Fred Manteghian

Slingbox, makers of an internet aware media server of heretofore limited interest to our readers, has burst into the home theater aficionado market with their newly announced Slingbox PRO. How new? I tried to get one before I went to Japan, but that wasn't going to happen. (….turning to the audience for a soliloquy, Fred reveals that it often takes much time between an announcement and an actual product. Sssh . . . don't tell Bill Gates).

Toshiba can offer you an HD-DVD player with a full terabyte of data, the ability to burn HD-DVDs, Japanese hi-def and NTSC tuners, oh yeah, and the user manual that will have you scratching your head until your credit card bill comes. $3,100.

There are countless major music studios that have not transitioned successfully to the Digi-Tools age of computers. JVC Victor is not one of them. Getting into their elevator for a music tour, a philosophy that will become clearer as the tour continues is printed on the inside of the elevator so that all visitors and employees can read and remember it in moments when nothing else might be going on.

We saw several studios within JVC's Aoyama facility. Each has its own unique acoustical properties and features. This one, studio 401, has a wood floor and the top of its two story high walls are also adorned in wood.