If you’re finding that background noise is disrupting voice or video calls made from your computer, then a new piece of software from Nvidia might help (provided you have the necessary hardware to run it). Released in April 2020, RTX Voice uses the hardware found in Nvidia’s RTX (and more recently, GTX) GPUs to process your incoming and outgoing audio and eliminate almost all background noise.
Below, you’ll find a quick demonstration I recorded to show how it works. This was recorded from a Blue Snowball microphone using the built-in call recording functionality in Zoom. When I don’t have the software enabled, you can hear the loud clacking of my mechanical keyboard in the background of the call. But when I turn on RTX Voice, the sound completely disappears.
As well as processing your microphone’s input so that the people you’re speaking to can’t hear any background noise around you, you can also set the software to eliminate background noise coming in from other people. So you can save yourself from your colleagues’ loud keyboard as well as protecting them from your own. It’s a win-win.
How to use RTX Voice to reduce background noise
RTX Voice is pretty simple to use, but the big caveat is that you need the right hardware. In order to run it, you’ll need an Nvidia GeForce or Quadro RTX or GTX graphics card since the software uses this hardware to process your audio. That means you’re out of luck if you’ve got a Mac, or a Windows machine without a dedicated GPU.
As well as hardware requirements, the other thing to note about RTX Voice is that since the processing is being done by your graphics card, it might take system resources away from any games or other graphically intensive applications you’re running. I ran some quick and dirty benchmarks to try to gauge the performance impact and found that running RTX Voice on my Discord microphone input reduced UniEngine’s Heaven Benchmark by just over 3fps or around 6 percent, rising to over 8fps or 14 percent if I used the software to process incoming audio as well. That more or less tracks with YouTuber EposVox’s report of a 4 to 10 percent reduction when using it on his microphone, rising to 20 percent with both mic and speakers.
I think that makes RTX Voice a much better option for calls where you’re unlikely to be running something graphically intensive at the same time, like a work conference call, rather than while you’re running a game simultaneously. If you’re looking for something more gaming-specific, Discord recently launched its own noise suppression feature, which might be a better alternative.
RTX Voice can be set it up in just a couple of minutes.
First, update the driver software of your graphics card if it’s not already running on version 410.18 or above
Download RTX Voice from Nvidia’s website and install it
Once the software is installed, you can configure it to improve your incoming audio, outgoing audio, or both. Nvidia recommends only turning it on for your input device (read: microphone) to minimize the impact the audio processing will have on the performance of your system. You can also select how much noise suppression you want. I left it at 100 percent, but you might want to play around to find what works best for you.
You can set RTX Voice to work on your microphone input and / or your speaker’s output.Screenshot by Jon Porter / The Verge
Once installed, “Nvidia RTX Voice” will appear as an audio input and / or output device for your PC. That means you can go into your voice chat app of choice and select it as though you’d plugged an extra microphone or set of speakers into your PC. Check out Nvidia’s site for specific instructions on how to configure the software for individual applications; here’s what the setting looks like in Zoom.
Once enabled, most chat apps will let you manually select RTX Voice as though it’s an input or output device.Screenshot by Jon Porter / The Verge
Nvidia’s software isn’t unique. In addition to Discord’s feature, Microsoft also plans to add a similar piece of functionality to Teams later this year. The advantage of RTX Voice, however, is that it works across a much broader range of apps. Nvidia’s site lists 12 apps that it’s validated. However, I tested out audio recording app Audacity, which Nvidia doesn’t list as being supported, and found that RTX Voice worked just fine, so there are likely to be other unlisted apps that also work.
Not everyone will have the hardware to take advantage of this latest feature, and for others, the performance hit won’t be worth it. However if, like me, your gaming PC is mainly being used as a work computer these days, then using RTX Voice is a no-brainer.
Correction: This article originally stated that RTX Voice won’t work on a Windows machine with a dedicated GPU when it should have read that it won’t work on a Windows machine without a dedicated GPU. We regret the error.
Update 10:31AM, April 6th: Nvidia has extended RTX Voice support for earlier GTX, Quadro, and Titan-branded graphics card, so we’ve updated this post with relevant info.
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(Pocket-lint) – Sonos Roam is the second portable Bluetooth speaker in the company’s portfolio, but really it’s the first when talking portability – because the Sonos Move isn’t all that portable by comparison.
A Bluetooth speaker by day, Sonos speaker by night, or vice versa, the Sonos Roam is very portable, very smart and has some excellent features on board. It’s more expensive than your average Bluetooth speaker, but then it isn’t your average Bluetooth speaker.
So should you buy the Sonos Roam? Yes. Why? Let us explain.
Design
Dimensions: 168 x 62 x 60mm / Weight: 430g
Finish options: Shadow Black, Lunar White
IP67 water- and dust- resistant
Triangular prism design
The Sonos Roam is a triangular prism shape, which is surprisingly great for carrying around. Its curved edges are smooth and comfortable to hold, while the soft-touch finish, super-light weight and rubbered ends make it feel durable and more than capable of withstanding a knock and tumble.
It can also handle a dunk. Falling into the Ultimate Ears Boom 3 and Megaboom 3 category – both of which are waterproof – the Roam is IP67 rated for dust and water. That means you can submerge Roam in up to 3ft of water for 30 minutes. Like Sonos Move, sand and dust are no match for Roam either, and though we didn’t dare try – Roam should also be able to withstand drops too.
The Roam is pretty much the same size as a 500ml water bottle – and significantly more portable and lighter than Move. It’s also smaller than competitors like the UE Boom 3.
As Sonos users would expect, Roam follows similar design traits to the rest of the Sonos portfolio. That means controls up top, very small holes making up the plastic speaker grille for a clean look, and black or white colour options. We had the Lunar White model in for review and while we’d love to see some special edition colours at some point – like Sonos offered with its limited edition Sonos One Hay collection – the off-white option is still lovely looking.
It’s worth mentioning that the Roam does deter slightly from Sonos’ more recent speakers in that it offers raised tactile controls rather than capacitive ones. There’s a play/pause button, volume increase and decrease buttons, and a microphone on/off button as usual – but the symbols are embossed on the rubber finish. It’s also worth noting that this finish – while really lovely to the touch – does seem to dent, so press the buttons with fingers not nails.
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The Sonos Roam can be positioned horizontally or vertically – just like the Sonos Five. There’s one power/Bluetooth button on one edge next to the USB-C port and there are also four small circular, rubber feet to help the Roam sit properly when positioned horizontally.
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: What’s the difference?
Features
Google Assistant/Amazon Alexa
Automatic Trueplay
Sound Swap
The Sonos Roam will function as any other Bluetooth speaker when in Bluetooth mode – with a few extras. When connected via Wi-Fi though – which it will switch to automatically – it has all the features that come with other speakers in the Sonos system, which is the main thing that sets it apart from other Bluetooth-only speakers.
Sonos system features include support for over 100 music services, easy grouping, stereo pairing and control through voice assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, among plenty of other features like equaliser (EQ) adjustment. Like the Sonos Move, however, the Roam cannot be used as surrounds with the Sonos Arc or Sonos Beam, and it can’t be bonded with the Sonos Sub either.
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The Roam does have an additional feature over other Sonos speakers: Sound Swap. This allows users to bring a Sonos speaker into an existing group by pressing-and-holding the play/pause button on top of the speaker you want to add to the group.
Bring it into a group with other Sonos speakers already playing, or by continuing to hold the button (for around five seconds in total) it will transfer the music on the Roam to your nearest Sonos speaker. This is done using an ultrasonic frequency, with the strongest signal determining the closest speaker. You can read more about Sound Swap in our separate feature.
It’s an excellent addition – one that’s really useful when you’re bringing Roam in from the garden and want to continue what you’re listening to in your living room, for example.
Other features on Sonos Roam include both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support – although you’ll have to choose between them rather than use both at the same time, which is the case for other smart Sonos speakers. We use Google Assistant in our home and Roam delivered as we’d expect, turning our lights off when requested and answering questions and responding efficiently.
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An LED light on top of the Roam above the microphone icon lets you know when Roam is listening. There’s another LED above the Sonos logo to indicate power, as well as Bluetooth pairing mode. At the bottom of the speaker – when it’s vertically positioned – an orange LED light appears when the battery is low.
Roam also offers Auto Trueplay tuning – just like the Move – to automatically tune its sound to its surroundings. It uses spatial awareness to adjust the sound for the speaker’s orientation, location, and content. Auto Trueplay tuning has been improved to work over both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You can read more about Auto Trueplay in our separate feature.
Hardware and specs
Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi (802.11ac), AirPlay 2
10-hour battery claimed
The Sonos Roam can automatically switch between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections – there’s a button to switch between the two modes so the Roam delivers a seamless experience when moving in and out of your home. There’s also AirPlay 2 support.
There’s a rechargeable battery under the Roam’s hood, which is recharged using the USB Type-C port, or via a Qi compatible wireless charging dock. Sonos has its own official wireless charging dock available to purchase separately, which the Roam will magnetically snap onto. Otherwise, a USB-C cable is included in the box – but not the power adapter itself.
Best Alexa speakers 2021: Top Amazon Echo alternatives
By Britta O’Boyle
·
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The battery is said to last 10 hours – one hour less than the Move – or 10 days when in sleep mode. This is a slight over estimation in our experience though. We got around eight-and-a-half hours from the battery when the volume was set to 50 per cent, though this is still pretty good going considering the Roam’s size.
When the music stops playing the Roam goes into sleep mode automatically – but it only takes around a second to wake it back up using the multi-functional power button positioned on the back of the device. We have a separate feature on how to put Roam into Bluetooth pairing mode.
Sound quality and performance
Two class-H amplifiers
Custom racetrack mid-woofer
Single tweeter
Under the hood of the Sonos Roam are two amplifiers tuned to the speaker’s acoustic architecture, along with a single tweeter for the high-end, a mid-woofer for everything else, along with a high-efficiency motor to increase power and range.
There’s also a far-field microphone array that uses beamforming and multi-channel echo cancellation in order to best hear your voice-based commands.
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What all this means is the Sonos Roam sounds incredible for its size. As is typically the case with Sonos speakers, it’s on the bassy side, but we love that about it and if you don’t then you can always adjust the EQ in the Sonos app to suit your preference.
Roam has some serious punch for how small it is too – more than filling a decent sized room or smaller garden with sound, even at 50 per cent volume. Of course it doesn’t match the Sonos Move for output clout, but if you’re choosing between the Sonos One and Sonos Roam, the latter gives the former a good run for its money in terms of sound, while also offering smarter features.
We listened to a range of tracks in testing, from The Eagle’s Hotel California and Massive Attack’s Teardrop, to Pink Floyd’s Time and Laura Marling’s Soothing – just some examples – and we were continually impressed with the Roam’s capabilities during testing.
Vocals and acoustics sound great; the speaker delivers rich bass, while also handling treble well. As far as small Bluetooth speakers go the Roam more than delivers on the sound quality front.
Verdict
The Sonos Roam is a little pricey when compared to other Bluetooth speakers, but in the same breath it does a lot more than most Bluetooth speakers.
Its portable and lightweight design is met with excellent sound performance, plus all the features that come with the Sonos system, a choice of smart assistants, along with extra – and great – features like Sound Swap to seamlessly switch between other Sonos speakers and groups.
For those already invested in Sonos, the Roam is a no-brainer as an addition. It allows you to bring your Sonos system with you wherever you go, without you having to think.
For those considering a Bluetooth speaker and wondering if the Roam is worth the investment over others – it delivers everything a Bluetooth speaker should, plus so much more.
Also consider
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Ultimate Ears Boom 3
SQUIRREL_WIDGET_148748
This cylindrical speaker is IP67-rated for water- and dust-resistance just like the Roam, plus it delivers great sound for its size – and through 360 degrees. It’s cheaper than Roam, but it doesn’t offer as many connected features.
Read our review
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JBL Xtreme 2
SQUIRREL_WIDGET_145677
If you want loud and crisp sound, plus impressive bass, the JBL could be for you. Again, however, it doesn’t have as many features as the Roam, but it’s a great party speaker that comes with a practical carry handle too.
Read our review
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Sonos Move
SQUIRREL_WIDGET_167282
The larger Sonos has many of the same features as the Roam but delivers much bigger sound in a not-as-portable design.
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The Sonos Roam is the most focused, calculated product from Sonos yet. It’s a small $169 speaker that’s meant to compete with portable Bluetooth speakers that people so often carry everywhere without a second thought. But it’s also designed to slot into Sonos’ multiroom audio platform and showcase the versatility that comes with it. In fact, excluding the co-branded speakers that Sonos makes with Ikea, the Roam is now the cheapest way into the company’s ecosystem.
The Roam supports hands-free voice commands, has Apple AirPlay 2, includes wireless charging, and features a rugged design that lets you use it practically anywhere. There’s a lot riding on this speaker; Sonos only releases a couple new products per year, so they all have to deliver. So let’s examine how the Roam stacks up against similarly sized speakers and whether it should replace whatever you’ve got now.
At 6.61 inches tall, the Roam actually stands shorter than popular Bluetooth speakers like the UE Boom 3 and JBL Flip 5. And at under a pound, it’s lightweight enough to toss into your backpack or tote. The Boom is bigger all around: you could pretty much fit the Roam right inside it. UE’s Megaboom 3 and the new JBL Charge 5 both increase the size advantage further, and they’re still close to the Roam in price. Going up from there, you get to the real giants like the UE Megablast. For this review, I’ll keep it simple and focus on speakers that resemble the Roam in size.
The Roam retains what’s become the standard Sonos aesthetic, with hundreds of precision-drilled holes in the speaker enclosure. But this is not a cylinder-style speaker that shoots audio in all directions. The Roam has a curved triangle shape that naturally projects sound both forward and up when it’s laid horizontally. It comes in either black or white, and I’ve noticed that when the black one is in bright lighting, you can actually see a hexagon pattern behind the holes. That plate is there for structural reasons, but it’s not really visible on the white speaker.
Battery life tops out at 10 hours.
This is the first Sonos speaker to earn an IP67 dust and water resistance rating. By certification standards, that means it should survive up to 30 minutes in three feet of water. In practical terms, it means you can use the Roam in the bathroom while you shower and near pools without fretting about damage. It’s probably a good idea to keep it on a floaty if you insist on bringing it into a deep pool, though. This speaker doesn’t float. Yes, I checked.
The Roam has the best water resistance of any Sonos speaker.
I’ve also managed to drop my two review units a few times, and they’ve come away with only light blemishes and a couple nicks you really have to hunt for to notice. I chalk that up to clumsiness; there’s no built-in handle like the Move, but in general the curved triangle shape is easy to grip. Both sides of the Roam have silicone end caps to help with ruggedness. From what I’ve seen, it should be able to withstand a tumble off a bicycle and the wear and tear that comes with being a truly portable speaker.
It’s rated IP67 and has silicone at both ends to withstand bumps.
On the top (when vertical) or left (horizontal) is where you find the controls, which are actual clicky buttons beneath the silicone instead of the usual capacitive sensors that Sonos tends to use. Going with real, tactile buttons for this product was absolutely the right decision. They’re easy to feel for and hard to press accidentally. There are four buttons: play / pause, two for track controls, and a microphone button for enabling or muting the built-in microphones that are used for voice assistant commands with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
On the back of the Roam is a USB-C port and power button. Aside from wired charging, you can also juice up the speaker using any Qi-compatible pad that it’ll fit on. My Anker dual-charging station handled the task well. Sonos also sells a wireless charger that attaches to the Roam magnetically, but I didn’t get a chance to test that. The included USB-C-to-USB-A cable is nicely angled on the Roam’s side so that it doesn’t get in the way no matter how it’s oriented. Neither the cable nor the Sonos wireless charger are water resistant, so you’ve got to keep those dry. If you’re in a hurry, definitely go wired; Sonos says it takes “about two hours” for the Roam to go from 0 to 50 percent when charging wirelessly compared to “about an hour” when plugged in. Higher-power chargers can cut down on both of those times.
You can use either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant with the built-in mics.
Now onto the main agenda: sound quality. Sonos has built a favorable reputation with its past speakers, but the question is whether the company can make good on its name with a speaker this small and portable. What I’ll say is that the Roam is one of the clearest, most pleasant portable speakers I’ve used. Others like the UE Boom 3 can come off muddy and lack depth. There’s little about their sound and articulation that stands out.
The Roam seems to make a priority of ensuring that the texture and vibrancy of music comes through with maximum clarity. Vocals sound crisp, and strings in classical music come through lush without getting pitchy. Like other Sonos speakers, the Roam features automatic room optimization called Trueplay, and Sonos says it’s constantly adjusting to optimize sound for whatever environment it’s in. This does actually make a difference in an echoey bathroom, but it’s not some magic cure-all for an acoustically challenged room. (Auto Trueplay works with music both streamed over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.)
Let’s face it: while Sonos claims that the Roam “defies expectations,” it can’t defy physics. This is a relatively small speaker, and perhaps the best-sounding one in its size class, but it has weaknesses. At the top of that list is bass, which can’t quite match that of the Sonos One and is roundly defeated by the much larger, heavier Move. Even the barely larger JBL Flip 5 has more assertive bass that gets noticeably boomier than the Roam. It can go louder, too. Larger Bluetooth speakers like the UE Megaboom and JBL Charge 5 will almost certainly trounce the Roam at bass response, but I don’t consider that surprising.
Sonos’ speaker has some low-end resonance — you’ll feel the vibrations if it’s on a table — but it’s clear that the company has opted for balance over boom factor. The Roam can also only do so much when you’re using it in a wide open space outdoors with no walls for the sound to bounce off of. It’ll crank loud without much distortion but can’t reach the same fullness as the Move. It’s when you really turn up the volume that you’ll be left wanting some added oomph. A party speaker this is not.
Two Roams paired together can produce an excellent stereo soundstage — but only on Wi-Fi.
Using two Roams at the same time as a stereo pair brings out even more detail, and the bass also benefits from two of them playing together. There’s no beating proper stereo separation, and two Roams do a better job blanketing a bedroom or living room in music than one alone. Unfortunately, the process of creating a stereo pair can get tedious. You have to manually do it from the Sonos app every time. This makes sense since you have to select which speaker is on what side. But I’d love it if there were a button shortcut to more quickly form a stereo pair — or at least a prompt when you power on a second Roam that asks if you want to pair them instead of leaving both to their lonesome by default.
To the frustration of some Sonos customers, the Roam doesn’t allow you to use the stereo pair feature when listening over Bluetooth. This is also the case with the Move, but considering how much Sonos is hyping the portability of its new speaker, it feels like a fumble on the company’s part. Maybe this poses engineering challenges, but other Bluetooth speakers like the UE Wonderboom 2 can already link together as a stereo pair without needing an app to get there. Bluetooth stereo might be a compelling reason for some people to own two Roams, but right now the feature isn’t there.
The $169 Sonos Roam beside the much bigger, heavier $399 Sonos Move.
Sonos has at least introduced some new tricks with the Roam when using it around the house. The first is called sound swap, which lets you quickly pass off audio from the Roam to whichever of your other Sonos speakers is closest. You just hold the play button for a few seconds, and the currently playing music hops over. Repeat the process, and audio moves back to the Roam. This has worked well in my experience so far, and Sonos goes about locating the nearest speaker in a clever way. When you activate sound swap, all of your speakers briefly emit a high-frequency tone that your ears can’t hear — but the Roam can. When you venture outside, the Roam does a solid job automatically pairing to your phone once you’re outside Wi-Fi coverage.
The other new feature that debuts with the Roam is the option to play Bluetooth audio over your entire Sonos system. In the Sonos app, you can add your other speakers as a group with the Roam that’s playing the Bluetooth audio source. My turntable doesn’t do Bluetooth, but if yours does, this will be an easy way to play your records in multiple rooms — at the cost of fidelity, of course. There are other ways of integrating vinyl into a Sonos system if you care more about audio quality. I did test this feature using content from a friend’s phone over Bluetooth, and it played just fine across my other Sonos speakers. The Move can’t be updated with this feature because the Roam has a new antenna that can connect to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi simultaneously. The Move only supports one or the other at a time.
But even with these new capabilities, there are still those occasional times where a Sonos system falls out of step. Maybe music playback inexplicably starts seizing up, or maybe the volume controls in the app you’re casting from — like Spotify — stop working. Even after shifting to its new S2 platform, Sonos hasn’t completely ironed out the blips when its mobile app goes on the fritz or seems to momentarily lose control over everything. The bugs are rare, but they happen.
A useful, delicious size reference.
What’s worse in the case of the Roam is how poorly Sonos handles moving between Wi-Fi networks. Everything works just great at home, but if you want to use the Wi-Fi features of Roam at someone else’s place or when traveling, it’s a real headache. The process of adding another “trusted network” in the Sonos app didn’t always work in my experience. I hope this is something Sonos will focus on more now that it’s selling a speaker that’s portable in a way that the Move never was. Music on the Roam sounds best over Wi-Fi, and it’s also needed for features like AirPlay 2. Bluetooth is right there as a fallback, but the Roam really has to get friendlier with guest networks.
The estimated battery life of 10 hours is also on the low side: the UE Boom 3 gets 15 hours and JBL’s Flip 5 hits 12. Wireless charging helps make up for this to an extent. It’s pretty rare among Bluetooth speakers, and you can play music as the Roam sits on the charger replenishing its battery. But I still wish Sonos could’ve eked out some extra playing time. The company says you can reach up to 10 days of standby time, but that strikes me as optimistic. My review units have held their charge for quite a few days, though.
There’s also a battery drain bug if you set up Google Assistant on the Roam that Sonos warned reviewers about, and it’s bad enough that the company is encouraging customers to power the speaker down when it’s not being used to conserve juice. Sonos says it’s working with Google on a fix and that customers using Alexa won’t encounter the same issue. The beamforming microphones generally picked up my voice commands without obvious mistakes the vast majority of the time, and aside from the Google battery bug, both voice assistants worked as expected.
The Roam’s many features make it among the best portable speakers at its size.
It’s best to think of the Sonos Roam as a personal speaker. It’ll do fine on your desk pumping out the soundtrack to your day. It can handle picnic duty for a small group at the park or come for a ride-along on your bike. And yes, it shines in the shower. But if you’re leading a dance class or trying to entertain guests at a barbecue, these are the types of situations where the larger Move easily wins out and proves its worth. Think of it this way: the more people that will be listening, the sooner you’ll turn to a speaker that isn’t the Roam.
But even with that understood, the Roam has a lot going for it. When in the comfort of your home, features like AirPlay and voice assistants do make it feel more capable than other speakers that are equally small and easy to carry. That and convenient wireless charging are where the $170 price gets easier to accept.
The Roam can fill in any nook of your living space — the bathroom, the garage, wherever — that doesn’t have another full-time Sonos speaker in it. On the go with Bluetooth, it’s easy to use and kicks out clear, satisfying sound for its size. Sonos needs to work on keeping the Roam’s smarts together when you’re on different Wi-Fi, and stereo pairing over Bluetooth should’ve been a feature on day one. But neither is enough to sink the overall value of Sonos’ latest speaker. As long as you don’t expect miracles from its compact size, I think you’ll end up happy.
(Pocket-lint) – The Asus TUF Dash F15 is another of the company’s ultra-thin gaming laptops, which sports some serious specs in a compact, lightweight and portable frame.
Available in two colours with a small mix of specs options and some nifty design accents, the TUF Dash F15 is interesting enough on paper, but is it worth a buy? We’ve been gaming and working with it for a couple of weeks to find out.
A compact frame that packs power
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 8GB GDDR6 RAM
Up to Intel Core i7-11370H processor
Up to 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz RAM
Up to 1TB M.2 NVMe
In classic Asus fashion, the TUF Dash F15 features some nifty tech packed into a compact frame. That chassis has been put through the usual military standard durability tests, which in reality results in a solid frame that feels robust and well built. It doesn’t bend or flex easily during use and yet is light enough to carry around with you, or position on your lap when gaming.
Outwardly the TUF Dash F15 is also easy on the eyes. It’s available in two different colours – Moonlight White or Eclipse Gray – with understated accents on the shell and an equally subtle backlit keyboard.
Super-narrow bezels also ensure maximum screen real-estate and “minimal distraction” – though this does come at the expense of a webcam (ugh!).
Hidden within that frame is some powerful tech with options that include some of the best from Nvidia and Intel. This means the TUF Dash F15 is a capable gaming machine that can take advantage of ray tracing and DLSS, while also maximising performance with Dynamic Boost and keeping things running quietly with Whisper Mode.
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Naturally, the specs of this gaming laptop mean you can push the visuals up to maximum, but still get frame rates high enough to make the most of the 240hz screen. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 is more than capable of driving this 15.6-inch display at Full HD resolution and delivering smooth gameplay experiences with satisfying visuals.
With this spec, you can also manage streaming to Twitch and the like if you want, while the addition of a RJ45 connection means you’ll have a solid connection when doing so.
How to start streaming your gaming: All the gear you need
The keyboard on this laptop is fairly basic compared to other Asus laptops we’ve tested though. At least in terms of RGB lighting anyway. There are very basic settings here, with just a few effects and no per-key illumination. It does, however, have some nicely accented WASD keys which help those stand out.
Pro grade gaming screen options
15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) anti-glare IPS display
Adaptive-sync panel – up to 240Hz refresh rate
Colour gamut: 100% sRGB, 75.35% Adobe
Benchmarks: Timespy, Timespy Extreme, Port Royal, Firestrike Ultra, Firestrike Extreme, PC Mark
Despite only being 15.6-inches, the panel on this gaming laptop gives the impression of something larger. The thin bezels mean the screen stands out nicely and didn’t lead us to feel like we were straining to see our targets in Rainbow Six Siege or struggling fighting skeletons in Valheim.
The viewing angles on this screen are also satisfying, as are the colours. The Adaptive-Sync tech means the panel is also synchronised nicely with the GPU which results in ultra-smooth gaming visuals.
As with other Asus gaming laptops, the TUF Dash F15 lets you use Armoury Crate to tweak the visuals. There are various settings that adjust the colours of the screen to suit your mood or need. This includes settings for Vivid, Cinema, RTS, FPS, and Eye Care. You can tweak what you’re seeing to maximise the look and feel of a game or eliminate eye-taxing blue light if you’re simply using the laptop for work.
Armoury Crate also lets you do things like monitor system performance, frequencies and temperatures, and switch between the various performance modes to increase power or reduce fan noise.
Performance-wise, the TUF Dash F15 does a good job. It wasn’t quite as impressive as the ROG Strix G15 we tested recently but still manages some decent frame-rates.
Where that laptop managed 64fps on Assassin’s Creed Odyessy, this TUF Dash F15 averaged 50fps. Similarly, the G15 pushed 200fps in Rainbow Six Siege while the TUF Dash F15 got around the 150fps mark. Still, those aren’t performance levels to be sniffed at on the maximum settings – but shows that the slender frame has an impact overall.
Convenient connectivity?
1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB 4, supports DisplayPort)
3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.0b
1x 3.5mm jack, noise-cancelling mic
1x RJ45 LAN port
Wi-Fi 6(802.11ax)
Bluetooth 5.1
Continuing a trend of usefulness, the TUF Dash F15 sports a decent number of ports and connectivity options. For those serious gamers looking to stream or game with a solid connection, there’s an Ethernet port, but the machine is also Wi-Fi 6 capable – which means a solid and satisfying connection whatever you’re doing.
There’s also no shortage of USB ports. Though we will note Asus has chosen to place two of them on the right-hand side, which is a pain when you’re trying to use a dedicated gaming mouse rather than the lacklustre trackpad for your gaming sessions.
Yes, we didn’t get on with the trackpad on this laptop. It’s finicky and frustrating and the fact that two out of the three USB Type-A ports are on the right means you need a decent amount of desk space to comfortably game and not have wires get in the way – unless you have a wireless mouse.
That’s not the only connection niggle either. Once again, if you want to use DisplayPort to output to an external monitor you’ll need to buy an adapter as it’s only available via USB-C. There’s no standard DisplayPort or Mini DisplayPort connection – which is a pain if you’re planning on gaming in VR.
As with other recent thin and light gaming laptops from Asus, there’s also the distinct lack of a webcam. This is an odd choice in our mind considering how many Teams, Skype and Zoom video calls we’ve all been having in the last year. If you’re purely using it for gaming though, then it’s not a bother – as you’ll want a better accessory separate anyway.
Best webcam: Top cameras for video calling
The TUF Dash F15 has speakers that are capable enough to overpower its cooling fans and a two-way noise cancellation mic setup which means you can be heard if you’re using the built-in mic to chat to friends. It’s still worth investing in a decent gaming headset if you really want to get lost in the games – as on max settings the fans are far from quiet and you will eventually get fed up with the white noise whirr from them.
Battery life
76WHr li-ion battery
200W AC charger
One area the TUF Dash F15 impresses is battery life. We could get through most of the day working and browsing and we also managed hours and hours of Netflix watching before the machine ran out of juice. In a gaming specific laptop away from the plug that’s an unusual accomplishment.
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We did note a performance hit when playing on battery alone – and that was a more significant one than we encountered with the Strix G15. But then if you want to make the most of the display you’ll be using it plugged in for gaming anyway.
But for general day-to-day use, this laptop won’t disappoint and you certainly won’t find yourself running for the plug every five minutes.
Verdict
All told, the Asus TUF Dash F15 manages to live up to expectations. It’s a decent performer with some nice specification options – at a price tag that isn’t going to make you cry.
With the right games you’ll get some seriously impressive frame rates to make the most of the fast-refresh screen. When maxing out those games this laptop doesn’t get too hot or loud either, all while lasting for a decent innings on battery alone.
What more could you want? Well, there are other options that can squeeze out yet more performance – but it’ll depend on just how much more you’re willing or able to spend for that performance bump.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Asus ROG Strix G15
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A more premium device with a heftier price tag to match, but it’s really a magnificent gaming laptop. There’s more RGB for a start, better performance overall, and a lot more style.
Read our review
Pocket-lint
Razer Blade 15 Advanced
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If understated externals are your thing, then this Razer might be another alternative. Again, it’s another powerhouse, but this laptop is a pleaser in multiple areas – apart from the massive price, but of course.
Having announced its new flagship OLED, the JZ2000, at CES back in January, Panasonic has now released the details of the rest of its 2021 TV line-up. It comprises four OLED models and three LCD TVs and includes the brand’s first-ever 48-inch OLEDs – in fact, there are three of them!
The JZ OLED series replaces the mixed success of 2020’s HZ models. We were impressed by the general picture quality and motion handling of the HZ1000, awarding it five stars, but while the HZ2000 proved even more accomplished in the picture department, its expensive speaker system proved a disappointment. Wisely, this year’s JZ2000 has a revamped sound system. What’s more, unlike in 2021, this year you can get Panasonic’s enhanced Professional Edition panel without going right up to the flagship 2000-series TV.
Panasonic has also sought to address the lack of next-gen HDMI features right across the range, which should prick up the ears of gamers who’s been put off Panasonic TVs in the past.
For the LCDs, the JX models replace the successful HX range. At the top is a flagship model that gets the same processing treatment as its OLED sibling, while at the bottom is an entry-level model that utilises the Android TV operating system.
Want to know everything there is to know about Panasonic’s 2021 TV range? Allow us to run down all of the tech highlights before breaking down the individual models in full.
More affordable ‘Professional Edition’ OLED TVs
(Image credit: Panasonic)
In previous years Panasonic’s custom Professional Edition OLED panels have been the preserve of flagship 2000-series models (the HZ2000 in 2020 and GZ2000 in 2019). However, Panasonic is now bringing its best picture quality to the more affordable 1500-series, which is this year called the JZ1500. That’s excellent news for people who already have a sound system and don’t want to fork out for the JZ2000s price-increasing, bulk-adding in-built Atmos speakers.
Only the 65-inch and 55-inch JZ1500 get the upgrade, though; the new 48-inch model (more on which below) has a standard, non-Professional Edition panel.
Compared to standard OLED screens, Panasonic’s Professional Edition OLED panels are brighter, punchier and more vibrant, offering even better HDR performance. Panasonic will also be the only manufacturer in 2021 to use this top tier panel in more than one range, meaning that, depending on price, the JZ1500 could potentially undercut other brands top of the line models.
Additionally, all the 2021 OLEDs benefit from an enhanced colour profile courtesy of Panasonic’s ‘Hollywood’ tuning overseen by Stefan Sonnenfeld, post-production colourist on films including Wonder Woman 1984 and Beauty and the Beast.
Panasonic’s first 48-inch OLEDs
(Image credit: Panasonic)
LG (which manufactures all of the OLED panels currently used by all TV brands) begun manufacturing 48-inch panels in 2020 and shortly thereafter launched its own 48-inch OLED TV, the excellent OLED48CX. Sony and Philips quickly followed with their own 48-inch OLED TVs, but Panasonic has held off until now.
Perhaps keen to make up for lost time, Panasonic is offering not one but three 48-inch OLED models – a JZ1500, JZ1000 and JZ980. While the larger versions of each range will have Pro, Master and standard OLED panels respectively, all three 48-inch TVs will have standard OLED screens.
The other main difference the 48-inch models have compared to their bigger siblings is mounting. Although the bigger versions of the JZ1500 and JZ1000 will have Panasonics popular adjustable swivel stand, the 48-inch JZ1500 has a central, fixed pedestal, while the 48-inch JZ1000 and JZ980 will have a pair of adjustable feet to allow for the addition of a soundbar.
New HCX Pro AI processor
(Image credit: Panasonic)
All of Panasonic’s OLED TVs and the top LCD model have received an upgrade in processing power with the new HCX Pro AI processor. It supports an Auto AI mode that can analyse the type of content being played and adjust the picture accordingly. You’ll still be able to make manual adjustments, but if you leave the TV in its Auto AI mode, it will work to automatically get the best out of everything you watch, from movies to sports and games. The top of the line JZ2000 is the only model that also benefits from Auto AI sound quality adjustments.
The JX850 LCD, meanwhile, has a new HCX AI Processor – note the absence of the word ‘Pro’ – whilst the JX800 gets last year’s standard HCX processor.
Enhanced gaming performance and features
(Image credit: Pansonic)
Gaming has typically been a lower priority for Panasonic than for some other manufacturers, but the company is looking to redress that in 2021. All models with the HCX Pro AI processor support a new low latency input setting called Game Mode Extreme. Panasonic claims input lag will be amongst the “very lowest in the industry”, with their own live demo producing an impressively short lag time of 14.4ms.
The entire range, except the JX850 and JX800, sport four HDMI ports, two of which are HDMI 2.1 (though one of these is also eARC), adding specs such as HFR (aka 4K@120Hz), VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and AMD FreeSync Premium on top of the ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) that Panasonic’s sets already have.
Panasonic has openly stated that at launch, the TVs will only display half the vertical resolution for 4K HFR and 4K@120Hz VRR with a firmware update to arrive later in the year to restore 4K HFR fully. An announcement on an update for 4K@120Hz VRR will be made “in due time”.
Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive
(Image credit: Pansonic)
Panasonic has long supported both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and it’s adding HDR10+ Adaptive to the 2021 range.
Like Dolby Vision IQ, this new format adjusts HDR10+ picture characteristics in accordance with both the source material metadata and the ambient lighting conditions of the room. All 2021 models will have Dolby Vision and HDR10+ Adaptive, and Dolby IQ will be supported on models down to the JX940. Panasonic is the first manufacturer to produce TVs with both Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive on board.
Panasonic’s unique application of Filmmaker Mode returns to all models in the lineup. Filmmaker Mode overrides the TV’s processing (such as motion smoothing and detail enhancement) to allow content to be displayed at the aspect ratio, colour and frame rate intended by the content’s creator. Panasonic adds an ‘Intelligent Sensing’ component to the feature ’, which dynamically adjusts HDR10+, HDR10, HLG or SDR pictures based on the lighting in your room.
We’ve so far been very unimpressed with the soft and dull performance of Filmmaker Mode on various TVs, so it’ll be interesting to see if Panasonic’s 2021 models can bring us around to the format.
My Home Screen 6.0
(Image credit: pansonic)
All models down to the JZ850 will feature a new version of Panasonic’s own operating system, which promises to be “much more intuitive and much more usable” than before and includes a ‘my Scenery’ feature that lets you display a selection of restful images and videos, or set your own, to match your mood.
Last year Panasonic TVs were missing several key streaming apps at launch, and despite updates, Disney+ still won’t be included in 2021, although Panasonic says it is “in discussions” with Disney to rectify this.
All models down to and including the JX850 support both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built-in, while the JX800 only has Google Assistant.
The JX800 is also Panasonic’s first TV with Android TV OS, which it apparently combines with some of the aspects of Panasonic’s own ‘My Home Screen’ operating system. It’s good to see the company adding Android TV to its lineup. Could this be just a toe in the water ahead of a broader rollout next year?
Panasonic 2021 TV range breakdown
So that’s the overview of the technology and features behind Panasonic’s 2021 TV range, but what about specific models? While pricing is yet to be unannounced, you’ll find all other details below.
Panasonic JZ2000 4K OLED TV
(Image credit: Panasonic)
Panasonic’s flagship OLED for 2021 is the JZ2000, which has the same bright, punchy Master HDR OLED Professional panel as last year’s HZ2000, which we described as having “excellent all-round picture quality”.
New for this year is an upgraded HCX Pro AI processor, which can analyse what type of content is being played and adjust picture settings automatically. While all the OLEDs in the lineup benefit from this AI mode, the JZ2000 is the only model that will also offer AI sound quality adjustments.
As with previous generations of the 2000-series, one of the main features of the JZ2000 is its integrated speaker system with front- and upward-firing drivers as well as a rear-mounted subwoofer. Panasonic has added a pair of side-firing speakers to make the sound even wider and more room-filling.
This setup, which Panasonic calls ‘360° Soundscape Pro’, has once again been developed with Technics and utilises Dolby Atmos. The speaker system is actually less powerful than last year, at 125W compared to 140W, but power isn’t everything and we’ll be curious to see what progress has been made given that we found the sonic performance of the HZ2000 lacked clarity and excitement. The JZ2000 will be available from June 2021.
Panasonic JZ2000 specs:
Display type: Master HDR OLED Professional Edition
The JZ1500 is an exciting proposition. It features the same Professional Edition panel as the JZ2000 but does without the fancy speaker system, potentially making it the perfect high-end TV for someone who already has (or is intending to buy) a proper home cinema system or quality soundbar.
Not only will the JZ1500 come in cheaper than the JZ2000, it’s thinner, too, to the tune of over 5cm.
It’s worth pointing out that the 48-inch version doesn’t get the Professional Edition OLED panel or swivel stand of its bigger brothers, but it does have a central pedestal, unlike Panasonic’s other 2021 48-inch models. The JZ1500 will be available from June 2021.
Panasonic JZ1500 specs:
Display type: Master HDR OLED Professional Edition (65-inch and 55-inch models) Master HDR OLED (48-inch model)
All sizes of the JZ1000 have the same Master HDR OLED Panel as the 48-inch JZ1500 but otherwise, there’s very little to differentiate between the JZ1000 and JZ1500; it has the same HCX Pro AI Processor, Auto AI, Game Mode Pro and raft of format support.
The in-built speaker system is a step down in power, 30W compared to the JZ1500’s 50W, and the JZ1000 series’s 48-inch model will come with adjustable feet to accommodate a soundbar.
The JZ980-series is the entry-level OLED for Panasonic in 2021, but it maintains the same HCX Pro AI processor as the rest of the range, and its 30W in-built speakers pack the same punch as the JZ1000 models.
The panel is a lower grade than the JZ1000, described only as ‘OLED’. It still promises natural colour and high contrast though we expect it to lack some of its more expensive siblings’ visual punch.
The 65-inch and 55-inch models don’t have a swivel stand to let viewers angle the screen freely, featuring a fixed pedestal instead, and the 48-inch has the same adjustable feet as the JZ1000 version. The JZ980 will be available from June 2021.
The JX940 is Panasonic’s premium LCD TV for 2021. Available in 75-inch, 65-inch, 55-inch, 49-inch sizes, it has the same HCX Pro AI Processor as the new OLED models and includes the full complement of HDR adaptive technologies, as well as Auto AI, Game Mode Extreme and VRR support.
The 120Hz HDR Cinema Display Pro panel apparently boasts excellent colour reproduction and contrast as well as wide viewing angles and ‘Intelligent Clear Motion’ to smooth out dynamic action for flicker-free viewing. Of course, whether it delivers on those promises will only become clear once we’ve had the JX940 in for review.
All features are consistent throughout the range except the mountings, the 75-inch has a flexible pedestal, and the smaller models have adjustable feet to allow a soundbar to neatly slot underneath. The JX940 will be available from May 2021.
The processing chip in the JX850 doesn’t have the Pro features of the OLEDs and the JX940, so there’s no Dolby Vision IQ, though HDR10+ Adaptive remains, as well as standard Dolby Vision, HLG, and HDR10.
Game Mode Extreme is replaced by a standard Game Mode, and gamers won’t have the advantages of 4K High Frame Rate (aka 4K@120Hz) or Variable Refresh Rate as there are no HDMI 2.1 sockets. The JX850 will be available from May 2021.
There will also be an alternate model, the JX870B, exclusive to John Lewis & Partners.
Panasonic JX870 prices (exclusive to John Lewis & Partners):
Panasonic TX-40JX870B – £TBC
Panasonic TX-50JX870B – £TBC
Panasonic TX-58JX870B – £TBC
Panasonic TX-65JX850B – £TBC
Panasonic JX800 4K LCD TV
(Image credit: Panasonic)
The JX800 is the most budget-friendly TV in Panasonic’s 2021 line-up and will use, for the first time, the Android TV operating system, which Panasonic says will include ‘a very wide range’ of streaming services. Dolby Atmos and Alexa are dropped for this model, but Google Assistant and Chromecast are on board.
Panasonic has bequeathed its previous generation HCX chip to the JX800. It won’t offer the AI technologies of the other 2021 models, but it still supports the same array of HDR formats and as the JX850, as well as sharing the equivalent HDR Bright Panel Plus.
Pamper the Leben CS600X and you have one of the most musically beguiling integrated amplifiers money can buy
For
Detailed and expressive sound
Beautifully made
Lovely to use
Against
No remote
Speaker matching requires care
Leben’s CS600X integrated amplifier could be described as distinctly retro, if you’re being polite, or old-fashioned if you aren’t. The mix of wooden side cheeks, glowing gold front panel and valve circuitry certainly harks back to times long gone. But is that a bad thing? We’re not so sure, particularly when the product is as talented as this.
Leben isn’t a particularly well-known manufacturer. Founded in 1992 by an ex-Luxman engineer, this small Japanese company hand-makes a small range of valve-based amplifier products in limited numbers. The current product range includes a pre/power combination, a phono stage and, of course, integrated amplifiers, of which the CS600X is the range-topper. It’s a line-level-only unit, so if you play records or need digital inputs, you’ll need to budget for extra boxes to do those jobs.
Build
(Image credit: Leben)
The CS600X is no powerhouse, as the 28W per channel output figure shows. If you want to drive inefficient speakers, or need high volume levels in large spaces, this is not the amplifier for you. But if nuance matters more than muscle, and you’re prepared to pamper this amplifier with sympathetic speakers, it’s capable of turning in a terrifically musical performance.
Take a look inside that well-constructed casework and you’ll find that this is a push-pull device that comes with a quartet of EL34 output valves as standard. Part of the appeal of this product is that it is easy to change those to 5881 valves and raise the output to 32W per channel.
That marginal increase on poke isn’t the reason to make the swap though. Changing valves affects the sonic signature of the amplifier, so it’s possible to fine-tune the CS600X’s sound to your tastes. There’s a pair of internal toggle switches that change the circuit conditions to allow the output valve swap to happen.
Leben CS600X tech specs
(Image credit: Leben)
Line-level inputs x5
Phono stage No
Tape loop Yes
Headphone output 6.3mm
Power output 28W per channel
Dimensions (hwd) 14 x 45 x 36cm
Weight 23kg
It doesn’t stop there. Read the manual and you’ll find that the CS600X can also be used with all types of output valves from KT66/77/88s to 6550As. This kind of flexibility is extremely rare and those who like to tweak are in for a treat here.
This ability to accept a wide range of valves also makes any assessment of this product less precise than usual, because the sound can be tweaked so much. With this in mind, we’re concentrating on the CS600X as it comes out of the box, and that’s with the EL34s.
Elsewhere, you’ll find two 12AU7A and two 12BH7A small signal valves used in the line stage, and a 6CM3/6DN3 in the power supply section. With all those tubes running inside, this amplifier gets pretty hot so make sure it has plenty of ventilation.
Overall build quality is truly excellent. This product feels reassuringly solid and has the air of something built to last decades. Every control has substance and precision, while the chassis has an impressively chunky feel. We love the quality of the gold finish on the front, and the way the solidity of the casework inspires confidence. The wooden side panels are made of Canadian white ash, chosen for its hardness and mass – it’s often used to make baseball bats or rowing oars. Overall, this Leben is an expensive product and feels it too.
That said, on purely aesthetic grounds we can’t help feeling that the trio of chunky plastic switches for muting, switching between speakers and headphones, and changing the CS600X from integrated to power amp mode look a little out of place next to the immaculately crafted metal rotary controls. The same applies to the power switch that looks like it belongs on some small computer appliance rather than a high-end valve amplifier. But this is a purely appearance-based judgment on our part, and you might disagree.
Take a close look at the CS600X’s front and you’ll find a number of unusual controls. Alongside the usual volume, balance and input selector controls there’s also a two-step Bass Boost and a stereo reverse function that inverts the signal phase 180 degrees. In some systems, the inverted phase could give more focused results.
Features
(Image credit: Leben)
Provided line-level inputs are fine for you there’s little to complain about on the features front. The CS600X is surprisingly accommodating for a product of this type, with no less than five single-ended inputs, a tape loop for anyone who still records and a direct feed into the power amplifier section for those who want to bypass the integrated preamp circuitry.
Above the single set of speaker outputs, there’s a rotary control to match the nominal impedance of the partnering speakers. The adjustment covers 4, 6, 8 and 16ohm options. While it makes sense to start with the control set at the value of your speakers, there’s no harm in trying any of the other settings. It’s possible that the slightly different sound it brings may be preferable.
This is an amplifier that needs care in partnering so you can hear just how good it can be. An output of just 28W per channel means the Leben is no powerhouse, so we’d go for relatively sensitive speakers that are easy to drive. While we suspect that the CS600X would excel with one of the bigger horn-loaded speakers around, we still get good results with the likes of Wilson Benesch’s Precision P2.0 and KEF’s LS50 Meta.
Our reference ATC SCM50 speakers don’t fare so well – the combination produces fine sounds from the midrange upwards but suffers from soft low frequencies and restrained dynamics. No wonder, given the SCM50’s low 85dB/W/m sensitivity and ability to soak up the watts.
The best option turns out to be partnering the Leben with ProAc’s Award-winning Response D2R standmounters. This pairing produces sweet, well-balanced and entertaining results.
But that isn’t what we hear initially. Our CS600X unit takes the best part of a week before it starts to sing – until then, the results are congested, rhythmically stunted and dynamically restrained. If you hear this amplifier sound anything like this, give it at least a week of use before you judge it. After that time it will shine.
Sound
(Image credit: Leben)
Anyone expecting the typical soft and rich valve sound will be in for a surprise. If partnered with care, this is a relatively taut, punchy-sounding performer, particularly when compared with other valve designs. We’re a little surprised to be listening to Kanye West’s Yeezus set and enjoying ourselves.
This is an integrated amp with enough guts and punch to charge along to New Slaves, delivering the song’s hard-charging beat with a fair bit of conviction. It’s far better than most valve alternatives we’ve come across in this respect, though it still falls short of giving the likes of rhythm and timing champs Naim sleepless nights. That said, it’s certainly good enough for us to tick those boxes and move on.
Switch to other kinds of music and the Leben’s excellence comes to the fore. We listen to Debussy’s Clare De Lune and fall in love with the piece all over again. Rarely do we hear an amplifier at this level that sounds so clear and expressive. Dynamic nuances are explored rather than ignored and the centrepiece piano is rendered with its harmonic richness and musical coherence intact.
Most transistor-based alternatives sound tonally grey and dynamically bland in comparison. We love the way this amplifier renders instruments in such a palpable and full-bodied way, making them sound more lifelike than a recorded facsimile.
This rings true when we switch to Nina Simone’s My Baby Cares For Me, where the Leben sounds positively enchanting, delivering Simone’s powerful and distinctive voice with all the power, finesse and expression it deserves. All the time, the backing instrumentation is organised and energetic.
Larger scale recordings such as Mahler’s Symphony No.2 are handled almost as well. We love the natural way this Leben renders instrumental textures. Its detailed yet fluid delivery is utterly convincing, as is the way the acoustic information that defines the recording venue is described. There’s little to complain about when it comes to scale (with appropriate speakers, of course), but it’s certainly possible to get a more authoritative presentation and higher volume capability at this level.
We give the CS600X’s headphone output a listen with a pair of Grado RS1 and Beyerdynamic’s T1 Mk2, and are really impressed. The amplifier sounds crisp and clear through headphones, retaining all the finesse and insight we so enjoy through the speaker outputs.
It seems odd to talk about compromises at this price level, but they exist at all levels to some extent. If you have this kind of money to spend on an integrated amplifier, you can buy rather fine examples, such as the Krell K-300i or Mark Levinson’s No.5805.
Both of these are far better equipped, with digital inputs, optional streaming modules and even Bluetooth on the menu, and that’s without mentioning three-figure power outputs that are capable of driving pretty much any speaker to high levels. These are powerful tools that bludgeon recordings and partnering speakers into submission, but perhaps lose a little charm in the process. That sonic charm is something that the Leben has aplenty.
Verdict
The CS600X doesn’t chase the same customer. Anyone seriously thinking of buying one will love its simplicity and the sheer joy of operating something so tactile. The lack of remote control won’t be an issue, and neither will the need to take care with speaker matching.
Such a customer would revel in the amplifier’s clarity and exceptionally nuanced dynamic behaviour, while overlooking its relative shortcomings. Having spent considerable time with this amplifier we could well do the same. Consider us smitten.
Working from home gives you more opportunities to spend time with your family – pets included. My office is upstairs and occasionally my dog wants to go outside. I could put a bell on the door that she could ring, but why waste the opportunity to build an over-engineered solution.
This project uses a field of machine learning known as object detection. Fortunately if you’re not familiar with machine learning, it’s a relatively easy project to get started with. We’ll be using a pre-trained model, meaning we won’t need a graphics card, sample data, or hours of time to train a model – just the things listed below.
What You’ll Need For This Project
RaspberryPi 4 or Raspberry Pi 3 with power adapter
8 GB (or larger) microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS. See our list of best microSD cards for Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi Camera and cable for doing the object detection
Raspberry Pi Wide Angle Camera Lens, or a zoom lens depending on how far away your camera will be placed.
Desktop Speakers or megaphone with 3.5mm input jack
Monitor & Keyboard (optional) with HDMI and power cables
How to detect when your pet wants to go outside with a Raspberry Pi
1. Set up your Raspberry Pi. If you don’t know how to do this, check out our story on how to set up your Raspberry Pi for the first time or how to set up a headless Raspberry Pi (without monitor or keyboard).
2. Connect your raspberry pi camera to your pi.
3. Enable your camera with raspi-config. You do this by entering sudo raspi-config from the command line and then navigating to Interface Options > P1 Camera.
4. Reboot.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
5. Test your camera’s focus using the following command. The image can be viewed if you have a monitor connected to your desktop. If you’re using a headless version of raspbian, you’ll need to use scp to move the image to a computer where you can view it.
raspistill -o /home/pi/focus.jpg
6. Install git. We need git to download code and scripts from a remote repository. Run the following command to install it:
7. Clone the pet detector repository to your home directory. This contains custom code that will take care of the detection for us.
cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/rydercalmdown/pet_detector
8. Install the requirements for the repository. The install script will install low-level dependencies, set up a virtual environment, and install python dependencies within it.
cd ~/pet_detector
make install
9. Download the pre-trained machine learning models. We’re using the YOLOv3 model trained on the COCO dataset. This model is able to recognize a variety of household objects – dogs and cats included.
cd ~/pet_detector
make download-model
10. Connect speakers to your raspberry pi. We’ll use the speakers to play a sound effect you can hear whenever your pet steps into the frame. I’m using a megaphone but desktop speakers should work just fine. Test your speakers with the following command:
say “this is a test”
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
11. Edit your /etc/rc.local file so this script runs on boot. Open /etc/rc.local by entering the sudo nano /etc/rc.local command and then adding the following line to the bottom of the file:
source /home/pi/pet_detector/env/bin/activate && cd /home/pi/pet_detector/src && python app.py &
12. Set up your camera so it faces the door. My pets wait by the door when they want to be let outside – so we work on the assumption that if they step into frame, they want to go outside.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
13. Let your pets go outside. When your cat or dog steps into the frame, the model will detect it, and play a text to speech message letting you know they want to go outside.
Duolingo, the popular language learning app, offers a wide variety of languages in its list of courses. While it’s known for teaching well-known tongues such as French, Spanish, and Chinese, it has also added courses in languages that are less widely used, such as Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Hawaiian — and now, as of April 6th, its 40th language: Yiddish.
While Yiddish in the US is known more for some of the words that have entered the popular lexicon (“He’s such a schmuck!”), it is actually a full-scale language. An amalgamation of High German, Hebrew, and Aramaic, with a smattering of Slavic languages (and more recently, English), before World War II, it was widely spoken by Jewish communities living throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
These days, Yiddish as a day-to-day language tends to be spoken mainly in Chassidic and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish communities, although there has been a strong interest in Yiddish among many of the descendants of European Yiddish speakers.
For example, while my family no longer speaks Yiddish on a daily basis, my parents grew up speaking the language and sent me to an after-school program for several years so I could learn it as well. While I am no longer anywhere near as fluent as I once was, I can still manage “a bisl Yiddish” (a little Yiddish), so I asked Duolingo if I could try out its Yiddish course ahead of time to see how it worked.
I’m not unfamiliar with Duolingo — I’ve been using the app to try to relearn my high school Spanish — and I found that the Yiddish course follows the app’s familiar methodology. It starts by testing you on your existing knowledge of a language, assuming you’re not starting from scratch. (Mine turned out to be fair but not great.) It then starts, through repetition and examples, taking you through the basics and then into conversation, using different subjects (such as going to a restaurant).
The version of the app I was working with still had some beta glitches. For example, each time you click on a word, a voice is supposed to repeat it out loud, and a few of the words were missing. I was also interested to find that a couple of the words were pronounced quite differently than I was used to, but I wasn’t sure whether that was another beta glitch or an indication of the dialect being used.
And that’s one of the catches in teaching any language. Because Yiddish was once spread out among a wide range of countries, there was also a wide range of dialects spoken. I remember my grandparents being very amused because the dialect I was learning in school was so different from the one they’d grown up with. According to Duolingo, its Yiddish course uses the Chassidic Hungarian pronunciations because that is currently the most widely used, while the grammar is based on the version standardized by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (which is the grammar that I was taught).
I’ll be curious to discover where these differences show themselves as I proceed to the more advanced levels. In the meantime, to promote its new Yiddish course, Duolingo has arranged with several delis around the US — Katz’s Deli in NYC, Manny’s Deli in Chicago, Factor’s Famous Deli in Los Angeles, Zak the Baker in Miami, and Pigeon Bagels in Pittsburgh — to give away free bagels with a schmear (cream cheese) on April 6th to customers who try to order (with the help of some onsite signs) in Yiddish.
Those of us who don’t live close to one of those venues, or who are still avoiding onsite shopping, will have to make do with noshing food from our own fridges while we learn a bisl Yiddish. Duolingo is available on iOS, Android, and the web; the basic app is free, or you can get rid of ads and track your process for $7 per month.
Amazon has launched battery bases for the latest generation of Echo and Echo Dot devices, designed to let you use your smart speaker wirelessly.
Made by Mission Accessories, whose slogan is ‘we want to make your favourite devices better’, the battery base has a lithium-ion battery which Amazon claims will provide up to five hours of continuous playback for a fourth-generation Echo speaker. So as long as you have access to wi-fi or a mobile hotspot, you can take Alexa with you anywhere.
Connecting the base is done using a thumbscrew, and the alignment is designed to cradle your Echo in such a way that allows for optimal audio quality.
The outside of the base features an LED battery gauge to indicate power level, and the battery will automatically charge when the echo is connected to mains, with a full charge taking three hours.
The Echo (4th Gen) battery base will cost £39.99, and the battery bases for Echo Dot (4th Gen) and Echo Dot with Clock (4th Gen) will cost £29.99. All are available from today.
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Novelty of working from home wearing a little thin? Children climbing the walls? Missing those carefree double-kisses and bear hugs from relatives and acquaintances?
Or are you feeling something else? Whisper it lest she disappear, but might that something actually be the muse descending?
“An artist is always alone – if he’s an artist,” said author Henry Miller. “No, what the artist needs is loneliness.” As if in agreement, the very second lockdown measures kicked in, social media feeds filled up with news that Shakespeare managed to pen King Lear, Macbeth, and most of Antony and Cleopatra in quarantine during a plague outbreak. (No all-new Netflix Originals or Amazon Prime Video documentaries to distract him, eh?)
In 1665, Isaac Newton found himself working from home following the closure of Cambridge University during the Bubonic plague. After sticking blunt needles into his eye (seriously) and watching apples fall from trees for a bit, he managed not only to explain gravity, but also to develop theories on optics and calculus that irrevocably changed our understanding of the universe. Not bad considering all we’ve managed to do today is upload an Instagram story and watch three episodes of Unforgotten on ITV Hub.
So, what of the socially distant musician during this and other periods of solitude? Turns out they too have been busy. What follows is our curated list of bands and solo artists who, owing to a series of unfortunate events, managed to write, record and release superb albums in complete isolation.
And ultimately it means we have no excuse. Do not pass go, do not collect £200 and do not visit Twitter. Read these examples for inspiration, then pick up your instrument. Get to work.
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Cross Road Blues by Robert Johnson (1936)
(Image credit: Robert Johnson)
Robert Johnson died in 1938, aged 27, having recorded only 29 songs of which we know. Of these, 16 were taped alone in room 414 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, on a single-reel Grundig recorder, less than two years before his death.
Nobody knows for sure how Johnson died – theories include poisoning, a gunshot wound, pneumonia, syphilis and stabbing – but his rumoured Faustian pact with the devil at a crossroads (his soul in return for otherworldly guitar powers) is the stuff of music legend.
Johnson’s work was not widely played until at least 25 years after his death. Indeed, Johnson never received any royalties for his songs and was paid in cash by his record label. Yet, according to Eric Clapton and almost any other iconic guitar player you can think of, Robert Johnson is “the most important blues musician who ever lived”.
Clapton released not one but two collections of songs by Johnson: Me and Mr. Johnson and the EP Sessions for Robert J, alongside a TV documentary of the same name aired in 2004 by the BBC.
Johnson simultaneously used elements of Delta blues – fingerpicking, sliding, strumming – while layering his own unique techniques and forms found in flamenco guitar. And then he sang on top. Only Robert Johnson (and the devil himself, if you believe the legend) will ever know exactly how he performed some of the tracks recorded in that hotel room.
Only two photos of Johnson are known to exist, despite musicologists and historians scouring the globe for more. What we do have is his music – and most of it was recorded in glorious solitude, in a hotel now owned by Sheraton.
“Who is the other guy playing with him?” Keith Richards asked fellow Rolling Stone Brian Jones on first hearing a Robert Johnson song, “I was hearing two guitars – it took a long time to actually realise he was doing it all by himself.”
Richards later said, “His playing was like Bach.”
Listen to Robert Johnson’s Complete Recordings on Tidal
Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen (1982)
(Image credit: Bruce Springsteen)
What does Bruce Springsteen do after his fifth studio album – a double LP featuring stone cold bangers Hungry Heart and Cadillac Ranch alongside the full force of the raucous E-Street Band?
He buys a Teac four-track cassette recorder and lays down 15 songs alone, in his house, through the night on 3rd January 1982. He sings, plays guitar, and uses the other two tracks to add a harmony vocal or an alternative guitar.
He thinks he’s going to teach the songs to the rest of the band when they get into the recording studio. He carries that demo cassette around in his pocket, without a case, for “a couple of weeks”. Then, after a bit more thought, The Boss decides to release the demo as is, without the band – the songs are a little too personal to be altered.
Owing to the recording process, it was apparently hard to release the thing as a record (the needle wouldn’t track in the wax properly because of the distortion it picked up) to the point that the label nearly released it as a cassette-only affair.
Springsteen named the album after one of the songs, Nebraska (the birthplace of Kool-Aid, but hardly America’s most exciting State) and never toured to promote it.
And still, Nebraska is one of the most highly-regarded albums in Springsteen’s substantial back catalogue.
Even one of the tracks that Springsteen recorded for the album, then shelved, (eventually giving it the E-Street Band treatment and releasing it in 1984) isn’t bad – it’s called Born in the USA.
Listen to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska on Tidal
Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones (1972)
(Image credit: The Rolling Stones)
Rolling stones gather no moss, but they do rack up ridiculously high tax bills. And so it was that, after becoming quite successful in the late 1960s, The Rolling Stones found themselves at a villa called Nellcôte in the south of France in 1972.
Keith Richards rented the house, where the band lived as tax exiles and sheltered their earnings in a Netherlands holding company.
Exile on Main Street was the band’s tenth album. The Stones were already well versed on recording nowhere near a proper studio – much of the recording of their prior album, Sticky Fingers, had been done at Mick Jagger’s country-pile Hampshire home using a mobile recording studio. The same mobile studio was simply transferred to Nellcôte and set up in the basement of the villa.
Keith Richards lived upstairs and the band had frequent house guests – so not self-isolation as we’ve become accustomed to, recently, but still.
Often, other musician friends would amble down to the studio to jam with Keith, or stay to record tracks with the whole band. Such daily recording sessions went on through the night. Without formal studio rules, there’s a delightfully bohemian, laissez-faire feel to the whole album.
Listen to The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street on Tidal
Original Pirate Material by The Streets (2001)
(Image credit: The Streets)
Recorded mostly within the confines of his Brixton home over the course of about a year, Skinner’s debut album as The Streets is an inventive collage of beats and lazily delivered lines about life among Britain’s working class that proves there is worth in music recording now being at every person’s fingertips.
In his autobiography, The Story Of The Streets, Skinner discusses how he cleared out a wardrobe to create a vocal booth, deadening its sound with duvets, pillows and mattresses.
The album got to number 12 in the UK Album Charts in 2002, but got another lease of life and peaked at number 10 in 2004 – after the release of The Streets’ chart-topping second album A Grand Don’t Come For Free.
The sobering cover artwork (main photo) is a night-time shot of the south face of the Kestrel House tower block on City Road, London, taken in 1995 by German photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg.
Listen to Original Pirate Material on Tidal
Greystone Chapel by Glen Sherley/Johnny Cash (1968)
(Image credit: Johnny Cash)
Although Greystone Chapel was the song that made Glen Sherley the most famous prison inmate and country-music singer/songwriter alive, Sherley wrote many songs in lock-up and even recorded an entire album in his cell.
Sherley was in and out of several prisons throughout the 1950s and ’60s. When Johnny Cash discovered him in 1968, Sherley was doing a bit for armed robbery in Folsom.
In a 1994 interview with Life Magazine, Johnny Cash said: “The night before I was going to record at Folsom Prison, I got to the motel and a preacher friend of mine brought me a tape of a song called Greystone Chapel. He said a convict had written it about the chapel at Folsom.
“I listened to it one time and I said: ‘I’ve got to do this in the show tomorrow.’ So I stayed up and learned it, and the next day the preacher had him in the front row. I announced: ‘This song was written by Glen Sherley.’ It was a terrible, terrible thing to point him out among all those cons, but I didn’t think about that then. Everybody just had a fit, screaming and carrying on.”
Greystone Chapel was recorded live, along with the rest of Cash’s At Folsom Prison album, on 13th January 1968 and released in May of that year.
After Greystone Chapel, country singer Eddy Arnold sniffed out Sherley’s music and recorded another Sherley song in 1971, Portrait Of My Woman. It became the title track of Arnold’s next album.
Sherley was given the permission by prison officials to record a live album, Glen Sherley, while still in jail. The album was released by Mega Records and was a big success.
When Sherley was released from Prison in 1971, Cash met him at the gates. Sadly though, the story doesn’t end well. In May 1978, two days after shooting someone, Sherley put a gun to his own head. He was 42. The funeral was paid for by Cash.
Listen to Glen Sherley on Tidal or Spotify
how i’m feeling now by Charli XCX (2020)
(Image credit: Charli XCX)
Charli XCX’s fourth album really is a product of the pandemic: conceived during the initial COVID-19 lockdown, made in collaboration with her fans over the following 39 days and released on 15th May 2020, thus elegantly encapsulating the confusion, loneliness and boredom of our first long stint at home.
On 6th April 2020, Charli XCX announced in a public Zoom call with fans that she would be working on a new album in self-isolation, stating, “The nature of this album is going to be very indicative of the times just because I’m only going to be able to use the tools I have at my fingertips to create all music, artwork, videos everything.”
Although the result will undoubtedly (and rightly) be used as a kind of sonic photograph in the years to come – owing both to its subject matter and how Charlotte Aitchison used social media to workshop the tracks – how i’m feeling now is a timeless triumph.
The Cambridge-born songwriter’s knack of finding an absorbing melody or phrase can’t be ignored. The first track, Pink Diamond, came to Aitchison during an At Home With Apple Music interview between herself, Dua Lipa and and Jennifer Lopez, after J. Lo recounted talking to Barbara Streisand about Ben Affleck’s gift of that iconic rock. The compelling DIY electronics should also be celebrated, whether or not we’re able to dance, mingle and talk freely again soon.
Listen to Charlie XCX’s how i’m feeling now on Tidal
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OK Computer by Radiohead (1997)
(Image credit: Radiohead)
Radiohead recorded and self-produced OK Computer in a 16th-century, Grade I listed Tudor Mansion called St. Catherine’s Court in Bath, owned by actress Jane Seymour. She rented the house to the band on the condition that they feed her cat in her absence.
Almost every song on this third Radiohead album (the studio-recorded 1995 Lucky is the exception)was laid down in that house.
If ever a song perfectly captured dystopian, apocalyptic self-isolation, it’s Climbing Up the Walls. There’s nothing quite like that guttural scream at the end for the cabin feverish.
As if to emphasise its socially distanced rhetoric, Thom Yorke has compared the acoustic guitar-heavy opening of the song Exit Music (For a Film), to Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison (listed, above).
Listen to Radiohead’s OK Computer on Tidal
For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver (2008)
(Image credit: Bon Iver)
Justin Vernon wrote, recorded and self-released his debut breakthrough Bon Iver
album, For Emma, Forever Ago, in his dad’s hunting cabin in the woods of Wisconsin.
Vernon, frustrated with trying to write songs and somehow pay the bills while working in a sandwich shop, left his place in Raleigh, North Carolina, and drove for 18 hours to the remote hunting cabin – set in 80 acres of land an hour northwest of his hometown, Eau Claire in Wisonsin – hoping for some time alone.
He recorded the entire album in the cabin, on an old Mac with ProTools, throughout the winter of 2006 into early 2007 – when he wasn’t hunting for food. He apparently killed two deer during his three month residence in the cabin and had one scary encounter with a bear, which was enticed by the smell of his cooking.
The album is focused on a break-up he’d struggled to get over.
“I had nothing but the sound of my own thoughts, and they were really loud when that’s all that was going on,” Vernon later said on his near-complete isolation. We’ve all been there.
Though he hadn’t intended to make an album, encouragement from friends did the trick and he self-released For Emma, Forever Ago – after a little help with mastering – in July 2007. He was signed to the independent label Jagjaguwar later that year and the rest, as they say, is history.
Listen to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago on Tidal
461 Ocean Boulevard by Eric Clapton (1974)
(Image credit: Eric Clapton)
This was the album that gave Eric Clapton his first US number one LP and single – his cover of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ I Shot the Sheriff. It also marked Clapton’s return to recording after recovering from a three-year addiction to heroin. The album topped various international charts and sold more than two million copies.
The title of the record refers to a house in the small town of Golden Beach, Miami – the house that Clapton’s manager at the time, Robert Stigwood, paid for him to live in so that he might, perhaps, write and record new music. After overcoming his substance addiction, Clapton confessed that he’d wasted three years of his life, barely managing to do anything except watch TV and get out of shape.
Clapton worked on a farm for a little while, listening to music from artists such as Robert Johnson (featured above), and even lending his guitar skills to the rock opera Tommy – which you can read about in our 10 best musical theatre soundtracks to test your speakers feature.
He was given a demo tape by former Derek and the Dominos bassist, Carl Radle, which contained collaborations between Radle, keyboardist Dick Sims and drummer Jamie Oldaker. Clapton felt inspired and ready to write new material.
The whole album was recorded from April to May 1974. Although Clapton did venture into the Criteria studios in Miami to record, he wrote, practiced, recuperated and sang alone with Blackie, his Fender, in the Floridian rented house pictured on the album sleeve.
Listen to Eric Clapton’s 461 Ocean Boulevard on Tidal
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11 of the best musical soundtracks to test your speakers
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Sony’s new SRS-RA5000 is a $700 single-unit speaker that is filled to the brim with drivers, has convenient features like Spotify Connect and Chromecast built in, and is capable of producing immersive 360-degree audio.
Though it’s only coming to market now, the RA5000 dates back to CES 2019, where Sony exhibited it as a prototype speaker for its new-for-the-time 360 Reality Audio format. So it’s been in the hopper for a while. Same goes for the smaller, less expensive RA3000, which Sony demonstrated a year later at CES 2020. Now they’ve both evolved into consumer products and look practically unchanged.
At 13 inches tall, the RA5000 is much bigger than any smart speaker. And yes, from the top, it absolutely looks like an oversized electric razor, thanks to the three round speaker grilles. If this thing was all white, you might confuse it for some kind of futuristic humidifier or air purifier. But Sony has stuck with the mix of black and rose gold that has been the signature look for many of its recent headphones and earbuds. I continue to dig the contrast this creates, and the speaker’s sides are covered in a knitted fabric that hides the innards. There are touch-sensitive buttons on the left and right sides. You get volume and play / pause on the right, with the left side handling power, mode selection (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or aux input), and a calibration feature that tweaks the sound for whatever room the RA5000 is in.
There’s no denying the electric razor resemblance.
The internal layout breaks down like this: there are three up-firing speakers, three outward-facing speakers positioned at the middle of the speaker’s sides, and a single subwoofer at the bottom. Around back is a 3.5-millimeter input and a little NFC icon, which you can hold an Android phone to for quick pairing. Underneath the speaker is where the power cord plugs in, and the RA5000 comes with a big honking external power supply. That’s something I didn’t expect to see considering how large the product already is. It needs to be plugged into power at all times, so Sony’s fancy speaker is wireless but by no means portable.
The setup process is… a lot. Sony’s mobile app guides you through numerous steps like adding the RA5000 to the Google Home app, bringing it aboard your Wi-Fi network, linking it to Amazon’s Alexa platform, and more. The speaker initially had a lot of trouble connecting to my home Wi-Fi, but with some persistence, eventually it worked. As is standard for Sony, the app isn’t very polished or pretty, but it gets the job done.
The RA5000 has touch-sensitive capacitive controls.
The RA5000 offers a ton of flexibility for how you play music on it. You can pair a device to the speaker via Bluetooth — AAC and SBC codecs are there, but not LDAC — but you’ll get far better quality when the music is coming over Wi-Fi. There’s built-in Chromecast support for audio casting, and the RA5000 can also be added to a speaker group with either Google Home or Amazon Alexa. I’d have loved for Sony to round out the streaming options with AirPlay 2, but no such luck. The speaker hardware includes a microphone, but this is only used for the calibration feature. You’ll have to rely on another device to get music playing on the RA5000 with your voice, but since it’s compatible with both Alexa and Assistant, this can be done wirelessly with a cheap smart speaker or your phone.
When in traditional stereo mode, this speaker is a powerhouse, though you might expect more bass for the size. (There are EQ options in the Sony app if you want to boost the low end.) It easily blanketed both my living room and bedroom with sound; the up-firing drivers help give it a very full presence. In my average listening, I never pushed volume beyond the 60 percent range. Going much higher would probably result in some very annoyed neighbors if you’re in an apartment. But despite its big, boisterous sound, there’s no mistaking the RA5000 for a proper set of stereo speakers. It sounds every bit like the single enclosure it is.
It dwarfs most other smart speakers.
And that leads us to the standout trick: 360-degree audio. Sony’s 360 Reality Audio uses object-based spatial audio to try to build a captivating soundscape. The pitch is that it can feel “as real as if you are there at a live concert or with the artist recording in a studio.” When you close your eyes and listen to 360 Reality Audio, the RA5000 definitely sounds bigger and wider than its physical footprint. It’s a noticeable change from plain stereo. But does it put me in some mind-blowing sphere of music coming from all directions? No, not really.
When you hop between 360 tracks, you’ll notice that not all content really takes advantage of its scope. It remains unclear how involved and invested most artists really are when it comes to these 360 mixes, so I’m skeptical of any claims that this is how songs were meant to be heard. Jazz sounds fantastic; the instrumentation really benefits from bouncing off walls and your ceiling. Concert recordings, like Liam Gallagher performing Oasis hit “Champagne Supernova” with an enthusiastic sing-along crowd, also have an impressive breadth to them that feels distinct from regular stereo sound. The LED at the bottom of the speaker illuminates green when you’re playing true 360 Reality Audio music.
The speaker supports music over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or aux input.
Only a few music streaming services, including Tidal, Deezer, and Nugs.net, support Sony’s 360 Reality Audio at present. Amazon Music HD will also let you play 360 audio on the RA5000 as of April 6th. You can cast 3D audio directly from these apps to the speaker. But even among services that offer 360 Reality Audio, adoption from musicians and labels has a long way to go. Not a single song in Tidal’s “Top Tracks” section had 360 Reality Audio, nor did any of the Top Albums. That really speaks volumes. There’s a dedicated section in the explore tab where you can easily browse through playlists and albums that do support 360-degree audio. A vast majority of it is older stuff, but recent records like Haim’s Women in Music Pt. III are there, too, as are hit singles like Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar.”
The unconventional looks fit the novel 360-degree sound.
To make up for the lack of content that’s truly mixed for 360, Sony includes an “immersive audio enhancement” setting that attempts to re-create the same effect for two-channel music tracks. This algorithm-powered approach doesn’t work nearly as well. Toggling it on adds an obvious layer of artificial reverb and ambience to everything that you play, and you lose the soundstage precision that’s there with genuine 360 Reality Audio content.
At its eye-popping price of $700, finding direct “competitors” for the RA5000 is complicated. There’s a HomePod-looking device in Sony’s promotional video, but that Apple speaker was less than half the price and is now history. The $500 Sonos Five is my favorite single-unit speaker, but it sticks to stereo audio. Then you’ve got high-end, luxury audio alternatives like the $900 Formation Wedge speaker from Bowers & Wilkins, but again, that’s aiming for an audiophile-grade stereo experience. Sony’s speaker outperforms the $200 Amazon Echo Studio and can crank much louder — but that’s exactly what I’d expect considering the huge price gulf.
So the question I’m left with is this: who is this speaker for? It sounds excellent, can satisfyingly fill any normal-sized room, and 360 Reality Audio is a fun party trick. But the asking price is hard to get over. A lot of people who are serious about audio gear would sooner pay for a nice pair of stereo bookshelf speakers than drop $700 on this single unit. I think Sony’s trying to make the RA5000 a jack of all trades — led by immersive sound and an array of convenient streaming options. But I come away feeling like this speaker just tries to do too much, especially when the worth of its headline feature remains unproven and often inconsistent.
Discord is the latest company to introduce a Clubhouse-like feature that lets people easily broadcast live audio conversations to a room of virtual listeners. Discord says its take, called Stage Channels, is available now on all platforms where Discord is available, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and the web.
If you’ve used Discord before, you might know that the app already offers voice channels, which typically allow everyone in them to talk freely. A Stage Channel, on the other hand, is designed to only let certain people talk at once to a group of listeners, which could make them useful for more structured events like community town halls or AMAs. However, only Community servers, which have some more powerful community management tools than a server you might share with a few of your buddies, can make the new Stage Channels.
The feature’s broad availability makes Discord the first app to offer an easy way to host or listen in on social audio rooms on most platforms. Clubhouse is still only available on iOS, though an Android version is in development. Twitter’s Spaces feature works on iOS and Android, but only some users have the ability to make audio rooms right now. (The company plans to let anyone host a Space starting in April.) LinkedIn, Mark Cuban, Slack, and Spotify are also working on live audio features, and Facebook reportedly has one in the works, too.
At the top of this post, you can see what a Discord Stage Channel looks like on desktop, and here’s what one looks like on mobile:
Image: Discord
I got to participate in a Stage Channel to be briefed on the feature, and it was quite similar to using Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. When I joined the Stage Channel, I was automatically put on mute and listed as an audience member. I could see who was speaking and who else was with me in the virtual crowd.
When I wanted to ask questions, I pressed a button to request to speak, and a Stage moderator brought me “on stage” so I could talk. Stage moderators can also mute speakers or even remove them from the room if they are being disruptive.
Apple will remove the female voice as the default for its Siri assistant, according to TechCrunch. The change is effective as of today’s release of the sixth iOS 14.5 beta. Once this latest update is publicly released to all customers, iPhone and iPad users will be prompted to choose their preferred Siri voice during device setup. Previously, Siri defaulted to a female voice, and users could pick between other voices in settings after the fact.
Alongside this change, Apple is also introducing two completely new voices for Siri that, according to TechCrunch, “use source talent recordings that are then run through Apple’s Neural text to speech engine, making the voices flow more organically through phrases that are actually being generated on the fly.” Those new voices are available to English speakers globally.
The news is the latest example of big tech companies trying to remove any gender associations from their digital voice assistants. Studies have found that when assistants use a female-sounding voice by default, it can reinforce bias and negative stereotypes. Some embarrassing mistakes have been made along the way as these technologies develop, but Apple’s latest step is one of the most significant yet.
“We’re excited to introduce two new Siri voices for English speakers and the option for Siri users to select the voice they want when they set up their device,” Apple told TechCrunch in a statement. “This is a continuation of Apple’s long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion, and products and services that are designed to better reflect the diversity of the world we live in.” Siri takes on over 25 billion requests monthly across 500 million devices, according to TechCrunch.
Ring’s new $249.99 Video Doorbell Pro 2 is the best video doorbell yet from a company that has nearly become a household name for video doorbells. It has an excellent field of view and video quality; plenty of customizable features for notifications and recording zones; and speedy performance, whether that’s sending alerts to your phone or smart speaker when someone rings the bell or pulling up the live feed from the Ring app on a phone. If you can tolerate the price tag, are able to install a wired doorbell at your door, and aren’t put off by Ring’s Neighbors app or police partnerships (both of which you can opt out of), the Video Doorbell Pro 2 is one of the best video doorbells you can get right now.
The new Video Doorbell Pro 2 is Ring’s top-of-the-line model, replacing the original Video Doorbell Pro from 2017. Unlike Ring’s other doorbells, the Pro 2 does not have a battery option; you have to have wiring running to it for power. But because it doesn’t have to house a battery, the Pro 2 is much smaller than Ring’s battery-powered options and has faster response times when you want to pull up the feed on your phone or an Echo Show smart display. It also can work with an existing doorbell chime in your home if you have one.
Despite its higher-than-average price tag, the Pro 2 doesn’t really look all that much more premium than other Ring models. The housing is made entirely of plastic, and there’s a big Ring logo stamped on the bottom. If sleek design is what you’re after, Google’s Nest Hello or the Logitech Circle View Doorbell are better choices.
Ring has added a number of new features this time around, but the most significant change is how the Video Doorbell Pro 2 captures video clips. Unlike the prior model and every other Ring doorbell before it, the Pro 2 shoots 1536 x 1536-pixel square video, which lets you see visitors from top to bottom. It also makes it much easier to see if packages have been left at your doorstep because you can see the ground right in front of the doorbell.
On my doorway, the Pro 2’s wide and tall field of view was able to let me see the entirety of my small porch much better than the older 16:9 format Ring doorbells or others that have a tall but not as wide aspect ratio, like Logitech’s Circle View Doorbell. The Pro 2 captures a sharp and detailed image, complete with HDR for balancing bright skies and visitors’ faces. It also has a dedicated infrared night mode that will come on automatically if the light levels are low enough. The porch light I have at my doorway was sufficient enough to keep the Pro 2 in normal video mode, so I was able to have full-color video captures at night without blinding visitors with a light on the doorbell itself like what happens with the Circle View Doorbell.
Thanks to support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, pulling up the Pro 2’s video feed through the Ring app on my phone is a painless process that just takes a couple of seconds. Likewise, asking an Echo Show to display the feed is quick and easy. The Echo Show and Fire TV devices will even automatically display the feed from the camera whenever the doorbell is rung. Older video doorbells used to take an agonizing amount of time to show their video feeds. I’m glad to see this newest crop is much faster than before.
The Pro 2 also has a new “3D Motion Detection” feature that lets you see the movements of someone on your property even if they are out of frame of the camera. The name oversells what this is doing a bit: the app will show a top-down view of movements represented as colored dots on the map of your home overlaid over the recorded video clip. It’s designed to let you see where someone has been on your property before they show up on the primary camera. But the range for this feature is limited to only 30 feet — that’s about enough to reach a third of the way down my driveway — and while it’s a neat demo of technology, I didn’t find much utility in it.
The Video Doorbell Pro 2 shows more of my front porch than other doorbells. The new 3D Motion Detection feature provides the bird’s-eye view of movement on my property, seen in the right image.
The other thing I didn’t find much use for is the Alexa Greetings feature, which lets you have Alexa answer the door through the Ring doorbell if you don’t get to it within a set amount of time.
There are two reasons I didn’t really like this feature. One is since we’re still spending the majority of our time home due to the pandemic, I don’t really need someone else to answer the door for me — I’m always there. The other is the idea of having Amazon’s Alexa robot speak to a visitor in my place. Alexa can ask couriers to leave a package in a particular place you specify or record a message from other visitors that will be sent to your phone. In my tests, it works like a typical Alexa interaction, with a slight delay between each prompt.
But in general, it feels a bit off-putting and rude to force visitors to interact with an unexpected robot. I feel the same way about using the two-way audio to talk to someone at the door through my phone. While there may certainly be great accessibility use cases for these features, they weren’t helpful for me, and I left them turned off. I think basic package detection and notifications, which other doorbells offer, would be more useful, but Ring doesn’t have any features like that.
The Alexa responses feature requires a subscription to Ring’s Protect plan, which starts at $3 per month and enables other features such as a six-second pre-roll recording for motion alerts, the option to only get alerted when a person is detected, video history for up to 60 days, and the ability to save and share clips. You can use the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 without paying for this subscription, but you’ll be limited to motion alerts, live view, two-way talking, and six preset responses if you’re not home. Neither one of Ring’s plans, paid or free, offers continuous 24/7 recording. If that’s something you want, Google’s Nest Hello is a better choice.
The Video Doorbell Pro 2 has a traditional grayscale infrared night mode (right), but if you have enough light, it will fall back to its color feed at night (left).
Since Ring is an Amazon company, the Pro 2 works best and offers the most utility if you have Amazon Echo speakers or smart displays. In addition to the ability to automatically show the feed when the bell is pressed, you can have Echo speakers announce when someone’s at the door so you never miss a visitor. This feature isn’t available with Google Nest smart speakers or displays; again, the Nest Hello would be a better choice if you’re running a Google smart home. (Likewise, if you’re running an Apple HomeKit smart home, the Logitech Circle View Doorbell is a better choice.)
Lastly, I can’t cover a Ring product without mentioning its controversial Neighbors app and police partnerships. The Neighbors app is a separate app that collates crime and safety reports from other Ring owners in your neighborhood. By default, the Neighbors feed is integrated into the Ring app, allowing you to see other posts and share video clips from your camera.
Similarly, the Public Safety feature allows police and other public service agencies to request video clips from your camera to aid in solving crimes. You then have the option to approve or deny the request.
Ring has made it easier to manage these features. Both of them are controlled in the app’s Control Center section, where you can disable the Neighbors feed and block public agencies from requesting clips from your video camera. You can also enable end-to-end encryption, which will disable these features and limit the ability to share video clips with others. But I wish Ring would go even further and disable both of them by default, letting owners decide if they want to opt in or not during setup.
Ring’s portfolio of video doorbells has grown significantly over the past couple of years, and it can be confusing to figure out which one is right for your needs. The Pro 2’s pitch is simple: this is the best video doorbell camera Ring sells, provided you have the ability to hook it up to existing doorbell wiring or run new wiring to it. If you want the best performance and are in Amazon’s Echo ecosystem, the Pro 2 is the doorbell to get.
(Pocket-lint) – The LG Gram 16 is never going to make sense to some people. For many, a large-screen laptop has to be a super-powered desktop-replacer. And if it’s not, why does it exist?
LG’s Gram series has quietly challenged that view for the last few years. And the LG Gram 16 should make this concept less of a leap for those still struggling.
The pitch: the LG Gram 16 costs around a grand less than the MacBook Pro 16, but still has a big screen, a colour-rich display and long battery life. Oh, and it weighs 800g less and has a better keyboard, for some tastes at least.
Suddenly LG’s weirdo huge-but-light Gram laptops don’t sound so strange. Indeed, this 16-inch version is quite the stunning proposition.
Design
Dimensions: 313.4 x 215.2 x 16.8mm / Weight: 1.19kg
Magnesium alloy casing
Interested now? Let’s start by slapping the LG Gram 16 down to earth with one of the big issues you need to accept.
While the LG Gram 16 is a nicely made laptop, it doesn’t feel like a four-figures slab of the future when you pick it up. Carry it around like a notepad, give it a light squeeze between thumb and finger, and the base and lid panels will flex a bit.
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LG has not made the Gram 16 on a shoestring budget. But large, low-weight body panels come with compromises. And you feel them each time you pick the laptop up like this.
The LG Gram 16’s casing is magnesium alloy, which is the best material for the job. It’s lighter than aluminium for the same level of strength, and a lot nicer than plastic. Just don’t expect the dense unibody feel plenty of 13-inch laptops at this price level.
The issue is all about feel, not utility. The LG Gram 16’s touchpad doesn’t stop clicking because you lift it by one corner of the base. You can’t stop the internal fans spinning by pressing down on part of the keyboard surround. And, yes, we’ve seen these issues in laptops smaller and heavier than the LG Gram 16.
Its keyboard panel, the most important of the lot, is pretty rigid – if not immaculately so. A little outer panel flex is only a big issue if you think it is.
Despite being a new entry in this series, the LG Gram 16 nicks its style from its siblings. This is a very plain, serious-looking laptop that isn’t out to dazzle eyes or fingers with flashy finishes. All panels are matte black with a very light texture similar to a soft-touch finish.
There’s a kind of confidence to a lifestyle laptop this plain, one that weaves a style out of sharp-cornered keyboard keys and a semi-distinctive font. If anything, LG could actually go plainer on this key typeface, which looks a little close to that of a gaming laptop.
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But the aim is pretty clear: the LG Gram 16 is a laptop that can fit in just about anywhere. You can take is anywhere too, as the 1.19kg weight is lower than that of the average 13-inch portable.
The footprint isn’t tiny, of course, but it couldn’t get all that much smaller considering the 16-inch display has fairly small borders on all four sides.
Display
16.0-inch LCD panel, 2560 x 1600 resolution
99.1% DCI P3 colour coverage (as tested)
Glossy plastic finish
The LG Gram 16’s screen also helps keep the shape sensible, as this is a 16:10 aspect display, one taller than the standard widescreen style. This maxes out the perception of space when you use apps, rather than video. There’s no issue with the quality of the panel either.
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Colour depth is truly excellent, matching what you get in a top MacBook Pro. Brightness is strong enough for outdoors use, which is pretty impressive considering the sheer square inch count the LG Gram 16 has to light up.
Contrast is not the best around, but is still good for an LCD-based screen. And resolution is, well, the one LG should have chosen. It’s at 2560 x 1600 pixels, sitting above Full HD, but a way below 4K.
The MacBook Pro 16 has a sharper screen still, at 3072 x 1920 pixels. But the LG Gram 16 still adds the crucial pixel density it needs to avoid the obvious pixellation that can happen in a larger display like this.
If you use a 13-inch laptop at the moment that supersize boost is the first thing you’ll notice. The LG Gram 16 makes it seem so much more like you’re using a monitor that happens to be hooked onto a laptop, rather than a laptop screen. That’s great for dull work apps, even for games.
However, the actual character of the screen doesn’t quite make the most of the top-quality panel underneath, because of another concession made for size: its plastic screen coating. Plastic is often used in matte finish laptops, to scatter reflections. But this is a glossy screen, telling us weight is the issue here. Glass is the usual choice, but glass isn’t that light.
The plastic film is also far less rigid than glass, causing reflections to distort at the corners a little. And if there’s meant to be a reflection-busting coating here, it’s not a very good one. There’s also no touchscreen, and the hinge only folds back to around 130 degrees, to stop the thing tumbling off your knees through weight imbalance.
Like the flexy lid and bottom panels, the plastic surface is one you’ll have to suck up for the sake of low weight. But does the LG Gram 16 have a high quality screen with plenty of space that you can use outdoors? Absolutely.
Keyboard & Touchpad
Textured glass touchpad
Two-level backlight
1.65mm key travel
The LG Gram 16’s keyboard fills out the appeal of this laptop for us. We type all day, every day, more or less. Keyboard quality matters, and this is a keyboard made for that sort of work.
Pocket-lint
Key travel is excellent, and not just if you limit your comparisons to ultra-light laptops. The keyboard plate feels rigid, even if – sure – you can get it to flex slightly under significant finger pressure. And springy resistance offers good feedback with each depress.
We also like that LG has thinned-down the NUM pad, which lets the main set of keys sit more towards the centre of the laptop. Being shunted too far to the left rarely feels good. Here there’s just a mild lurch leftwards. Think universal healthcare, not a state-led redistribution of all wealth.
The LG Gram 16 also has a two-level backlight and a fingerprint scanner hidden in the power button, just above the NUM pad.
Plenty of space in the keyboard plate leaves plenty of room for a giant touchpad. This thing is huge – and you probably can’t appreciate it from photos alone, where it seems in proportion with the rest.
The LG Gram 16’s touchpad has a smooth glass surface, zero floaty wobble, and an easy-to-depress yet well-defined clicker. It’s on the loud side, but that’s it for negative points to note.
A larger laptop opens the doors to a different approach to the keyboard. But apparently it doesn’t allow for a better webcam. The LG Gram 16 has the same sort of stogy 720p video call camera we see in most other high-end laptops.
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Its speakers aren’t even close to those of the MacBook Pro 16 either. LG uses familiar-sounding drivers with just the tiniest hint of low-frequency output and only moderate max volume. Their tone is pleasant, we could watch a movie using them happily enough, but it would be good to see LG improve this area in future generations.
The main grilles for the treble drivers also sit on the underside, giving them just a couple of millimetres of clearance provided by the tiny rubber feet. Put the LG Gram 16 on a thick carpet or your bed and the treble is attenuated, although it does seem impossible to block the sound fully, which is good.
Performance
Intel i7-1165G7 processor
16GB LPDDR4X RAM
1TB NVMe SSD
The LG Gram 16 is an Intel Evo laptop. This is a new standard introduced by Intel to make laptops with its processors seem more attractive than those with AMD or Apple CPUs. It’s marketing, but not useless marketing, as it means you know you get standards like Thunderbolt 4, an 11th Gen processor, and at least nine hours of battery life (if the screen is a 1080p one).
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Our Gram 16 has Intel’s Core i7-1165G7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB of very fast SK Hynix SSD storage.
Some CPU overclockers who design their own water cooling systems will disagree, but we think this is enough to make the LG Gram 16 a viable desktop replacement for the vast majority of people.
Windows 10 feels great, there’s more than enough power to run apps like Photoshop well. So why would you buy a MacBook Pro 16 with a more power consuming 9th Gen CPU? Or a much heavier Windows laptop with an Intel Core i7-10750H?
The top-end Mac has around 60 per cent additional CPU power, in part because it has an “i9” equivalent processor. A Core i7 alternative made for the more traditional desktop-replacing laptop offers around 20 per cent more power, and these processors are designed to hold max power for longer. Because chunky laptops tend to have fans that can shift more air.
But if you’re not sure if the LG Gram 16 has enough power or not, and you don’t use apps that make your current laptop slow down during exports, imports – whatever procedures they do – then it probably does have enough to satisfy.
The LG Gram 16 also gets Intel’s Xe graphics, which is a fantastic addition for a laptop like this. It turns slim laptops from poor gaming machines to at least acceptable ones. GTA V? No problem. The Witcher 3? Sure, even at 1080p if you play with the settings a bit. Alien Isolation runs well at just below Full HD resolution with a mix of Medium and High settings.
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Absolutely loads of stuff is playable with Intel Xe graphics, because it gets to the level of separate entry-level gaming hardware from the last generation. And that’s not too shabby: it’s gaming skills you seem to get ‘for free’. If you buy an LG Gram 16 and find games don’t run as well as you hoped, make sure to try them at different resolutions. Intel Xe graphics chips may have a bit of punch to them, but 2560 x 2600 pixels is a bit much to ask in most console-grade titles.
There’s more good news. The LG Gram 16 is almost silent under all workloads, even if you max out the CPU for half an hour. There is a fan, but it’s barely audible if you play something through the speakers even at 30 per cent volume. This is probably the quietest laptop we’ve reviewed with one of these 11th Gen Core i7 processors. It’s another benefit of all that extra room inside: better airflow.
Battery Life
80Wh battery – up to 22 hour battery life (claimed)
65W charger
LG doesn’t sacrifice battery life for low weight either. More brownie points for LG’s engineers. The Gram 16 has an 80Wh battery, far larger than the 56Wh standard battery of the Dell XPS 15, if smaller than the more power-hungry (and powerful) 100Wh MacBook Pro 16.
Pocket-lint
Match that sort of capacity with a processor already fairly light on the battery drain and you are guaranteed good results. The LG Gram 16 lasts roughly 14 hours 30 minutes when streaming video at moderate screen brightness.
LG claims 22 hours, but this is one of those cheeky claims that involves using a benchmark from 2014 – and letting it sit in standby mode half the time.
Still, it’s excellent real-world stamina for light work, and way above the nine hours the Intel Evo”sticker guarantees. That guarantee only applies to a lower screen resolution than you get here too.
Use it with the display maxed and the CPU pushed to its limits the whole time and the LG Gram 16 will last around three hours and 25 minutes. Which still isn’t bad – a gaming laptop wouldn’t give you a third of that.
Pocket-lint
Want to know about the LG Gram 16’s connections? There are two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, and one is taken up by the charger while plugged-in. You get two classic USB ports, a microSD slot, a full-size HDMI, and a headphone jack too. So it doesn’t demand you keep a USB adapter handy, and you can plug it right into your TV or a monitor. Bliss.
Best laptop 2021: Top general and premium notebooks for working from home and more
By Dan Grabham
·
Verdict
It’s a wonder the LG Gram concept hasn’t been nicked more times already. The LG Gram 16 is a large-screen laptop that’s genuinely light enough to carry with you everywhere, every day.
There are barely any substantive compromises involved. The LG Gram 16 is as powerful as smaller laptops that weigh more, it lasts as long off a charge as some of the best Intel-powered laptops, and the keyboard is no lightweight either.
You don’t get the ultra-dense metallic feel of some of the smaller-screened alternatives at a similar price. And, sure, the Gram 16 uses a low voltage processor designed to minimise heat and save battery life, not for blistering power. However, it has enough of it to work perfectly as a desktop-replacer for most people.
Sure, a 13-inch laptop is better for some. A more powerful, thicker one will be better for others. But the LG Gram 16 takes some elements from both and, through clever design, makes it work far better than you’d imagine. For the right user it’s a stunning proposition.
Also consider
LG Gram 17
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Want something even bigger? LG has made a 17-inch Gram for a few years now. All the appeals are the same: low weight, good screen, good keyboard. Battery life is slightly shorter as it has a bigger screen and the same battery capacity. But the choice is all about the screen size you’d prefer. We think 16-inch is a more accommodating size for the masses.
Read our review
MacBook Pro 16
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The 16-inch MacBook Pro isn’t really in the same category if you look right up close. It has a more powerful processor and weighs about 800g extra. Oh, and it costs a grand more. Ouch. However, the MacBook seems a more expensive laptop as it has that amazing Apple build, which feels like perfection. The glossy glass screen finish looks better too, making the most of its similarly brilliant colour depth.
Read our review
Writing by Andrew Williams.
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