Ken C. Pohlmann

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Pono: It’s Baaaack!
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Mar 18, 2014
It’s been awhile since I’ve heard anything from new from Pono. When it was first unveiled, at least in concept, two years ago, Pono was a bit of a head-scratcher. Brainchild of rocker Neil Young, Pono was his response to the scourge of lo-fi music. Pono was a new music player and/or file format and/or music delivery system that would resurrect recorded music. Stay tuned. So, it was interesting to see Pono surface again at SXSW last week.

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Porky's Prime Cuts
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 04, 2021
When it was first introduced, digital audio was criticized as sounding “cold” or “sterile.” I vehemently disagreed. What some listeners heard as cold, I heard as a lack of distortion. Even after all these years, I suppose that's something we can still debate. But digital audio is indeed cold and sterile. Not the sound quality - the fact that it isn't nearly as funky, quirky, and weird as analog audio. Which brings us to George Peckham.

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President Obama Wants to Liberate Your Cable Box
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 26, 2016
Quick. What's the company everyone loves to hate? The cable company, of course. The aggravating installation, the inexplicable outtages, the maddening programming bundles, and the fees. Oh yes, the fees. But there's hope, and possibly change. President Obama has endorsed a proposal that would eliminate perhaps the most annoying cable TV fee. That's good, right?

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Private Eyes
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 26, 2013
Whether you support it or not, few of us are completely comfortable with the fact that the government can read our e-mails and listen to our phone calls. On the other hand, without much thought, most of us freely give away our privacy to various companies. Now, that privacy debate is coming into our home theaters.

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Psst! Wanna Buy a Headphone Cheap?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 03, 2012

When you buy a Rolex Submariner from a guy with a dozen of them in a cardboard box in Times Square, there is absolutely no chance of misunderstanding. Both parties fully understand that the timepieces in question are fakes. But what if you buy a pair of high-end headphones from that kind-of-weird stereo store across from the mall?

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Other Tech
Pump Up Your Pod!
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 18, 2005

Over 10 million of them have been sold, and it seems like everybody has one. Some are pink, some are green, some are blue, some are black, but most are white. Owners caress them, lovingly running their fingers back and forth across "my precious." Some can hold 10,000 of your favorite songs, and they'll follow you wherever you go.

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Pure Acoustics Dream Tower home theater speaker system
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Dec 11, 2008
The Short Form
$1,580 / PURE-ACOUSTICS.COM / 718-788-4411
Snapshot
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Other Tech
Pure and Perfect?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 02, 2008

Audiophiles laughed when the CD was first marketed as "Perfect sound forever." They rejected the notion that digital was better than analog, or that the CD sounded better than the LP. Today, it's generally accepted that 44.1-kHz, 16-bit files (with modern improvements such as noise shaping) can challenge the ability of most listeners to detect aural format flaws.

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Qobuz Promises Hi-Res Audio Streaming
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 10, 2018
We audiophiles hate streaming because it's all just low-res junk, right? Tidal hasn't been awesome enough so we hate that too and we're just going to sit in our rooms and sulk and not listen to anything at all because it all just sucks. But Qobuz is knocking gently on our bedroom door....

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Other Tech
Reality Bytes: Behind the Best of the Best
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 04, 2007

MAKE NO MISTAKE: The equipment reviewers at Sound & Vision aren't nice people. Without naming names, I'll just mention the following: three restraining orders, steel-cage death-match champion, and a lifetime ban from the National Hockey League. And that's just one of the reviewers. Frankly, they're curmudgeonly, tough SOBs.

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