LATEST ADDITIONS

On-Wall Speaker Reviews
Review: Outdoor Speakers
Brent Butterworth  |  Jul 15, 2013

Now that the weather is warm, everyone’s urge to go outside is irresistible. For you, it’s easy: Just walk out the door. For speaker manufacturers, it’s a lot harder — and not because they’re all pale geeks who never leave the lab. It’s because the outdoors is a hostile environment for anything that uses electricity. Water can corrode metal parts, or even short out circuits.

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Streaming Device Reviews
Roku 3 Media Streamer
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jul 15, 2013  |  First Published: Jan 31, 2014

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $100

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Remote control with headphone jack
Global movie title search
Zippy processor for quick navigation and search
Minus
Can only be connected via HDMI

THE VERDICT
Performance improvements and a new interface make streaming easy and keep Roku ahead of the competition.

Where other companies that make media players seem stuck in endless delays in the release of new models, it seems that Roku rolls out a new option every few months. I’m not complaining. Its newest release, the Roku 3, is my favorite so far. I use a Roku box with my bedroom TV because my tech-challenged partner can easily understand how to navigate its menus. Roku 3 has now added a headphone jack in the remote that mutes the TV when you plug into it. No longer do I have to endure listening to explosions, gunshots, and car-chase scenes while I’m trying to fall asleep. Performance improvements plus a new interface and box design continue to keep Roku ahead of its competition.

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Audio Video News
Acurus to Introduce Made-in-USA Preamps Designed for the Mobile Generation
HT Staff  |  Jul 15, 2013
Indy Audio Labs, parent company of the high-performance audio brands, Aragon and Acurus, plans to launch a line of Web-enabled preamps and home theater processors later this year. Positioned as “the first separate preamps and pre-pros designed to meet the needs and expectations of today’s mobile generation, the line is based on Indy’s Enhanced Ethernet Control (E2C), which enables the components to talk to other devices on a home network.
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Sweepstakes
Lil' Eli Wins Big Sound
Ariel Bitran  |  Jul 15, 2013
Elijah Inskeep of East Moline, Illinois is the very fortunate winner of our Westone 4R in-ear monitor sweepstakes, a $600 value! What a great way for Eli to start off his summer. He screams, "Oh my god! That's amazing!"
Subwoofer Reviews
Review: NXG NX-BAS-500 subwoofer
Brent Butterworth  |  Jul 14, 2013

I can remember when there were only two companies, M&K and Velodyne, that made good subwoofers. Thanks to the explosion in Chinese manufacturing, there are now so many companies making subwoofers-and so many making good ones-that it's impossible even to be aware of them all, much less have hands-on experience with all their products.

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Tech2
Review: NXG NX-BAS-500 subwoofer Page 2
Brent Butterworth  |  Jul 14, 2013

I can remember when there were only two companies, M&K and Velodyne, that made good subwoofers. Thanks to the explosion in Chinese manufacturing, there are now so many companies making subwoofers—and so many making good ones—that it’s impossible even to be aware of them all, much less have hands-on experience with all their products.

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Out Of The Blu
Banshee, Would You Rather and A Place at the Table
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 13, 2013
Another edgy series from Cinemax, a trendy new thriller and a must-see documentary about hunger in America will heat up an already balmy July.
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Grace Notes
Movie Premiere: Pacific Rim
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jul 12, 2013

Entire cities have been obliterated by giant, rampaging monsters. Despite heroic efforts, the human race is losing the struggle. The situation is grim. In a last ditch effort to save civilization, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps sends forth the last of its skyscraper-sized robots to battle the monsters. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

 

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A/V Veteran
LG Expands its 4K Ultra HDTV Offerings
Tom Norton  |  Jul 12, 2013
On July 11, LG Electronics launched its latest 4K Ultra HDTVs at the Video & Audio Center, a major electronics retailer in Santa Monica, CA. The new LA9700 series includes two models, at 55- and 65-inches (diagonal) and selling for $6,000 and $8,000, respectively.
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4K TV ReviewsTV ReviewsLCD TV Reviews
Sony XBR-65X900A 3D LCD Ultra HDTV
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jul 11, 2013

2D Performance
3D Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $7,000
At A Glance: Four times the native resolution of standard HD • Advanced color technology • State-of-the-art 3D

With the introduction of its new 2013 XBR sets, Sony has shown that it’s serious about bringing Ultra HD, popularly referred to as 4K, to consumers at prices that, while still high, are less seizure-inducing than the $25,000 sticker on its 84-inch XBR-84X900 (Home Theater, June 2013).

Technically, 4K is shorthand for a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels—the professional 4K format. Consumer 4K sets, on the other hand, have a resolution of 3840 x 2160, exactly four times the pixel count of full HD 1080p. Regardless of the industry’s plan to refer to such sets as Ultra HD, 4K has already crept into the lexicon as the popular term for 3840 x 2160 home video.

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