Audio Unleashed

We’re on Patreon! Find us at https://www.patreon.com/AudioUnleashed

This week, Brent and Dennis kick things off by using their unmatched business acumen to analyze what the new Sony/TCL deal means for the audio industry—and pine for the days when audio products were mostly expensive and mostly not good. Then they bring on Danny Kaey of the Hi-Fi Five to discuss a recent Headphone Sty post about how Audio Science Review and Erin’s Audio Corner are sending speaker and amp makers to the bread line. Then they ponder the significance of Marshall’s dinky new streaming box, which promises to Make Auracast Great for the First Time.

📖 Get your copy of the 4th edition of Floyd Toole’s legendary book, Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones with DISCOUNT CODE 25SMA4: https://www.routledge.com/Sound-Reproduction-The-Acoustics-and-Psychoacoustics-of-Loudspeakers-Rooms-and-Headphones/Toole-Olive-Welti/p/book/9781032761930

Dennis’ relaunched YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AdventureswithCPAP

Brent’s audio projects:

💿 Plaid Pants, Brent’s latest album! https://cygerbutterworth.bandcamp.com/album/plaid-pants

💿 The Audiophile Society's Headphone Evaluation and Spatial Audio Test Album (engineered by Brent): https://theaudiophilesociety.com/collections/albums/products/the-audiophile-societys-headphone-evaluation-and-spatial-audio-test-album

💿 tics by Flip City, mixed by Brent

https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/tics

 

Further Reading: 

Sony to spin off TV and home audio division to TCL by Rasmus Larsen: https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1768912998

Industry is Abuzz – What’s Happening With Sony TVs & Audio? What is China’s TCL’s Involvement? by Ted Green: https://www.strata-gee.com/industry-is-abuzz-whats-happening-with-sony-tvs-audio-what-is-chinas-tcls-involvement/

Independent Measurements Are Triggering Shutdowns and Sales Losses Across Legacy Audio Brands by Alexandra Plesa: https://www.headphonesty.com/2026/01/measurements-triggering-shutdowns-losses-audio-brands/

Marshall's dinky streaming hub brings wireless multi-room and vinyl support to its rock'n'roll Bluetooth speakers by Kashfia Kabir: https://www.whathifi.com/streaming-entertainment/music-streaming/marshalls-dinky-streaming-hub-brings-wireless-multi-room-and-vinyl-support-to-its-rocknroll-bluetooth-speakers

We’re on Patreon! Find us at https://www.patreon.com/AudioUnleashed

Although Brent and Dennis will probably never again work up the gumption to attend CES, they can muster the courage to read through others’ CES reports and weigh in with their own opinions. That’s this week’s first segment. Then they check out an article from Darko about age-related hearing loss and its relationship with audio copium, and think real hard about whether buying a $10,000 DAC is worth it if you can’t hear above 12 kHz. They then take a TAS hostage video hostage and use it as a jumping-off point for a deep dive into Class G and H amp topologies. 

 

And for Patrons: What the heck is Snyderman’s Maxim? And would you want a million-dollar audio system if you could only use it to listen to “Hotel California”?

 

📖 Get your copy of the 4th edition of Floyd Toole’s legendary book, Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones with DISCOUNT CODE 25SMA4: https://www.routledge.com/Sound-Reproduction-The-Acoustics-and-Psychoacoustics-of-Loudspeakers-Rooms-and-Headphones/Toole-Olive-Welti/p/book/9781032761930

 

Dennis’ relaunched YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AdventureswithCPAP

 

Brent’s audio projects:

💿 Plaid Pants, Brent’s latest album! https://cygerbutterworth.bandcamp.com/album/plaid-pants

 

💿 The Audiophile Society's Headphone Evaluation and Spatial Audio Test Album (engineered by Brent): https://theaudiophilesociety.com/collections/albums/products/the-audiophile-societys-headphone-evaluation-and-spatial-audio-test-album

 

💿 tics by Flip City, mixed by Brent

https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/tics

Further Reading: 

Can You Identify Famous Guitarists From A Single Note? by Rick Beato: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gESY87hn7_Q

CES 2026: With Onkyo, Premium Audio Co Proves It Can Walk & Chew Gum at the Same Time by Ted Gree: https://www.strata-gee.com/ces-2026-with-onkyo-premium-audio-co-proves-it-can-walk-chew-gum-at-the-same-time/

Best of CES 2025: The Audio Gear That Matters by Adam Birney: https://www.soundguys.com/best-of-ces-2025-the-audio-gear-that-matters-130847/

Eclipsa Audio on GitHub: https://github.com/google/eclipsa-audio-plugin

Klipsch Demos New Powered Speakers, Shows Off High-End Concepts at CES 2026 by Jacob Green: https://www.audioholics.com/bookshelf-speaker-reviews/klipsch-80th-ces

The Best of CES 2026: The Products We Want to Get Our Hands On Most by Wirecutter Staff: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-ces-2026-products/

The LG Sound Suite Soundbar changed the way I think about surround sound by Nick Pino: https://www.tomsguide.com/audio/speakers/the-lg-sound-suite-soundbar-changed-the-way-i-think-about-surround-sound

How age-related hearing loss emboldens hi-fi cope by John Darko: https://darko.audio/2025/12/how-age-related-hearing-loss-emboldens-hi-fi-cope/

We’re on Patreon! Find us at https://www.patreon.com/AudioUnleashed

Brent and Dennis ring in the new year by finding the very fine line between clever and stupid when it comes to A/B tests on YouTube, courtesy of AP Mastering. Next up: John Darko says lazy phrases are the norm in audio coverage but don’t mean anything. Is Darko punching above his weight class without breaking a sweat? And lastly for most listeners, we wonder if the rumors of the audio hobby’s death have been greatly exaggerated, and pine for the days when all audiophiles wore bowler hats.

 

And for Patrons: When Stereophile does blind testing, Brent and Dennis sit up and take notice… a full 37 years late.

 

📖 Get your copy of the 4th edition of Floyd Toole’s legendary book, Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones with DISCOUNT CODE 25SMA4: https://www.routledge.com/Sound-Reproduction-The-Acoustics-and-Psychoacoustics-of-Loudspeakers-Rooms-and-Headphones/Toole-Olive-Welti/p/book/9781032761930

 

Dennis’ relaunched YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AdventureswithCPAP

 

Brent’s audio projects:

💿 Plaid Pants, Brent’s latest album! https://cygerbutterworth.bandcamp.com/album/plaid-pants

 

💿 The Audiophile Society's Headphone Evaluation and Spatial Audio Test Album (engineered by Brent): https://theaudiophilesociety.com/collections/albums/products/the-audiophile-societys-headphone-evaluation-and-spatial-audio-test-album

 

💿 tics by Flip City, mixed by Brent

https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/tics

Further Reading: 

Audiophiles are wrong about YouTube's audio quality by AP Mastering: https://youtu.be/Xq1n9oYKiZU?si=2L6KhfoMimpLf12z

Ready-made phrases: how hi-fi reviews dress up laziness as expertise by John Darko: https://darko.audio/2025/12/ready-made-phrases-how-hi-fi-reviews-can-dress-up-laziness-as-expertise/

YouTube Indicates What the Future is For Audiophiles - Interesting Demographics: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/youtube-indicates-what-the-future-is-for-audiophiles-interesting-demo/post?postid=2725195

40% of Audiophiles May Be Gone Soon, and No One Is Replacing Them by Alexandra Plesa: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/09/audiophiles-gone-soon/

Lumines: Arise: https://lumines.game/

We’re on Patreon! Find us at https://www.patreon.com/AudioUnleashed

This week, Brent and Dennis begin with a discussion about the design and manufacture of high-end audio cables courtesy of Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity. How much art is there to appreciate? How much science is there to check? And most importantly, which aspects of the article pissed off our curmudgeonly duo the most? 

Speaking of being pissed off, Brent has a bone to pick with Erin Hardison over his most recent video about flat frequency response. You don’t want to miss that.

And finally for most listeners this week, Dennis finally gets to do an entire segment about King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, thanks to an AI clone of the band that popped up on streaming services. Did this whole story somehow prove that Google is more evil than Spotify? Perhaps! 

📖 Get your copy of the 4th edition of Floyd Toole’s legendary book, Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones with DISCOUNT CODE 25SMA4: https://www.routledge.com/Sound-Reproduction-The-Acoustics-and-Psychoacoustics-of-Loudspeakers-Rooms-and-Headphones/Toole-Olive-Welti/p/book/9781032761930

Dennis’ relaunched YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AdventureswithCPAP

Brent’s audio projects:

💿 Plaid Pants, Brent’s latest album! https://cygerbutterworth.bandcamp.com/album/plaid-pants

💿 The Audiophile Society's Headphone Evaluation and Spatial Audio Test Album (engineered by Brent): https://theaudiophilesociety.com/collections/albums/products/the-audiophile-societys-headphone-evaluation-and-spatial-audio-test-album

💿 tics by Flip City, mixed by Brent

https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/tics

Further Reading: 

The Art and Science of Designing High-End Audio Cables by John E. Johnson, Jr.: https://hometheaterhifi.com/technical/technical-reviews/the-art-and-science-of-designing-high-end-audio-cables/

Why "Flat" Response Sounds TERRIBLE! by Erin's Audio Corner: https://youtu.be/LXX6zzA2AY0?si=WgArCIF_uu9TX6Kc

Børresen X3 Floorstanding Speaker Review by Erin’s Audio Corner: https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/b%C3%B8rresen_x3/

5,000 Podcasts. 3,000 Episodes a Week. $1 Cost Per Episode — Behind an AI Start Up’s Plan by Caitlin Huston: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/ai-podcast-start-up-plan-shows-1236361367/

‘We are truly doomed’: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard despair at AI clone appearing on Spotify: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/10/king-gizzard-and-the-lizard-wizard-despair-at-ai-clone-appearing-on-spotify

“Rattlesnake” by the fake AI band King Lizard Wizard: https://youtu.be/9MKm5HMth5A?si=rb7FuqHo4EnJeEOC

“Rattlesnake” by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: https://youtu.be/Q-i1XZc8ZwA?si=OAdN3LLq90DpcM7s

I've Lost 180 lbs. (82kg) on CPAP. Now What?! by Adventures with CPAP: https://youtu.be/uDD7Ft2jx4w?si=Ge7_bqFyTGeY3zKd

We’re on Patreon! Find us at https://www.patreon.com/AudioUnleashed

This week, Brent and Dennis kick things off by investigating whether translating the words of non-English speakers in a way that suits your agenda might be a promising new business model for bad audio websites. Then they’re joined by SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider for a post-mortem on Dennis’ historic and fateful appearance on The HiFi Five. Wrapping things up for normies, they respond to a request from numerous Patrons to look into New Record Day’s power cable conversion testimony to answer the question: Is it worthwhile to do a deep dive into the testing procedures of people who haven’t themselves done a deep dive into the subject of testing procedures?

📖 Get your copy of the 4th edition of Floyd Toole’s legendary book, Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones with DISCOUNT CODE 25SMA4: https://www.routledge.com/Sound-Reproduction-The-Acoustics-and-Psychoacoustics-of-Loudspeakers-Rooms-and-Headphones/Toole-Olive-Welti/p/book/9781032761930

Brent’s audio projects:

💿 Plaid Pants, Brent’s latest album! https://cygerbutterworth.bandcamp.com/album/plaid-pants

💿 The Audiophile Society's Headphone Evaluation and Spatial Audio Test Album (engineered by Brent): https://theaudiophilesociety.com/collections/albums/products/the-audiophile-societys-headphone-evaluation-and-spatial-audio-test-album

💿 tics by Flip City, mixed by Brent

https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/tics

Further Reading: 

Veteran Speaker Designer Reveals the Top 3 Reasons Why Designers Can’t Build Great Speakers Anymore: https://www.headphonesty.com/2025/11/veteran-designer-explains-why-speakers-declined/

GPM Monitor One: il bookshelf di riferimento by G.P. Matarazzo: https://www.avmagazine.it/articoli/diffusori/2077/gpm-monitor-one-il-bookshelf-di-riferimento_index.html

Test: Sonus Faber Lumina II by G.P. Matarazzo: https://www.avmagazine.it/articoli/diffusori/2051/test-sonus-faber-lumina-ii_index.html

The HiFi Five Episode 6: Guest Dennis Burger of SoundStage! by The HiFi Five: https://www.youtube.com/live/OORvfQh_zjo

The Most Pathetic Excuse in High-End Audio (Ep:94) by SoundStage! Network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3e7dD-Yij0

I Tried to Debunk Power Cords & Conditioners… and Failed Spectacularly by New Record Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIWVDNiRCiM