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CES 2013
CES 2013, Day One: LG Press Event
Al Griffin  |  Jan 07, 2013

For me, LG’s CES press conference was an anti-climax: The company had already announced its 2013 TV and Blu-ray/audio offerings in a conference call a few weeks prior to the event. The upside was I didn’t have to take many notes —something that’s not always easy to do at 8 a.m. when you’re jet-lagged. Here are the highlights.

Smart TV

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CES 2013
CES 2013: Unveiled
Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 06, 2013
The annual Consumer Electronics Show, America's biggest tech bash, kicked off tonight with CES Unveiled, an event that answers the question "How many journalists can one possibly pack into a convention center ballroom?" (Answer: a zillion.)
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Subwoofer Reviews
SVS SB13-Ultra Subwoofer
David Vaughn  |  Jan 06, 2013

Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
Price: $1,599 At A Glance: Outstanding value • Powerful deep bass response • Built-in parametric EQ

Since I was a little kid, I always loved going to the movie theater. I guess it started in 1977 when I watched Star Wars for the first time in Modesto, California (yeah, the place where George Lucas grew up—nice coincidence). Over the next 20 years, you’d find me at the theater at least once a week enjoying the latest blockbuster with a few friends and a bucket or two of good popcorn—the stuff that was popped in coconut oil, not the crap they sell today. Fast-forward to 1996 as I was walking through my local Circuit City and witnessed a demo of the Twister DVD on a 50-inch rear-projection television with a rudimentary surround system. Wow, was I sold in that instant! The next day, I dragged my wife to the store for the demo and informed her that we needed to start putting money away for a new TV and one of them fancy surround systems for our house.

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Audio Video News
Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  Jan 06, 2013
Klipsch HD Theater 600 Speaker System
As long as you’re OK with its elegant high-gloss black finish, you shouldn’t have any problem integrating HD Theater 600 speakers into your room. Each satellite speaker is only 6 inches tall, and the center speaker is 9 inches wide. OK, the subwoofer with its 8-inch driver, 100-watt amp, and 30-hertz capability is pretty big, but it tucks away nicely in a corner. Wall brackets are included, or you can mount the satellites on optional floor stands.
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Power Amplifier ReviewsSurround Processor Reviews
Bryston SP3 Surround Processor and 9B SST² Amplifier
Fred Manteghian  |  Jan 06, 2013

SP3 Surround Processor
Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
 
9B SST² Amplifier
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $17,595 At A Glance: No-compromise musicality in a home theater • Clean and powerful • No-frills design

If you’ve ever spent an afternoon at a big-box store courting eye strain and knee pain comparing the lineup of AVRs, then you’ve doubtless discovered that, superficially at least, the offerings have more in common than not. Sure, the more you spend, the more buzzwords are silk-screened across the front panel, the more HDMI connections you find around back, and, when it comes to power, the more exaggeration you get. One thing about Bryston and power—it’s not within theirs to lie. My first audiophile speakers, Magnepan MG-IIIa speakers, didn’t turn amazing until they met a Bryston 4B amp. If current is what your speakers crave, a Bryston amp could be their best friend.

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Ears On
Demos: Banishing Vinyl Regrets
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 05, 2013
Regrets gnaw at record collectors. There's always the one that got away: because I failed to buy it, or could never find a good copy of it, or unwisely loaned it, or stupidly discarded it in the CD era's initial flush of enthusiasm and confusion. Over the years I've whittled down my list of regrets with strategic secondhand buys. But a few regrets have remained, and when they affect my relationship with the Beatles or the Rolling Stones—crucial touchstones for a fiftysomething music lover—they're especially painful. I was never lucky enough to find a pristine pressing of either Abbey Road or Beggar's Banquet. However, a recent turntable purchase and an unspent balance in my PayPal account recently drove me to banish these gnawing regrets once and for all.

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Editor's Eye
Another Good One: Why I Love Our Top Picks of the Year
Rob Sabin  |  Jan 04, 2013
I love the walk down (short-term) memory lane that accompanies the preparation of our annual Top Picks of the Year feature. At the forefront of that is the great pride I take in revisiting all the hard work our reviewers and edit/art staff have put in throughout the prior 12 months.
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Top Picks
2012 Top Picks of the Year
HT Staff  |  Jan 04, 2013
Well, here we go again—time for another round of the best of last year’s best. As you’ll see (and forgive the old cliché), it was a year that was more evolutionary than revolutionary, but we were delighted to see the cost of excellent HDTVs and projectors continue to come down while the quality of some emerging categories, like soundbars, started to come up.
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Track One
Giveaway: Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 04, 2013

Happy New Year, S+V friends! What better way to break in that new turntable you got over the holidays than with a nice big vinyl box set that we're giving away?

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CES 2013
CES 2013 Show Coverage Begins Monday
HT Staff  |  Jan 03, 2013
What better way to kick off the New Year than to head to Vegas for the 2013 International CES, the largest consumer technology trade show in the world?

Starting Monday, January 7, Home Theater’s crack staff will comb upwards of 2 million square feet of exhibit space to uncover the A/V gems hidden among the 20,000 (!) products slated for introduction throughout the week.

Whether you’re looking for the latest news on 4K/Ultra HDTV and OLED, speakers and soundbars, media streamers and wireless technology, or A/V receivers and Blu-ray players, plenty of news is heading your way.

We look forward to your comments!

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