I drink green tea the way some people drink water. I make it in large batches, keep it in the fridge, and guzzle it all day. Such are the dimensions of this innocuous drug habit that I blend teas, often adding a pinch of Butterfly Sencha (with peach and sunflower petals) to a standard Sencha, creating something more subtle than the former and more interesting than the latter. (The Tea Squad may burst through the door to arrest me at any moment.) I do the same with surround equipment. This month, I've deliberately brought together a receiver brand that prides itself on neutrality with a speaker brand that obsesses about the purity and phase coherence of high frequencies. Marantz, meet Tannoy. Tannoy, meet Marantz. What will happen next?
Consumers aren't happy with their TV providers. Cable and satellite television companies have scored the lowest of any sector of industry in the latest American Consumer Satisfaction Index.
Used to be even the most basic receiver came with two accessories: a cheap wire dipole FM antenna and a plastic-loop AM job (which most often seemed to degrade reception). You still get the antennae, even if nobody except dental-office denizens listens to much terrestrial radio anymore. But you get a lot more with your receiver today.
Front projectors have long been considered an exotic way to experience movies at home, but they're quickly becoming a more mainstream option. That's because prices for 1080p-resolution front projectors have sunk below three grand, while flat-panel sets with screen sizes 60 inches and up that offer similar resolution have yet to become affordable.
Happy Feet (Warner HD DVD). Looking bizarrely realistic at times, the creatures of Happy Feet seem to almost come off the screen, their bodies are so three-dimensional. Each figure is incredibly detailed, with individual feathers and fur hairs visible. And it's not just birds and beasts.
Layer Cake (Sony Blu-ray Disc). Kicking off with a bang - an explosion that rips from front to back as an armored van is blown open - this 2004 pre-Casino Royale Daniel Craig movie takes us on a historical journey through the London underworld.
The original Philips Pronto universal remote, introduced way back in 1998, offered a level of programmability and customization totally unheard of at its $399 price, and it instantly became a smash with installers and do-it-yourselfers alike. But over the years, love for the Pronto has waned as other companies created smartly designed models of their own.
