Crutchfield: The Podcast Ep 70

[Speaker 1]

Hello and welcome to Crutchfield the podcast. I'm your host Jr. And I'm Eric Eric We back to Eric. Let's stop that.

No, let's start this thing over. Okay. I wasn't really ready apparently Hello and welcome to Crutchfield the podcast, I'm your host JR and I'm huffy and we are back.

Welcome to 2026 this is our first episode of the new year and we're kind of hyped up Because CES just happened. I love CES the consumer electronics show every year in Vegas in early January Gosh, wasn't it exhausting? I Well, we wouldn't know that but well, you know, what was exhausting?

I consumed so much content on CES So much content. Yeah, I mean my feet don't hurt which is nice. I know if you go there, you know, you'd be 25,000 steps in a day.

I can tell you from experience your feet hurt a lot

[Speaker 2]

Yeah

[Speaker 1]

And after three or four days of walking around all of the different convention floors going to all of the hotels into the suites to Experience amazing audio demos big-screen TVs I mean, it's just and you try it tries you might there's no way you could see it all No, no, not even possible when we went to CES we would focus us in the video team Yeah, we as in not me. Let's be clear there.

Yeah, I know I wasn't trying to rub it in But now that you bring it up you were a little you weren't there There was that year Were you we had it so close. We bought a ticket. We had a hotel room booked for you So we had like a special Announcements given to you in surprise by your boss Kurt I filmed it so we could get your reaction and maybe use that in like a video and then what happened COVID COVID killed your CES experience.

I Was lucky enough to have gone four times before leading up to COVID But then COVID killed like it did so many things CES for us anyway, and we haven't been back since even though COVID is now kind of a memory It's CES is also now kind of a memory. So we may not have been at CES However, lots and lots of YouTube content creators were yeah, and we've been watching all of that content from all of those creators and Well, it's almost like being there I mean seeing seeing the Convention Center seeing it just made it took me back to my time at CES It took me back to last year when I watched other people walk around and see all the cool gadgets, but that's fine So here's what we're gonna do today. We have been watching and keeping up for the most part What's been coming out of CES?

Thank you to all of the people that went and shared with us what they saw So we're gonna we've been making a list We're gonna talk about all of the gadgets that we saw in all of these videos that May make it to market that we may carry like that's gonna kind of be our focus There's a ton of stuff released at CES that will never see the light of day period much less Will we carry it at Crutchfield, right?

We're gonna maybe we'll dabble a little bit with that at the end of the show Yeah, but for the most part we're gonna focus on stuff that Could end up on Crutchfield comm there we go and that there's a doubt our customers might be excited about it Yeah, otherwise, I think we'd be here and we try to break a record for the longest podcast in history to cover everything, right? And we actually that one of our goals for podcast episodes in 2026. Mmm shorter episode.

Okay Well get on with it though an hour and 10-minute episode at people and they're like, I don't have time for that So our goal is to keep these around like a half an hour or so Well, you know, let's get going so we should probably start. Yeah So first off there's like AI and everything Everything everything everything this reminds me a couple years ago a couple years It's probably 10-15 years ago at this point where everything was smart we had smart lights and smart locks and smart cameras and and you know what that actually did Come to to market right like we have those products a lot of us have adapted those in our day-to-day life and This feels kind of like that AI was definitely a buzzword Yep, and if your product doesn't have AI in some way shape or form incorporated into it.

Yeah, even if just a little bit Then you might be missing out like that's like that's clearly the message we're getting. Yeah, and last year I mean AI existed last year, right? But this was the first time that it it feels like it has to be in all the widgets if you will It's no longer the voice that's in your pocket on your phone.

You're not just asking it questions You're actually engaged with it. It's Watching you should I say that it's a little creepy, but you know, there are some AI things Gadgets that were released that are definitely yes. Yes.

So I mean everyone's gonna kind of come into this with their own Level of comfort and I get that but It is it is everywhere. So we're not going to detail Exactly how much AI there is and all of the things we're about to talk about just know it's probably in there Yeah, so I would think that a lot of this over the next couple years is gonna come to market you're gonna see AI integrated and everything from fans to vacuums to wash machines and ice makers to You know televisions and speakers. There's some other stuff.

We won't be going into today either like it's way too early To have any kind of detail on specific availability of products the pricing of products In fact, we can't even promise that we will definitely carry everything. We're going to talk about in today's episode It's just the stuff that we think is likely that we will be carrying and in fact the stuff that they released and showed it oftentimes the end product that comes out is different than what they showed at CES because of production, you know complications things like that. So there's just your big old disclaimer at the top We're just excited about stuff at CES whether it comes to fruition or not It's kind of irrelevant, but we are trying to focus on the stuff that we think there's a good chance We'll get to talk to our customers about it this year and We're better to start than with TVs TVs is always kind of a huge deal at CES This is where Samsung and Sony and LG are usually releasing newest their newest stuff Sony kind of stopped doing it at CES a few years back, but Samsung and LG still make a big splash Well, Sony has their own event. That'll stay tuned well we should hear more from them in the next couple weeks and First on our list of things to talk about in the world of TVs is micro RGB TVs Yeah, so that's not a brand new thing Certainly was out last year But we're starting to see micro RGB It's not just an aspirational Product design like we're starting to see some of the some of the our big manufacturers Integrate it and not just on their biggest TVs, but it looks like they might integrate it on Lots of models lots of different sizes, which gives me hope that this technology is going to scale And that we should be able to get some new premium Televisions and sizes maybe that we didn't have access to so we do want to explain what? So if you know anything about TVs, there's two major types of TVs there's OLEDs and there's LCD TVs, right and The the all of the excitement and hoopla is not about the OLEDs right now at all It's about the LCD TVs Which have a backlight and that those backlights have been evolving and getting better and better and better every year The number of bulbs back there lighting up your screen more and more of them as they learn to make them smaller and smaller So we went from LED backlight to mini LED backlight now, we're at micro LED backlight smaller and All of the lights typically are either white or blue and then you use like color films over them to get the colors out, right? but micro RGB is Actually smaller LED bulbs that are both all red green and blue So each little bulb in there is actually three bulbs of all three colors of the color spectrum.

Why is that better? With those three colors you can make any color So now your backlight is bringing the colors to the party and it's not just relying On that film as you put it that that the the white light would pass through the example I always use is wrist watches from the 80s The digital wrist watches. Yeah that LLC that gray and black.

Yeah screen Yeah, they had a night button on the side of them, which would illuminate the back of that LCD. Yeah So you could see it. There's a little light bulb that would just shine right through that LCD Yeah, that's still how LCD technology more or less works like edged edgelit One on the side, right?

Yeah, the the the minutes were really Illuminated the the hour not so much. But anyway, um so By having more of those lights and now having them be able to bring all the colors to bear you're just gonna have way better contrast and With a because you're basically using three light bulbs to make colors They're really bright and that's what people are looking for. We're looking for bigger brighter bolder televisions Yeah, so more bulbs gives you more control of the light in all of the different zones on the screen, right?

so you can dim a certain zone when it's a Darker scene and if it's bright on the other half of the TV those bulbs are on and now Those bulbs can be the right color when they're on or off to give you even more Dynamic range more more beautiful colors. That's the that's the rave reviews I'm seeing and hearing from people that are seeing these in person is the color on them is spectacular, right and They can get big big hundred and thirty inch Samsung. That's what was on display there that I Can't wait to find a shelf big enough in the warehouse to put that thing It'll probably have to get set directly on the floor There's no shelf for that and and shipping that is gonna be a job.

I call it for next year's Super Bowl I would like to borrow one. Yeah. Yeah, you want it You know wait till one of mine gets returned and so that you can buy it at a discount Maybe we'll have you know a floor model that we That we opened up to take pictures of or something.

Yeah, but yeah, no 130 inch TV looks pretty fantastic And yeah in other Samsung news. They are moving away From using the one connect box like some of their TVs in this in this model year Won't have a wired box that you put down below the TV where you plug in your HDMI is from your sources And then it's just one simple cable up to the TV That box is not going to be available with every TV this year. Yeah, I get it I think a lot of folks aren't plugging a bunch of external sources into their TVs these days So if you can eliminate that extra box Yeah, I can see that being appealing for folks I thought it's interesting that they decided to then add a wireless option For those TVs, so they still have a one connect box option But now you it's a separate piece that again, we don't have prices yet but it's basically an add-on module that'll give you a wireless card that plugs into the TV and then a Box to plug all your HDMI cables and do so that sounds super convenient. It really does It really does that that is that's a smart way to handle it for sure And from what I'm seeing it does look like they're able to do HDMI 2.1 So you can plug in your PlayStation your Xbox Whatever your your newest model gaming console right into that box and it wirelessly sends it up to the TV Yeah, I have no idea what effect that might have on latency or anything like that I assume they have that stuff figured out right?

But yeah, so in in one way They are reducing the convenience of the connectivity on some of their TVs But on the other hand, they're improving the convenience of the connectivity on some of their TVs Who would have thought just throw more money at it and you can have the best of both worlds. There you go This next one. I think I'm more excited about this one than you are both Samsung and LG Showed off like some wireless TVs like Detachable like you it's like a TV on a on a stand that's on wheels, right?

you plug it in and to keep it charged but then you can unplug it and wheel it around your house or take it off Of the stand and set it on a table Take it out back and use it on your back porch if you want to watch the game Outside and then bring your TV back in with you put it in the kitchen and watch a recipe and make food Take it into the bathroom so you can watch the game while you're doing bathroom things, right? I think there's a lot of applications for a wireless TV around the house.

You don't feel that way though, do you? I think you just gave all the scenarios where it could be useful and I feel like I have a Screen on me and all of those scenarios that I don't have to Move and pick up and move around and that's called my phone and then I've got yet another scenario for you Okay, imagine if you walk from room to room and you just have another television that's in that room Yeah, that looks like art, you know, Samsung was also big and LG they're getting into that frame and art game as well Mm-hmm, so that the TV's, you know, if it's gonna be the this focal point of a room there They look pretty and they can always be on with pretty art So just have a TV in every room and if it's not convenient to have one in your bathroom Well, you know, not everybody can do that. We all have our phones. Let's not pretend we don't I think I support either solution Oh, right or TV.

There's more TVs TVs in every room I think that sounds fantastic, right? But maybe not everybody has the budget for that or the wall space for that And if you don't then you have a phone and if you and if these wireless TVs are reasonably priced I don't know that. Yeah, right, but if they are reasonably priced that seemed like a pretty solid solution as well All right, if you say so, yes LG wallpaper TV.

Did you see this one? Oh, I have a the OLED Evo w6 getting pretty rave reviews Yes. Yeah, they New chip, right.

Well, stop me if you've heard this one a new chip You know, it's brighter We talked about what makes LG TVs great and it's typically their panels It's not their processor, but that could very well they might have really up their game and as far as processing goes Yeah, I give him a hard time because well, that's what the industry does, right? It's no different than our phones or or any other electronics a lot of times the big improvement You don't necessarily see it looking at it from the outside It's all in the the the chip and then the software that that chip can support. Yeah, so they've upgraded that They also ended up with a little less glare.

They're doing some cool things now Samsung's anti-glare technology in the past has been a little bit of controversial I might say in that a lot of people either love it or they or some people don't like it they have that super matte finish almost like liquid paper finish and Again, some people really like it. Some people don't love it this isn't that but they have improved their anti-glare technology along with the chip and the the brightness so Really looking forward to getting my hands on the new G6 series or w6 series w6 w6. Thank you Yeah, looking forward and it's so thin like there.

It really looks like a piece of art hanging on your T on your wall It's fantastic You Let's move into the world of home audio So there are new clip speakers to get excited about some with a very new look to them The ones that really stood out to me are the reference Premiere threes So that's just a newer version of reference Premiere twos that we've had for years now, right? They are they're looking sleeker better than ever the horn slightly redesigned And some different colors of some things very cool but the the ones that stood out right next to that on the showroom floor were the one step up from that the reference signature Tom theater's be totally different. Look.

Yeah rounded edges wood grain that goes horizontal instead of vertical Yeah, I I think they've found a way to have that Clips look it's unmistakably a clip. Yeah, however, these look a little bit more modern for sure I dig them. I dig them and I don't know if you notice this but some of the of the reference signature line are three-way speakers Range in unless you're looking at clips heritage a lot of those are three ways, right?

But the the more modern designed clip speakers are typically for the last many years have been mostly two-way speakers a tweeter and then one Or two woofers, but no mid-range driver reference signature adds in the mid-range driver Yeah, so you should get clearer detail in and that clip sound from a design standpoint I'm just excited that they've they're adapting. Yeah good for them They're also adapting their five seven and nine series powered speakers These were a hit when they first debuted the fives at CES. They were amazing They are introducing new colors there, yeah, they are powered speakers and Clips and onkyo have this really nice symbiotic relationship and now that sort of onkyo Power that comes from their home theater receivers They are incorporating that into the amplification built into this five seven and nine powered speakers Yeah, along with the HDMI magic and all of that stuff These are these are and they're looking even better than they've ever looked.

Yeah, they brought some color to the actual horn itself And what we're talking about here is bookshelf speakers. These are powered bookshelf speakers and They look phenomenal. They were huge hits in the past that looks like they just improved upon that design Can't wait to get my hands on them SVS is releasing a new sound bar.

Do you see that that is an interesting one, you know when I think SVS I don't think Soundbar no, I think you think humongous subwoofer I think speakers everywhere traditional home theater and the biggest baddest subwoofers in the industry. Yeah, that's what I think of It was only a matter of time before SVS Realized that sound bars is what people want Maybe make the thing people a lot of people want some of us still like the big honking subwoofers in the speakers all over I'm pretty sure SVS is gonna make it so you can hook up that subwoofer Maybe even more than one subwoofer to those sound bars and the sound bars look great and one of their claims Obviously, we haven't gotten to hear them yet but I won't be surprised when SVS shows up here at Crutchfield to do their vendor training and We are presented with the loudest baddest most in-your-face Soundbar we've heard yet because they talk about its high output. Yeah clear dialogue and dynamics They're not it's not trying to be 13 speakers and a subwoofer in the sound bar.

It's it's really more focusing on being your front three speakers In your home theater. They do have wireless surrounds you can add to them. And of course you can add subs to them So yeah, I think SVS Wants to be your home theater solution whether that's big floor standards big subwoofers or something a little bit more elegant Like a sound bar.

Yeah that I Couldn't have said it better myself. Well, let's move on then to the Samsung music studio wireless speakers saw several videos on these and If you just look that up on Google, you'll immediately find a speaker that does not look like a speaker. No, it doesn't I don't know what it does look like It looks like a radar something and From the past all at the same time It looks like it belongs on a shelf on a Fantastic Four movie, you know Really does like it had such cool color options as well Now it's really unique design at first They're only gonna be available in black and white but new colors are coming from what I saw.

It's the music studio 5 That's the one that's kind of short and squat and rounded on the top with like a dish on the front looks like a dish And there's tweeters and wolfers built into that. You don't really see anything but the one tweeter, right? Yeah, and you can buy it individually So you just put one just like you would buy like a powered Sonos speaker like an era 300 or something So it's kind of like that so it can be your wireless music speaker.

It can stream on your Wi-Fi network and such But the the really nice one is the music studio 7 it adds a subwoofer to it looks more like a traditional Shaped like a traditional bookshelf speaker, right, but still has a very unique sort of aesthetic to it agreed and from all Reports, it sounds like these guys are built. Well, you know Samsung knows a little bit about audio Because The company is that they're affiliate and they're not ashamed to talk about how they're leveraging the Harman aspect JBL aspect and there's some of that not kind of like Klipsch has Sankey. Oh, right Samsung has Harman Kardon.

Yeah, so So this wireless speaker, I think is kind of drawing on some of their knowledge from Harman Kardon from JBL, you know from that Harman group and Along with it being able to work Within the Samsung suite of would like its technology. So I'm I'm really excited to see about where this goes It's not necessarily a new concept from Samsung last year They had something called the frame. Of course, they have their frame televisions, but they also had a little music frame Yeah, which was a lifestyle speaker that could hang on the wall and look like a piece of art It was supposed to be for effects speakers.

It wasn't really ever intended to be a primary It's not your front left center or right speaker. It's not really meant for critical listening to be fair this speaker looks like it might be able to do that and still tie in with a Samsung television and If you pair it up with a Samsung TV that has Q symphony, right now you're talking because your TV becomes Just a center channel. It's not trying to give you kind of virtual deal Dolby Atmos or anything It's just a center channel and you pair it up with four of these music studio sevens around your room now You've got a front left and right and a rear left and right and the reviews the people that have heard that system Yeah, say it sounds fantastic goes nice and loud sound super clear It's enveloping surround sound like it's what you want it to be and there's no home theater receiver needed It all just kind of works from your TV and that sounds super simple and super great. Yep Dang it One other thing they do is they showed in the video that there's a button on top that you can hit it and I guess you Got a program and ahead of time in the app and tell it which of your Spotify playlists Yeah, play when you hit that button But I love that you set up your favorite songs playlist and when you walk in the door and you want music to play one button on the top of the speaker and you've got Your favorite songs playing you don't have to get your phone out to do it I love that not everybody wants to have to engage with their phone for everything all the time just being able to have that tactile Connection to your music.

I really like that feature speaking of not having to use your phone for something Samsung and Fender Are partnering up and proud to say both of those Crutchfield brands now right as of recent history. We now have Fender in-house. We've had Samsung forever Fender has the Fender play app, which like if you wanted to learn how to play guitar I guess you could do that on your phone or your computer But now because of their partnership with Samsung, you'll be able to watch that guitar tutorial stuff on your big screen Easily, right.

You won't have to airplay it to their to your TV. It'll be built in and so if you are You know got a got your Fender guitar I mean probably you could have any guitar but you should have a Fender should have a Fender And if you are using the get the Fender play Tutorials now you can do that. Not just wherever you with your phone in front of you or at your computer screen You can do it sitting on the couch with your acoustic guitar Learning how to play looking at your big the biggest screen you have in your house.

There you go one for every room Yeah, awesome. I think that's everything for the home audio and TV. Let's talk car audio Car audio.

Yes, your most favorite product category at Crutchfield. I love listening to my favorite podcast on my way home, so CES Used to be a place where all of the 12-volt Car stereo companies showed off stuff released new stuff. That's changed, right?

Like this is not the place where that happens on a big scale anymore. Now, you're more likely to see a self-driving robo-taxi then you are a Car stereo, there are other trade shows that are more 12-volt focused that where they release stuff However, there was one big one from Pioneer, right huge brand the Pioneer sphera Okay, tell me more. You want to know more?

I want to know more. I want to get you excited about this It's it first off. It's a massive like 10.1 inch floating touchscreen radio. Okay So far so good. Yeah, I dig that it's beautiful. They've done that before though.

Yes, they have But it has Dolby Atmos in it You you you're familiar with Dolby Atmos, right? Well, why? Yes, I am It's basically I mean we know the technical side of that, right?

Like it's height speakers probably in your ceiling or at least aimed up extra ceiling in your home theater to give you More dimensions to your surround sound, right? And it's also become a buzzword like it's kind of like we were talking earlier about smart stuff and AI stuff, right? Like if you don't have Dolby Atmos in your size audio device, you're missing you're missing out.

Yeah, and so Should we have that in the car? Should we have better more enveloping surround sound in the car? Yeah, it is Dolby Atmos.

I mean, we don't want people like watching movies in their car like it's not for that No, it's for music. It's for music. Yeah, is there Dolby Atmos music available to listen to I think you know the answer I think I do it's available from Apple music from Amazon as well as title So there are artists mixing and mastering their music in this spatial audio Format so that you can take advantage of more speakers more better And so pioneers building that into a stereo it does use pioneers pure auto-tuning technology To tune it for the interior of your particular car They do not require that you install a bunch of extra speakers to make this happen Which is what you have to do at home to get true Atmos, right? But it is able to do it using the main four channels of audio you have in a car I have questions.

I'm sure you do too. Yeah How does it analyze your car's interior? There's not enough information released yet for me to have that answer Does it have a separate mic?

Does it come with that mic? Do you place it somewhere and measure your phone your phone's microphone? Can you do that with Android does it run into that as an issue?

Does it use the Bluetooth mic the wireless, you know for hands-free mic does it is there a mic built into the screen? Is it constantly analyzing your car and adapting the sound or does it you measure it once to during setup? And then you forget about it.

I can't wait to find out how all of that works I'm sure we will see it soon here at Crutchfield when pioneer comes to do their vendor training and I'm sure they will demo all Of this and we'll have more for you once we know more about it But for now though, if you like listening to music in your car and you want that to be even more awesome This is a pretty cool way to do it. Yeah, it is And that's kind of it in the world of 12-volt right now from what we saw at CES They would there's just not a lot of content highlighting any other major things, but this is a it's kind of a big deal Let's talk smart stuff So Samsung is releasing some some new wearables that it obviously incorporates some AI I think you're more excited about this than you were about the Dolby Atmos car stereo So tell me more about what what can the Samsung wearables do for me? Okay, so it's not just Samsung doing this but There are companies that are the big electronics and we think of Samsung and from Crutchfield standpoint We like talking about the speakers and the TVs, but Samsung is a huge company, right?

They make appliances And and and vacuums and we have a Samsung washing machine at our house. Well, there you go. Yeah, right so The idea is that since there are already Wearables we think of like smartwatches Samsung makes those That can monitor your temperature or your heart rate It can use that information To affect your environment.

So maybe you're sleeping a little hot. So your Samsung air-condition Gets a little cooler for you So, you know, I think we're just starting to learn how AI can affect some of these widgets, but Being able to tie in the fact that we have wearables along with you know whole portfolios of smart products that are in our houses already and then using AI to Create a relationship between said products. It's exciting.

It's exciting if you buy into that whole ecosystem Yeah, that thing on your wrist does a lot for you without you having to think too hard about it. Exactly. Exactly I was there was a bunch of videos showing off all of the new Qi2.2 wireless phone chargers, and we're not going to try to detail it for you single one of them But they come in all shapes and sizes. They charge your phone faster than ever They're more convenient than even they were. Yeah, and a lot of them are from Belkin, which we already carry a lot of their stuff So I might be good. I have yet to do the wireless charging thing on my phone So I might be getting into that this year because that that stuff looks pretty cool Yeah, I have and you know if they can help mitigate the the heating With with that comes with charging.

I think that could be a good thing Yeah, some of them literally had built-in fans yelling fans to keep the whole thing cool Yes charges your phone faster than it used to yes fast charging while staying cool. That would be a positive nice So that's enough of the stuff that could end up on crutchfield.com this year Let's talk about some stuff that will probably never end up on crutchfield.com Well, who knows but it's it's close enough to being a reality and it was fun to watch Did you see the kickboxing robots? You know, I saw the kickboxing robots.

They are Cute and terrifying at the same time. I I think I you need to buy them in pairs that that's for sure They can really go at it. Yes, exactly.

Yeah, they're you know, probably about what four feet tall or so and the moves they could do It's just absolutely incredible. This is actually an example of AI again in products in that the programming to get a robotic humanoid the Robot to move around in the past was crazy And you know, they they were very cumbersome and now these things are just walk around moving. They're nimble they're nimble and they can move their joints and Directions that we can't and man if we ever have to battle these things.

Let me just say I give up you win hail to the robots Speaking of AI AI toys like companions like dogs and little furry animals that are just there to keep you company Yeah, little stuffed animals that Have AI built into them. Yeah, there's nothing creepy about any of this In the world of audio there was and I say audio with quotes up like you can like you're watching me Oh, this is sweet. Yeah, you're gonna talk about next.

There's a lollipop that makes you taste music Yeah it like vibrates you put it in your mouth and it's like when you with your when you're biting down on it the Vibrations make music happen in your head how the dental association feels The only reason I even saw this was because there was a worst of CES videos Which I highly recommend by the way, google that or find that video They got a bunch of good stuff in there But one of them was this thing and what they didn't like about it was that the battery is 100% not replaceable not chargeable Not nothing once it's gone.

It's gone. And it's you know, it's dangerous and the landfills and all that stuff. So yeah Yeah, well, we won't be carrying that for many reasons.

Yeah, you haven't heard we just picked it up. Oh A lot of ice makers you told me about.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, yeah.

[Speaker 1]

I didn't see those videos. I you did I don't know why I'm so excited about ice makers But I mean if you think about what your perfect ice cube looks like just think about that right now What does your perfect ice cube? I do I have perfect now imagine that ice cube in a drink next to the pool and a hot summer day Versus like in a glass of whiskey.

It might be a different ice cube is all I'm saying So I like I like restaurants that have like the small little pebble It's hard to get that in a home ice make we have an ice maker in our fridge now I can get crushed ice Which is close, but it's not as no. No. No, I want the blue pebble ice Yeah, so pebble ice is a thing also spherical ice is a thing over the whiskey lovers balls Yeah, yeah, because that gets your drink cold, but melts really slowly so it doesn't Affect the flavor as much and then there's big cube ice and you know ice cubes that look like ZD noodles I don't know what that that kind of ice is called But you'll all be at the CD.

Yes ZD noodle ice no, there's lots of different ice makers and these are usually countertop design and Yeah, I dig them. They're quick. I I want one for my bar.

We need to pick one up Whichever one we pick up is the best. That's the one you should get. I think that's the one I should get So I've been going to CES since around 2016 ish something like that 2015 maybe and you know, what's been there every time I've gone I Feel like I know it's the Sony car.

Yeah, and It always seems like it's on the horizon like it's gonna be next year. It's gonna be a reality next year It's gonna be a reality next year. It's gonna be a reality I feel like they're never gonna make this thing But you're you're still pretty excited.

I do it. I gotta say I like the lines It's called the a Fila the a Fila and it's a Sony and Honda joint thing now. I love the way it looks It just didn't make the thing.

It is a beautiful car. Yeah, I I'm optimistic that maybe it'll come to market because they're now showing a Another model it's no longer just the prototype right like they seem to have a model that looks like it's ready for production In fact, they even took people signed up to buy this thing So there is a waiting list to get it, but they've also come up with the SUV version now So the the a filia a filia a fila a fila I feel like it's never gonna come to market But we'll see. I'm hopeful Is it is it too attractive of a car for you to be interested in it though, because you don't typically Traditionally drive good-looking cars. No, I I I don't I like my ugly cars, but I don't know Maybe they'll come out with like a Pontiac Aztec version.

Then I like you all over that. Yes, that would be amazing. So that's it That's what we are excited about from all of the content creators that went to CES on our behalf And maybe maybe we'll get to go someday in the future Maybe that ship has sailed who knows but I do want to thank all of the people that you know, we watched your videos We were jealous living vicariously through you and we just want to shout you out and give you a big Thanks for doing what you did Caleb Denison from Caleb rated digital trends Mac rumors Danny is it wing it or wind jet?

I don't know CNET of course AVS forum and CES cyber news There's probably other videos that we watched that I missed and I didn't get them on this list and thank you as well For making it possible for us to keep up I am 100% looking forward to another year of making Crutchfield the podcast. Are you excited? Huffy heck.

Yeah, if there's topics you want us to cover We have a clean slate We have some ideas lots of how-to type stuff and you know things that we can cover relatively efficiently Which was the plan today, but so far is not going as efficiently as we thought But if there's stuff you want us to talk about or questions you want us to answer Please send us an email podcast at Crutchfield calm. You can also drop a comment on this episode on Spotify We do look at all of those comments and whenever possible. We'll address them in an upcoming episode

[Speaker 2]

That's right big

[Speaker 1]

thanks to Dom for the editing help for Abby and Alexis for keeping up with all of the socials for Crutchfield and most importantly Thanks again to Bill Crutchfield for yet another year of paying us to talk about the coolest gear on the planet Thanks, Bill Okay So this probably won't make the full episode but it might make the post roll, okay Some of the worst things some of the worst things we saw like the hair trimmers Yeah, you have to wear something over your face and then it's supposed to adjust the length of the trim And it's of course powered by AI.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, yeah, that's not terrifying.

[Speaker 1]

I hair trimmer Yeah, I mean made by Flowbee. I wouldn't I wouldn't want that close to my head and I don't have hair. No