OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker • Hacker News Board

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#171

Post by vel0city » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:19 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #136

vel0city wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HD Radio is a digital radio standard in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Many new cars are sold with HD Radio. Many new cars are sold without HD Radio. Go look at some new car listings, you'll find tons without HD Radio. Many will only say AM/FM. Sometimes they'll also mention Radio Data System (RDS), the thing that shows a snippet of text with song titles and station names. Some will mention HD Radio Ready, as in you can…

It was a rhetorical response to the statement "The US digital radio effort has been complicated and slow to ramp up" . The answer was "it exists and has been ramped up for a while". And I'm not even talking about SDARS.

It has existed for a while and has been ramping up more and more over the last decade. I'm probably one of a small handful of people I know who listen to/care about HD Radio in their cars or their home stereos. Even decently technical people I know are still often surprised to find out about digital subchannels available on the radios they already have, whenever they actually have an HD Radio.

Its been nearly two decades since HD Radio was chosen as the standard in the US, and yet in 2018 still nearly half of the new cars sold had only regular analog radios. Nearly 20 years and HD Radio was only on less than a fifth of all cars on the road. http://www.insideradio.com/more-than-half-of-new-cars-now-eq...

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#172

Post by AMD_DRIVERS » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

jascii wrote: post #121

I would be in the market for a powered/bluetooth speaker that doesn't sound like shit. For the price I'd expect (near) audiophile sound, however little in the marketing even seems to mention sound quality, it just seems very gimmicky. Does anyone have any recommendations for a semi portable powered/bluetooth speaker that focuses on accurate sound reproduction (within the limits physics puts on a smaller enclosure)?

Maybe something from Bang & Olufsen's Beoplay line, possibly a Beolit 17?

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#173

Post by AMD_DRIVERS » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:26 PM UTC

jensgk wrote: post #131

jascii wrote: post #121

I would be in the market for a powered/bluetooth speaker that doesn't sound like shit. For the price I'd expect (near) audiophile sound, however little in the marketing even seems to mention sound quality, it just seems very gimmicky. Does anyone have any recommendations for a semi portable powered/bluetooth speaker that focuses on accurate sound reproduction (within the limits physics puts on a smaller enclosure)?

This comes to mind: https://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/speakers/filter/bluetooth I have the A1 (1.gen.), which have mostly received good reviews.

+1 on the A1. I also own a 1st Gen, and the sound that it produces still surprises me.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#174

Post by znpy » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

portable speakers are one of the worst things invented in this century.

I almost cannot take a walk or take a subway train without some youngsters blasting crappy music very loud at everyone.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#175

Post by zemo » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #153

zemo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people upvote it because they think it's cool. That's how the system works.

That's how the system should work. But it isn't always the case real people are upvoting.

there's literally no evidence that such a thing is happening.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#176

Post by d0mdo0ss » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:50 PM UTC

jakear wrote: post #130

jascii wrote: post #121

I would be in the market for a powered/bluetooth speaker that doesn't sound like shit. For the price I'd expect (near) audiophile sound, however little in the marketing even seems to mention sound quality, it just seems very gimmicky. Does anyone have any recommendations for a semi portable powered/bluetooth speaker that focuses on accurate sound reproduction (within the limits physics puts on a smaller enclosure)?

I've had good experience with the JBL lineup... I'm on the largest (boombox), and I find the quality acceptable (I don't find the quality of most audio products acceptable). The convenience OTOH is phenomenal -- it comes with me biking, kayaking, (it's submergible) and camping to charge devices and play music, and the charge can last >week. I can only remember it dying on me 2 times in the months I've owned it, and I…

I own an JBL charge 2. These are probably aimed for people who prefer high bass over a balanced sound (balanced they are not). Worst- the bluetooth connection is unstable even in direct sight, within 5-20 cm, with android/mac/raspberry. I realize everyone has different tastes but I would not recommend JBL.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#177

Post by rtkwe » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

speedgoose wrote: post #68

rtkwe wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First guess is the FM is more of a toy experimental feature combined with DAB probably requiring license fees. Also there's no DAB in the US or regular service outside of Europe.

Teenage Engineering is Swedish.

I know, but Europe is the only place that uses DAB basically and not universally so if they sell out side of there which they do having DAB is just a cost and no benefit unless they build different SKUs.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#178

Post by powersnail » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

comboy wrote: post #10

mrspeaker wrote: post #7

I love everything Teenage Engineering make. My first impression is always "eh, that's too weird, who would want that... who is their target market?", and over time end up at "OK, I WANT ONE!". I own way too many of their Pocket Operators now. Though, I REALLY think I'm not their target market here: "designed to be played outdoors, in public spaces and at high volume"... that's exactly situations I now try to avoid. H…

I understand say OP-1. But how much time on average have you spent on each of those pocket operators? And are you able to use it productively after leaving it alone for some time without checking manual?

A friend of mine has a bunch of them and his opinion is that if you are well-versed with drum machines, synthesizers, etc., pocket operators are fairly intuitive to use.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#179

Post by twic » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

teruakohatu wrote: post #151

gglitch wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest answer: I carry portable FM radios around with me all the time and enjoy my local stations immensely and wish I could rewind to hear a title or composer's name, or some melody or similar, almost daily. I realize I could build something like this myself if I put enough time into it, but I'm pretty sure the pricetag would be excusable for me. Honest question: Do you have any suggestions for how I can duplicate a…

Plug a cheap fm radio into a rpi and record and stream it to the Internet and then play it on your phone. Maybe a weekends work?

You're not wrong, but this has big "DropBox? just use rsync" energy.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#180

Post by timc3 » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

H1Supreme wrote: post #51

ArekDymalski wrote: post #44

If it wasn't for the price I would buy it just for this "ambient. zone out to a drone generated by snippets of a radio broadcast" feature as it sounds precisely like my fav type of music.

> snippets of a radio broadcast Although his work is more house music, and less ambient, there's a producer named Akufen who has done some really interesting music with this exact sound palette.

Yes, he has done some amazing tracks