Bob Ankosko

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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1958: A Stereo Spectacular!
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 11, 2016  |  1 comments
Way back in 1958 when stereo was a novelty, the comedy duo Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding released Bob And Ray Throw A Stereo Spectacular, a whimsical LP showcasing the marvels of two-channel sound.
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Audio Video News
Flashback 1999: Digital TV's First Year Report Card
Bob Ankosko  |  Dec 24, 2015  |  0 comments
Our assessment of Digital TV’s first year was not all rosy as you can see from the Digital TV Report Card published in the December 1999 issue.
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Audio Video News
Flops: Fourteen Formats and Technologies That Couldn't Quite Hang On
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 13, 2012  |  14 comments
The road to A/V perfection is littered with formats and products that didn’t make it for one reason or another. Some were technically sound but ahead of their time or poorly marketed. Some were victims of bad timing, unforeseen circumstances, or uninspired design. Others were just plain curious in a “what the heck were they thinking?” kind of way. And then there are the tweak formats and technologies—embraced by enthusiasts and ignored by the masses—that refuse to go away. Here, we remember A/V formats, products, and technologies that are gone but (mostly) not forgotten.
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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Fluance Ai41 Bluetooth Speaker System Review
Bob Ankosko  |  Dec 16, 2021  |  0 comments

Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $250/pair

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent, full-bodied sound
Cosmetically appealing design
Sturdy build
Remote control with tone controls (!)

Minus
No multiroom Wi-Fi streaming

THE VERDICT
Fluance’s Ai41 is one of the best looking and sounding Bluetooth speakers in its price class.

You can tell immediately whether a speaker is good the moment it starts playing, so I knew right away the Ai41 was good but didn’t fully appreciate how good until I had lived with it for a couple of weeks.

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Audio Video News
Focal Brings Personalized Sound to Bathys Headphones
Bob Ankosko  |  Sep 15, 2023  |  0 comments
Focal today became the latest company to embrace the sound personalization trend with an updated version of the Bathys noise-canceling wireless headphones that now includes a compelling hearing test feature.
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CES 2014
Focal Has a New Angle On the Soundbar
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 10, 2014  |  0 comments
French speaker company Focal made its entry into the burgeoning soundbar market at 2014 CES with the clever two-piece Dimension system, comprising a parallelogram-shaped soundbar and optional matching subwoofer. The slender soundbar, which is only 3 inches deep and made of aluminum, can be used alone and mounted to the wall (bracket included) or mated with the 4.5-inch-deep “vibration-free” subwoofer to form a TV platform. Both pieces are 61 inches wide, making them appropriate for use with screens 50 inches or larger.

The soundbar plays down to 50 Hz and uses five, “ultra-flat” 4-inch drivers to keep the enclosure depth to a minimum. Highlights include “acoustic integration” settings to optimize performance and two HDMI jacks plus optical and analog inputs. The subwoofer, with two elliptical woofers in a push-pull configuration, is rated down to 30 Hz. A built-in six-channel amplifier delivers 450 watts of system power.

The Dimension soundbar is expected to sell for $1,400 when it becomes available later this year; the companion subwoofer will sell for $500.

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CES 2024Audio Video NewsNew ProductsShows
Focal Updates Popular Aria Series at CES 2024
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 11, 2024  |  0 comments
Focal, the highly regarded French speaker company, has unveiled a follow-up to the popular Aria 900 speaker range it introduced a decade ago.
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Premiere Design
Form Following Function: mbl 101 X-treme Speaker System
Bob Ankosko  |  May 24, 2012  |  6 comments
Stunning or strange? One of these words is likely to come to mind when you first lay eyes on the 101 X-treme speaker system, the flagship of MBL’s Reference Line. And what a system it is, handmade to order in Germany and comprising a pair of approximately 6-foot-tall towers, each of which supports two utterly unconventional driver arrays in an open frame, and two subwoofer towers, each comprised of six 12-inch woofers, a crossover, and an amplifier broken into three ported birch and aluminum boxes that can be stacked or laid side by side as needed. (No lows left behind.)
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Audio Video News
Free NEXTGEN TV Service Is Now Live in Chicago
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 06, 2024  |  0 comments
Five television stations have launched NEXTGEN TV service in Chicago, bringing more programming options and other enhancements to viewers who have a NEXTGEN-compatible TV or set-top box and antenna to receive TV over the air.
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New ProductsPremiere Design
Full Immersion: Auro-3D Auriga Home Theater Receiver
Bob Ankosko  |  Sep 05, 2014  |  2 comments
Note to readers: See Clarification at the end of this article for an update.

Weeks before Onkyo and Pioneer announced the first Dolby Atmos-equipped AV receivers, we received a press release touting the “first ever immersive sound receiver”—the Auro-3D Auriga from Belgium-based Auro Technlogies. Intrigued by its high-end looks—and $16,700 price—we reached out to CEO and Auro-3D inventor Wilfried Van Baelen to learn more about the product and the Auro 3D surround-sound format at its core. Auro 11.1, which adds height and overhead channels to an existing 5.1 surround-sound setup, debuted in theaters in 2011 and today supports almost 500 screens worldwide, according to the company. Recent movies mixed in Auro 11.1 include Oculus, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and a number of foreign films.

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