I am an early adopted and fan of Jawbone’s Jambox and find myself using it much more than I hoped I would (surprising for a tech gizmo).
I was intrigued by an email promising a 2.0 Jambox firmware update containing LIVEAUDIO, a feature hyped as increasing “depth, detail, and unprecedented spatial realism” to this tiny speaker. (reminded me of old friends at CRE proposing turning stereo boom-boxes into virtual surround sound systems via the magic of crosstalk cancelation and the HRTF)
While they talk about binaural audio I doubt they are attempting the nearfield cross cancelation and the resulting tiny sweet spot needed to deliver the goods. Or maybe not?
More likely they are performing classic phase delay tricks?
Listening to classical music and some test content LIVEAUDIO definitely dramatically widens the apparent soundstage, but this is not saying much compared to the previously boomy mono-experience (did I usually use the Jambox to listen to Podcasts while working on the house?)
Listening to Bo Gehring’s binaural content (from AAV3) I again hear am impressive sound stage, but I don’t get the true 3D binaural experience (elevation and front/back positioning) that I experience through headphones, and have also experienced with near field monitors employing crosstalk cancelation. Perhaps I haven’t located the sweet spot?
Please leave a comment or email if you have more information or experiences to share.
