Back on the Block

BlindGeek Adventures

At long last, Blind Geek Adventures is back!

I explain the reason for the insanely long hiatus during our walk around the block, so I won’t write it here.

This time out, we’re testing some new binaural mics which are part of the Ambeos Smart Headset from Sanheiser. These are designed specifically for the iPhone, and so far, they’re fantastic. Since making the recording you’re about to hear, I did install the Ambeos app, and I’m happy to report that, for the most part, it’s quite accessable. The only thing I’ve had some trouble with is the built-in Quickstart Guide, which seems to consist of videos which have no spoken components, so the accessibility issues seem moot. I was able to update the firmware and adjust parameters with no difficulty.

I didn’t normalize or use dynamic compression on this, because I wanted to show off the capabilities of the mics. I may—and I stress, may—change this with future episodes. Of course, the compression from a fairly low-bit MP3 file can’t be helped, since I need to keep these files reasonably small. But I hope this sounds good enough to give you the feeling I got when I heard this back. I’m quite p