Custom Installation Equipment Reviews

PSB, the highly respected Canadian speaker manufacturer, has redesigned their highly acclaimed Image Series. Based on trickle down technology and styling from their flagship Synchrony series and the follow up Imagine series, PSB's Image series has been completely remodeled and equipped with the company's most current features and enhancements for an entirely new auditory experience.

When I was wandering through websites looking for speakers to review in this test, I found companies I'd never heard of. Most were selling generic outdoor speakers, but one - OSD Audio - offered something with an unprecedented mix of cool and creepy: an outdoor speaker styled to look like a life-size German Shepherd."Special purpose," indeed.

Three computers and one broadband Internet connection in my house means that there's a computer network in my future. Right now, it's a hypothetical network, since my ISP (Prodigy) has only succeeded in providing hypothetical DSL service. I know it's coming, though, and I'm looking forward to installing the network about as much as one looks forward to shaking hands with his proctologist. My life is complicated enough without the added grief that a router, a switcher, numerous runs of CAT-5 cable, and unsavory terms like Ethernet and TCP/IP will bring into it. I want something elegant and simple that will provide me with the intended result—in this case, Web pages that load before I've finished typing in the URL and the ability to steal hard-drive space from my kids' computer—without requiring me to complete a doctoral thesis in connectivity and network administration.

Collage Hits a Home Run

Given the choice, Hercules would choose to clean the Augean stables in a single day rather than wire my house for multiroom audio. Gypsum dust, asbestos-laden insulation fibers, desiccated rodents, and poisonous spiders are just a few of the delights that await the installer (or, in reality, me) who takes on the task. It’s also a logistical nightmare since my house doesn’t have an attic or basement, plus the house only has about 8 inches of crawl space underneath it. Don’t get me wrong, I like my house. It’s the thought of running wire through, under, and around it that gives me pause.

Integration and contemporary styling is what everyone is looking for so Samsung's new Blu-ray players certainly embrace both these concepts. The BD-P4600 is a wall-mountable Blu-ray player and the HT-BD8200 is a Home Theater Sound Bar with an integrated Blu-ray Player. According to Samsung they are heralding a new direction for the Blu-ray industry and moving away from the traditional square (and boring) black boxes.

<B>Sanus JFV60 ($540)</B><BR>
The versatile JFV60 can be mounted directly on the wall, appearing to float in midair, or it can be placed on the floor like any other cabinet. It provides a sleek, low-profile sophistication that blends right into the interior decor in either configuration. The unit can support up to 200lbs (all components and TV) when mounted on the wall, or 350 lbs when floor standing.