LATEST ADDITIONS

New Products
New Gear: Axiom Audio Debuts Omnirectional Linear Field Radiating Speakers
Michael Berk  |  Mar 21, 2012

Making their formal debut tomorrow at Montreal's Salon Son & Image high-end show, Axiom Audio's new Omnirectional Linear Field Radiating Speakers are a brand new design, pairing front- and rear-baffle mounted drivers with custom DSP and a unique cabinet design to create a wholly new twist on transducers from the Canadian compa

Continue Reading »
Tower Speaker Reviews
Test Report: GoldenEar Technology Triton Three Speakers
Brent Butterworth  |  Mar 20, 2012
GoldenEar Technology may have had the fastest rise to the top of any speaker manufacturer in history. The company started less than 2 years ago. Yet its very first product, the Triton Two tower speaker, was named Sound+Vision’s 2010 Audio Product of the Year — and practically every other audio publication raved about it, too.

It shouldn’t have come as too big a surprise, though. GoldenEar is the creation of Sandy Gross, a co-founder of Polk Audio and Definitive Technology, and engineer Don Givogue, the other co-founder of Def Tech. Still, to have people comparing your $2,500-per-pair speaker to $10,000-per-pair models is an accomplishment.

Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Muppets
David Vaughn  |  Mar 20, 2012

As a product of the Muppets generation I had high hopes for their return to the silver screen and eventually Blu-ray, but color me very disappointed. While the technical aspects of the Blu-ray are pure reference-quality with amazing detail, vibrant colors, and enveloping surround sound, the script leaves a lot to be desired with uninspiring human characters, a paint by numbers script, and middling musical numbers—and no, I don't think "Man or Muppet" should have won the Oscar. My kids have generally liked the Muppet productions but were just as disappointed in this one as I was, but at least it looked and sounded great and is a worthy candidate for showing off your gear.
Continue Reading »
Tower Speaker Reviews
Test Report: Monitor Audio Gold GX Speaker System
Al Griffin  |  Mar 20, 2012

Two years ago, I found myself listening to Monitor Audio’s flagship Platinum Series towers in the company’s CES demo room and thinking, Who drops 10 grand on a pair of speakers, no matter how good they sound?

Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Dragon Slayer: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Josef Krebs  |  Mar 20, 2012

Not so much The Da Vinci Code meets Se7en but more The Bourne Identity meets Run Lola Run, director David Fincher's scene-by-scene remake of the original 2009 Swedish adaptation of the first part of novelist Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy is as if the original film had taken steroids. It's tight, tense, stylish, and very involving.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Tech Trends 2012: Two-Channel Rulers
Brent Butterworth  |  Mar 20, 2012

TRADITIONAL two-channel audio never went away. But there’s no denying that since the early ’90s, stereo has been overshadowed by home theater. Most of the audio industry devoted most of its effort to adding more speakers, more channels of sound, and more complexity to our systems.

Continue Reading »
Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 103: Bob Schulein
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 20, 2012
Audio-product designer Bob Schulein talks about his long and distinguished career, including microphone design and his pioneering work on multichannel matrix encoding and decoding for broadcast and music recordings. He also explains his current project called ImmersAV, in which he shoots high-def video and records binaural audio to create a more immersive A/V experience. In addition, he discusses his extensive headphone measurements and how they relate to perceived sound quality, answers chat-room questions, and more.

Run Time: 1:05:46

Continue Reading »
Headphone Amp/DAC Reviews
Tech Trends 2012: Siri-ously Kinect-ed
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Mar 20, 2012

While the hype at CES this year was all about OLED, 4K, and bigger TVs, a quiet revolution began in the interaction department. LG and Samsung both announced new ways to control TVs using facial and speech recognition, or even just a wave of your hand.

Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie ReviewsMusic Reviews
This Week in Blu-rays and Music, March 20, 2012
Ken Korman  |  Mar 20, 2012

Continue Reading »
Projector Reviews
Mitsubishi HC4000 DLP Projector
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 20, 2012
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $1,495 At A Glance: Many advanced features • Superb detail and color • Deepest blacks we've seen at this price level • Poor shadow detail

A front-projection system is usually the display of choice for serious home-theater enthusiasts. But such systems are more expensive than most flat panels and rear-projection TVs, especially when you consider the cost of a good screen. So finding a low-cost projector that performs well is the Holy Grail for those who want a true home cinema without breaking the bank.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X