Use & Enjoy Your A/V Gear : sound quality

The paradox of flat-panel TVs: High-def picture, lo-def sound

Amanda — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:37:00 GMT

I've come to expect a lot from my electronics. They have to be smarter, thinner, more powerful. They should provide a fun gaming experience AND help me find a good recipe for dinner. And maybe they should shine my shoes while they're at it. Most of the...(read more)

Better car audio, Tip #4: Add a signal processor or an equalizer

Jim R — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:48:00 GMT

A car interior presents some serious problems when it comes to sound quality. Glass and plastic surfaces reflect sound like crazy, while carpet, seat covers, and other absorbent materials soak it up. Add poorly-placed speakers to the mix, and you'll find...(read more)

Better car audio, Tip #3: Add an amplifier

Jim R — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:30:00 GMT

You may be saying, "My factory stereo puts out 200 watts, and that's plenty of power." But there's a huge difference between 50 watts peak power per channel produced by your car stereo and 50 watts RMS from an outboard amplifier. A separate amplifier...(read more)

Better car audio, Tip #1: New speakers

Jim R — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:08:00 GMT

How much time do you spend in your car? If your daily commute consumes 100 hours a year, as is the case for many people , then you can easily justify a modest investment to improve the sound of your car stereo. Navigation , video screens and Bluetooth...(read more)

Can you hear the differences between car amplifiers?

Buck P — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Amplifiers all sound alike, right? No they don't. Many amps just make your music loud enough to overcome road noise. Other amplifiers handle music more carefully to promote higher fidelity. Small technological differences between brands often make for...(read more)

Tech Terms Demystified: Relating Gain to Level and Volume

Gabrielle — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:29:00 GMT

Gain, Level, Volume...aren't they the same thing? Everybody knows a volume control makes your music louder (or quieter), so why do there seem to be so many different ways to describe it? If you're used to dubbing, or if making mixtape cassettes was your...(read more)

If your car stereo sounds bad, look at the speakers first

Buck P — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:17:00 GMT

My brother-in-law knew that his car stereo sounded bad. He didn’t know why. He spends a lot of time, every day for his job, driving around town listening to classic rock radio. He came to me for help. “I’m willing to spend five hundred dollars to make...(read more)

Are you sitting on a wealth of untapped power?

DaveB — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:02:00 GMT

In my last post , I discussed the concept of bi-wiring. Although bi-wiring doesn’t increase the amount of power going to a pair of speakers many folks I’ve spoken with felt there’s a noticeable improvement in sound quality. That brings us to the subject...(read more)

iTunes Tune-up 12: Upgrading older files

Ralph — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:58:00 GMT

In my last iTunes Tune-up post I talked about changing the import default to burn CD tracks at a much higher bitrate for better sound quality. Since that time, music I've added has sounded great. But what about all those songs I had already saved at 128kbps...(read more)

Selecting headphones? Consider the source.

Ralph — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:01:00 GMT

I recently had an opportunity to do some side-by-side comparisons of Shure's line of in-ear earbud headphones . But this post isn't about the headphones -- it's about the importance of sound file quality. We were doing the tests with an MP3 player, and...(read more)

Upgrading car speakers pays off again -- big time

KenSpike — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:19:00 GMT

A few years back, I upgraded my truck’s 2-way front speakers to a set of component speakers, powered by an amp (40 watts RMS per channel). The improvement in sound quality was quite noticeable. The sound field moved up, there was much better imaging of...(read more)

iTunes Tune-up 11: Upgrading Sound Quality

Ralph — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:18:00 GMT

I recently moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive. While it meant I could greatly expand the number of songs I could have in my library, the primary reason for the move was so I could upgrade the sound quality of the music I stored. iTunes...(read more)

iTunes Tune-Up 9: Moving your library up and out

Ralph — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:15:00 GMT

It didn't take long for the size of my iTunes library to start taking over my computer's hard drive -- especially once I started saving songs at a higher bitrate for better audio quality. Fortunately, it was pretty simple for me to move my cramped collection...(read more)

Improved sound quality on XM

KenSpike — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:05:00 GMT

One of the bright promises of satellite radio when it first appeared was the potential for delivering outstanding sound quality. I'm a long-time XM subscriber, and initially it seemed as though this was a promise that was being kept. When XM first arrived...(read more)