Hacker News with Generative AI: Audio

Don't Buy into Apple's Hype About AirPods Max Gaining Lossless Audio (macrumors.com)
Apple today announced that AirPods Max with a USB-C port will be gaining support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio with a firmware update next month, alongside the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4.
Apple Now Selling USB-C to 3.5mm Audio Cable (macrumors.com)
Following today's announcement of Lossless audio and Personalized Spatial Audio for the AirPods Max, Apple today released a USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable.
Apple Now Selling USB-C to 3.5mm Audio Cable (macrumors.com)
Following today's announcement of Lossless audio and Personalized Spatial Audio for the AirPods Max, Apple today released a USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable.
Triforce – a beamformer for Apple Silicon laptops (github.com/chadmed)
Show HN: AudioNimbus – Steam Audio's immersive spatial audio, now in Rust (github.com/MaxenceMaire)
A Rust wrapper around Steam Audio, bringing powerful spatial audio capabilities to the Rust ecosystem.
Pocket Casts makes its web player free, takes shots at Spotify and AI (arstechnica.com)
To push that point forward, Pocket Casts, owned by the company behind WordPress, Automattic Inc., has made its web player free to everyone.
The first wi-fi earbuds are here (whathifi.com)
Show HN: Autodio – Auto Audio/Sound Device Switcher for macOS (apple.com)
Autodio is an auto sound output input switcher app. It remembers your choices for output and input according to the attached devices. Just plug and unplug any sound devices that you set active output or input device before, and voilà... You don't even have to use Autodio window to set your devices!
Raspberry Pi Pico audio player (blogspot.com)
For an index to all my stories click this text.After all the proceeding stories the time has come to build a complete stand-alone audio player with the Raspberry Pi Pico. The audio quality is not Hifi but it is really good !! Good enough as a player in your mancave, bedroom or even as a portable player. I have made a permanent setup and using it to play music and podcasts.
Ggwave: Tiny Data-over-Sound Library (github.com/ggerganov)
Tiny data-over-sound library.
Show HN: Sober Ringtones – Cringe-free ringtones for people who hate ringtones (wize.io)
Ever found yourself scrolling through ringtones on your brand-new phone, only to realize you can't find one that wouldn't make you and everyone around you cringe?
Show HN: WhisperCat – An Audio Recorder and Transcription Tool (github.com/ddxy)
WhisperCat is your personal companion for capturing audio, transcribing it, and managing it in one seamless interface.
PipeWire Is Doing an Excellent Job Handling Audio/Video Streams on the Desktop (phoronix.com)
Red Hat engineer and PipeWire lead developer Wim Taymans presented at FOSDEM 2025 last weekend around the state of the PipeWire project for this integral component to the modern Linux desktop.
Sonos Cuts 12% of Workers in Bid to Improve Product Organization (bloomberg.com)
Sonos Inc. said it’s cutting about 12% of its staff, or 200 workers, in a bid to make its product teams “flatter, smaller and more focused.”
What does it mean that MP3 is free? (idiallo.com)
The MP3 format, once the gold standard for digital audio files, is now free. The licensing and patents on MP3 encoders have expired, meaning you can now include them in your applications without paying royalties. For software developers and audio enthusiasts, this might seem like a big deal. But, surprisingly, almost no one noticed. Why? Because the world of technology has changed so drastically that MP3's significance has faded into the background.
Ask HN: Why isn't an open source A/V receiver a thing? (ycombinator.com)
So FFmpeg can decode pretty much any modern home theatre audio standard, including the multi-channel Atmos and DTS. It can take HDMI input, process the audio as separate channels on the fly, mapping them to a sound card, while passing through the video further out. There are very good sound cards that can process the channels and pass the analog signal to also very good and inexpensive, audiofile-level amplifiers.<p>Why isn’t building a modular A/V receiver a thing, then?
Ask HN: Is onboard audio still good enough compared to dedicated Sound Cards? (ycombinator.com)
Recently, I upgraded my outdated PC to a Z890 motherboard, primarily because it was significantly discounted compared to AMD alternatives.
Show HN: Design/build of some parametric speaker cabinets with OpenSCAD (calbryant.uk)
This post documents a saga of speaker design dating back to 2019. Since then, I’ve been gradually working on a CAD model for a new set of what started as (yet another) subwoofer, but became some compact 2-way office ribbon speakers.
Yoodio generative radio stations app – looking for testers (youtube.com)
The Ribbon Microphone (khz.ac)
"Better for you if you take me off" – The Whispering Earring (gwern.net)
Apple starts pushing AirPods owners into Transparency mode, with no easy opt out (keydiscussions.com)
A couple of weeks ago I noticed my pair of AirPods Pro 2 aggressively switching me into Transparency mode. It seemed like a bug. Again and again I would have to manually switch back out of Transparency mode. Annoying.
Sonos CEO Leaves Company (sonos.com)
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., January 13, 2025 – Sonos, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONO) today announced that the Sonos Board of Directors and Patrick Spence have agreed that Mr. Spence will step down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and as a member of the Board effective today.
Free music archive (freemusicarchive.org)
Free access to original music & creators
Show HN: I've been posting a sound I made everyday day for the last year (listenfaster.com)
A minute of sound a day.
Building Ultra Long Range Toslink (benjojo.co.uk)
This post is a textual version of a talk I gave at The 38th Chaos Computer Congress at the end of 2024. You can watch the talk that was recorded by the wonderful C3VOC team below if that’s your preferred medium:
Show HN: Asak – cross-platform audio recording/playback CLI tool written in Rust (github.com/chaosprint)
A cross-platform audio recording/playback CLI tool with TUI, written in Rust. The goal is to be an audio Swiss Army Knife (asak), like SoX but more interactive and fun.
The Christmas story of one tube station's 'Mind the Gap' voice (2019) (theguardian.com)
If you happen to find yourself at Embankment station on the London Underground, pay particular attention to the tannoy: the station’s “Mind the Gap” announcement is pronounced in rich, theatrical tones, a voice you won’t hear elsewhere on the network.
OpenAI WebRTC Audio Demo (simonwillison.net)
OpenAI announced a bunch of API features today, including a brand new WebRTC API for setting up a two-way audio conversation with their models.
Grug’s Guide to Sound (petrustheron.com)