve's, does he really know what he's talking about? [LAUGH] I'm like yeah, you know. I guess. It's legit. Yeah. [CROSSTALK] For sure. You know what I don't understand about being a reviewer Yeah [CROSSTALK] Essentially, you're saying. In my opinion. Mm-hm. This is good. Whether it's a movie or a restaurant or a speaker. Or a game. Right. Yeah. Now just because I think that it's good doesn't mean that you'll think it's good. Right. Whether it's a movie or a wine or anything. Right but that's like the very paradox that, you know. Yeah. Because people write in and say in your opinion. Who gives you the right to say that this is good? Well? But, but it's criticism. Right? It's not necessarily right or wrong. Uh-huh. It's an, it's definitely an opinion. Mm-hm. It's definitely subjective. Mm-hm. But you know, after a while I think you earn the reputation of pleasing a, an average- Hey, that's all I got. If that is a, is a, is way to put it. The only thing that I have. Is that I have heard literally thousands of speakers in my life. Right. Right. Been a big part of my life for a long time. And I can write about that. That's all I have. And what causes anyone to be an expert on anything? Like, Roger Ebert. Why was he an expert, right? Because Roger liked the movie didn't mean I'd like it or you'd like it. Exactly. Maybe he whipped every one. He hated a few of my all time favorite movies. I always said with, with. With, with reviewer's it's like, if you find a reviewer you tend to agree with [INAUDIBLE] movies or something. Right. Well then, he likes them or she likes movies, so chances are I like it, you know? Right. But other than that, when it's just reviewer's like this movie, doesn't mean that [INAUDIBLE] Sure. The placebo effect too, like if Steve Guttenberg likes it. I must like it. Well that's, they just fell under my spell. Right. And you've clearly figured out some sort of dark magic. Some sort of sorcery that people have been able to be transfixed by. Oh definitely. And you know, hey whatever works. It's the writing actually. I think so. It's my prose. It's your prose. You mesmerize with the words. Yeah. You old word smith. So I had this friend, Robert. Okay. Is he dead? No. Oh, because you said you had. I had, you're right. I have a friend Robert. He's, he's with us. He's with us. He's still with us, very much. And ,. He was my Photoshop teacher, Okay. I hired him to be my, my teacher. Right. And he was, he came to my apartment many times and heard my story and was 100% disinterested in it. Mm-hm. And then about a few years a, a, I don't know how many years, a couple of years ago, he wound up buying a turntable. Okay. And suddenly he became much more interested in audio and hi-fi and getting better stuff. So I hooked him up with some speakers and everything and over time he just keeps going. And now he took this big plunge and bought these $4,000 speakers. And it, how'd this happen? How did he go from being I don't really care to now. I gotta get these speakers. Or something hap. Something clicks in people with audio. Yeah. Where. It's like. like they hear for first. Like the first time I ever heard even like a FLAC album. Mm-hm. And really good headphones. Mm-hm. Yeah, there you go. And heard things that I had not heard before. Mm-hm. Heard, you know, the, the, like the, the bass. Like the kick on the drum. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. The beater, yeah. Like the, that squeaking. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like the pedal squeaking. Stuff where you're just like, oh my God. Like this is real people using real instruments in a room somewhere. Right. For me, that is the moment. I like the way you describe it, because that is it. When you feel like that connection, that you're closer to being there, if it's really important music to you. That counts for a lot. And now, like, I only really care about FLAC. Like I only wanna hear a new record in FLAC. If I hear it in like 320 MP3 I'm like, alright. I'm like, I'm halfway there maybe. Well. I need the flac. Oh, you gave me my segue to my next thing on my list. Oh, right on. Tidal, have you heard about Tidal? No, what's Tidal? I can hook you up with Tidal actually. Who the hell's Tidal? What are they? Is flac s, streaming. Flac streaming? That's a thing? 44-1, yeah. Wait, a minute. Tidal. Okay, so for people who don't know, flac is an uncompressed. Right. Digital. Lossless. Lossless digital music Right. format. Right. It sounds amazing. Right. It's hu, they're huge files. Mm-hm. Like one song's probably gonna, like a three minute song's maybe couple hundred megabytes, right? A lot, yeah. Right? Mm-hm. So these guys are gonna be streaming. They are. And it, what- And it sounds really good. And now, so now I'm very interested in this. What is it, what's the, what's like the, the, you know, their library lookin' like? It's good. Everything? Now it's not everything. No, it's not everything, but I, I, I mean, I'm look, lookin' for weird ****. Yeah, yeah. I find a lot, I don't find everything, but I find a lot of things. You've probably said that sentence a bunch in your life. I'm looking for weird- You walk in the store. I- I'm looking for weird ****. I [INAUDIBLE] when I was three years old. Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] I was wondering [CROSSTALK] I'm looking for weird ****. So tied up, here is, there is a catch. Oh my G- You ready? How much money is it? It's not free. Yeah, obviously. That's not a catch. Okay. Yeah. Cuz everybody wants it for free. They want, it's like. [CROSSTALK] They want music. [CROSSTALK] Ads supported. Yeah. Right. There's no ads. It's not ad supported. It's supported by you. So, so when you say you can hook me up with title. I can get you a freebie. Or I just want to try it out. Okay. Can I try, is there. You can try it for free. Okay. That's all I care about. Seven day free trial. Oh. If it's good I'll pay for it. It was on my Christmas, was on my. Holiday guys. Right. So it's $20 a month. They have to get past their free subscription. That's, that's a lot of scratch. You just said you can't listen to to [CROSSTALK]. Can you cache for offline later or not? Huh? Yeah, can you download it for later? No, you can't. So you have to- Well, actually you might. Okay. Cuz I don't, I don't use it that way, but I think you, you might. I wanna try this right now. Right now. Like when we're done here. Oh, okay. We'll try it right now. All right, so. Tidal.com T-I-D-A-L. Now, is there a separate app, or you have to go to the website? You have to go to the website. And there's. Get the free thing. Right. It's a free, free trial. And then, is there an app? And then there's an app, I believe. Okay. I don't, I use it on my computer at home. Gotcha. So there's a, what do you call it when it's on your computer at home? It's an app as well. It's an app, okay. [LAUGH] That's how I He's needs to know his programs, they're called applications. [CROSSTALK] Are, are always applications. Vision. Yeah, I think it sounds phenomenal. All right. I'm psyched. And, and since, since I buy music. I know, it's wacky. I know. You're a caveman. So when I find music on Tidal I like, I buy it. So you, so people are paying 20 bucks a month. Right. Then- They don't. No, they don't buy it, I buy it. I'm like the weirdo that buys [UNKNOWN]. Right, well no, there's still people who do it. Okay. I told you I got a buddy who still buys CDs inexplicably. All right. It's just, I just don't get, and he buys CDs from Amazon. Oh. Which if that, if, if you think about- Why is that a bad thing? Well, the, the inherent sort of like- Cuz you could just buy the digital right there if you wanted to. Yeah. You know, sometimes the, the CD is cheaper than the download. Yeah, I've seen that. It's ridiculous. Yeah, what's that about? How are the ones and zeroes more expensive. [CROSSTALK] You know, I discovered this. Do you like James Brown at all? I don't, I don't dislike him. I found the best live James Brown concert ever. Yeah. And it was $4.99 for the CD on Amazon. Right. And $8.99 or $9.99 for the MP3. That's weird. It is great. Yeah. Was on my Christmas, holiday guide. Question for you. Does FLAC audio, how does that compare to CD audio? Is it the same, is it different? Theoretically it's the same thing. Theoretically it's the same? Mm-hm. Cool. Usually it is the same. All right. Well, do you have anything that's like. Oh, in, in, well. Here's another one. Yeah. That, that's sort of like Tidal. It's called Murphy. Murphy. Yeah. Murphy.com. It's another. No. Flack? It's not a Flack thing. Well, I don't. The thing is so Murphy is you take your CDs that are now. Oh, they're disgusting. They're cluttering my apartment. Yeah. They're ruining my life. And put them in a box. Right. You ship them real shipping to Murphy and then you can sell them online. But the cool thing about Murphy is that they sell downloads. In flack, anything. Of your stuff? Of your stuff. That's not cool. How could you be for that? How could I be for that? But how's that okay to do? Why is that not okay to do? Because they're ripping cd's and then selling them. And the, the, you know what I mean? Like- And then they, then they destroy the CD. Oh, they do. They say they do. That's a weird thing. Is it not? It is a, it's a cool thing. And you can stream from them. So you can take, you, or you can not sell them. You can just. Send them and stream them. And only you get access to them? Only you get access to them. That's weird, right? I'm just like, why wouldn't you do it yourself. Yeah. Other than, like I guess if your collection is large enough. But- Yeah, yeah you can send them unlimited amounts of stuff. Yeah, I mean I have my stuff accessible like through my phone anyway. Yeah. My home server, so. It's weird. Ever, ever since I fell in love with FLAC- Mm-hm. I become underwhelmed, disappointed with the way the world treats audio. Mm. In like normal applications. Wow. Like say your car. Huh? So I have a car. I have a Subaru Forrester. A 2014. Uh-huh. And- Wow. Yeah. Why is that wow? New- Well, new car. Oh, it's a new, I bought a new car, you know. It's nice. Yeah. Good. I got a kid, with the whole- You got a kid, the car. I gotta put him in the trunk. A dog. [LAUGH] Dog, you know, I got skis, I got the whole, hockey, right. Mm-hm. So, ,. I get in the car and, and I wanna play- [INAUDIBLE] new car smell. It still does. [COUGH] And I wanted to plug in a USB drive. Uh-huh. So not only am I limited to 16 GB, which is ridiculous. Like, how come every car in the world just doesn't have like a terabyte? Sitting in between the freaking. No, it's sexier. No, it's not. There's no one is doing that. No one like, there's no. Maybe a Tesla has a terabyte hard drive in it. Ter, terabyte hard drives are basically free for wha, if you bought them 1 million units at time. Even if it was SSD in your car, the price difference you'd be pre, pretty tiny to you if you think about it. Right, it would be. Like it's 200 bucks, so. Yeah. Like even if you got a terabyte SSD, how much more would the car be for me? Like 30 bucks. Like, let's be honest. You can get, you can get a half a terabyte SSD now for $200. So I'm just like why is that not in there regardless. It only plays mp3's and that's it. And it can't, and nothing above 320. First there was Ebola and now this. This is worse than Ebola. I think you can hack your car. I don't know if you can hack Ebola. Well yeah, why not? How? You're telling me that there's no possible way that there's some kind of interface. Oh, there's this interface with all the, with the OBD2. Underneath your steering column that you can like access everything. Do you not know about this? Is it time to hack my car? Aside from hooking my phone up to the car, which plays FLAC just fine. Oh, isn't that the obvious solution. Yeah it's probably the obvious solution. Instead of me under the car with wires hanging out, potentially bricking. Not the red one, not the red wire, it's the green wire! Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like I'm not trying to do that. But maybe. I don't know. It's interesting. I'm curious if people. Cuz I know. I remember when I got the car there are ways to hack like the interface. You can change the type face. You can change the color. Or you can just make it do what you want. Right. And I'm curious if there's a way to do that.>> Yeah. It's, it's, it's pretty cool. What you can do. Anyway. Fascinating. All right, well do, what other stuff do you have? Is there anything like. So the iPod is dead. Right, we knew that. But now this FIIO, F-I-I-O X-1. Okay. That I reviewed. It's, it's, it's not as, it's not as easy to use as an iPod, and playlists and stuff like that. It looks like an old iPod. But it's phen, it's phenomenal. And it's $100. Does it play FLAC? It plays FLAC. Oh, that's all I care about now. A 100 bucks. [UNKNOWN] Not bad. How, how big? Smaller than an iPod. No. But how, how about capacity? Oh, it doesn't have any. You, you put in SD cards so you probably still 128. 128? That's pretty cool. It's a real. And it's sounds really, really nice. We'll check that out. So these headphones. My headphones today. That I'm wearing today. Right. You just kept the speakers under the corn shirt. Yeah. Big reveal. Yeah. You always have. That's crazy that they're always. There's a tip that comes with it. But there's a company that's called Aura Sonics. Okay. These are called Rockets. Cool. They're made, I think, in Nashville. Yee-ha. They're titanium earpieces. Yeah, that's great. They're really tiny. This part is, I don't know what this thing is, but the, the actual earpiece is really tiny. You like them. These things are great. Yeah, These- how much? 250 bucks. Pfffff. These are awesome. That for the headphones or just the tips? Just the tip. Just [CROSSTALK] Freeze. [LAUGH] All right. You got anything else that's not audio? Or no. No .>> No. Well, I got the cookies. Oh, my God. You want cookies? Yeah. This is like our send off. Ias, check this out. Yes, [INAUDIBLE] more colorful. See this doesn't work on radio. No. Or broadcast. Oh my God. Thanks, man. My wife makes these. Oh, thank you. These are a, a yearly Guttenberg tradition. Mrs.Guttenberg slaves away. Yeah, cursing, banging pots and pan. Burning herself by accident. [CROSSTALK] [CROSSTALK] Yeah a lot of. Lot of nasty sound. It's amazing what she's able to put together in a beautiful little package. So happy Chanukah, and Christmas, and New Year to you, sir. And Festus. And Festus, and all that good stuff, man. And thank you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. [CROSSTALK] All right- Okay [INAUDIBLE]. Good, you know, wrapping it up. I think so. It's not as good as the beginning though .>> No. That's the sad part. No. Can you tell that part again? No, I'm kidding. Thanks so much for being here man. This has been great. This has been fantastic. I, I feel this is good. I'm so happy I'm here for the last video on. As, as a re, it's an end of an era, but certainly not the end of having you on the program. I hope. Thank you for sticking with us all these years. And for just really.>> This is my 31st appearance. Is it? I don't know. [LAUGH] It probably is. For just freaking us out on a, on a, sendwha. Somewhat consistent basis. We just really appreciate that. So when, when did we do the one that was about The Big Lebowski? Remember we did. Oh, yeah. It's wasn't I, it was me just. And, you and maybe. I don't know cuz I remember Justin had, and he wasn't into the movie as much. Right. Do you remember that? Oh. Yeah. Yeah. We're not doing that this year. We're not doing like a lot of those. But but yeah. That was a good time. Anyway. Its good times. Audio and video flappers noise. Uncompressed. No. See that's not, well okay. That'd be hilarious if from one episode like a 700 gig. 700 gigabyte file. That's the thing that's ridiculous about podcasting. Is like the key in podcasting is getting the file as small as you can. Oh. Spoken word. By the way, you're okay with it right. Mark Marron's. Podcast. Kinda sounds like ****. Is the worst sounding podcast. Oh my god, it's awful. Doesn't sound good. No. [LAUGH] And I, I know, I don't know if that's because he- He's gotten better lately, though. Right. It, maybe it's like, better compression. No, I don't mean the sound. I mean the guests. [LAUGH] Oh, right. Okay. Did you listen to the Jenny Slate one? It wasn't bad No. Anyway, we digress. Sorry. [LAUGH] Thank you so much for being here all these years. We look forward to seeing you in 2015. Definitely. And thanks to everyone who was. Checking out the video all these years. That's gonna do it for us. We'll have a couple episodes air from now until 2015, but we'll get things back up and running after CES 2015. So figure the next time we're back is the week of January 12th. Sound good to everybody? Sounds all right. Yes. Good. All right. That's gonna do it for us. Maybe they'll pop in a few reruns while we're gone. But but yeah. That's, that's what's happening. All right. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Give us a call, 866-404-CNET. Until next time, I'm Jeff Backalar. I'm Iyaz Acktar. Thanks to Richard Peterson. You're welcome. Over in this, in the control room. [LAUGH] Thank you sir. Thanks to Skeeter over here. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll see you guys in 2015. Take care. [MUSIC]

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