sound

Get a refurbished Vizio sound bar for $59.99 shipped

HDTVs have notoriously bad speakers. That's understandable, if only because there's just not a lot of room for cones and whatnot inside those skinny LCD and plasma panels. It's also disappointing: here you spend all this money for a beautiful screen, and your ears pay the price.

The best way to improve the audio situation is to invest in a surround-sound system or a good set of stereo speakers plus receiver -- but that gets expensive.

A more affordable option: a sound bar, which is a speaker/receiver combo that sits above or below the screen and … Read more

Test your sound card and audio devices with RightMark Audio Analyzer

RightMark AudioAnalyzer is a free audio testing tool that takes the place of a bench-top full of equipment, including spectrum analyzers, tone generators, and test records. It can test the analog and digital signal paths of most any audio device, especially sound cards but also CD and DVD players, MP3 players, and recording devices. Using your sound card as a reference, it can evaluate other sound cards as well as audio devices connected to your sound card's inputs and outputs. It can even self-test audio cards that can handle separate inputs and outputs simultaneously. Several of its modes require … Read more

When will we have perfect speakers?

Dome tweeters, cone woofers, metal ribbons, planar magnetic and electrostatic panels all do the same thing: They vibrate air to make sound. Those technologies have all been around for decades, but the goal of making a perfect-sounding speaker has yet to materialize, so it's pretty easy to tell the difference between a real piano and the sound of a piano reproduced over speakers. Same for drums, acoustic guitars, basses, violins, flutes, horns and voices.

Electric instruments and synthesizers should be easier to reproduce in part because they don't make sound on their own; we always hear them over amplifiers and speakers. Even so, it's next to impossible to make your home hi-fi sound like a big Fender guitar amp. … Read more

Creative unveils 'new genre' of audio device: Sound BlasterAxx

Not surprisingly here at CNET we get a ton of press releases e-mailed to us announcing new products. Most are fairly bland, but Creative's media pitch for its upcoming Sound BlasterAxx line of speakers is one of the more amped-up ones I've received lately, reading like an ad for a new energy drink. In fact, I think the PR person who wrote it had three Red Bulls before he or she started typing.

Here's a little taste. Careful, it's rich:

Creative Technology Ltd today announced the Sound BlasterAxx, a whole new generation of Sound Blaster and … Read more

Get more from your sound bar by using your TV as a switcher

Many sound bars offer a shockingly small number of inputs, with often just a single digital and analog audio input on the back to handle your gear. That's hardly enough for a modern home theater packed with a DVR, game console, Blu-ray player, and streaming-media box.

Luckily, you can get around your sound bar's limited selection of inputs by using your TV as a switcher. You'll be able to connect as many devices as your TV supports, and it will even simplify the input selection process.

Here's how to do it:… Read more

Read this before you buy a sound bar

Sound bars are an excellent compromise between shelling out for an expensive surround-sound system and settling for the tinny sound from your TV's built-in speakers, but that doesn't mean they're perfect. In fact, sound bars have quite a few real-world problems and limitations that are often glossed over, only to rear their heads after you've got one set up at home.

Here's what you should know before you make the jump to buying a sound bar.… Read more

CNET's Best of CTIA 2012

NEW ORLEANS--After three furious days, CTIA 2012 has come to a close. Though a visit to the Crescent City always is enjoyable, this year's event was a little quieter than in past years. But that doesn't mean we didn't see some very cool stuff. Here's what the CNET team picked as the Best of CTIA 2012.

Best phone: Samsung Galaxy S III Samsung may have unveiled its Samsung Galaxy S III flagship phone days before CTIA 2012 kicked off, but CTIA was our first chance to handle it. And at the end of the day, the … Read more

The tempting Bluetooth gadgets of CTIA

Mobile phones weren't the only exciting tech that dazzled me at CTIA this week. Bluetooth gizmos put on a show as well. Here are a few of the devices that piqued my interest whether for having a neat skill, good looks, or for being very well priced. … Read more

Yahoo's 'resumegate' heats up

In today's show, Google takes the wheel, Microsoft listens to your movements, and 'resumegate' fires up:

Yahoo's "resumegate" has claimed it's first victim -- but it's not the CEO. Yahoo board member Patti Hart said she plans to not seek re-election to Yahoo's board. She's tied up in the drama because she was in charge of the search to hire the chief executive and vet his resume. The scandal, which has been developing for nearly a week now, surrounds Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson and his bios that claimed he had a computer … Read more