LATEST ADDITIONS

Premiere Design
KEF Blade Speaker
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 02, 2011
Two years ago, I wrote an Ultimate Gear blog about the Concept Blade, a one-off speaker built by British stalwart KEF as a research project to push the envelope of speaker design. Now, that project has yielded a product you can actually buy—the KEF Blade.
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Audio Video News
Onkyo Unveils First DTS Neo:X Receiver
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 02, 2011
Onkyo's TX-NR1009 is the first surround receiver with DTS Neo:X, which converts signals with 2.0, 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 channels to 9.1 or 11.1 channels.

Why this, why now? Frankly we're not sure.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Barry Lyndon
Josef Krebs  |  Jun 01, 2011

William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon relates the colorful adventures of an Irish itinerant who tries his hand at war, gambling, and financially profitable marriage while traveling through 18th-century Europe. Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 adaptation, like many of the director’s other films (including Paths of Glory, Dr.

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Game Review: Dirt 3
Timothy J. Seppala  |  Jun 01, 2011

Dirt 3 (Codemasters Racing Studio)
Xbox 360 (also for PC, PS3)

It took a while for Dirt 3 to click for me. At first, I loved bombing around the beautifully rendered tracks with all of the driving assists turned on, racking up easy gold medals. Then I got bored because everything felt so automatic, and progressing didn't require any skill. So, I turned the aids off. That was a wake-up call; I'd never I worked so hard for a last-place finish before.

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Custom Installation How-ToHome Movie Theaters
The Future of Retail?
Kim Wilson  |  Jun 01, 2011
You feel like you are walking into someone's home but this is actually a systems integrator's Experience Center. These recreations of a modern living room, dining room, bar and dedicated theater demonstrate to customers all the technologies that are possible from automated integration that is controlled by an Apple iPad to cabinets with lifts that hide your TV when not in use.
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Ask S&V
TV Setup, 7.1 on 5.1 System, Ethernet Extension
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 01, 2011
What features should I turn off before setting my Vizio TV's picture controls? What happens when you play a 7.1 Blu-ray on a 5.1 system? Can I extend an Ethernet cable by adding another cable with a female-female adaptor?
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Ask S&V
Wireless Whole-House Audio
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 01, 2011
I need a recommendation for wireless speakers. My in-laws have four sets of speakers throughout the house controlled with a hard-wired switch box, but the system crackles and pops so badly that they have stopped listening to music. In lieu of crawling under the house to rewire, I want to know if wireless speakers are a viable option. I was hoping that something like a wireless Bose Cube speaker system existed? We don't mind spending a bit on an initial set or two.

Greg Shaw

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Boston Acoustics A 25 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 01, 2011

Performance
Value
Build Quality
Price: $1,200 At A Glance: Well-balanced performance • Kortec soft-dome tweeters, ceramic glass fiber woofer cones • Glossy side panels enhance appearance

Born and Reborn

Loudspeaker manufacturers are born and then, in some cases, reborn. Although rebirth doesn’t necessarily ensure continued creativity or even longevity, some speaker makers thrive in their new incarnations. That’s what happened to Boston Acoustics. It was born as an independent company in 1979, was reborn in 2006 as a speaker brand following acquisition by D&M Holdings (the same company that markets Denon and Marantz), and is now healthier than ever.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
True Blood: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jun 01, 2011
Season three finds Bill (Stephan Moyer) kidnapped and Sookie Anna Paquin) heading to Mississippi to find him. There she becomes entangled in a world ruled by a powerful Vampire King and the werewolves who do his bidding. Meanwhile, back in Bon Temps, new threats emerge that make previous problems seem tame by comparison.

Am I the only guy that's sick of vampires? I've never been a huge fan of this series but have stuck with it for the sake of our readers, but I'm not sure I can handle another season of it. Sure, through its 12 episodes there is the occasional winner, but overall it's an up-and-down affair and isn't one of HBO's greatest hits.

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Audio Video News
Apple iCloud Nears
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 01, 2011
Apple now confirms that iCloud will be the name of its soon-to-be-launched cloud-based content locker. And content-wise, it looks as though all the pieces are falling into place.

Apple reportedly expects to sign up the Universal Music Group this week, reports The Wall Street Journal. That would make it the last of the four major music labels to participate, along with EMI, Sony, and Warner.

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