SoundGuys Podcast

Bluetooth LE and the Low Complexity Communications Codec (LC3) are going to make huge improvements to the Bluetooth standard. This will include hearing aids, broadcast communications, audio sharing, multistream audio and more. We met up with Ken Kolderup at CES 2020 and got the low-down of what’s coming. It’s going to make people’s lives better, and significantly raise the bar of baseline audio coming from Bluetooth in general.

2020 arrives, and we’re excited to see what the new year has in store. But we also have a few wishes along the way. Are true wireless earbuds bad, and even harmful? Will Google’s Pixel Buds 2 be great? What about gaming headsets? Will they ever get their stories straight? We’re hopeful, and cautiously optimistic. And we’re breaking it all down and we have a few more surprises along the way in this episode of the SoundGuys podcast!

Lily Katz has this month’s Sound Bite and she has something to say about your precious headphone jack. She doesn’t need a headphone jack in her phone and she lays out her reasons for it. But how can a true “SoundGuy” (well SoundGirl) not care about the best audio possible? Well, she does. But she doesn’t necessarily get it from her phone. Home is where the headphone jack is, after all. Isn’t that how the saying goes?

There is a problem brewing in the world that has festered for too long. It’s time we all spoke out against this evil that hurts us every day. Of course, we’re talking about hand dryers in the bathroom. What else would we be talking about? It’s because hand dryers damage our hearing. It was proven by a 13-year old scientist with a decibel meter. Twenty-two out of 23 hand dryers tested produced more noise than health officials recommend. For those even shorter, like children, it’s even worse.

When you hop into a modern car and close the door, the outside world just fades away. Great insulation, right? That gets you part of the way, but sound technology similar to what you might already have in your headphones contributes to the serenity in surprising ways. How does a car get so quiet that you can kick back, relax, and enjoy your music? Adam Molina breaks it down for you in this month’s sound bite!

The headphone jack is controversial, but ditching it means more than just forcing customers to buy new headphones. It’s actually forcing customers to buy your new headphones. Chris Thomas takes a deep dive into why the headphone jack is disappearing on our phones, and it goes a lot deeper than you might think. We have all that and a few more surprises along the way in this episode of the SoundGuys podcast!

Lily Katz takes us on a journey filled with exhaustion and endorphins to examine if music can really improve your workout. How can a simple song motivate you to go harder, faster, and stronger and push through the pain? Will this podcast help you become a better you? You’ll find out! We have all that and a few more surprises along the way in this episode of the SoundGuys podcast!

Today, we take sound in video games from granted. But how did sound evolve from the pings of pong to the toe-curling growls of The Last of Us? What innovations now allow us to slash boxes to the beat in Beat Saber, and what music genres have grown out of the video game community? It’s a wild ride with the SoundGuys, and they’ve brought a friend for the ride. Juan Carlos Bagnell of SomeGadgetGuy.com joins us on our journey through the bleeps and bloops of video game sound.

Sometimes when you’re on a call, the person on the other end has no idea what you’re trying to say. Fortunately, we have some experience in that realm, and Adam breaks down the four most common reasons why your microphone might suck, and how to fix the problem. So check it out!

Sometimes your headphones come with an app to help get the most out of your cans. But what happens when your headphones want to know more about you than just what the next track is? Privacy is becoming a huge issue all around the internet, and our experience with privacy recently intersected with an episode from our sister podcast, the DGiT Daily. Privacy violations can happen where you least expect them.

Since digital music became popular, audio engineers have been pushing the idea that louder is better. Unfortunately, that just isn’t true. As music gets louder, fine details within the music become undetectable, and the experience is ruined.  This all came to a head in 2008 when the game Guitar Hero had to remix some tracks for the game. Most notably, was Metallica’s Death Magnetic and suddenly, the music sounded better. Since then, it seems the loudness was have come to an end. This is our sonic histo

We love sound here at the SoundGuys, and after a year of podcasting, we've come across a lot of great topics that are super interesting, but there isn't enough there for a full episode. So we're introducing a new kind of episode called Sound Bites. Sound Bites will be short, to the point, give you something really neat, and then let you go about your day. The first episode will debut on April 1st and every month after that on the 1st. Happy listening!

When most of us think of sound, we think about music that gets our foot tapping, or maybe a pleasant background noise like birds chirping or waves washing up against a shoreline. It’s soothing, and calming. But, like most everything else in life, it can also have a darker side. What if you wanted to use sound…to harm? Adam Doud fills in for Chris Thomas this month and joins fellow SoundGuys Lily Katz and Adam Molina to take a walk through the darker side of sound.  

This round table discussion of CES 2019 was recorded at the Blue Microphone podcasting suite at Treasure Island. Jonathan Feist of Dronerush.com led our discussion for our laryngitis-laden podcast hosts. We break down the hows and whys behind The SoundGuys Best of CES awards. It’s a great look inside the tech from one of the the largest consumer electronics shows in the world.

You always know when the holidays are approaching because of the music you hear. From stores to radio stations to shopping malls, you are awash in the spirit of the season. Holiday music has a real psychological effect on you - for better or for worse, and we wanted to explore that, and what you can do about it. Featuring special guest interviews with Dr. Eric Spangenberg and Dr. Linda Blair. We even get an appearance of the Grinch, courtesy of Small Town Titans.