LATEST ADDITIONS

Big Mac
Tom Norton  |  Jun 04, 2006

The McIntosh XRT2K speakers sounded as big as they look, driven by a pair of the company's MC2KW, 3-module, 2000W (into 8 ohms), modular monoblock amps. Each speaker has six 12" aluminum cone woofers, sixty-four titanium-cone midranges, and forty " titanium-cone tweeters. The speakers are $45,000 each (and a quarter ton of weight, or 590 lbs.). The amps will cost you $30,000 each (they're nearly as heavy as the speakers at 495 lbs.!).

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Nola
Tom Norton  |  Jun 04, 2006

Nola, the company formerly known as Alon/Acarion, introduced this LCR Reference center channel speaker at $2195. In the fashion of other Nola speakers, the midrange is open-backed. The mid and tweeter are arranged in a vertical array that should provide superior horizontal dispersion. The LCR Reference is also touted for left and right channel use.

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Disturbed By Ayre And Vandersteen
Shane Buettner  |  Jun 04, 2006

OK, it's probably more fair to say I was "Disturbed" <I>at</I> the Ayre and Vandersteen room. Ayre's Steven Silberman was on a mission this weekend to prove to any doubters out there that zero feedback amplifiers and first-order loudspeakers can ROCK!

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Looks Like a Thermos, X-Rays Like a Bomb
Fred Manteghian  |  Jun 04, 2006

Packing day, Sunday, before breakfast. My only disappointment with the show lies in the paucity of true home theater experiences. You'd think that in La-La land, movies would be high on the list of priorities for the exhibitors. Or maybe everyone in LA already HAS a home theater (duh!) and they're trying to reintroduce stereo. Next big thing. It's Hot!

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Serious Sonics?
Shane Buettner  |  Jun 04, 2006

Allen Perkins of Immedia is shown here with the new Allegria speakers from Sonics, a newish speaker company founded by the man who formerly founded and designed some highly regarded speakers for Audio Physic, Joachim Gerhard.

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I Am Dangerous, Iceman
Shane Buettner  |  Jun 04, 2006

Oh yeah, other than that oddly uncomfortable beach volleyball scene and the Kenny Loggins music, we all love <I>Top Gun</I>.

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Custom Installation How-To
Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player
Rob Sabin  |  Jun 03, 2006
Here are the three most important things you should know about Toshiba's much anticipated HD-XA1, the world's very first high-definition optical disc player: 1. It's not just a DVD player - it's a computer.
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AV Receiver Reviews
Shootout: Three Mid-Price A/V Receivers
Daniel Kumin  |  Jun 03, 2006

For most people, flagship A/V receivers costing $4,000 to $6,000 are just too much: too much size, weight, complexity, and, for sure, money. But the cheapest models are too limited in connections and, more often than not, too flimsy. The result?

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Custom Installation How-To
Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player: Hook Me Up
Rob Sabin  |  Jun 03, 2006
Setting up the Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD player for the best picture and sound quality is not for the uninitiated. Even home theater experts will face a learning curve to understand the different ways to extract video and audio from the player and the ramifications of each option and will have to read the manual to find what settings in the player's internal menu will yield the desired results.
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Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42-inch Plasma HDTV
Philip Ryan  |  Jun 03, 2006
What We Think
This entry-level Panasonic plasma has a few things going for it, but a couple of performance issues pull it down.
A lot of the recent excitement about flat-panel TVs
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