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Sometimes the simple solutions are best. I’m constantly losing my remotes — especially for the Apple TV+ — in between my theater chairs. 73 & Sunny sent over these thick GripStand remote covers. These are cheap ($10 – $20), they can stand up on their own, and the green one glows in the dark. Problem solved.
By Avi Greengart
I met with Knowles at CES to discuss their components, and after a few demos I asked that they send over something that uses their balanced armature driver (tweeter) so I could hear it in the real world. A few days after I got back from Las Vegas Edifier sent over these NeoBuds Pro 2. I've been really impressed with the sound quality, especially after I turned off the bass enhance mode (EDM and rap listeners will want to keep it on — it's good, just too much for me). That Knowles tweeter is nicely etched without getting fatiguing, and the 10mm dynamic driver provides controlled bass with enhanced mode off.
ANC is surprisingly good as well. It's not the absolute best I've heard (that would be the Bose QCII), but it's surprisingly close enough that you can use these as your only earbuds — and these only cost $109 on Amazon. One sacrifice is battery life — about 4 hours with ANC — before you'll have to pop them back in the case to recharge. I also found the touch controls a bit finicky, but I'm not a fan of touch controls generally.
I found them comfortable to wear; your ears may vary. Edifier includes five different sizes of silicone tips, so most people should find something that works.
The feature set is full despite the mid-tier price point. High-Res audio, Bluetooth 5.3, wear detection, and spatial audio are all onboard. Wireless charging and multi-device pairing are not, but the sound quality is superb, the ANC is effective, and the price is right.
by Avi Greengart
Cleer's Scene is a small horizontal Bluetooth speaker that stands out for its looks and versatility. The swoopy, color-on-color industrial design is absolutely gorgeous, especially in the red colorway that Cleer sent over. It may look round, but it is flat on the bottom so it won't roll away. Sonics are good; if sound quality is your primary purchase driver this isn't the last word, but at modest volumes it plays cleanly with an emphasis on midrange. This is a small portable speaker and doesn't play louder (or lower) than physics allows, but it can certainly fill a small room with sound. There are physical control buttons, AUX in, and a microphone so the Scene can double as a speakerphone. It's portable, fully waterproof (IPX7), has up to 12 hours of playback time, and costs a reasonable $99.
Cleer sent over a Scene for review but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with Cleer and does not accept affiliate payments.
Cleer Scene is a Pretty Versatile Bluetooth Speaker Read More by Avi Greengart
1More is an audio brand that somehow has flown under the radar, despite consistently offering excellent sonics at reasonable prices and getting rave critical reviews. The company's latest earbuds are a bit of a throwback – they aren't wireless, and they don't have any form of active noise cancellation. They even have a 3.5mm headphone jack! Just in case you live in 2023, the P50's do come with a USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter, along with a soft carrying case for the earbuds and accessories so that you don't lose it.
1More should lead a seminar on packaging; for $169 earbuds, the unboxing experience is excellent, setting high expectations for the product itself.
There are FIVE drivers in each of the P50's: one dynamic driver and four planar units. Five drivers sounds like a comedy sketch about adding more razer blades, but the end result is really nice sound for a price a fraction of professional IEMs (In Ear Monitors). 1More claims that these earbuds were tuned by "Grammy award-winning sound engineer Luca Bignardi, capturing the passion and emotion of music." To my non-Grammy award-winning ears, the 1More P50's audio response is extremely flat. The $169 1More P50's sound more like to my reference $1200 UE18's (which have six drivers apiece) than most consumer earbuds that tend to emphasize bass and, to a lesser extent, treble. The treble on the P50's is clear without any ringing or sibilance, but without any extra oomph, so there should be no listener fatigue. They are extremely revealing — you can easily hear the difference between production quality in different musical eras and genres. These really excel in accuracy and soundstage – orchestral, theatrical, and live music is particularly engaging on them. The Hamilton Broadway recording sounds extraordinary on them, and I had to stop writing this review to listen to Marc Knopfler's guitar technique on Dire Straits Live.
In my initial listening tests, bass response was the weakest element. To get the best bass the P50's drivers could deliver, I had to move to the largest foam tips to get a better ear seal. That was a bit uncomfortable, so I compromised with the medium foam tips, and then rotated them to get as tight a seal as possible. YEMV (Your Ears May Vary). This brought the bass back to tracks like Will of the People by Muse or even the chorus on pop tracks like Victoria's Secret by Jax, and completed the flat response across the board. Still, bass does not extend particularly deep and may not be loud enough for bassheads. If you want over-emphasized bass for hip-hop or movie watching, or if you just a warmer midrange, you might be able to get part of the way there with EQ, but these probably aren't the right earbuds for you.
The in-line microphone is fine for calls even in moderately noisy environments, but the volume level is low. If you hold it just a bit closer to your mouth, it sounds great.
One final note: the DAC that's hiding in the adapter is pretty good, but when I substituted in an ifi Go bar, there was a slight reduction in noise and increase in clarity once I matched the volume. Of course, the ifi Go bar costs $329 so pairing that with earbuds that cost half that is kind of ridiculous. But if you do decide to go there, the P50's are capable of revealing any sonic differences.
Highly recommended.
1More sent over a P50 for review but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with 1More and does not accept affiliate payments.
by Avi Greengart
Anker has steadily built its Soundcore brand on two key values: sound quality and low — but not bargain basement — pricing. The multi-driver Liberty Pro 3 are one of my favorite sounding earbuds at any price, but they is apparently priced too close to more traditional brands (read: Apple) and the company has been slow to upgrade them with competitive noise cancellation. Instead, it has focused on its more affordable non-Pro Liberty, first launching the $129 Liberty 4 last year (they were fine) and now the $99 Liberty 4 NC.
Despite the lower price and similar product name, the new Liberty 4 NC headphones are actually a significant upgrade with slightly better sonics and greatly improved adaptive noise cancellation. Rather than applying what seems like a blanket anti-noise filter, the Liberty 4 NC take a few seconds to sample the acoustic environment and then adjust further, similar to the Bose Quiet Comfort II. Where that comparison falls down is that the Soundcore gets quiet, but the Bose magically makes the outside world simply disappear. That's where the Liberty 4 NC presses its price advantage; even on sale the Bose cost over $250, placing it in a completely different price tier.
I enjoyed the Liberty 4 NC's performance on phone calls; callers sounded clear and there is just the right amount of microphone sidetone so you can hear yourself speak and not shout into the mic.
What about sound quality on music? The Liberty 4 NC is nicely balanced: bass is pronounced but not overwhelming or boomy. Treble is clear in the mix but not harsh. That said, these are not the last word in transparency, image separation, or tone. Soundcore's own Liberty Pro 3's have a better overall soundstage, and nothing beats the incredibly low noise floor of Apple's AirPods Pro 2. That said, the Liberty 4 NC does nothing wrong; it's quite a pleasing listening experience, it can be customized further in the app, and it's a tremendous value.
Anker gave me Soundcore Liberty 4 for review at a launch event but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with Anker and does not accept affiliate payments.
Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Review Read MoreThe Scosche BoomCan MS came in really handy yesterday when my flight was cancelled, and I needed to spend another night working on the road. This adorable little Bluetooth speaker attaches magnetically to recent iPhones where it acts as a kickstand and bounces audio off the table for a bit of added reverb. It's using the magnets just to attach, not connect or charge; it will connect to any Bluetooth source, not just iPhones.
It's tiny, so it's hardly the ultimate in fidelity, and it works better with show tunes and pop than Rock or Metal (Muse was more distorted than it's supposed to be). It charges over USB-C and should last several hours (Scosche says five). You can buy a pair and create stereo and I'm sure that's lovely but I strongly suspect most people will just buy one. It's $50, loud enough for hotel-room-writing-music, and so portable that I'm probably making it a permanent resident in my travel bag.
Scosche sent over a BoomCan MS for review but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with Scosche and does not accept affiliate payments.
Mini Review for a Mini Speaker: Scosche BoomCan MS Read More By Avi Greengart, Lead Analyst, Techsponential
Just because Apple decided that nobody needs a 3.5mm jack on what has become people's primary music device (and all of its competitors followed) doesn't make it true. If you have wired headphones, earbuds, or IEMs (in-ear monitors), you'll need an adapter. The thing is, phones output digitally now and when companies removed the headphone jack, they bypassed the DAC that the silicon typically provides. That means this is a more complicated adapter, as it needs to have its own DAC (digital to analog converter) embedded in there.
Apple started the problem, and it offered a solution: a $9 dongle that converts from Lightning to 3.5mm. That makes it one of Apple's least expensive products of all time, but does it sound any good, and how much do you need to spend to get something noticeably better? (Spoiler: the Apple adapter is actually a bargain for what it is, but if you have good headphones you absolutely can do better.)
A while back, ifi audio sent me their $329 GO bar, which is a great little DAC/headphone amp combo that has a plethora of features, but the one that caught my eye is a special mode to deal with sensitive IEMs. It sounds great, and I will happily recommend it in its category, but if all you're trying to do is connect wired headphones to your phone, it's crazy overkill. So when ifi audio announced a much simpler product, the GO link, for just $59, I had to get one in. The GO link absolutely nails the assignment of adding a good DAC to anything without a 3.5mm headphone jack at a price that makes it an impulse buy. It natively supports USB-C and ifi Audio includes little attachments for Lightning and USB-A (to use as a better DAC than the one in your PC). Unlike the GO bar, it lacks a case, but most people will leave it attached to their headphone cable so that's fine. And it isn't so simple that you can't use made up words to talk about it with your audiophile friends, according to the website, the GO link features a, "Discrete ESS Sabre Hyperstream DAC chipset with time domain jitter eliminator, discrete oscillator and 112dB dynamic range for discerning listeners."
I started my discerning listening with the iPhone 14 Pro and Drop HIFIMAN HE-X4 headphones (budget planar magnetic headphones that deserve their own review someday). The difference between Apple's dongle and the GO link was easy to hear: on the GO link, instruments had more separation and the noise floor was slightly lower. I found it easier to discern certain elements (a unique time signature on the drums, instrument tambre), and the music was more engaging overall. For $9, it's hard to complain about Apple's dongle. It's not bad! But if you are an active listener and have invested in high quality headphones, there is easily a significant enough difference to justify the expense of the GO link.
Next, I tested the ifi Audio GO link on a [embargoed upcoming Android phone] and compared it to Anker's $20 USB-C to 3.5mm dongle. On the relatively inefficient HIFIMAN headphones, the difference was stark: the GO link can play so much louder than the Anker that it isn't fair — the Ankers are a poor fit for this application. Apple and Anker do not specify output power on their adapters, but ifi Audio marketing does: "power output of 70mW into 32 ohms, and a maximum voltage output of 2.05V into 600 ohms."
ifi Audio also claims that its S-Balanced circuit delivers better performance on IEMs, too, so I tested them with Ultimate Ear UE12 IEMs. These require minimum power to drive, so the Anker was much more competitive. The GO links still played louder, but on IEMs that's irrelevant unless you want to damage your hearing. At more reasonable volume levels, the GO link did sound a bit better than the Ankers — I noticed that bass drum kicks were a bit fuller — but it's subtle. Whatever DAC Anker is using does sound good and they are a third the price.
Overall, given the simplicity and versatility with both input (USB-C, USB-A, Lightning) and output (even on more demanding headphones) the ifi audio GO link is a no-brainer. Highly recommended.
Review: ifi Audio GO link Read More
Monster pioneered the premium audio accessories business, starting with thick, oxygen-free copper speaker wires before moving to more questionable interconnect cables and other accessories, eventually landing on headphones and Bluetooth speakers. The original speaker cables were genuinely (and demonstrably) better than the thinner wires due to a combination of physics and quality control. They sold well because Monster did a tremendous job on marketing at point of sale; in some years, they made up the majority of consumer electronics retailer profit (sell the TV and VCR at cost, make money on the cables). With the rise of the Internet and streaming media players, the market for premium branded cables took a big hit – Monoprice, Anker, and AmazonBasics can supply perfectly good cables for less, assuming that you even need to buy an audio or video cable at all.
Today, Monster is a licensing company, but it is not surprising that one of those licensees (DealRise, LLC) sells super-premium HDMI cables under the Monster brand. Their PR rep offered to send over an 8K cable in any size; I asked for 8', they sent 6'. The packaging is beautiful — probably not fully necessary, given that Amazon is a primary retail channel, but still expected for the brand — and the cable itself appears well constructed. I wasn't able to fully test it because TVs are so big now that a 6' cable is now too short to reach from my receiver to the TV input, and I don't have a full HDMI 2.1 electronics chain yet. The Xbox Series X from Microsoft is fully capable, but my flagship Denon receiver (AVR-X8500H) has not gotten the promised HDMI 2.1 update yet. Finally, while the fantastic 6-series TV that TCL sent over supports some advanced gaming functionality, it, too, lacks HDMI 2.1 inputs.
However, if you do have a fully HDMI 2.1 chain and want to take advantage of things like 8K or 4K/120Hz gaming, you will actually need cables rated for significantly higher bandwidth (48Gpbs) than even the best HDMI cables from just a year or two ago (18Gbps). Do you need a brand name like Monster 8K to achieve that? Not necessarily, and I can't vouch for Monster's performance yet. But the technical requirements are real. If you run into HDMI 2.1 equipment incompatibilities — something we have seen with some early HDMI 2.1 A/V receivers — it could be difficult to isolate that the problem is actually the interconnect cable, so it's worth buying something you trust will deliver the performance you'll need.
Monster “UHD 8K Cobalt” HDMI Cable Read MoreTCL is best known for its high-value televisions, but it is actually one of the largest consumer electronics conglomerates in the world. TCL runs its own factories and is investing $8 billion in its latest display panel fab. TCL's mobile division sells Alcatel and TCL branded featurephones, smartphones, and tablets, and the parent company also makes washing machines, refrigerators, consumer IoT devices, and more.
I have tested some of TCL's super-inexpensive in-ear headphones — some as low as $10 — and found them to be ridiculous values; they sound as good as products 10x the cost. So I was eager to get in TCL's on-ear MTRO headphones, now in a version with active noise cancellation, for just $79. Can they compete against products that are 4x – 6x more expensive from Sony, Bose, Apple (Beats), and others? In a word, no.
A practical guide for the order in which you should upgrade (or build) your AV system:
Avi's Audio Heirarchy: