INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
We now ask our smart speakers and headphones to play music for us, our wireless headphones are good enough to consign wired pairs to a
Accessing millions of high-quality songs at the touch of a button is no longer a pipe dream, either.Here, we take a look at the biggest
last ten years in audioBluetooth has hugely advanced headphones quality (Image credit: Sony)1
While the technology first gave rise to wireless headphones around fifteen years ago, it's only in the last decade that it has advanced
hardware and Bluetooth technology
Apple AirPods paved the way for mainstream true wireless earbuds
emerged to make way for the endemically popular AirPods-style true wireless earbuds which deliver (mostly) stable connections and increasing
toothbrush head comparisons, but since their release in 2016 (and subsequent 2019 update) the AirPods have been the talk of the headphone
As rivals look to snatch some of that market share with noise cancelation and sleek designs, the popularity of true wireless earbuds will
undoubtedly continue well into the 2020s.Voice assistants like the Amazon Echo Dot's Alexa (pictured) have increasingly freed up our hands
inarguable popularity of certain smart devices such as the Amazon Echo Dot and Apple HomePod, it would be almost impossible to ignore
In only five or so years, these leading virtual assistants have paved a hands-free way for how we control our devices, find information and,
Multi-room audioMusic in the bedroom, music in the kitchen, music in the garden, music in the hallway; music anywhere you can get a Wi-Fi
Multi-room marvel Sonos introduced and normalized the concept of simultaneous music playback in multiple rooms of a household.Seven years
after it rounded out its catalogue with the wireless speaker line-up we know today, the now exhaustive multi-room market is still
Sonos-centric despite venerable rivals from the likes of Bose, Audio Pro and Bluesound
paramount feature within many prevalent open-source platforms such as Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2.Streaming became a battlefield
storage and bandwidth over hard-drives andwell, nothing
In a partial attempt to overthrow the largest streaming service on the planet, rivals such as Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer are offering
not only much, much higher-quality, 24-bit sound quality, but also new listening experiences altogether, such as 3D audio.3D audio is
offering more than stereo
more immersive audio experiences; experiences processing wizardry hopes to deliver
And these have found homes on streaming services
audio technology to deliver a full 360-degree audio experience
Dolby Atmos Music has also emerged to promise more engrossing music streaming through services, too
has led to more personalized music listening
(Image credit: George Dolgikh / Shutterstock.com)7
indecisive, but because recommendation algorithms now serve up what you want to listen to for you
No more headphone jackWhen Apple axed the 3.5mm headphone jack on its 2017 iPhone 7, and the rest of the phone world began following suit,
we were given two options: walk around sheepishly with a dongle sticking out of our phones in order to use our favorite trusty pair of wired
(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)9
The vinyl renaissanceOnce left for dead as CD dawned, vinyl has resurged with a celebratory snap, crackle and pop
perhaps unlikely in this digital world, but its unwavering traction over the past half-decade just goes to show that while the convenience
and accessibility of streaming is king, ownership and tactility also remains important
The vinyl revival has also in turn re-popularized and advanced turntables, not to mention expanded the connectivity checklist of audio
systems to include a phono input
Would we have had Bluetooth turntables, or decks that can not only play, but also digitize vinyl records, selling on the high street without
this renaissance? Not likely.Bone conduction: from Beethoven to millennials
(Image credit: TheIndianSubcontinent)10
Bone conduction headphonesTrue wireless earbuds may be under the spotlight in the headphone world, but another concept is battling to be
heard: bone conduction headphones
Beethoven used the technology to hear his piano playing by attaching a rod to his piano and holding the other end in his teeth, and while
like the AfterShokz Trekz Air, allowing wearers to stay aware of their surroundings during a workout.WTUNMSuUuNDFwzMGgn8hhn.jpg?#
