Home Theater View

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

 

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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.

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 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'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 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.

Orb Audio Mod2X review

It's been a long time since I've done a full formal home theater speaker review, but my "reference" Carver HT5.2 speakers are over 15 years old and I've had the upgrade urge for most of the past decade. When Orb Audio reached out early last year* and offered to send over a complete set of speakers with sub, I thought it was time to start the process of finding a new mid-priced system for our home theater -- or at least start listening to something new. Orb sells complete packages that start at $600 and go up to $2500; I tested the $1400 Mod2X. While that's not free, it is quite affordable for a product aimed at enthusiasts. One reason its prices are low is that Orb only sells direct online. Orb is hardly alone choosing this business model, and as the independent audio dealer channel shrinks and moves into higher price tiers, direct sales make more and more sense. Aperion, SVS, Outlaw Audio, and others also sell exclusively online. However, Orb really ought to overhaul its site. The web design is so outdated that it could cause some consumers to question whether the speakers are up to today’s competition. (Spoiler: they are.)

Orb Audio’s guiding design philosophy is contained in its name – its speakers are small orbs (spheres), each containing a single speaker driver. This means that they don’t suffer from frequency dips or noise introduced by the crossover between the midrange and tweeter because there is no crossover and no distinct tweeter. The spherical shape also means that the cabinet does not produce standing waves. Orb is not the only company to use this approach -- Anthony Gallo and Morel are competitors with similar-looking products -- but Orb speakers are the only spherical speakers both designed and manufactured in the U.S.

I received three boxes:

• the SubONE, a traditionally shaped 12” cube containing an 8” driver and 200 watt amplifier.
• four vertically stacked double Mod2X Orbs for left, right, and surrounds.
• a horizontal double Orb Mod2X for the center channel, subwoofer cable, and plenty of speaker wire to connect everything.

The system that Orb sent over represents the pinnacle of its standard line, though the company does offer an Orb Mod4X Custom line for those who simply can’t enough of these little spheres. Each Mod1 Orb is a bit over 4” in diameter; the Mod2X has two of these in an array, a Mod4X has four. I must commend Orb Audio on its naming scheme – it makes selecting a system easier.

The Look

You can order Orbs in several finishes – black, hand antique copper, hand antique bronze, hand polished steel, hammered earth, or pearl white gloss. Mine were hammered earth, which are brownish-copper, have a nice texture to them, and look stunning. Seriously, these are among the most attractive home audio products I have ever auditioned, and they really don’t look like speakers as much as modernist sculpture. This is clearly the system for someone with a picky spouse; as long as the room has a modern esthetic and you have a spot to hide the sub, there should be no objections to these objects.

Installation Difficulties

My units lacked an installation guide but I was able to download it online. Installation is not nearly as easy as it should be. I first tried to use my usual heavy gauge speaker wire and banana plugs, but the Orb’s speaker connectors are too small to accept banana plugs, and even the bare wire was too thick to fit. Orb Audio had sent over 16 gauge speaker wire that it sells online (100 feet on sale for $38), so I used that. However, the wire does not come stripped (with the ends ready for insertion) or in pre-cut lengths like you find in home theater in a box systems. I have a wire stripping and crimping tool, so managing this was not a big deal for me, but it might be for your average homeowner.  The bigger problem is that each Mod2X Orb consists of two essentially independent Mod1X Orbs connected to each other by jumper cables. These jumper cables are already inserted into the same connector holes as the speaker cable needs to. Unless there’s a simpler solution that I missed, fitting both the jumper cable and the speaker cable into the same connector is both non-intuitive and quite difficult to do. The stands also get in the way of your fingers, further complicating threading the wires. I found myself yanking and pulling and cutting and [muttering politely] throughout the installation process – not the first experience you want a customer to have when they take a product out of the box.

Setting up the Subwoofer, on the other hand, was remarkably simple: plug it in to the wall, plug a standard RCA cable (like the speaker wire, Orb will be happy to sell you one) to the LFE out jack on your receiver, and you're pretty much done, unless you need to mess with the settings. There's a phase knob and you can select the low pass frequency if you aren't using a receiver. The wood veneer on my sub didn't exactly match my dark home theater surroundings but should fit into many homes. I have a pair of absolutely massive coffee-table sized subwoofers from Outlaw Audio; I was eager to see if the relatively small cube from Orb could produce reasonable output.

The Sound

The Orbs produce extremely bright treble and incredible imaging; my notes describe it as “crisp, clear.” It wasn’t so bright as to be grating, but it is hardly neutral. The satellites also cannot produce much bass; the auto-configure setting on my receiver set the crossover at 150 Hz; my usual speakers are set to THX standard 80 Hz. Unsurprisingly, when listening to music via “pure direct” mode on my receiver (which bypasses all room correction, surround modes, and bass management) the music sounded thin and lacked bass — though even in this worst case scenario, imaging was superb. Mark Knopfler’s voice on his album Sailing to Philadelphia was coming from the dead center of the room, and I had to double check to ensure that the center channel was indeed off.

Moving to stereo with bass management and room correction in place, I played some classic AC/DC (Back in Black) which was rich and loud enough that I had to turn it down for fear of waking small children two floors away. I tried jazz, classical, pop, rock… all are satisfying in a way that cheap speakers are not. Is this the best sub/sat system I’ve heard? Hardly. They are still on the bright side, and despite that they are not the last word in clarity. The sub is doing too much work in the upper bass (trombones from New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band were localized to the sub), and the highs lacked “air” around them (a clunky phrase, I know. Describing sound is imprecise).

For movies, the Orb system is far more satisfying than a soundbar, and the SubONE is clearly better than what you’ll find in a cheap HTiB system. The SubONE is not as authoritative as the ore expensive Sonos SUB ($699) which I had on hand, and possesses none of the room-shaking stress of my reference pair of Outlaw Audio LFM-1’s ($499 each, also $100 more than the $399 SubONE). Practically speaking, Star Wars Episode II’s seismic charges scene (Chapter 28) didn't have the impact of the lowest frequencies. Explosions certainly had plenty of boom in the 50 - 100 Hz range where most of the bass is in soundtracks. But going through my other Star Wars discs, the brass in the main theme is quite brassy, and Darth Vader's breathing distinct from rest of sound mix.

A more recent John Williams score, for Lincoln, is much more understated. The music rarely calls itself out, and the Orb speakers absolutely shined, underscoring the movie without drawing attention to themselves in any way. Brass was sweet with no spitting, and piano notes had the proper resonance. The dialogue was exceptionally clear - a bit bright, perhaps, but that benefitted intelligibility.

For a final demo, I got lost in The Matrix on Blu-ray. Music. Expended shell casings. Self-important dialogue. Explosions. It’s all good.

Conclusion

Orb Audio sells direct to consumers online, [cue infomercial voice] “passing the savings along to you!” The Orb Audio speakers are not the last word in sonics, setup was more difficult than it has to be, and the company needs to invest in a more attractive, modern web site. But the bottom line is that products that sound better are either more expensive or less attractive. Even compared to other online-only speaker vendors, Orb provides tremendous value for the customer who requires both good looks and good sound.

 

*Orb sent the system right away. It took me most of the year before I got a chance to finally unbox and set up the system. In the interim, Orb improved the subwoofer, so I swapped the old unit and tested the new one before giving the system a listen. Then it took me another few months to finish and edit this review. Orb is not a huge conglomerate with endless resources for reviewers, and I apologize for the endless delays on my end.

Avi's Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide 2013

My long tradition of getting behind with work covering new product launches ahead of the holiday season -- and therefore not finishing my holiday gift guide until the last possible moment -- continues. The guide is up over at techpinions.com.

CD Players Are Not Dead (Yet)

Apple’s iTunes now sells more music than any other retail outlet and CD sales are famously in decline, so you’d be forgiven if you thought nobody makes CD players any more – or at least nobody would be foolish to launch new ones. That's why I was somewhat delighted to read this press release: Parasound has just introduced a new CD player, the Zcd. This isn’t a CD player aimed at the mass market, but it isn’t targeting money-is-no-object audiophile snobs, either. It costs $400; mass market CD players start at $17.99 at Target, and audiophile brands can top $4,000. Instead, the Zcd is aimed at the custom installation market (the giveaway is that it is described as being “half rack width”).

Parasound apparently thinks there is a market for a high quality CD player where the home owner wants to insert a single disc and listen to it, as opposed to a hard drive-based music server. In other words, the Zcd is intended to be used for dedicated listening sessions, not strictly background music. In that sense, the Zcd is a throwback to the other physical music format with a focused use case – vinyl (though vinyl is explicitly "old school," and all the limitations of the format are typically celebrated as features). The Zcd has top of the line DACs and does fancy things with the volume control and analog converter power source to give installers something to talk about when justifying its cost. While the Zcd can also play back music from USB or a line in jack, it doesn't support dead music formats like SACD or DVD-Audio that few people today seem to even remember. It's a CD player. It plays CDs. It isn't something you're going to find in Best Buy, but it's nice to see someone thinks there's still a market niche left that calls for a dedicated optical disc player.

My Holiday Gift Guide is Up

My Last Minute, Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide is now up over at Slashgear.com. 

Happy Holidays,

-avi

quick review: beats by dr. dre

Question:

My son is here with me today and... he brought up Beats headphones.  I was wondering if you’ve seen/have them and your thoughts.  He’s sold on how “cool” they are but I’m curious if they’re all hype or not.

I get in a lot of headphones but hadn't gotten extended time on the beats until HP gave me a pair to test with its new TouchPad tablet (the TouchPad has a special Beats Audio mode. I tested it with the mode enabled and disabled, the difference is too subtle for most people to notice, but it’s a nice branding initiative).

The beats are certainly a style icon, and since most people seem to choose them based on looks I was surprised that the sound quality is quite good. The bass is excellent (boosted but still natural – a tough combination to pull off), the midrange and highs are fair, and there is only some lightly audible distortion in the midrange from the noise cancellation (all active noise cancelling headphones have some distortion, as quite literally that’s what noise cancellation is). They are closed over-ear headphones with mandatory noise cancellation – they don’t work without batteries, and there’s no way to turn the cancellation off. The noise cancellation itself is very good, though not as good as Bose's QuietComfort line.

Overall, I still prefer a good pair of passive in-ear headphones from etymotic, Shure, or Ultimate Ears – especially if you can get custom earpieces, though that usually means spending more than the $300 or so that the beats cost (except when it doesn't). Sennheiser makes slightly better sounding headphones at the same price, and Bose has better noise cancellation around the same price. However, the Sennheisers do not have have noise cancellation, and I think most people might still prefer the Beats for bass-heavy music regardless. (Disclaimer: I haven’t gotten in the new Bose QuietComforts for a full review, so I can’t say which has better overall audio, but the noise cancellation on the Bose is the best I’ve heard when I've tried them on at retail and in airports).

Bottom line: while the beats would not be my first recommendation for all types of listening,  I can easily recommended them, and they are particularly good if you listen to a lot of hip-hop and dance. If you want the beats' style you can be comfortable that you aren’t throwing away your money on hype, as they do offer quite good sound overall.

Slate talks about the wonders of outboard DACs, I talk headphones

Fred Kaplan is apparently writing for Slate now*, and he correctly points out that digital music often sounds terrible, either due to poor sampling or poor encoding. He recommends using an outboard DAC to correct the problem. It's a great suggestion for people who listen to music in one spot using high end speakers or headphones, but not at all practical for those who are mobile, using an MP3 player or a smartphone as their playback source. Aside from echoing his related note to bump up the encoding rate when you rip music or download higher quality encoded music in the first place, the best suggestion I can make for mobile music listening is to invest in higher quality headphones. My first pair of Shure e535's had an almost magical ability to smooth out ragged MP3s without losing any detail (as well they should for $499). When they broke on me, Shure shipped out a replacement pair, but the new model doesn't sound quite as exceptional to my ears in the MP3-magic area -- it is still a  fantastically neutral pair of headphones with exceptionally clean mids and rich bass, but jagged highs due to MP3 encoding faults still sound jagged on my new pair. The drivers are supposed to be identical, so I'm not sure if I got lucky on the first pair or less lucky on the second (or that I am/was hearing things that weren't there. Also a possibility).

I love the Shures, but my headphones of choice these days are etymotic's flagship ER-4's, which are hardly new, but have been transformed by custom earpieces etymotic had made for me. The program, which I called out in my Holiday Gift Guide, is called CUSTOM•FIT, and costs $100 (in addition to the cost of headphones). If you care about comfort and noise isolation, it is worth every penny.

*UPDATE: Fred got in touch to point out that defense and foreign policy are actually his primary coverage areas - and he modestly left out the part where he won a Pulitzer on those subjects. I know him from his sideline as an A/V writer.

RIP Snell, Escient

Not sure where I was when this crossed the wire back in April, but I was saddened - but not surprised - to learn that D&M Holdings shut down both Snell and Escient. 

Snell was a high end speaker brand without enough brand recognition. Selling $30,000 speakers in a recession is extremely hard. Selling $30,000 speakers from a brand that only involved enthusiasts have heard of is basically impossible, no matter how terrific they measure and sound (Snell was famous for rigorously achieving ridiculously flat frequency measurements). 

I suspect that the recession did in Escient, which made well regarded music servers, as well. Sure, some of Escient's functionality made its way into Windows and iTunes over the years, but the general collapse of the custom installation business was the bigger culprit. That and the rise of Sonos, which is dead simple for regular consumers to install, and considerably less expensive than any custom solution.

Sonos Goes Stereo

Just a quick note today: Sonos just started shipping a new software update that adds some new Internet radio options, crossfading between songs, some new language support, new alarm settings, and the ability to use two S5's as a stereo pair. None of the features is critical on its own (though the S5 stereo feature is quite cool; when everything is digital, you can do all sorts of neat things) but Sonos already built the best multi-room component system. I sent back my Sonos review system so I can't test this personally. Sigh. 

With the Sonos gone, we've been using Logitech's Squeezebox Boom (OK; needs a better remote, the UI is just "OK," and the Sonos is better for multi-room use). The Squeezebox Touch just showed up, and I'll put that to the test once I get some speakers for it.