LATEST ADDITIONS

Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jan 27, 2011

What is this heathen? This infidel? This sacrilegious interloper? After years of espousing that plasma was the way to go for big-screen TVs, Panasonic comes out with this, the TC-L42D2, a 42-inch LCD set. Such blasphemy. Oh, wait, it turns out the company has always made LCD TVs. My bad. But in this size? Bowing to market pressure, the company has upsized its LCD line, which now overlaps with what had solely been plasma territory in Panasonicville.

Daniel Kumin  |  Jan 26, 2011

There's a trend afoot in A/V-land to make even Flagship receivers simpler (at least on the outside), easier to use, and physically more compact and less intimidating. Now Yamaha has boarded this bus, not just with a single model but with an entire new family of AVRs it's calling Aventage (rhymes with fromage). Cheesy names aside, the news here is that, for once, "new and improved" really is: new form factor, new user interface, new network-ability, new remote control, and lots of new (or at least evolved) audio and video technology.

Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 26, 2011

If I review more speakers like the Gallo Acoustics Nucleus Reference Strada, my Office Depot bill will skyrocket. Within the first 2 minutes of listening to this speaker, I filled a page and a half of my lab notebook with verbiage - and the torrential scribbling continued for days, consuming paper faster than a schnauzer snarfs up Snausages.

Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 26, 2011

If I review more speakers like the Gallo Acoustics Nucleus Reference Strada, my Office Depot bill will skyrocket. Within the first 2 minutes of listening to this speaker, I filled a page and a half of my lab notebook with verbiage — and the torrential scribbling continued for days, consuming paper faster than a schnauzer snarfs up Snausages.

Al Griffin  |  Jan 26, 2011

The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said there are no second acts in American lives. But what about third acts? Speaker impresario Sandy Gross is a cofounder of two of the best-known companies in the home theater/audio biz: Polk Audio and Definitive Technology.

Rob Sabin  |  Jan 26, 2011

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably noticed that it's a great big 3D world out there, and it's getting bigger every day. The latest arrival is Toshiba's 55WX800U, a 55-inch 3D LCD TV with edge-lit LED backlighting. At $3,300 (list), the 55WX800U doesn?t come cheap, but it does have the usual array of features we've come to expect from a top-of-the-line set.

Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 26, 2011
Are Walter Murch's arguments against 3D reasonable? Why does Barb Gonzalez dislike Roku? Which 3D TV should I get?
Kris Deering  |  Jan 26, 2011
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3/5
Behind every legend lies an impossible dream. Witness the spectacular journey of an incredible horse, Secretariat, and the moving story of his unlikely owner, a housewife who risked everything to make him a champion.
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 26, 2011

Ah, the remote control. The gizmo that gets no respect. Lost under the sofa cushions, berated when its batteries are dead, made into a chew toy by the dog, cursed at for having too many buttons, cursed at for having too few. And now the poor thing seems destined to become yet another fine piece of technological roadkill.

Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 26, 2011
Electronic-music composer and mastering engineer Robert Rich discusses the creative process, how making and consuming music has changed over the last 25 years, the audible and cultural effect of data and dynamic-range compression, why surround music hasn't been more successful without a visual component, his all-night "sleep concerts" and 7-hour Somnium music DVD, and answers to chat-room questions.

Run Time: 56:34

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