Tech2

It’s the holiday season! Time to read every A/V site’s gear guide, round out your wish list, and snag the perfect present for that hard-to-buy-for friend. But if you’re anything like me, after the Black Friday frenzy dies down, you start to feel as though you want to do a little more. If the holidays put you in a giving mood, I’d like to offer you a different sort of gift list: Charities that appeal to the audio/video/tech enthusiast’s heart. Ready to have your heart grow three sizes? Read on!

There is no studio in the history of cinema that has a track record like Pixar. Nearly every one of their movies is at least great, most are awesome, and very few are below average (ahem, Cars 2).

I got to see a sneak preview early this week at the gorgeous El Capitan in Hollywood. Here are some thoughts on both those things.

Looking for a gift for that hard-to-please person? Want to give a present that says, “I know you care about excellent audio?” Is spending $55,000 no big deal to you? Then, pull out your black card, and give the gift of the newest Sennheiser Orpheus. Preferably, to me. (What? It can’t hurt to ask.)

Yup, Orpheus is back, and better than ever. After ten-years-plus in development, and countless rumors, Sennheiser finally has polished all the details from the prototypes and is ready to release Orpheus their final version early next year. I got to hear a pair while sipping some tea in a concrete loft overlooking Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park Lake. Get your favorite beverage and I’ll fill you in.

The Martian was one of the best movies I saw this year.

This was despite being one of the worst cinema experiences I’ve ever had.

With Hollywood now totally converted to making 90% remakes, sequels, and reboots, I think it’s about time someone gave them some new ideas…

…on reboots. Here are some forgotten classics due for modern movie treatment.

I’m roughly 60% serious. Or at least, 60% as serious as I ever get.

I can’t stop listening to it. I’m listening to it again as I write this.

Hailing from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Fluance is a new-enough home-theater speaker company that it isn't yet widely known in the HT community. The company proclaims to “pride [itself] on pushing cutting edge technology to its limits and using high grade parts in the construction of its speaker systems”.. while offering “products at prices well below those of its main competitors.” So when I got to test their newest Bluetooth bookshelf-sized speaker, the Fi50, and saw that it was retailing for around $200, I was curious to see if it would live up to Fluance’s ambitious mission statement.