I can remember when there were only two companies, M&K and Velodyne, that made good subwoofers. Thanks to the explosion in Chinese manufacturing, there are now so many companies making subwoofers-and so many making good ones-that it's impossible even to be aware of them all, much less have hands-on experience with all their products.
I can remember when there were only two companies, M&K and Velodyne, that made good subwoofers. Thanks to the explosion in Chinese manufacturing, there are now so many companies making subwoofers—and so many making good ones—that it’s impossible even to be aware of them all, much less have hands-on experience with all their products.
Entire cities have been obliterated by giant, rampaging monsters. Despite heroic efforts, the human race is losing the struggle. The situation is grim. In a last ditch effort to save civilization, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps sends forth the last of its skyscraper-sized robots to battle the monsters. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
On July 11, LG Electronics launched its latest 4K Ultra HDTVs at the Video & Audio Center, a major electronics retailer in Santa Monica, CA. The new LA9700 series includes two models, at 55- and 65-inches (diagonal) and selling for $6,000 and $8,000, respectively.
2D Performance 3D Performance Features Ergonomics Value
Price: $7,000
At A Glance: Four times the native resolution of standard HD • Advanced color technology • State-of-the-art 3D
With the introduction of its new 2013 XBR sets, Sony has shown that it’s serious about bringing Ultra HD, popularly referred to as 4K, to consumers at prices that, while still high, are less seizure-inducing than the $25,000 sticker on its 84-inch XBR-84X900 (Home Theater, June 2013).
Technically, 4K is shorthand
for a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels—the professional 4K format. Consumer 4K sets, on the other hand, have a resolution of 3840 x 2160, exactly four times the pixel count of full HD 1080p. Regardless of the industry’s plan to refer to such sets as Ultra HD, 4K has already crept into the lexicon as the popular term for 3840 x 2160 home video.
Thank goodness for WebEx and GoToMeeting. Online services such as those two have made it incredibly easy to attend seminars, meetings, and press conferences without really being there – both physically and mentally. I’m not saying that such was specifically the case earlier this year when I sat through a special online session Control4 set up for press people during which the company introduced, among other things, a little box they called the Wireless Music Bridge. Honestly, I was paying attention; it’s just that, at the time, I had trouble getting excited about what seemed to me to be not much more than another streaming music device destined to come up short in the inevitable comparison to SONOS, the master and commander of all things having to do with multi-room music streaming. Fortunately, I didn’t have to feign enthusiasm since my face remained hidden by the magic of the Internet.
A couple of weeks ago, however, Control4 did succeed in piquing my interest when a new Wireless Music Bridge arrived at my door. Since I thought it would be rude not to hook it up and try it out...
B&W's $4,000 mid-line flagship: The CM10 is the new top-of-the-line model in the company's mid-priced CM line. It's the only model in the CM line that features the same "tweeter on top" technology found in the company's higher-end 800 series.
55- and 65-inch Models Available for Pre-Order July 21
Samsung’s next wave of 4K Ultra High-Definition (UHD) TVs will be part of a new F9000 line offering 55- and 65-inch models. Available for pre-order starting July 21, the models are expected to sell for $5,500 and $7,500, respectively, when they hit stores in early August.
Bowers & Wilkins, better known as B&W, has announced a new flagship model for its CM Series of speakers. The CM10 is the first speaker in the series to use the tweeter-on-top design pioneered in the acclaimed 800 Series and will be available in August for $4,000 a pair.