LATEST ADDITIONS

Premiere Design
MBL Noble System at T.H.E. Show
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 07, 2011
In addition to the Reference system I wrote about a few weeks ago, MBL also showed its mid-range Noble line in an adjoining room at T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach, CA, last month. I must say, this more moderate setup fit the funky hotel room better than the bigger system next door.
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Ask S&V
Video Processing
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 07, 2011
I have a Pioneer VSX-33 A/V receiver that outputs HDMI to an Epson 8700UB projector (seen here). How do I know which component is doing the video processing? When my Blu-ray player or satellite receiver runs through the AVR and out to the Epson, does the AVR do all the processing, or does the Epson's video processor? I guess I would prefer to have the Pioneer do all the video processing since its Marvell Qdeo chipset has been so favorably rated.

Dan Theis

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Sinclair Audio Brighton 50B Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 06, 2011
Price: $1,398 At A Glance: Silk-dome tweeter with thermal protection • Race-car-inspired woven-fiberglass woofer • Sub’s passive radiators kill port noise

From Canada with Love

Canada has traditionally been a cornucopia of loudspeaker manufacturers. That isn’t exactly an accident. The Canadian government maintains a research facility in Ottawa with an anechoic (non-echoing) chamber that lures speaker designers like a garden lures honeybees. But Sinclair Audio’s roots are in Montreal, as is its Canadian distributor, Jam Industries, which began manufacturing, importing, and distributing musical instruments and other equipment in 1972 and expanded to include consumer electronics shortly thereafter. The company’s scope subsequently expanded to include lighting and audio equipment for concert, broadcast, and recording use. Sinclair is distributed in the U.S. by American Audio & Video. It’s sold via the same dealer network that handles Arcam, whose audio/video receivers and other products have attracted well-earned rave reviews in these pages.

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Tech2
OpEd: Ownership in the Age of the Cloud
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jul 06, 2011

I am not a luddite. In fact, barring cybernetic augmentations (bring 'em on), I'd say I'm about as far from a luddite as one could be. I love technology. Thanks to my job, I'm often the first of my circle to have the latest gadget. I've got tons of Apple iStuff, a beloved Android phone, an oversized HDTV, 18MP DSLR, and yadda yadda.

Yet, I still buy CDs.

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Plasma Buzz
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 06, 2011
I bought a Panasonic TC-P50ST30 plasma TV (seen here), and I hear a slight buzz from where I sit if there is no sound playing. I read that this is normal for plasma technology. Is that true? Should I call Panasonic for a replacement?

Hunter Cvetko

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Tech2
The World’s Cheapest Speaker
Brent Butterworth  |  Jul 06, 2011

We finally have a victor in the consumer electronics industry’s long-running race to the bottom: the Dayton B652. How much less expensive can a two-way speaker get than $34.50 per pair? That’s the price Parts Express currently demands for the B652.

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Tech2
This Week Around the Web, June 17th Edition
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jul 06, 2011

Roger Ebert finds a cool infographic on PC people and Mac people. Mac users are hipsters, PC users are...conservatives?

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Tech2
Attack of the Megasub
Brent Butterworth  |  Jul 06, 2011

While on a swing through Vancouver this week to check out the vintage audio scene, I stopped by to say hi to the guys at Vancouver Audio Speaker Clinic, an old-school speaker repair shop of the type I haven’t seen since I was a kid in the 1970s trying to resurrect the shredded speakers from my

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Equalizers and Tape Monitoring
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 06, 2011
I've had a very old equalizer for about 25 years, and I would love to use it for listening to my tapes. To do so, however, I didn't know that the receiver needs a "tape monitor" capability, which most modern receivers don't have. Are there any equalizers that do not need tape monitoring?

Lafonte

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A/V Veteran
Hobbits, Rings, and 48Hz Things
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jul 06, 2011
Recently, I was doing some online research for my review of the new, Extended Edition The Lord of the Rings Blu-ray boxed set, which will appear in the October 2011 issue of Home Theater magazine. A search for director Peter Jackson produced a pile of information. Jackson today doesn't look as much like a slightly oversized Hobbit as he did when the show was in production (Jenny Craig got to him, or something). His earliest cinematic fascination was with gross-out horror—an interest clearly reflected in the designs for the Orcs and other nasties in Rings. There's a particularly disgusting added sequence near the end of the Extended Edition of The Return of the King that clearly shows this fixation is far from conquered. If "The Mouth of Sauron" is any indication, Sauron and his minions need a much better dental plan.
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