Leslie Shapiro

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CES 2015
Scosche Made the boomBottle Better; Meet boomBottle +
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jan 06, 2015
If a portable Bluetooth speaker that fits into a bicycle’s waterbottle cage is good, isn’t one that’s more powerful, more rugged, plays longer and sounds better?
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CES 2018Grace Notes
Sennheiser Adds the Closed Back HD 820 to Audiophile Lineup
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jan 11, 2018
Sennheiser has always been known for exceptional sound quality in their headphone lineup, and now they’re expanding into new territory with the new over-ear HD 820 with a closed-back design.

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Soundbar Reviews
Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Review
Leslie Shapiro  |  Aug 21, 2019

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $2,500

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Convincing immersive sound
Powerful bass
Chromecast built-in for music streaming
Minus
Heavy and large
Expensive

THE VERDICT
Sennheiser's first foray into home theater was worth the wait. The Ambeo soundbar, with Ambeo 3D processing, is currently the best soundbar on the market.

The compactness and convenience that soundbars offer has always been appealing, but their actual sound has too often been a letdown. Many have failed to create an authentic sense of surround and most also require an external subwoofer to provide substantial bass. Sennheiser's new Ambeo soundbar looks to buck that trend by delivering an immersive 5.1.4 surround experience while confidently eschewing a separate subwoofer. On paper, it looks to be the first soundbar designed to truly replace a standard home-theater surround setup. But does it deliver the goods?

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CES 2019
Sennheiser Brings AMBEO Quality to Soundbars and Headphones
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jan 09, 2019
Sennheiser is focusing on their AMBEO product group in a big way at CES with the new AMBEO Soundbar and AMBEO AR One headset. They also were proudly showing off the Momentum True Wireless earbuds which are creating quite a buzz with their excellent sound quality.

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Headphone ReviewsGrace Notes
Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear Headphone
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jan 20, 2014
The new Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear headphone takes everything I loved about the original Momentum over-ear headphone and puts it in a smaller, infinitely more stylish and affordable package. Coming in a range of colors, and at a lower price, this headphone retains the sound quality and voice of the original but makes it more accessible to more people.

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Headphone ReviewsGrace Notes
ShareBrand: Headphones with Heart
Leslie Shapiro  |  May 26, 2014
Everywhere you turn, new ways to support causes and ideas have been created. Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding is inescapable. Friends just used Honeyfund to let wedding guests finance their honeymoon. Perhaps more philanthropically, another friend is getting help with medical payments through GiveForward.com. My bicycle rides are logged onto the Plus3 website that, through corporate sponsors, donates money to charities based on how many miles I ride. (I’ve personally raised almost $700 and burned 1.4 million calories; that’s a lot of M&Ms.) It seems that new ways to raise money for a cause are being created daily. Enter ShareBrand.

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CES 2018Grace Notes
Shure Announces Exciting New Cable Lineup for Wireless Earphones
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jan 09, 2018
With so many companies making big announcements, Shure is going low-key with an announcement about a new line of detachable cable options for their wireless earphones. It doesn’t seem like much to get excited about, but it actually is.

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Grace NotesAudio Video News
SiriusXM Blurs the Line Between Satellite and Streaming
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jul 15, 2019
As a long-time subscriber to SiriusXM, I tend to ignore emails and notices from them. I pay and renew every six months and forget about them in between payment dates. So I’m glad I spotted the latest email from them because they’ve announced a host of new features, stations, and exciting new ways to listen to SiriusXM outside of the car.

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Grace Notes
SiriusXM: Then and Now
Leslie Shapiro  |  Aug 08, 2016
Fourteen years is a very long time when talking about technology. So much has changed since then, yet some things remain oddly the same. Fourteen years ago, Ken Pohlmann and I wrote an article for Sound + Vision magazine comparing Sirius and XM. You would think that they have changed immensely since then, but some things haven’t. Back then, there were two companies. Was there a difference in sound quality? We definitely had a strong opinion then, but since the companies merged in 2008, could there still be a difference?

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Grace Notes
Sit Down and Shut Up!
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jul 24, 2017
Summer’s here and the time is right…for summer concerts, of course! There’s something magical about sitting under the stars serenaded by your favorite artist that only happens in the summer. But in actuality, there’s another side to the midsummer night’s dream of lovely music. What is it about outdoor concerts that brings out the worst in an audience? Who’s attending these concerts, and why are they making them so miserable for the rest of us? Nowhere else could the outrageous behavior seen under the summer sky be tolerated.

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