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Paradigm and Anthem: Factory Tour
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Oct 21, 2011

Paradigm isn't a big company, only 250 people or so. It doesn't have the immense marketing budget to assault the airwaves like Bose, or the R&D budget to make every manner of gadget like Sony.

These are good things, because instead this Canadian company goes about making some solid products, loved by reviewers, and beloved by customers.

Invited to check out their factory just outside Toronto, I dusted off my American Flag jacket, trucker hat, "W" belt buckle, and headed north of the border.

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Audio Separates Buying Tips
Preamp/Processor Shopping Tips
Kim Wilson  |  Oct 20, 2011
When it comes to the nerve center of a home theater, most consumers opt for an A/V receiver, which combines a preamp/processor (pre/pro) and multichannel power amp into one chassis. However, some enthusiasts choose to buy a separate pre/pro and power amp, believing that this results in superior sound quality, though it's generally a more-expensive way to go. If you want the best possible sound—and you have the budget—you're probably shopping for separates.
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Signals
$*!t Your Home Theater Says
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 19, 2011

The iPhone 4S was released last week. Of course, people were camping out at Apple stores to buy it. Of course, Apple sold a zillion of them in the first five minutes. Of course, you already have one, and you're probably reading this blog on it.

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Tower Speaker Reviews
Review: MartinLogan EM-ESL, EM-C2 and EM-FX2 Speakers
Brent Butterworth  |  Oct 19, 2011

“But is it a real MartinLogan?” I wondered to myself as I read the press release for the ElectroMotion ESL tower speaker that had come through my e-mail.

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Ask S&V
NAD T 747 vs. Onkyo TX-NR709
Scott Wilkinson  |  Oct 19, 2011
I am looking for a new A/V receiver, and I am seriously considering the NAD T 747 and the Onkyo TX-NR709. It will be used about 75 percent for movies and 25 percent for music. The features I'm looking for include at least 5.1 (if not 7.1), auto room calibration/set-up (such as Audyssey), the ability to decode all the new lossless formats found on Blu-rays, the ability to make movie dialog easier to hear when listening at low volume levels, and pre-out jacks so that I have the option of hooking up a separate amplifier to it in the future.

John Dixon

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AV Receiver Reviews
Test Report: Pioneer Elite VSX-52 A/V Receiver
Daniel Kumin  |  Oct 19, 2011

Each generation of A/V receivers brings at least a few new features — one of which will prove useful while others stick out as head-scratchers that nobody asked for. You could hardly find a better illustration of this natural law than Pioneer’s new VSX-52, the sub-penultimate model of its latest Elite A/V receiver range.

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TV ReviewsLCD TV Reviews
Test Report: Sony Bravia XBR-55HX929 3D LCD HDTV
Al Griffin  |  Oct 19, 2011

When they first arrived a few years back, LED-driven LCD TVs with a full array backlight made a big splash. Why? Because the backlight, a grid of LED lamp modules spanning the rear of the display panel, can be modulated via local dimming — a process that enables the set to track specific areas in the image, turning select modules on, off, or somewhere in between.

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Soundbar Reviews
Test Report: Yamaha YSP-2200 Digital Sound Projector
Daniel Kumin  |  Oct 19, 2011

I have something that I must confess: I’ve got a love/hate thing with soundbars. On the love side, these one- or two-piece, flat-panel-pandering “surround” systems have rescued tens of thousands of innocent suburbanites from the horrors of tinny TV tintinnabulation.

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Headphone Amp/DAC ReviewsOther Source Component ReviewsStreaming Device Reviews
Review: PS Audio PerfectWave System
John Sciacca  |  Oct 19, 2011

Peanut butter and chocolate. Wine and cheese. Lennon and McCartney. Some things are great on their own, but when they meet their perfect counterpart, the result can be pure magic.

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Test Report: Samsung PN59D8000 3D Plasma HDTV
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Oct 19, 2011

There are few things I loathe more than triteness. Every time I hear a slogan, headline, or witticism that I’ve already heard countless times before, I die a little inside. Change the words around at least and make it your own. How often have you read “trickle-down technology,” “game changer,” or other such things in a product review?

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