Ken C. Pohlmann

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You Can Pry My Headphone Jack From My Cold, Dead Hands
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 23, 2016
Why does everyone suddenly hate the headphone jack?

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The Highs and Lows of Olympic Audio
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 09, 2016
In case you haven't noticed, a beach volleyball tournament is going on, apparently in some large city with a beach. This tournament, which includes miscellaneous other non-beach volleyball events, is on TV. Also, in case you haven't noticed, the quality of the TV audio feed is, um, variable.

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End of the Line for the Roadside CD
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 26, 2016
Things you will find on the side of the road: shredded truck tires, plastic hubcaps, baseball caps, too-fast squirrels, too-slow turtles, Bud Light cans, men’s underwear. And, of course, scratched, shattered, and otherwise discarded CDs. It wasn’t always like that.
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Apple Doesn't Know Jack, Part 2
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 19, 2016
If the rumors hold true, the next iPhone, iPhone 7 or whatever Apple calls it, will not have a headphone jack. As Chicken Little noted, "The sky is falling!" Or is it? Is it possible, just possible, that losing the headphone jack could net us a nice step forward in audio playback quality?

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Apple Doesn't Know Jack, Part 1
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 12, 2016
It is summer. Soon it will be fall. That means Apple will introduce a new iPhone. Reportedly, the new phone will be thinner, more water resistant, have a better camera, have more memory, and not have a headphone jack. Wait. What?

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Devialet's Gold Phantom: The Finer Thing in Life
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 28, 2016
Your daily driver is a Bugatti. Your "casual" wristwatch is an Audemars Piguet. (Note: Rolexes are for tourists.) Your third home is in Jackson Hole. I hate to break the news to you, but you are a 1 percenter. Fortunately, now you can drown out the cries of the masses with a superb new loudspeaker from Devialet.

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An Apocalyptic Day for Physical Media
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 14, 2016
Do you hate the silvery sound of CDs? Then you can rejoice because a bunch of them just got crushed. Do you think LPs are just scratchy pieces of plastic? Then be happy because a load of them just got crushed too. In fact, a misunderstanding between two bands with automotive-inspired names recently resulted in an apocalyptic day for physical media.

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The Rise and Fall of Stereo (Part Two)
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 07, 2016
A couple blogs back, we discussed the ascent of glorious stereophonic sound in “The Rise and Fall of Stereo (Part One).” Stereo was a true revolution in audio playback, and it quickly condemned monaural to an eternity of lo-fi hell. Audio manufacturers’ marketing departments had an easy time convincing consumers to upgrade to stereo; everyone could easily hear the improvement. Now, 50 years later, stereo is unraveling.
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A Phone Only an Audiophile Could Love
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 24, 2016
I don't always carry my phone because having a high quality music library and player is more important to me than checking Facebook on a phone and I'm too lazy and uncoordinated to carry two things at once. Sure, there are phones with good music storage capacity and good music playback fidelity. But because I am an audio snob, those phones just aren't good enough. That might change.

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The Rise and Fall of Stereo (Part One)
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 17, 2016
In the beginning, Edison created the phonograph, and it was good. It was also monaural. The vertical modulation (referred to as hill-and-dale recording) of the groove neatly encoded the amplitude variations of the analog-input waveform and likewise could reproduce the waveform. If engineers had stuck with hill-and-dale, the world would be a very different place. But they kept tinkering, as engineers are wont to do, and they found an improvement.

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