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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Star Trek The Next Generation: The Next Level
David Vaughn  |  Jan 30, 2012

The video quality of Star Trek The Next Generation has never been very impressive, either during its original broadcast days, in syndicated reruns, or on DVD. High-definition displays only make things worse, but all is not lost. Like the original series, The Next Generation was shot on film, and that means its conversion to high-definition has always been possible as long as the studio was willing to recompose the standard-definition visual effects into HD. Thankfully, Paramount and CBS have decided to move forward on this project to bring Picard and company into the 21st century with outstanding results.

This teaser disc includes three episodes, Encounter at Farpoint, Sins of the Father, and one of my personal favorites, The Inner Light, and the results are magnificent. The multi-colored Star Fleet uniforms leap off the screen, and the detail is out of this world, especially on the exterior shots of the Enterprise. The DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio tracks are an improvement over the original stereo tracks (also included), but they aren't quite as demo-worthy as the video. If you're a fan of the series, this will certainly wet your appetite for the upcoming release of season one sometime later this year.

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Custom Installation How-ToThe Connected Life
Multiroom Audio Made Simple
John Sciacca  |  Jan 30, 2012

Many people love the idea of a house-wide audio system, but they may not love the idea of paying to have one installed. Plus, the fancy features that come with dedicated multiroom audio systems — such as keypad controllers with metadata feedback, and the ability to divide a home into numerous listening zones — might be more than what many people actually need.

In fact, for the way many people actually live, two listening zones may be the perfect amount: a “main” zone linked to the TV/surround system and a secondary zone for playing music, radio, or something else in a different room. Think one person watching Oprah’s Life Lessons, while a second seeks refuge on the patio with ESPN radio and a beer. If a two-zone audio system sounds like it would fit your bill, chances are that you’ve actually got most of the components for it already on hand.

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Gadget Gary
Drobo Cop
Gary Dell'Abate  |  Jan 30, 2012

I recently mentioned how much I really dig my network-attached storage (NAS) hard drive and how I like to keep all of my music, photos, and videos on it so I can feed the whole house with media via Apple TV or Roku. Since I have a huge investment of both time and personal memories stored on this drive, I really need to protect it properly — and that’s why I’ve recently moved to a RAID drive.

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Headphone Reviews
Head Room: Six Audiophile Headphones Tested
Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 30, 2012

EVERYWHERE YOU GO, it’s so easy to listen to music, thanks to smartphones, tablets, and MP3 players. But it’s kind of a bummer that millions of people now hear most of their music through earbuds with drivers smaller than a dime.

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TV ReviewsLCD TV Reviews
Test Report: Sharp Elite PRO-60X5FD 3D LCD HDTV
Al Griffin  |  Jan 30, 2012

I won’t assume that everyone will know what I’m talking about when I drop the word “Kuro,” but longtime Sound+Vision readers may recall a line of high-end, and accordingly high-priced, Pioneer Elite plasma TVs that we heaped praise upon back in the day.

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3D Projector ReviewsProjector Reviews
Review: JVC DLA-X90R 3D HD Projector
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jan 30, 2012

Ready or not, here comes 4K. . . sort of. Having maxed out HD resolution years ago and flogged the 3D horse ’til everyone got bored and went back to their coffee, TV manufacturers are now going above and beyond. Above and beyond the ATSC HD maximum resolution spec, that is, to 4K.

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Surround Processor Reviews
Review: Integra DHC-80.3 A/V Controller
Daniel Kumin  |  Jan 30, 2012

How long have Integra’s A/V preamplifier/processors been around? Long enough to become a bit of an institution among home theater insiders. If you were assembling a serious system and demanded legitimately audio/videophile performance in every aspect but were unable or unwilling to pay the sometimes absurd prices asked for “seriously high-end” gear, an Integra pre/pro is what you bought.

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Desktop Speaker Reviews
Test Report: Focal Little Bird 2.1 Speaker System
Daniel Kumin  |  Jan 30, 2012

Focal has flipped me the bird. The company is hardly the first to have done so (even just among audio manufacturers) and is unlikely to be the last. But none before has done so quite as elegantly or enjoyably.

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Soundbar Reviews
Test Report: Zvox Audio Z-Base 580 TV Sound System
Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 30, 2012

Improving TV sound is easy: Add a soundbar. But getting the soundbar to work seamlessly with the TV? That’s hard.

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Surround Sound System ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
Test Report: Paradigm Monitor Series 7 Speaker System
Daniel Kumin  |  Jan 30, 2012

It seems like there have been Paradigm Monitor-series speakers roaming the earth since shortly after Rice and Kellog patented the dynamic loudspeaker as we know it in 1924. (The original practical design was by Peter Jensen, co-founder of Magnavox, some years earlier.) And as the arrival of its “Series 7” might suggest, the Canadian maker’s Monitor family does in fact date back a couple of decades. Like the speakers that preceded them, Paradigm’s new Monitor models are benchmarks of performance/value quotient in the best Canadian-speaker tradition: rationally priced, excellent-performing, technically advanced designs that compete very effectively with some far more costly “high-end” designs.

So what has changed for Series 7? According to Paradigm, the answer is smaller, deeper, broader: The new models are smaller in size (and so more décor-friendly), yet thanks to redesigned waveguides and the adoption of aluminum bass/mid cones and tweeter domes, they offer improved low-frequency extension and smoother, wider off-axis response. In other words, just like before — but more so.

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