Sound and Vision Magazine

When you think of car audio, do you think of AM/FM radios and CD players? Think again. Today’s best head units are as connected and function-heavy as your phone or tablet. The big difference is that the head units offer dynamite A/V quality. Case in point, Kenwood’s new DNN990HD head unit marries Android with DVD playback.

Just when you finally found the perfect home dock, Apple went and changed things up by eliminating the ubiquitous 30-pin connector with the new Lightning connector. JBL was right there to scoop into the market with the OnBeat Rumble boombox with a Lightning connection and Harman’s TrueStream Bluetooth capabilities. It charges the iPhone 5 or iPad Mini or other Apple Lightning devices when docked, and with an adapter, can handle the legacy devices.

The future of audio. That is a significant statement – the fact that audio actually has a future. There has been much handwringing by people (including me) wondering whether the awesomeness of screens big and small has forever eclipsed the coolness of audio. We feared that much like the tiny speakers in flat-screen TVs, audio would become something trivial. After walking the CES floor and taking to people, I can confidently state that rumors of audio’s demise are greatly exaggerated, and in fact they are not true.