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HiFiMan HM-801 Portable-ish Music Player Review
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jul 06, 2011

HiFiMan's HM-801 ($790, head-direct.com) is the size of a Walkman - I mean literally. A cassette could fit inside it, with plenty of room leftover for the heads, playback motors, and whatever other analog hoopla those things had.

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Curtain Call
Manual Labor
Michael J. Nelson  |  Jul 06, 2011
Something huge has recently transpired, something world changing. It happened almost without notice while we were all distracted by other things, but it represents a profound cultural shift. When purchasing a piece of electronic gear, it is now nearly impossible to avoid reading the damned manual.
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3D Obsolescence
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 05, 2011
I'm thinking about getting a Samsung UN46D7000 with my tax return this year. That means I'll have to upgrade my A/V receiver and HDMI cables, plus I plan to get a 3D Blu-ray player since the PS3 doesn't do 3D Blu-ray as well as a dedicated player.

The thing is, all this gear is made for 1080p at 24 frames per second, but filmmakers like James Cameron and Peter Jackson are talking about 48 and 60fps. If I buy now, am I just going to have to buy a new system again next year, or will the standard stay viable at least long enough to get some value out of the current generation of gear?

Nik

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Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 71: Scott Wilkinson
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 05, 2011
In this special episode of Home Theater Geeks, I take viewers on a video tour of my own home theater and answer many questions from the chat room. Plus, my wife Joanna drops by at the end and we sing a little duet!

Run Time: 1:28:36

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
NHT SuperZero 2.0 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 05, 2011

Performance
Value
Build Quality
Price: $879 (for updated SuperZero 2.1 system)
At A Glance: SuperZero 2.0 updates popular mini-monitor • Voiced to be more relaxed and forgiving • Sub packs 8-inch driver into 11-inch enclosure

Feel-Good Sensation

Consider the mini-monitor. It’s smaller than a monitor and bigger than a satellite.

If the mini-monitor in question is the NHT SuperZero 2.0, it doesn’t have much bass and therefore needs to be mated with a subwoofer. But in the surround arena, where subs are standard equipment, bass-shyness is not so much a weakness as a characteristic.

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Game Review: Alice: Madness Returns Page 2
Timothy J. Seppala  |  Jul 05, 2011

Without a doubt, Alice: Madness Returns has the most beautiful and well-realized aesthetic of any game I've seen in ages. But, I'm begging you to never play it. Why? Because it's heartbreaking that a world rife with so many imaginative possibilities ends up feeling so empty, so dull, and so soulless.

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Game Review: Alice: Madness Returns
Timothy J. Seppala  |  Jul 05, 2011

Without a doubt, Alice: Madness Returns has the most beautiful and well-realized aesthetic of any game I’ve seen in ages. But, I’m begging you to never play it. Why? Because it’s heartbreaking that a world rife with so many imaginative possibilities ends up feeling so empty, so dull, and so soulless.

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Music Reviews
“Keeping Score”: Where the Classics Are Current — and High-Tech
Robert Ripps  |  Jul 02, 2011

“I sometimes think I should’ve been a filmmaker rather than a musician.”

So says Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor and music director of the San Francisco Symphony.

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The Connected LifeAudio Video News
URC Looks to take Total Control
John Sciacca  |  Jul 01, 2011

Friday the 13th is nothing to fear this month as remote control giant URC releases the first wave of its new Total Control platform of housewide automation, control, and audio distribution components today.

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Streaming Audio to a Pre/Pro
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 01, 2011
I just bought an Integra DHC 80.2 and want to stream music and movies from my HP laptop (or create a separate server) to it with a hard-wired Ethernet connection. However, I want the best possible sound. How can I do this?

Dale

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