Amazon is many things to many people, and now it’s become the king of the smart-speaker market. Parks Associates reports that the online retail giant dominates smart speakers with 70.6 percent of sales, adding that smart speakers are in 11 percent of U.S. broadband households.
I crossed my fingers. I carried a rabbit's foot. I went out in the backyard and found a four-leaf clover. I started eating Lucky Charms for breakfast. I rearranged the furniture in my home theater according to feng shui (good for luck, not so good for sound). I did everything I could. But now I see that I have failed. People like the Amazon Echo Dot. They like it a lot.
Home automation stalwart Savant today announced its acquisition of Artison, the Minden, Nevada-based company founded by noted audio designer Cary Christie, who developed the first on-wall speaker designed to integrate with a flat-panel TV more than a decade ago.
In Episode 2 of Sound & Vision's Pixels & Bits podcast, editor-in-chief Rob Sabin and contributing technical editor Steve Guttenberg discuss the birth of VHS and the Betamax/VHS videotape format war, spotlight the $3,000 HiFiMan HE1000 magnetic planar headphones (4:24); debate whether $6,000 headphones are really worth it (5:15); and talk about how the longevity of some audio products adds to their value (14:00).
I live in a dense urban neighborhood where it's not uncommon to see secondhand LP dealers plying their trade on the sidewalks. One day I was pawing through dirty old LPs when I came across something decidedly odd. The jacket mentioned a singer named Marni Nixon; no relation to the president, but if you grew up during the Nixon era, the name would catch your eye. Backing her was an all-cello chamber ensemble. And the titles of the works, by Villa-Lobos, were Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1 and 5. I knew nothing of the Brazilian composer then but have always loved Bach. Curiosity pried $1 out of my wallet and I carried home my prize.