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AV Receiver Reviews
Yamaha RX-V473 and RX-V573 A/V Receivers
Dennis Burger  |  Feb 08, 2013

Yamaha RX-V473 A/V Receiver
Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
 

Yamaha RX-V573 A/V Receiver
Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $450 (RX-V473); $550 (RX-V573) At A Glance (both models): Really fantastic sound quality for the price • Apple AirPlay, DLNA, Internet radio, and app control • Lean on streaming and other features

Conventional wisdom amongst us A/V geeks who put audio performance above all else is that there’s no such thing as a good $500 A/V receiver anymore. At least not from the big, well-known manufacturers whose wares you’d find at the typical electronics store. This mythical beast did exist before the dark days, before the Features Wars, but given that even a mid-priced offering these days is expected to sport all sorts of streaming audio and video goodies, something had to give. And sound quality has traditionally been that something.

So it’s something of a novelty for me to be sitting here with not one, but two good $500-ish receivers from Yamaha. The company’s RX-V473 and RX-V573 look identical from the front and both fall within $50 of that target price point—the former fifty bucks down, the latter fifty bucks up.

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Ears On
What CES Is Really Like
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 08, 2013
Here's what this blog is not going to be: a diatribe about how much I hate CES and, more specifically, the city of Las Vegas. Oh, I'll give that desert hellhole one or two well-deserved kicks, but you're probably not interested in my self-indulgent whining, so I'll keep that part brief. A reader who has never attended CES, but has heard about it for years, would be more interested in what it's like to actually go, to be there, to have the experience. So I'll give you a taste of that instead. CES veterans will want to skip this blog entirely. This is for the newbies, OK?

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Tech2
Hands on: The Last of Us
John Higgins  |  Feb 07, 2013

At a recent press preview, I got to play through about 20 minutes of the upcoming PS3 game The Last of Us. It’s a survival-horror type game, set in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by a plague that creates don’t-call-them-zombies. Ok, they’re not zombies, but that’s the idea here. You’re alive, they’re not(really) and you don’t want to get eaten. Seems rational.

Game on, then.

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SmartStream
"Can I Stream It?" App Finds Movies Available for Streaming
Barb Gonzalez  |  Feb 06, 2013
If you know what movie you want to watch, now you can find it easily on the Can I Stream It website and app.
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3D Projector ReviewsProjector Reviews
We Three Projectors: Sony VPL-50WES, Epson 5020e, JVC-DLA-X35
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Feb 06, 2013

Winter is my favorite season, when all the past year’s new flat-panel TVs have been reviewed and I can switch my attention to projectors. This season was particularly bountiful, as I was able to score three of the best projectors on the market for review. Sony’s VPL-HW50ES, plus an Epson and a JVC, all arrived on my doorstep within a few days of one another. Not too shabby, that. Time for a roundup.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Vintage Hollywood on Blu-ray: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Shane Buettner  |  Feb 06, 2013
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
Directed by noir great Robert Aldrich, 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was a shocker in its day, from the lurid subject matter to the monumental uniting of two of the silver screen’s greatest actresses (and fiercest rivals), Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, each in her mid-fifties then. It’s a twisted tale of two once-famous, now codependent sisters: Davis’ Jane was famous in childhood as Baby Jane Hudson, while Crawford’s Blanche went on to greater stardom in Hollywood before being hit by a car, presumably driven by jealous Jane, and crippled.
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Tech2
Review: Klipsch Image X7i in-ear headphone Page 2
Brent Butterworth  |  Feb 05, 2013

To most people, a high-end in-ear monitor costing hundreds of dollars doesn't look much different from the $10 IEMs you buy at Walgreens. But usually, the difference is huge. Perfect example: the $199 Klipsch Image X7i.

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Headphone Reviews
Review: Klipsch Image X7i in-ear headphone
Brent Butterworth  |  Feb 05, 2013

To most people, a high-end in-ear monitor costing hundreds of dollars doesn’t look much different from the $10 IEMs you buy at Walgreens. But usually, the difference is huge. Perfect example: the $199 Klipsch Image X7i.

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This Week
This Week New Movies for February 5th 2013: Fight or Flight
Josef Krebs  |  Feb 05, 2013

Flight

Flight, as directed by Robert Zemeckis (Cast Away, Forrest Gump, Back to the Future trilogy), states loudly and firmly the message that the ordinary working man - and woman - doesn't stand a chance against the system and the pressures of modern life. The only choices they have to help them cope are booze and drugs or religion.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews3D Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Avengers
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 05, 2013
Picture
3D-ness
Sound
Extras
When Marvel Comics’ gang of superheroes—Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye—get together after the first four of them starred in their own movies, you know something big is up. And it’s no surprise that Loki, Thor’s adopted brother, who teamed up with an army of nasty aliens, is behind it.
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