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A Digital Dostoyesky's Time and Punishment
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Nov 28, 2012
What I’m about to say borders on heresy. But before I risk being virtually burned at the digital stake, let me tell you that, although I am older than most of the writers in this industry, I am not old-fashioned. I don’t pine for the days of spending hours at the record store flipping through bins of vinyl albums, nor do I miss fiddling with my Nakamichi BX-300 (I couldn’t afford a Dragon...) in order to make cassette tapes of those albums for my car. I like - no, I love - most modern technology and crave more of it. (Bring on the domestic robots, I say! Just don’t make them with any of those scary-ass faces some Japanese researchers have designed. If they’re going to be our overlords, I want them to at least look good.)

Now for the heresy.

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Tech2
Review: Nintendo Wii U
Timothy J. Seppala  |  Nov 28, 2012

With the HD-capable Wii U, Nintendo has finally caught up with Sony and Microsoft. While the PS3 and Xbox 360 have had their share of faults, Sony and Microsoft have managed to address most of those over the past six and seven years of their respective console's lifespans.

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Headphone Reviews
Review: Pro-Ject Hear It Two Headphones
Brent Butterworth  |  Nov 28, 2012

A couple of days ago, we listened to the $129 Pro-Ject Hear It One, the larger of two new headphones from the budget turntable specialists. Now we’ll listen to the Hear It Two, a $79 on-ear model that, frankly, looks more like something you’d buy at Target than something you’d buy at Needle Doctor.

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This Week
New Blu-rays for November 27, 2012: Tales of the Underworld, the Supernatural, and the Extraterrestrial
Josef Krebs  |  Nov 27, 2012

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This Week
New Music for November 27, 2012: Steals, Deals, and Reimagining the Past
Mark Smotroff  |  Nov 27, 2012

The Music Deals Never Stop...

Or so it seems as labels and retailers extend their groovy deals post Thanksgiving and into the December holiday season. Here are a couple cool ones we've heard about:

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Premiere Design
Hart Audio D&W Aural Pleasure Speakers
Bob Ankosko  |  Nov 27, 2012
Barrister-turned-speaker-maker David Hart had the human ear in mind when he designed this unique speaker—but I see a giant molar turned on its side. I’ll let you decide what to make of it and whether it’s worth the asking price of $64,000 per pair in bronze, $300,000 in silver, or upwards of $5 million in gold (shown). Why so expensive? Remarkably, the 28-inch-tall cabinet is cast in solid bronze, silver, or gold, which explains the 110-pound weight (in bronze). Add to that the 200 hours it takes to cast and hand-finish each pair at Hart’s factory on Isle of Wight.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Jaws
Shane Buettner  |  Nov 26, 2012
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was the first summer blockbuster, a classic that not only cemented its director and stars in film’s pantheon, but transcended cinema altogether, taking a huge bite out of global pop culture. To this day, there are 40- and 50-somethings who quote this movie’s dialogue daily and still won’t go in the water. It’s the best monster movie ever made, and of course it’s legend that the unbearable suspense created by not seeing the beast for the first hour of the movie was due to the mechanical shark, Bruce, not working, forcing Spielberg and company to develop brilliant devices to have a shark movie without the shark.
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Headphone Reviews
Review: Pro-Ject Hear It One Headphone
Brent Butterworth  |  Nov 25, 2012

I bet your average dude on the street can’t name a single audio company that’s not in the headphone biz now. For an audiophile, it’s easier. As I look around my listening room, I see lots of them: AudioControl, Canare, Hsu Research, Krell, Rotel, Sunfire, and Sonus Faber, none of which have (yet) entered the personal audio field. But that’s changing. The Pro-Ject RM-1.3 turntable sitting atop my audio rack now shares its brand with two headphones, the $129 Hear It One and the $79 Hear It Two.

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Out Of The Blu
Butter, Doctor Who Season Seven Part One, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 23, 2012
In yet another unfortunate consequence of the decline of brick-and-mortar video stores, we can't walk in and say "Gimme the Butta'."
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Tech2
Songs to Buy By
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Nov 23, 2012

I use my iPod to deal with crowds. If you’re like me, sometimes you just like cranking up some tunes to push the world out to more acceptable distance. This is especially true trying to shop during the holiday season.

So for the always-hectic Black Friday weekend, I figured I’d put together a few songs that are, shall we say, not sticky-sweet holiday shopping tunes. Drown out that Bing, Nat, and Perry, and power through the season with these.

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