Tiny Tech Tips: Which Of The New, 'Hi-Fi' Smart Speakers Sounds The Best?

A new generation of smart speakers greatly improves on the device's sound quality. A new generation of smart speakers greatly improves on the device's sound quality. As the audio engineer for the Tiny Desk concert series, of course I obsess over how our concerts are experienced -- so when I watch someone pull up a session on their smartphone, laptop or tablet, with those tiny and tinny speakers, my heart sinks a little. I'm thrilled people love these concerts as much as we love making them, but they sound so much better when played on a decent sound system, or on headphones. Sure, the concerts sound OK on a mono phone speaker, but you'd be amazed by what you're missing once you've heard the audio mix on a device that can actually reproduce the low and high ends of the frequency spectrum, where all the chest-thumping bass and shimmering cymbals live.