Today, 3D has become a de facto feature on almost every higher-end TV and even many projectors, and it continues to make headlines. But the biggest news to come out of the CEDIA Expo trade show this past September wasn’t of the three-dimensional variety. The news that took many attendees by surprise was 4K.
Without a doubt, one of the most impressive and important speakers in your home theater system is the subwoofer. The sub lays down the bedrock foundation of a good system, producing deep, tactile bass that makes music more dynamic, movies more visceral, and raises the overall performance of any speaker system. When I’m working with clients on designing their surround systems, my recommendation is almost always that they buy the biggest and best subwoofer they can afford.
Without dredging up the unpleasantness that is the current state of the economy, it's probably safe to say that many of us have made some adjustments in our lives. And whether that means cutting back on travel, skipping the morning latte, or not eating out as often, you might find that you're staying home more and going out less.
ABC’s Nightline recently ran a segment called “Smart Homes, the Future of High-Tech Living” where they discussed different aspects of living in a smart home. Part of the segment demonstrated a smart home’s potential vulnerability to being hacked, giving outsiders access to your home and data. Nightline drove the point home by
having a hacker sit outside a home with a high-powered directional antenna while he logged into the Wi-Fi network and started wreaking all manner of havoc, including unlocking her front door.
The first "real" A/V component I ever bought was a subwoofer - a glorious 15-inch beast that made no attempt to hide what it really was: a big, black, utterly style-less cube. At the time, there weren't really any other options available, so adding a sub meant a big, black cube.
When you think Definitive Technology, you probably think large, monolithic tower speakers or giant cube subwoofers. While the company would be OK with that, they have branched beyond the large home speaker into the portable market. Definitive Technology launched its portable speaker line-up with the terrific sounding Sound Cylinder, and they expanded their offerings this year by introducing The Cube. The Cube is a 7.7-inch black, uh, cube using tri-polar technology to deliver big sound across a large listening area. The cube features five 1-1/4-inch mid-high frequency drivers, one 5-1/4-inch woofer and 80-watts of total power. It can run off AC power, but for hi-fi on-the-go, the built-in Lithium Ion battery can deliver up to 10 hours of listening. Users can connect a 3.5mm stereo mini-jack or beam music to The Cube wirelessly via Bluetooth aptX technology. Also handy is an integrated rubberized handle in the back of The Cube, meaning that you can easily take your music with you when you get assimilated.
When someone says he's an accountant, a stockbroker, or a trash collector (excuse me, "Sanitation Engineer"), you know what he does for a living. But when I say I'm a custom electronics installer, I usually get a blank stare in return.
Back when I was a kid, I took my TV watching very seriously. It was an active event that demanded laser-like, sugar-fueled focus. I mean, just one glance away from those glowing cathode rays could result in missing some crucial Scooby Doo or Brady Bunch plot twist, possibly resulting in years of wondering what exactly happened to Marsha’s nose.
Reaching back into the days before DVR, DVD-R, or even VCR, you basically got one shot at watching something. And that meant TV viewers had some serious skin in the game when watching a show that was important to them. There were no pausing, no on-demand, and no Web streaming alternatives.