Because Tom was a slacker over the weekend, he missed doing the podcast with Liz. Enter Rob H., once again, who, by virtue of having much free time, gets another guest spot on the podcast. This week Tom and Rob discuss Apple iPhone rumors (Liquidmetal and a new screen), Google Glasses (uber-cool), and Valve’s “wearable” computers (whatever those are). What does $9000 get you in a sub? The Paradigm Sub 2. Tom and Rob analyze. For soup to nuts, Rob lists some of the most popular Internet Direct speakers and Tom gives his “off the cuff” opinion. This includes offerings from GoldenEar Technology, Emotiva Pro, Ascend Acoustics, and Philharmonic Audio. Lastly, high-end audio demos and how they try to trick you. Being prepared for the BS is key. And knowing is half the battle. Tom is in the process of reviewing the new eers PSC-250 custom-molded earphones. Look for a full report on a podcast soon.
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Tom starts with a listener complaint. Hopefully that will be sorted. Feel free to report back if there is still a problem. So, if you don’t want to hear Tom insult the entire Internet, make fun of a colleague’s name in an extremely inappropriate way (he really is sorry for that one), and mock pretty much everything, you should skip this episode. Someone must have slipped something in his coffee. To start with, Tom takes a peak at CloudOn, a FREE app that gives iPad owners (and soon others) access to Microsoft Office. How is this legal exactly? Tom doesn’t care, it works and he loves it. Steven Spielberg proves that you can release a movie on Blu-ray, remaster it, and not add 3D (take note Lucas). Tom is taking the credit for the new Nook (and whatever Amazon comes out with that has a light). Tom takes a stab at CE Pro (again). Here is the source article. You judge. CE Pro’s article on HDMI problems was a little better, though. D-Link MovieNite gives you (up to) 1080p streaming from Vudu, Netflix, and Pandora for less than $60. Oh, and YouTube but seriously, who cares? Tom reviews the OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPad 2/3. Review on Audioholics on the way. How much is your privacy worth? This article doesn’t answer the question at all, draws dubious conclusions from the cited data, and generally confused Tom and Liz. What’s your take? This week in Netflix – a new PAC. Too little too late? We’ll see.
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You’ll have to listen past the music for the explanation of the title. Is crowd-funding the wave of the future? Tom and Liz discuss the new Drifter project (it’s not looking good so if you want to see it made, you might want to throw some money their way). Home theater projectors are on the rise (though the study that revealed it is a bit suspect). Liz has made life easier for AT&T iPhone owners (you’re welcome). Consumerism is ruining society! Or it might be the organ harvesters. Depends on your point of view we suppose. A bit on the new ending of Mass Effect 3 – because if we don’t talk about it we lose all our geek cred.
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Tom has some personal news and Liz starts the podcast off with an inappropriate comment. Liz reports on Spotify’s new timeline along with a discussion of how it is working for her. Tom looks at Samsung’s new tube offerings (didn’t occur to either of them that it was April 1st so they may have been a joke), Audyssey’s Audio Dock Air (which is a joke, but not in the April 1st sort of way), and a wireless solution from Atlantic Technology. Liz has some Best Buy news. Listener John compares Lossless to iTunes Match to Mastered for iTunes. You’ll want to hear this one (or read this link). There are lots of hint out there for Netflix to hear, but are they listening? On the market for a subwoofer? The correct answer is “always”. Check out this contest to win one from SVS. [post-ender]
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Tom – I’m reprinting an email I got from one of our awesome listeners – John. While we have a lot of different kinds of listeners, I’m always impressed at just how smart they are. On top of that, they care about audio quality to do these sorts of things. Great work John and thanks for sharing!
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A few podcasts ago, when discussing Audio Diffmaker, Tom suggested we use that application to see what we’re getting from iTunes Match. Since I’ve already done quite a bit with audio difference files, I don’t expect to learn much there, but I did look at and listen to an original file, a matched file, and a Mastered for iTunes file.
The track is “It Could Happen to You” by Diana Krall from the album From This Moment On. I picked this track randomly from the few I could have used for this test. Read more…
