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Tube Amps, Best Connections, Ripping Music
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 25, 2010
More Power!
How is it that tube amps only produce, say, 25 watts of power, and yet they provide enough output to drive speakers rated for hundreds of watts?
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Audio Video News
Panasonic Unleashes BDXL
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 25, 2010
Panasonic has released six new combo DVRs and Blu-ray disc recorders, with the latter offering 100 gigabytes per disc, way in excess of conventional Blu-ray's 25GB per layer or 50GB per side. Before you get too excited, note that like BD component recorders in general, these products are for the Japanese market only and are unlikely to come to the U.S. anytime soon.
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Premiere Design
Living Voice Vox Olympian Speaker
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 24, 2010  |  First Published: Aug 25, 2010
I've seen plenty of horn-based speakers, but nothing like the Vox Olympian from British Living Voice. This magnificent monster is as much sculpture as it is speaker.
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Audio Video News
Toshiba working on glasses-free 3D TVs
SV Staff  |  Aug 24, 2010
Glasses-free 3D TVs have been a long time coming, but they still haven't come out yet. That might change if Toshiba has anything to say about it. According to CrunchGear, Toshiba might release 3D TV models that don't require glasses by the end of...
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Square (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 24, 2010
Escaping the monotony of a loveless marriage, Raymond Yale (David Roberts) becomes entangled in an affair with Carla (Claire van der Bloom). His moral limits are tested when she presents him with the proceeds of her husband's latest crime and the two hatch a plan to start a new life. What could go wrong?

The first act sets the story on the right path but Raymond's actions become more absurd and unbelievable as the film progresses. Furthermore, what does Carla see in the middle-aged man in the first place? Granted, her boyfriend is no looker but a girl with her assets could land a respectable guy closer to her own age.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Last Song (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 24, 2010
Banished by their mother (Kelly Preston) to spend the summer with their father (Greg Kinnear) in Georgia, Veronica (Miley Cyrus) and her younger brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) get a chance to reconnect with him since their parents divorced a few years earlier. Before the split, Veronica would spend countless hours together at the piano and since he left she has refused to play despite receiving a scholarship offer to Julliard. Can a summer with her father rekindle her desire to play or will other circumstances alter her life?

Written by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook), The Last Song certainly caters to a female audience but I can't say I didn't enjoy certain aspects of the production. The screenplay is very melodramatic with pitfalls lurking behind every corner, although I felt the performances by Kinnear as the loving father was genuine and young Coleman steals the show with some great one-liners. Cyrus has improved as an actress, but still has quite a ways to go to graduate to more adult productions.

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Audio Video News
Toshiba Takes Off the 3D Glasses
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 24, 2010
Would you like to watch 3D without glasses? Toshiba is developing a technology that will do just that.
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Premiere Design
Stax SR-007 MK2 Headphones
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 23, 2010
For most audiophiles, speakers are the last link in the signal chain before the music reaches their ears. But the acoustic interaction between the speakers and the room can cause all sorts of problems that are completely avoided by using headphones instead. And the ultimate headphones are widely considered to come from Japanese maker Stax, especially the flagship SR-007 MK2. Unlike most products I profile here, I actually got to try these amazing headphones for myself, and it was an experience not soon forgotten.
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Audio Video News
Denon's 100th birthday bash includes announcement of A100 Anniversary products
SV Staff  |  Aug 23, 2010
Denon Electronics is a hundred years old this year. Yes, the audio equipment manufacturer first set up shop a century ago in Japan. To commemorate its 100-year anniversary, the company has announced an entire series of new audio gear. The A100...
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On-Wall Speaker Reviews
Definitive Technology Mythos XTR-50 On-Wall Speaker System
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 23, 2010
Price: $3,912 At A Glance: Less than 2 inches thick, including the wall mount • Catenary-geometry-derived aluminum-dome woofers • Aluminum enclosure

How Perfect Can Perfect Get?

It’s always a big deal when Definitive Technology introduces a new speaker. Why? Well, as I’ve written in the past, the company has hit as many home runs as Mark McGwire—without the engineers taking any banned steroids, testosterone supplements, male-enhancement products, or vitamins. (That last part about the vitamins probably isn’t true. I’ll leave it to your imagination about the rest.) In the same way fans watched with anticipation and cameras flashed every time McGwire came up to bat, those of us who are lucky enough to do this sort of thing for a living eagerly await the chance to get our remote-control-stained hands on any new Definitive Technology speakers. Unlike with McGwire, it would be big news for the Definitive Technology team to strike out. None of us sitting in the press box really expect that to happen, though. We’re most interested in finding out how good the new speakers are going to be.

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