aiken_

What do you think tech companies entering the market (Google Home Max, Apple HomePod)? With machine learning and beamforming and such, they bring a lot of tech that has to be hard for audio companies to develop.

1. Will those technologies materially improve sound quality at the budget / mid-tier levels?
2. How much does a speaker/headphone company need to invest in the tech / firmware / processig side of product development (qualitatively... not looking for €’s)
3. What’s the next significant advance we’ll see in speaker or headphone design? Is there room for innovation in electromechanical side?

PS: I’m still enjoyig my k702’s many years later, and am sad to see AKG go.

You don't look like you're in pain now, but what about to marrow?

1. How do you ensure that a film is going to sound good in the theater, on good home theater systems, and on older TVs with crappy built-in speakers?

2. Have you noticed an uptick in films doing the "every gunshot is followed by high pitched tone that gradually fades out to simulate characters' hearing impairment" thing? Does it annoy you as much as it annoys me?

How do you reconcile the different velocities of the auto and tech industries? Time Magazine reports that the average car on the road is 11 years old, and new buyers expect to keep a new car for 6 years¹ . And yet people replace their cell phones every 18 months.

There has to be some incentive to see technology as a way to speed up refresh rates (want CarPlay? Buy a new car... from us). And this stuff isn't cheap to develop. But most consumers don't want and can't afford to buy new cars all of the time.

Do you see a time where autos are more modular and future-proof?

1. http://business.time.com/2012/07/27/driver-consensus-its-silly-to-upgrade-cars-every-couple-of-years/

How does one get a good deal without playing all of the games -- walking out, lowballing, all of the dramatic stuff?

I went to buy or lease a new car with an open mind, flat out told the salesperson that I needed a car quickly but didn't want to deal with a drawn-out negotiation. The first numbers the salesman gave me had me paying $700/mo (before tax and license) for 39 months on a lease for a car with a $32k sticker. I'm no finance wiz, but I saw that worked out to $27k for a lease, which seemed usurious and then some. Rather than haggling, I just walked.

Is there some secret handshake or something that says "don't fuck with me; offer a reasonable deal and I will let you make a decent profit; but I don't have time to play games?"