Audio

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 …

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 …

by Avi Greengart The 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 …

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 …

TCL 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 …