LATEST ADDITIONS

Tower Speaker Reviews
Aperion Audio Verus Forte Speaker System
Daniel Kumin  |  Aug 24, 2011

Typical tower speakers arrive with so many wonderful opportunities for self-injury: When you take them off the truck and when you haul them into the listening room, for starters. And that’s not to mention when you unpack them and set them up and when you adjust placement (especially with carpet spikes). But Oregon’s Aperion Audio, God love ’em, has finally delivered a tower speaker that even the most physically challenged audiophile can love: the Verus Forte.

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Projector Reviews
Runco LS-10i 3-Chip DLP Projector
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Aug 24, 2011

Plenty of people reading this review may exhibit a rather visceral reaction to the Runco LS-10i projector’s $20,000 price. After all, the Sharp XV-Z17000 DLP projector that I reviewed in Sound+Vision’s last issue was 25% as expensive, was nearly as bright, and did 3D. So what gives? What does the extra money get you? A fair amount, it turns out.

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Soundbar Reviews
Insignia NS-SBar-A Soundbar Speaker
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 24, 2011
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Build Quality
Price: $200 At a Glance: 2.1-channel soundbar with bottom-firing bass drivers • Dynamic Volume and other Audyssey features • No surround processing, analog input only

Home theater is the union of big-screen picture and surround sound. Flat-panel HDTVs have made the first half of the equation irresistible even for consumers of modest means. But the sound-related half has suffered in comparison. In fact, it has suffered in response: The thinner the HDTV gets, the less hospitable its pencil-thin enclosure becomes to speakers. Things have gotten to the point where an HDTV’s built-in speakers aren’t even up to the task of delivering a weather report, let alone a high-caliber movie experience or decent music playback. Ultra-flat HDTVs are like anorexic supermodels who starve their puppies because they want pets as fashionably thin as they are.

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Tech2
SOL Republic: Another Headphone Company?
Brent Butterworth  |  Aug 24, 2011

If I had been sitting across from someone I'd never heard of who was starting yet another headphone company, I'd have probably steered the conversation to the weather or Lady Gaga's latest outfit.

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New ProductsHeadphone Amp/DAC Reviews
Elite's Lunette Projection Screen Pulls Off an Acoustic Disappearing Act
Michael Berk  |  Aug 23, 2011

Elite Screens' new Lunette isn't your everyday curved projection surface.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Das Boot
Joshua Zyber  |  Aug 23, 2011
Is it OK to sympathize with Nazis? That’s a thorny question, and not just for American viewers who’ve been raised on a diet of rah-rah patriotic war films about freedom-loving Yanks kicking the butts of dastardly Nazi scum. Germany itself has a very complicated and uncomfortable relationship with its past and rarely broaches the topic on film. Wolfgang Petersen’s superlative submarine thriller Das Boot takes us inside a World War II U-boat patrolling the Atlantic in 1941. Technically, its crew members are Nazis. Yet few are ideologues, and none are jackbooted villains. Mostly, they’re young boys who know nothing of politics but hunger for the adventure of war and believe themselves to be serving their country.

The film depicts the camaraderie of these men, their conflicts, their boredom, their excitement, their terror, and their growing disillusionment. In its most profound scene, the crew cheers at having destroyed a British cargo ship and then watches in horror as the sailors from that ship leap off its flaming deck and desperately try to swim to the submarine for help they will not get. It’s a sobering moment, both beautiful and haunting.

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Grace Notes
Conan the Barbarian: Bulging Pecs, Beheadings, and Bloodbaths
Leslie Shapiro  |  Aug 23, 2011

Sometimes you go into a movie not knowing how it's going to end. Sometimes, you know exactly how it's going to end. Conan the Barbarian definitely falls into the latter category, but getting there is still worth the ride.

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Tech2
Five Vintage Amps and Preamps to Add to Your eBay Watch List
Brent Butterworth  |  Aug 22, 2011

A five-year-old surround-sound receiver has all the appeal of a five-year-old banana. But a five-year-old (or even 25-year-old) stereo amplifier might sound and perform every bit as good as one built last month.

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The S&V Interview
Video Exclusive: Levin Torn White
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 22, 2011

Good news, friends — we have another exclusive video treat for the S+V faithful.

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Audio Video News
Introducing Top Picks
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 19, 2011
Here at HomeTheater.com, our primary mission is to help you choose the best audio/video gear for your needs and budget, and then get the most out of it when you set it up at home. The first step in that process is deciding which product to buy from among the myriad options available, which is where our product reviews come in. Of course, we review a lot of products, far more than any shopper would be willing to wade through to find the gems—so we've done it for you in our new section called Top Picks.
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