Sound and Vision Magazine

With hundreds of new headphones coming out last year, S+V got so wrapped up in product reviews that we never got around to covering what I think is probably 2012's most important audio story: a recent research project that should augment the audio world’s spotty understanding of how headphones should be voiced.

If the weather, calendar, and bevy of “PLEASEGIVEMEANOSCAR” movies didn’t give it away, surely the title of this article does: 2012 is pretty much history.

In the pages of Sound+Vision (both the digital and analog variety), we’ve covered some interesting trends, products, news, and more.

So here are some highlights and lowlights, some contrast and brightness, some tweeters and some woofers, some increasingly lame metaphors, some... well, you get the point.

Unless you’ve been living down a hobbit hole, or care nothing about movies and technology (in which case, how did you get here?) you’ve heard about The Hobbit and it’s magical new “High Frame Rate”: 48fps. This doubling of the traditional movie framerate has gotten much hoopla, with director Peter Jackson claiming it’s the best way to see his new film.

So with an open mind, and a slightly emptier wallet, I saw The Hobbit in IMAX HFR 3D, and then a few days later, in “regular” 24fps RealD with Dolby Atmos. The difference was not subtle.

From mixing boards to Blu-ray players to soundbars to saxophones, Yamaha makes just about everything audio. Which is why it’s surprising that in the one field that practically every audio company has piled into—headphones—Yamaha hasn’t done much in the last few years. The Pro 500 represents a re-entry of sorts, a flashy blue bombshell designed to attract both audiophiles and fashion-oriented “listeners.”