Cleer Scene is a Pretty Versatile Bluetooth Speaker

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 …

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Review: 1More P50

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, …

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Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Review

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 …

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Mini Review for a Mini Speaker: Scosche BoomCan MS

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 …

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XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Launch Event

By Avi Greengart, reprinted with permission from Techsponential XGIMI recently launched its latest smart projector, the MoGo 2 Pro (press release) in New York. The projector belongs to a relatively new category of home entertainment display that combines front projection, portability, and smart TV streaming capabilities over WiFi. As with previous display technology shifts, smart projectors are leading to new companies and brands. XGIMI (pronounced, “ex-jimmy;” loosely translated from Chinese as, “excellence in square meters”) was founded nine years ago in Chengdu, China. IDC ranked it as China’s projector market share leader by 2018, and it has sold 4.5 million …

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Review: ifi Audio GO link

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 …

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Monster “UHD 8K Cobalt” HDMI Cable

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 …

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TCL’s MTRO 200NC First Impressions

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 …

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Dolby, WB, AMC 20th Anniversary Re-release of The Matrix at Dolby Cinemas

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Matrix, Dolby, AMC, and Warner Brothers are bringing the movie back to the big screen. It appears that they are taking the work that was done for the upgraded 4K Dolby Vision/Atmos disc and exhibiting it in Dolby Cinemas for a limited run. Last week, I attended a press screening of The Matrix at Dolby Cinema with two of my teenagers; one had not seen the film before, and he was positively jumping out of his seat at the end. I have the 4K disc, and I have a fairly advanced home theater …

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