For subwoofer designers, the laws of physics boil down to: Small box, low cost, high output — pick any two. You can always shrink the enclosure, but to get decent output from it, you’ll need a high-powered amp and a beefy driver. And if you shrink the box way down, as Sunfire did with its new Atmos subwoofer, you’ll need to go even more extreme.
For those who may harbor any doubt that Pioneer has thrown its lot wholly in with the Connected Generation, let me present Exhibit A: the VSX-60 A/V receiver. The new model’s design bears a close resemblance to those of its predecessors, and any updates in its functions and features are more incremental than otherwise. But when you add everything up, the verdict seems pretty clear.
I’ll put this out right up front: I’m not a fan of image enhancements. They almost always hurt the image more than they ever help it, and nowadays there is an almost never-ending list of them in just about every display device. From 240 Hz smooth frame modes, to skin tone correctors and detail enhancers, we’re watching them pile up in our menus. Most are garbage and the first thing I turn off when I set up any display. So, on that note, imagine my skepticism when I got the Darbee Darblet in for review. It’s a new video processor that claims to increase depth perception, sharpness and realism with any display at any resolution, including 3D.
“So when are you guys gonna do headphones?” I jokingly asked the staff of RBH Sound when I visited them at January’s CES show. A boutique speaker company, RBH focuses on the sort of relatively high-end products that independent dealers like to sell.
Last week we told you about the refreshed Klipsch Image S4 in-ear-monitor lineup; this week the firm adds a new mid-priced model to the Image roster, the all-new Klipsch Image X7i ($199.99).
The transition from analog to digital TV opened our eyes to a world of vivid images that we now take for granted, but technology marches on, with the promise of something bigger and better always just around the corner. As consumer electronics companies lay the groundwork for a 4K television/video format that delivers four times the resolution of regular HDTV and prepare to roll out the first 4K TVs, an 8K format is already on the horizon.
Home theater brawn and cutting-edge connectivity define the AVR-1913, which packs seven 90-watt amplifiers for room-shaking 7.1-channel movie action and supports AirPlay technology for wireless music streaming from your favorite Apple device. Highlights include more than a dozen sound modes, six HDMI inputs (including one up front for quick camcorder hookups), a front-panel USB input, and an Ethernet port so you can access Pandora, Flickr, and other Web content from your living room. Speaker setup is fully automated thanks to Audyssey MultEQ processing, and an onboard video upscaler converts standard-def video to 1080p.