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Review: Braven BRV-1

A Bluetooth speaker built to take a pounding ... or a drenching.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 22, 2013
- 1
Compact Bluetooth speakers are all small enough to toss into a suitcase—but they’re not all tough enough to survive the trip. But I knew the Braven BRV-1 was different when I first pulled it out of its package.
With rubber bumpers covering most of its surface, rubber control buttons, and a bolted-on perfed metal grille, it looked tough enough that I could toss it onto the wooden floor of my office. So I did. Not necessarily a smart thing to do with a review sample, but when I went to mate my Samsung G3S phone with the BRV-1, everything worked just fine. I repeated the demo for my fellow Tech^2 blogger Geoff Morrison and frequent West Coast headphone tester Will Huff, and the BRV-1’s still working, still not showing a scratch.

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Headphone Week Wrap-Up

Six new headphones. Six in-depth reviews. Read 'em all here.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 20, 2013
- 2
Last week was Headphone Week on soundandvisionmag.com. Six headphones, ranging from noise-cancellers to Bluetooth 'phones to hip-hop-ish cans to tweaked-out audiophile models. Every one of them done up S&V style, with full lab measurements and opinions from multiple listeners.
In case you missed any of them, here they are:

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Review: SOL Republic Master Tracks

With a sleek, minimalistic and customizable look, will the sound stand up to the style?
- By Leslie Shapiro
- Posted May 17, 2013
Two years ago, not a soul had heard of SOL Republic. Last summer, that all changed as everyone watching the Summer Olympics frantically googled to see what brand of headphones were seemingly permanently attached to swimmer Michael Phelps’ head whenever he was out of the water. Overnight, SOL Republic went from “what’s that?” to “must have.” Can their latest design keep up with the hype?

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Review: MrSpeakers Mad Dog Alpha

Can a tiny company “tune” a popular pro headphone for better sound?
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 15, 2013
“So this is a tuner headphone,” our frequent West Coast listening panelist Will Huff commented when I showed him the Mad Dog Alpha. “Like tuner cars?” he suggested when he saw my quizzical look. “Like in Fast and Furious?” he asked when I gave him a shrug. Ah, finally I got it.

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Review: Alpha Design Labs ADL H118

A closed-back audiophile portable? The cable-and-connector specialists at ADL take on the challenge.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted May 14, 2013
When Furutech launched their consumer-oriented Alpha Design Labs line in 2011 with the GT40 USB DAC/phono stage, it was clear that the company — which has long had a solid reputation among old-school audiophiles as a manufacturer of interconnects, power supply components, and connectors — was making a serious commitment t

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Review: Onkyo ES-HF300 Headphones

Japanese manufacturer Onkyo jumps headfirst into the headphone market
- By Leslie Shapiro
- Posted May 13, 2013
Onkyo is a well-respected, well-established name in the hi-fi industry. When they announced the release of the ES-HF300 headphone, it was surprising to realize that this is their first foray into headphones. While known more for their receivers and hardware, they have produced speakers in the past. It’s amazing they shied away from the market for this long. If first impressions mean anything, the ES-HF300 is, well, impressive.

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Review: Harman Kardon NC

We travel halfway around the world with HK’s retro-look, radically designed noise-canceller
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 12, 2013
I’m not much of a businessman. (If I were, would I be writing audio reviews for a living?) Still, after years of experience in marketing and advertising, I can’t help but admire a good business strategy. That’s partly why I like the Harman Kardon NC.

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Review: Klipsch Image One Bluetooth

Klipsch’s Image One on-ear goes wireless.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 9, 2013
It’s not so easy to convert a headphone to Bluetooth. You’ve got to find space for the amplifier, processing circuitry, radio transceiver, and battery—and all that stuff taking up space inside the earpieces can change the sound a lot. Plus you kinda have to have a cabled mode, because you can’t use Bluetooth on airplanes.

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Review: Skullcandy Navigator

A revised voicing dramatically improves this slick $99 on-ear.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted May 8, 2013
- 1
I’ve heard Skullcandy ’phones ranging from the well-balanced RocNation Aviator to the heavy-handed Hesh to the hard-driving

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Review: Stellé Audio Couture Pillar

Can a speaker marketed to women blur the line between home decor and home audio?
- By Leslie Shapiro
- Posted May 7, 2013
- 2
To cut through the clutter of Bluetooth-enabled wireless speakers on the market these days, one would need a stiletto. Or at least a pair of stiletto heels. The Stellé Audio Couture Pillar is making its way through the crowd with a difference. The Pillar (in fact, the entire Stellé Audio Couture product line) is being targeted and marketed to women, with a sense of style and fashion blended with good quality products.

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HTC One Video and Audio Measurements

A serious piece of hardware... mostly.
- By Brent Butterworth and Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted May 7, 2013
As I discussed in my review of the HTC One, the hardware is generally quite impressive. From the big 4.7-inch 1080p screen to the surprisingly good built-in speakers, it's every bit the high-end phone it claims to be.
We put it through our normal series of bench tests, just like it was a TV, amp, or set of speakers. Video measurements are below. Audio measurements are on page 2.
So how good is it, really?

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LED vs CFL Bulbs: Color Temp, light spectrum, and more

Putting some LED and CFL bulbs on the test bench to see what's better.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted May 7, 2013
This is one of the nerdier posts I’ve done, but since I’m unabashedly a nerd, and I hope many of you are too, I figured it would work.
You see, I love LEDs. I think they’re fascinating in how they work, what they can do, and so on. As you’d expect, I’m slowly replacing the CFL bulbs in my house with LEDs.
The thing is, not all LED bulbs are equal, and one of the biggest drawbacks is that not all offer the “warmth” in color temperature most of us love in incandescents. So I put a few different LEDs on my test bench, measuring them sort of how I measure TVs, to see how they do.
Curious? Well I was, hopefully you will be too.

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