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Headphone Amp/DAC Reviews
Review: Pure i-20 and Pro-Ject Dock Box S Digital Page 2
Leslie Shapiro  |  Apr 12, 2012

We can bemoan the demise of audio quality all we want, but the truth is that good quality audio has always been at our fingertips. If our digital files have sounded bad, it’s because we (and we’re talking consumers and manufacturers) have been too stingy with our storage capacities. Wanting to cram as much music onto our devices as possible, regardless of how badly the signal had to be degraded to get it all in there, we ended up accepting things like 128 kbps MP3 files as passable. But our beloved iPods and iPhones have had the ability to store lossless and high bit-rate audio from the very beginning, as purists have known all along. You just need a way to get your high-quality files out of those little boxes.

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Ask S&V
Sony STR-DA5400ES & TA-N9000ES in BTL Mode
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 11, 2012
I have a B&W 600-series 5.1 speaker system and a Sony STR-DA5400ES A/V receiver and TA-N9000ES power amp. I am running the power amp in BTL (bridge-tied load) mode for the front left and right speakers and normal mode for the center channel. The surrounds are connected to the surround-speaker outputs of the receiver directly. Putting aside calibration and room size, am I doing the right thing regarding compatibility, connections, and power?

Jørgen

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Tech2
Review: JBL OnBeat Xtreme Dock Page 2
Brent Butterworth  |  Apr 11, 2012

Here’s a product that had three strikes with me before I ever heard it. First there’s the name, which seems more appropriate for a Frito-Lay product. Then there’s the lineage: JBL’s smaller, less-expensive docks never impressed me. Last, Maroon 5 appears in the ads. What, I ask rhetorically, would the creators of “Moves Like Jagger” know about sound quality?

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Portable Player Reviews
Review: JBL OnBeat Xtreme Dock
Brent Butterworth  |  Apr 11, 2012

Here's a product that had three strikes with me before I ever heard it. First there's the name, which seems more appropriate for a Frito-Lay product. Then there's the lineage: JBL's smaller, less-expensive docks never impressed me. Last, Maroon 5 appears in the ads. What, I ask rhetorically, would the creators of "Moves Like Jagger" know about sound quality?

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Music ReviewsAudio Video News
Rush Returns With Clockwork Angels
Michael Berk  |  Apr 11, 2012

Rush fans...the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived. Not quite like clockwork, but Clockwork Angels is finally and definitely headed your way.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
War Horse
David Vaughn  |  Apr 10, 2012

Director Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, and he knows how to capture an audience's attention and keep it riveted to the screen. While War Horse isn't one of his best pictures, it does create an emotional bond to the main character—a horse—and we get to follow his journey from his humble beginnings through his adventure in the First World War. The cinematography is fantastic, but it's the DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack that makes this a demo-worthy disc, with pinpoint imaging and some of the most intense LFE since Saving Private Ryan.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
This Week in Blu-rays and Music, April 10, 2012
Josef Krebs  |  Apr 10, 2012

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Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 106: Bob Hodas
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 10, 2012
Acoustician Bob Hodas discusses the process of "tuning" recording studios and home-theater rooms, the problem of overtreating a room, different types of acoustic treatments (including egg cartons!), measurements versus subjective listening, the importance of the phase relationship between speakers and a flat frequency response in a room, speaker and subwoofer placement, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

Run Time: 1:01:27

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Review: Two Takes on Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
Josef Krebs  |  Apr 10, 2012

More modest and thoughtful than action-packed, John le Carré’s 1974 spy-novel classic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a spook story filled with civil servants (not double-0 operatives) in a world where little happens beyond talk, but the stakes riding on those conversations are supremely high.

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Power Amplifier Reviews
Review: Wyred4Sound Mini MC 5-Channel Power Amplifier
Daniel Kumin  |  Apr 10, 2012

I am of the school that believes that more power is always better than less power. That school also professes that amplifiers, while operating within their linear abilities (a big “if”), are not generally distinct in their sonics.

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