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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

• The good: they sound good: the noise floor is low, the bass is well rounded without being bloated, and mid-range is just a bit lively, which sounds great on rock and pop. I also liked that there are physical buttons on the earcup; I'm not convinced that consumers can remember or properly execute swiping maneuvers on the go. 
• The bad: the MTRO 200NC's noise cancellation is really weak. A female Voice of God loudly informs you every time you turn noise canceling on or off, so there's no question whether it is engaged, but it just doesn’t do very much. Also, charging is via ancient microUSB, rather than USB-C, so you'll need to keep a dedicated charging cable on hand.
• And the ugly news: these look and feel like those $29 BEATZ or SUMSANG headphones you see at drugstores, not like a product from a company with a respected global brand, major sports sponsorships, and $11 billion in revenue last year. The flimsy cardboard and plastic packaging could not be cheaper, and it is not helped by the font choice and colors. The headphones themselves are no better: the plastic used on the headband and earcups feel rough and the buttons are toy-like. Even at $79, even if you are willing to look past the noise cancelation performance, aesthetics matter. If you can overlook the out of box experience (OOBE) and build quality, fine, but if you are giving them as a holiday gift, you should be aware that they don't look like they cost as much as they do.