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This Week
This Week in Movies & TV, July 9, 2013: Poetry & Parasites
Josef Krebs  |  Jul 09, 2013

The Life of Oharu

The Life of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna, 1952), from director Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, A Geisha), tells of a 50-year-old prostitute no longer able to attract men looking back on her tragic life.

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AV Receiver Reviews
Test Report: Cambridge Audio Azur 751R A/V receiver
Daniel Kumin  |  Jul 08, 2013

British hi-fi used to be quirky. Anyone who remembers, say, Connoisseur turntables, Leak amps, or Quad speakers will know what I mean. Today’s Brit-fi, however — at least as exemplified by Cambridge Audio — has successfully transitioned from quirky to distinctive.

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Audio Video News
Poll Results: No Love Lost for 3D TV
HT Staff  |  Jul 08, 2013
3D was largely shrugged off in last week’s Home Theater poll. In response to the question “What’s your take on 3DTV,” more than half of respondents (61%) selected “I don’t care about 3D one way or the other” (45%) or “I couldn’t care less…” (12% for owners of active 3D TVs and 4% for owners of passive 3D TVs). Only 13% reported “loving” 3D, while 20% said they watch 3D programs occasionally. Wearing glasses is apparently not an issue for those who like 3D: Only 5% of respondents chose “3D glasses drive me crazy.” And if you're on the fence and looking for a 3D movie to check out, Oz the Great and Powerful was singled out as an exemplary example of 3D in action. Here’s a complete breakdown of the survey results...
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Audio Video News
Mass Fidelity Introduces Audiophile-Grade Bluetooth Receiver
HT Staff  |  Jul 08, 2013
Inaugural Product Connects Handheld Devices to Any Audio System

Canadian high-tech startup Mass Fidelity has introduced its first product—the $199 Relay wireless hi-fi receiver.

The receiver streams music wirelessly from any Bluetooth-enabled device to any audio system and is said to deliver audiophile-grade performance thanks to proprietary topography and firmware and the use of premium components such as a Burr-Brown digital-to-audio converter.

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Projector Reviews
Innoio Smart Beam Pico Projector
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jul 07, 2013

Even by the standards of pico projectors, this thing is tiny: an actual projector of images barely larger than a crabapple.

Battery powered and with an HDMI input, it's a mighty mini...

maybe.

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Surround Sound System ReviewsBookshelf Speaker ReviewsSubwoofer Reviews
Klipsch Quintet Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 05, 2013

Quintet Speakers
Performance
Build Quality
Value
SW-100 Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
Price: $1,050 At A Glance: Molded reinforced polymer enclosure • Vertically expanded Tractrix horn • Conventional sub

Compact satellite/subwoofer sets are often affordable, mate well with budget receivers, allow more speaker-placement width than soundbars, lend themselves to wall mounting—and best of all, they don’t hog the room, even if you place them on stands (which would usually produce the best sonic results). What Justice Anthony Kennedy’s swing vote is to the Supreme Court, the spouse acceptance factor is to loudspeaker genres, and the elegant compactness of a sat/sub set just may be the tiebreaker, the factor that makes the difference between having or not having a surround system. Sat/sub sets continue to be the most underrated product category in home theater.

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Surround Sound System ReviewsSubwoofer ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
Legacy Audio Classic HD Speaker System
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jul 05, 2013

HD Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value

Metro Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
Price: $10,580 (standard finish, updated 3/10/15)
At A Glance: Folded-planar magnetic tweeters • Treble and bass trim switches • Biwire and biamp capable

Every company has its genesis story, be it the back of a napkin or something more grandiose. Apple, of course, is famous for starting out in Steve Jobs’s parents’ garage. Lutron’s backstory isn’t quite as well known, but its unassuming beginnings were in the bedroom founder Joel Spira and his wife intended to use as their first child’s nursery. (“Sorry, kid, you’ll have to sleep on the couch. Daddy’s got a solid-state dimmer to invent.”) Similar to Apple, Legacy Audio’s birthplace was in a garage; but this garage was far from Cupertino. Instead, it was located in the midst of the cornfield-filled upper Midwest where, according to Legacy, Bill Dudleston and “a stubborn Dutch craftsman,” Jacob Albright, built the company’s first speaker, the Legacy-1, in 1983. Thirty years later, though, what the heck does any of this have to do with Legacy Audio’s loudspeakers today? Really, who gives a flying flip about two dudes, a garage, cornfields, and some woodworking equipment? (Hmm…cornfields. Wasn’t there a movie about that? “If you build it, they will listen.”)

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Ears On
This Is My Rack
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 05, 2013
In every review I write of a surround receiver or speaker system, I tap out a graf on associated equipment used to audition the product. You can always find it between the product description and the listening notes. Whenever I read an audio review, I feel cast adrift if the reviewer doesn't disclose what's in his reference system. After all, the receiver I use to review a set of speakers, or the speakers I use to review a receiver, may exert a significant effect on the product's performance and how I perceive it. So does the room, for that matter, and maybe I'll tackle that subject someday. I use asymmetrical long-wall placement in a room with six sides where no two sides are the same length. That should make for an interesting blog. In the meantime, here's a more detailed description of what's in my rack, moving from top to bottom.

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Tech2
Star Wars: Galaxies LIVES!
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jul 04, 2013

At the end of 2011, I wrote about the shutting down of Star Wars: Galaxies, the massively-multiplayer online game set in Lucas's fantasy universe. I hadn't played the game in years, not since Sony irreparably massacred the gameplay, dumbing it down and alienating its core players.

But now it's back. Not in hobbled "NGE" form, but with old-school Jump to Lightspeed-era gameplay.

I couldn't resist this walk down memory lane. So, after all these years... how does it hold up?

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Headphone Amp/DAC Reviews
Test Report: NuVo Technologies Wireless Audio System
John Sciacca  |  Jul 03, 2013

As a custom installer, I hear a lot of requests, andone of the things people ask for most is wireless audio. Sending music around the home without the hassle, cost, or mess associated with long runs of wire is the modern American audio dream.

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