LATEST ADDITIONS

Darryl Wilkinson  |  Oct 04, 2012

Performance
Build Quality
Value
Price: $10,000 (23 shade system) At A Glance: Up to three-year battery life • Extremely quiet operation • Simple installation

Of all the “this is the coolest damn thing I’ve ever seen” things a home theater/wholehome automation system can do, the one that is consistently the most mesmerizing, most envied, coolest “coolest damn thing” is the control of motorized window treatments. (Although it sounds like something a doctor would prescribe for sick building syndrome, window treatments is the term people in the know use for what you and I would call curtains, blinds, and shades.) If you’ve never experienced motorized shades (or drapes or blinds)—and I mean experienced in the sense that you’ve seen them in action in someone’s home and not in a too-clean-to-be-believable picture-perfect designer’s showroom or a slickly edited online video—it’s difficult to grasp the enchanted feeling and quasi-mystical pleasure that even the least gadget-savvy person can get from being in a room in which some hidden electronic sorcery conjures the shades to obediently open and close (or stop anywhere in between) on command or makes the curtains part like the Red Sea as if Moses were holding a remote control in his hand instead of a staff. Even the reticent Wizard of Oz, himself, would rush out from his hiding place behind the curtain to watch it open and close by remote control if it were motorized.

Michael Berk  |  Oct 04, 2012

Last night we got to check out the latest offering in Bang & Olufsen's wireless-lifestyle Play line, a wireless speaker system known as the BeoPlay A9 ($2,699). Now, obviously at that price it's got to offer something more than the average dock, and indeed it does. 

Leslie Shapiro  |  Oct 04, 2012

Six months ago, we reported that Neil Young was going around talking about a crazy idea he had for a new music business model.   He had some high-res, music-in-the-cloud idea that he thought would revolutionize the way people listen to music. Would it be the Segway of the music biz?

Michael Berk  |  Oct 04, 2012

Having previously been pretty impressed by Parrot's Philippe Starck–designed headphone, the Zik, I figured the latest update to the Zikmu tower dock line might have a little more to offer than looks.

Michael Berk  |  Oct 03, 2012

The big box threw me for a second. Some weeks back I'd seen an early prototype of the Aperion Aris, the first Windows 8 Play To certified wireless speaker, and I recalled it being a pretty compact desktop unit. What gives?

Well, it turns out that the manufacturer is so confident in their new product that they sent it to us along with a leading wireless speaker we'd reviewed quite positively, the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air, along with an A/B switcher and a Sansa Clip full of tunes.

Gauntlet thrown! But we'll get to that in a minute.

Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 03, 2012

When you buy a Rolex Submariner from a guy with a dozen of them in a cardboard box in Times Square, there is absolutely no chance of misunderstanding. Both parties fully understand that the timepieces in question are fakes. But what if you buy a pair of high-end headphones from that kind-of-weird stereo store across from the mall?

Brent Butterworth  |  Oct 03, 2012

Room correction systems that optimize your audio system for the acoustics of your room have been around for more than a decade — but frankly, they’ve never won me over, and I’m finally starting to understand why.

Steve Proctor  |  Oct 03, 2012
I built my home theater in the attic and created a dramatic entrance and a vestibule. The vestibule’s reverse wall is painted like a women’s hat store circa 1910 Paris, with a travertine cobblestone street. Behind the windows, there are built-in shelves for DVDs and Blu-rays.
Jamie Sorcher  |  Oct 03, 2012
If you’re the kinda guy who can recite classic movie lines like, “Leave the gun; take the cannoli” on command in between handfuls of popcorn, you may want a pop culture print, painting, or sculpture in your home theater with a little personality, right?
Barb Gonzalez  |  Oct 03, 2012
As Netflix's exclusive deal with EPIX has expired, Amazon jumped at the opportunity to enter into a new multi-year licensing agreement with the cable channel content provider. The deal brings EPIX movies and original programming to Amazon Prime Instant Video streaming.

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