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This week, Brent and Dennis welcome headphone expert and friend of the podcast Lauren Dragan to answer the question: does the new hearing-aid functionality of Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 really work, or is it just another quickly tacked-on feature everybody else will have to copy? But before that: Some bloviating about Bose’ purchase of the McIntosh Group and some gushing about Erin’s Audio Corner’s review of the Børresen X3 speaker (and some not-so-gushing about a few other reviews of the same speaker).

Buy-now links for products mentioned herein (As Amazon Associates, we may earn a small cut from qualifying purchases):

📚 Budget Travel For Dummies by Geoffrey Morrison: https://amzn.to/3uiIPlp

📚Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms by Floyd Toole: https://amzn.to/3ZlTLtE

📚Loudspeaker Design Cookbook 8th Edition: Volume 1 by Vance Dickason: https://amzn.to/42pdwk0

📚 The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back by Jacob Ward: https://amzn.to/4cyzSET

Further Reading: 

• “The Gift” by Twenty Thousand Hertz: https://www.20k.org/episodes/thegift


• “Bose buys McIntosh” by Kif Leswing: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/19/bose-buys-mcintosh-storied-maker-of-high-end-luxury-audio-equipment.html


• “Bose Corporation Snaps Up High-End Audio Brand McIntosh” by Mark Sparrow https://www.forbes.com/sites/marksparrow/2024/11/19/bose-corporation-snaps-up-high-end-audio-brand-mcintosh/


• “Bose Corporation Acquires McIntosh Group” by Mark Henninger: https://www.stereophile.com/content/bose-corporation-acquires-mcintosh-group

• “The Hidden Secrets of BØRRESEN X3 SPEAKER Audiophiles Need to Know” by Erin's Audio Corner: https://youtu.be/EfasOu928tQ?si=uHRVnbchWAKJ5sMN


• “RF: A Phantom Menace?” by Brent Butterworth: https://www.soundstagesolo.com/index.php/features/346-rf-a-phantom-menace


• “The Børresen X3 Floor Standing Loudspeaker Review” by The Absolute Sound: https://youtu.be/XD0ihyCGnmM?si=o-hCj0oMoHwZKjYZ


• “Børresen X3, You Gotta Hear These Speakers!” by Steve Guttenberg Audiophiliac: https://youtu.be/mXloRt4pmN8?si=hbQtR2WPLkwEL6-o


• “Børresen X3 Loudspeaker” by Stuart Smith: https://www.hifipig.com/borresen-x3-loudspeaker-review/


• “Troubling Trend: 2024 CEDIA Expo Loses Hundreds of Attendees This Year” by Ted Green: https://www.strata-gee.com/troubling-trend-2024-cedia-expo-loses-hundreds-of-attendees-this-year/


• “CEDIA 2019 Report: A Tale of the Haves and the Have-Nots” by Dennis Burger: https://hometheaterreview.com/cedia-2019-report-a-tale-of-the-haves-and-the-have-nots/