When you’re choosing headphones in the $20-$30 range, it’s easy to accidentally end up with terrible audio equipment. The entry-level portion of the headphone market is incredibly saturated. As a result, it can actually be more important to investigate headphones in the $20 range than some equipment in the $60 range. But solving this problem …
Bigger audio equipment can generally deliver better audio performance. But if you want a speaker to be portable, it had better fit in your hand. Working through that compromise is essential to selecting the right portable Bluetooth speaker. In short, you want a speaker that’s big enough to deliver on audio quality and battery life, …
It’s uniquely challenging to design in-ear monitors. You’re using tiny audio drivers, sitting right next to your ear, but they’re supposed to sound like listening to speakers in a room. It’s like viewing a photograph on the wall, and then looking at the same photo on your phone. Though both photos might be roughly the …
For many people, portable headphones aren’t that comfortable. The most portable designs require you to jam some silicone inside your ear canal, or press foam pads against your ears. For an hour or two, that’s fine. But before too long, the comfort will start to fade. In the interests of both comfort and sound quality, …
Audio engineering is like automotive engineering. The engine doesn’t get reinvented every year. But year after year, small improvements do gradually amount to something big. We generally don’t see huge improvements in sound within a single generation. But there are exceptions. Over the past two years, there have been nearly half-a-dozen examples of audio equipment …