LATEST ADDITIONS

Tech2
Review: Journey
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Mar 16, 2012

I’m not sure where to begin. In a Heisenbergian fashion, I can’t describe the game without ruining the game. I can’t really say what it’s about, what goes on, or really, what my feelings are after playing it.

I can only use words like “ethereal,” “haunting,” “absorbing,” even “beautiful.”

Well, maybe I can describe how I feel about it. I think. . . I loved it.

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Audio Video News
Alabama Shakes, Black Flamingo, and Gemma Ray: Billy Altman's SXSW 2012 Diary, Day Two
Billy Altman  |  Mar 15, 2012

The first full day at the 2012 South By Southwest music festival was really all about the ladies, as a number of talented women from all points of the stylistic compass made their presence felt at various hot spots throughout the day and night.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Your Budget AirPlay Companion: iHome's iW2
Michael Berk  |  Mar 14, 2012

As our own Geoffrey Morrison pointed out earlier this week, a lot of AirPlay-enabled speakers are expensive enough that they're bound to get you thinking about building your own system around a cheaper device like an AirPort Express.

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Audio Video News
Compact Discs - Not Dead Yet: Parasound Rolls Out Futureproofed Zcd CD Player
Michael Berk  |  Mar 14, 2012

The writing may be on the wall for the CD and for physical media in general; but we're still seeing interesting disc players emerge as we enter the format's end times (of course, we could be totally wrong about that; vinyl certainly hasn't gone away, and nor has innovation in the turntable arena). But simple CD-playback devices may be a thing of the past.

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Signals
The Physics of Unphysics: Walmart Takes to The Cloud
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Mar 14, 2012

You’ve got to hand it to Walmart. First, they make a zillion dollars selling DVD and Blu-ray discs to everyone. Now, they’re set to make another zillion dollars so you don’t have to actually use the discs. Brilliant, simply brilliant.

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Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 102: Renato Pellegrini
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 14, 2012
Renato Pellegrini, co-founder of Sonic Emotion and my first guest geek to appear live from Europe, explains the company's Absolute 3D audio technology, which uses wave-field synthesis to create a 3D soundfield throughout the room, putting every listener in the sweet spot. He reveals several consumer products that incorporate the technology and introduces Sonic Emotion's new 3D audio app for the iPhone/iPod/iPad (and soon Android devices) called Headquake. Also discussed are several commercial installations using Absolute 3D and the company's Music in Our Schools donation program.

Run Time: 1:00:41

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Audio Video News
Keep Austin Weird: Billy Altman's SXSW 2012 Diary, Day One
Billy Altman  |  Mar 14, 2012

"Keep Austin Weird" is a catch phrase that adorns many a T-shirt in this Texas town that for well over two decades has hosted the South By Southwest music festival.

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Tech2
Projectors for Imperfect Rooms
Brent Butterworth  |  Mar 14, 2012

I’ve been covering video projection since the early 1990s, but last week was the first time I walked into a product display and had a hard time figuring out which projector was showing which picture.

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Subwoofer Reviews
JL Audio Fathom f212 Subwoofer
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Mar 13, 2012

Performance
Build Quality
Value
Price: $6,300 At A Glance: Automatic Room Optimization (A.R.O.) with microphone • XLR output to connect one or more slave f212 subwoofers • Dual 12-inch active drivers

Unless you live in South Florida or are heavily into car audio, there’s a good chance you don’t recognize the name JL Audio. That’s because while these guys make dozens of products for automobiles and boats, they only make a few for home theaters. And the cheapest ones—the just announced 10-inch E110 and 12-inch E112, cost $1,300 and $1,600, respectively.

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Subwoofer Reviews
REL Acoustics R-328 Subwoofer
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Mar 13, 2012

Performance
Build Quality
Value
Price: $1,799 At A Glance: Front-firing active driver with down-firing passive radiator • Independent volume controls for simultaneous use of high- and low-level inputs

So, who the hell is REL Acoustics? That’s a question you might be asking yourself if your favorite places to shop for the latest in A/V gear happen to be Sears, RadioShack, or Big Jim’s Family Pawn & Gun Shop. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with those establishments (well, Big Jim’s might be a little iffy), but REL’s subwoofers are not a cash-and-carry kind of thing. As a matter of fact, REL—a British company that makes only subwoofers—claims its products “are not traditional subwoofers, but true sub-bass systems.” Starting with this slightly different concept of what a subwoofer should be, it’s no wonder that REL subs require a somewhat out-of-the-ordinary setup and that the company recommends parameter settings that are a bit unusual. As a result, REL subwoofers are found only at retailers that have silk-robed salespeople who have been trained by mystical, shoeless REL Zen Bass Masters to be highly skilled in the ancient acoustical arts of transducental bass reproduction.

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