Mark Fleischmann

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CES 2018
Alexa Speaks through Polk Command Bar
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 09, 2018  |  0 comments
After a few months of living with multiple Alexa-powered speakers, I have come to loathe finding my TV's remote control and hitting the button that turns on the set. Polk knows how I feel. The company bowed to the inevitable tonight by introducing the Command Bar, the first Alexa-powered soundbar.

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Audio Video News
Alexa: I Control the World
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 08, 2017  |  0 comments
Amazon is many things to many people, and now it’s become the king of the smart-speaker market. Parks Associates reports that the online retail giant dominates smart speakers with 70.6 percent of sales, adding that smart speakers are in 11 percent of U.S. broadband households.
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Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection—Universal
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 20, 2006  |  Published: Aug 20, 2006  |  0 comments
Alfred Hitchcock in a Box The matured DVD format enables library builders to enjoy the full sweep of a great career in cinema for minimal investment. A perfect example is Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense. Most of his major works are collectible in huge boxed sets that cost less, per title, than a movie ticket. True, the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats may eventually bring high-def reissues. But that would take years, and in the meantime, the standard-def boxes are bargains. Grab them before they slip away.
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CEDIA 2010
All That Glitters Is a McIntosh Binding Post
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 24, 2010  |  0 comments
The McIntosh MX150 pre-pro ($12,000) can reassign its XLR and RCA ins, a boon to those into triamplification. Its Room Perfect room correction uses 121 test tones to massage your room with 112 octaves of wonderfulness. While the USB input cannot accept 122 source components at once, it can recognize that many one by one. Let us gloss over the MVP 881BR, an $8000 Blu-ray player with non-3D-savvy HDMI 1.3. That brings us to the binding posts that made our eyes pop out of their sockets. They were on the back of an MC302 power amp. The top hex piece unscrews as you'd expect, while the bottom round piece floats. Details? You want more details? It uses electricity.
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Ears On
Altec Lansing inMotion im600 iPod Speakers
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 25, 2007  |  0 comments
Smaller iPod-compatible speaker systems like this one are usually described as "speakers" (as opposed to "systems"). The Altec Lansing inMotion gets points for not calling itself an i-something. What's seductive about it, though, is its shape-shifting ability.
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CES 2009
Altec Lansing Makes Small-Scale Audio Hip
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 08, 2009  |  0 comments
This company makes some of the best PC speakers and compact systems. In the former category is the Expressionist BASS ($129), a cone-shaped wonder with sub firing out of the bottom. For the bedroom, Altec offers the Moondance GLOW ($179), a clock/radio with pyramid-shaped snooze remote. Finally, inMotion MAX ($199) is the successor to my all-time favorite portable system, the im600, which I own, use daily, and gave my Mom for Christmas. It's iPhone hip -- in other words, shielded from microwave radiation -- so you can keep your iPhone on and take calls while it plays music through the system.
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Altec's Rex Is Potentially Tyrannosauric
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 07, 2008  |  0 comments
In development at Altec Lansing is Rex, a compact system that establishes its own network, "moving music from anywhere to anywhere," says my former boss Robert Heiblum. It can "see" your PC or another Rex and performs this miracle every time you turn it on. Plug in your iPod or USB device. Enjoy Internet radio, AM, or FM radio. I predict this one will indeed be a monster. Look it for later in the year.
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Ears On
Alternate Reference Question Pondered
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 10, 2007  |  2 comments
I'm nothing if not loyal to my reference gear. Google "fleischmann rotel rsx-1065" or "fleischmann paradigm studio 20" and you'll see what I mean--the latter alone brings up more than 900 links on this site and elsewhere. I continue to use, and implicitly recommend, these products because they sound great, combine the best traits of both real-world and high-end audio, and give my ears a stable and reliable benchmark against which to judge other things. When I tell speaker makers I use the Rotel, they breathe a sigh of relief. So do receiver makers, when I tell them I'm using the Paradigms. The reference pieces also like one another. Hearing them together recalibrates my ears between reviews. I wish I could listen to them more often.
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Audio Video News
Amazon AutoRips LPs
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 18, 2013  |  0 comments
7113ama.jpgLongtime Amazon customers may already be surprised to find CD purchases from years and years ago appearing in their Amazon Cloud Players. Their eyebrows are set to move even higher now that Amazon is extending the courtesy to LP purchases. Buy an AutoRip-eligible disc—analog or digital—from the online retailer, boot up the Cloud Player, and there it is. If your computer or tablet of choice lacks a disc drive, as increasingly many do, you’re also free to download a free 256-kbps AutoRipped copy. The feature is available to U.S. customers only, for titles displaying the AutoRip logo.
Ears On
Amazon Does 'DVD on Demand'
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 01, 2006  |  2 comments
You order a DVD, then it's custom-made and shipped. That's the beauty of the new DVD on Demand service from Amazon, partnering with CustomFlix. Producers send DVD or tape masters, which are then placed on a secure server for ordering from the Amazon or CustomFlix sites. "Customers receive professional-quality DVDs in overwrapped, Amaray-style cases with full-color covers and lacquer-coated disc faces," says CustomFlix. There are two levels of distribution service: Independent Media Gateway for indies with fewer than 50 titles, and Enterprise Media Gateway for the big guns. The latter include NBC, PBS, A&E, the History Channel, and the Biography Channel. You'll be able to order Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show from NBC and Nova from PBS, among other announced titles. Current releases are standard-def but in the future CustomFlix will support HD DVD, Blu-ray, and WMV-HD DVD. On-demand distribution systems generally trade a greater manufacturing cost per copy for the flexibility of replicating one unit at a time, so they're most suitable for small projects, like DWL Video's lovely epic on the 17 Year Cicada. A parallel cottage industry has grown up around on-demand book printing, including both my home theater guide and my restaurant guide.
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