Is getting a flat-panel set out of the box and onto the wall something you can do yourself, or do you need to hire a pro? Assuming you don't want to run any wires inside the wall, mounting a flat-panel is probably a "6" on the difficulty scale. So if you think you're up to the challenge, read on!
Marantz introduced its DAvED (Digital Audio via Electrical Distribution) system at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and I was immediately wowed by the concept of sending audio over a house's electrical wiring. So I jumped at the chance to play with a pre-production sample.
STEP 1: CHOOSE THE RIGHT REMOTE "You get what you pay for" definitely holds true with universal remotes. Cheap models offer basic features such as channel-changing and play-stop-skip controls but usually can't handle full system control.
Movie sequels are rarely as good as the originals. Fortunately, just the opposite is true with consumer electronics, where Gen 2 is almost always a good thing, loaded with extra features and tweaked for better performance. In the case of the new Pioneer Inno XM2go portable satellite radio, it's a great thing.
You can't rush a good thing, and some things just aren't ready until they're ready. With electronics, coming to market too early usually means a product that's lacking in features, full of bugs, and short on performance.
With few exceptions, multiroom audio systems still distribute music the same way they did 20 years ago: Central stacks of source components and amplifiers route signals to speakers around the home over hundreds of feet of speaker cabling. But this approach has its drawbacks. Resistance, capacitance and inductance build up over long wires, adding up to signal losses and compromised performance.
