

SoundFocus (YC S13) launches Amp iPhone audio case - garry
https://www.ampaudio.com/

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timfrietas
I'm at a loss for why this is targeted for iPhone and not tablets. At least
for me tablets are in the uncanny valley where they are large enough to be
used for media consumption (i.e. watching Netflix in bed) AND the speakers are
too small/weak so I am annoyed by the sound quality. The iPhone DACs are fine
for 99% of mp3 headphone listeners and most cars/aftermarket car stereos have
integrated Bluetooth nowadays if you want to take your calls on even bigger
speakers.

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tmuir
No one stacks shit taller than audio hardware companies. Warm rich bass on a
half square inch speaker? 24-bit DAC to faithfully reproduce your lossy audio
files? Come on.

~~~
stoev
While the claim about "warm rich bass" on those small speakers is definitely
an exaggeration, there are many Hi-Fi headphones that benefit from a portable
amp-DAC combination. Many people are already carrying extra devices in their
pockets for this purpose, so why not integrate tyem with the phone?

"Amp measures your hearing pattern so it can tailor to your ears" \- this
could also be very interesting. Especially if combined with frequency response
data for a large database of headphones that would customise the sound for
each one of them.

I think that it is an interesting idea with a lot of potential and am looking
forward to seeing whether the actual product is good enough and catches on.

~~~
varunsrin
Hey stoev - Amp founder here. Great comments, tailoring to your hearing
pattern and headphones is a big part of what we focus on in addition to your
environment, and I'm glad you're excited by it.

Music, and audio in general, has traditionally been mastered for 'ideal'
studio conditions, which are perfect listening environments. In the real
world, a lot of people are listening to their iPod earbuds while walking down
a busy streets and have less than perfect hearing, which completely negates a
lot of the hard work that the studio engineers put into the mastering process.

Look at any live event where audio plays a big role - you almost always have a
sound engineer leveling and remixing sound, so that the little details shine
through as the environment changes constantly. We're automating that process ,
and bringing it to your phone, so you can enjoy great sound no matter where
you are.

Speaking to the speakers specifically, we've done a lot of work with our DSP
engine and acoustics to really reinforce the sound in the low 200 - 300 Hz
range, which is where a lot of the warmth perception comes from. There are a
lot of really cool acoustical tricks you can play with resonances and backflow
volumes - its not just the speaker driver itself, but what you do with the
enclosure and the volume behind the speaker that makes a huge difference.

~~~
anigbrowl
For one thing, adding external DSP is rather redundant since the program
material can be optimized for the peculiarities of the iPhone's DAC in
firmware or software.

For another, it's not true to say music is mastered for ideal studio
conditions. It's typically mastered _in_ ideal studio conditions but then it's
also typically tried out in known inferior ones - for example, almost every
recording studio used to have a pair of Yamaha NS-10 speakers, which were
deliberately engineered to deliver crap home hifi performance, with the rule
of thumb being 'if it sounds good on them, it'll sound good on anything.' Do a
Google Image search on'recording studio' and you'll loads on these el-cheapo
monitors sitting atop mixers that cost tens or even hundreds of times as much.

Learn more here:
[http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/yamahans10.ht...](http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/yamahans10.htm)

And even after using tools like that, the final test is (and has long been) to
listen to the program material in a car, on a boombox, on a phone, or whatever
- just like in film, the director doesn't usually sign off on the final
product until after taking it to a screening theater or putting it in the
DVD/bluray player at home, as appropriate.

People who work in audio production are _abundantly_ aware that music is
listened to in very different environments from where it is created. This is
something that is stressed in just about every mastering article/tutorial/book
I have come across in 20 years as a sound engineer. We're also aware that the
human brain tends to compensate for the effect of the listening environment on
the signal. We even have a name for this phenomenon, which has been the
subject of considerable academic study:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect)

You're offering a product that does some dynamic signal processing based on a
combination of the program material and the listening environment, that's fine
and there's a market for it. By all means lay claim to some new secret sauce -
as pointed out above, everyone else in this industry does. But spare me the
spurious arguments about elitist engineers in their ivory tower studios who
don't care about the plight of the average listener.

~~~
varunsrin
Hey anigbrowl - thanks for the detailed reply and the tip on the Yamaha
NS-10's, I'll have to pick up a pair soon.

To my earlier point - you're correct, what I meant is that its mastered in
ideal studio conditions, but to a specific taste. The sound engineer usually
has to make this call - do I want this to sound good on the radio and when
streamed at 128 Kbps over Spotify to someones car? Or do I optimize for the
discerning listener who is using his Hi Fi system at home?

And studio engineers definitely take people's listening abilities into
account, but again are force to make some hard choices - most are aware that
their hearing is usually better trained than the average consumer, and will
shy away from including details that are very subtle in for pop music (i'm
using this term broadly) for example.

We really believe that as portable sound systems start becoming cognizant of
their environment and their users' habits, they'll be able to deliver audio
that delights people - a lot of our initial testers have really liked the
dynamic changes we provide in DSP. Even if they have the know-how to tweak
their own music, changing settings on a mobile device every time their
headphones, song or environment changes is a challenging affair and limited to
simple EQ changes for the most part.

If you're interested in playing with an early version of our DSP and giving us
some feedback, I would love to get your thoughts - shoot me an email (in my HN
profile).

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beedogs
So it's already obsolete? This is for the 5s.

Also, honestly, anyone who plays music on their phone in public is kind of a
dickhead.

~~~
matznerd
Your comment is already obsolete. I wouldn't be so quick to judge, with both
of your points...

In regards to phone models: "What phone models does Amp support? Amp is
designed for the iPhone 5, 5s, 6 and 6 plus."

As for your second comment, what about people who want to play music from
their phone while by the pool or in their backyard or at a small gathering? I
personally listen to a meditation each morning and have to use an external
bluetooth speaker so this looks pretty useful to me.

