Signals

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Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 17, 2020  | 
Okay. I get it. Contemporary electronic devices are more powerful than old-timey electronic devices. A software engineer recently estimated that a USB-C charger has more computing power than the guidance computer on the Apollo capsules that took men to the moon (shown above). Awesome. But I still have an axe to grind.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 03, 2020  | 
“It's not you. It's me.”
“We can still be friends.”
“I think you love me more than I love you.”
“You should be free to meet your special someone.”
“I'm so sorry, but my cat just doesn't like you.”

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 20, 2020  | 
How many times has this happened to you? You become deeply attached to someone, and everything is just wonderful, and you sincerely hope and believe that you'll stay together forever. Then suddenly you are hiring a lawyer, and they hire a lawyer, and you realize the honeymoon is over.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 13, 2020  | 
My plan for world domination is simple: vacuum cleaners. Of course, as with any fiendishly clever plan, mine has certain nuances. And although it does not involve laser beams, piranha, or secret lairs inside volcanoes, I think you will agree that my plan is quite diabolical.
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 06, 2020  | 
Well, it's official. The year is 2020. And that means we are actually living in The Future. Frankly I wasn't sure we'd make it, but here we are. And things are pretty sweet. All of the fabulous things that technology magazines were predicting in the 50's are finally here. Well, some of them. If you are driving a Tesla.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Dec 16, 2019  | 
The year is 1962. You are working at Decca Records and your job is to listen to audition tapes and pass along your evaluation. The next demo tape on your endlessly replenishing stack is from some unsigned band calling themselves The Beatles. You mount the tape on your machine and listen for a few minutes. Then you rewind it and put it back in its box. Pass.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Dec 02, 2019  | 
Wow! Congratulations! You sure got a good deal on that jumbo-sized TV! Black Friday deals rule! But you know what? It's a new TV, you might not be familiar with its operation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation would like to have a word with you.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 25, 2019  | 
You have absolutely no idea how hip you are. Seriously. No idea. Well, what I mean is that if you time-traveled yourself 30 years into the future, you would be really hip. Maybe not now, but in 2049 you will be awesome.
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 18, 2019  | 
Amazon's newest audio offering, the Echo Studio, packs five drivers and Dolby Atmos into a compact package and promises to deliver terrific sound quality and a truly immersive soundfield. I am trying to figure out whether I should love or hate this thing.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 04, 2019  | 
How many times has this happened to you? After a long day toiling in the salt mines. you are ready to finally get some shut-eye. You sink down into your Tempur-Pedic and then it starts up - boom, boom, boomity boom. Oh for Pete's sake. Your neighbor is playing his stereo again.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 21, 2019  | 
Some stories tell you about one thing. The good ones are entertaining and/or accurate. But the very best stories are multi-layered, fitting small pictures into big pictures, with one brilliantly informing the other to show deeper meanings. To demonstrate what I mean, I'd like to show you a YouTube video posted last week, and a figurative map drawn in1869.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 07, 2019  | 
You call them. They put you on hold. That's bad enough. Then they play the cheesy on-hold music. That makes it worse. But even that's not as bad as the actual sound quality of the music. Oh. My. Lord.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 23, 2019  | 
I don't particularly like phones. I do not camp out in front of Apple stores. I use my phone as infrequently as possible, which isn't very often. I leave home without it. I am not a phone guy. Mainly, I disapprove of phones because they are anathema to high-quality audio and video playback.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 09, 2019  | 
You are a multi-billion-dollar audio corporation. Starting small, you grew big, then you bought out your competitors and got even bigger. You dominate entire segments of the audio market. Good work! But where do you go from here? How do you get even bigger? You create an entirely new audio category.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 27, 2019  | 
The Taycan is Porsche's newest, almost-ready-to-debut car. It's all-electric, so the sound of its exhaust will be unlike that of any other contemporary Porsche. But it's not the exhaust that might be its most interesting sound. It might be its built-in Apple streaming.

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