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Survey Says: Electronics Market Has Room for Upgrades
SV Staff  |  Sep 05, 2008
We love market surveys.  No, really, we like knowing where our households fit into the average, and whether we're up on the latest trends. Who doesn't want to appear "normal," right? A new study by market research company The NPD...
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ADA Has a Lot More than Two Nickels to Rub Together
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
The brushed nickel plated finish of new Audio Design Associates components immediately grabs the eye. For surround buffs the big news is the PTM-7200 amp with seven channels times 450 watts into four ohms. It's ADA's first Class D product. Mate it with the Cinema Rhapsody Mach IV pre-pro with eight HDMI 1.3 ins and two outs, which incidentally gives it something in common with the new Suite 7.1 HD switcher. No word on pricing yet. Shipping first quarter of 2009.
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Sunfire Becomes Triple Threat
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
With the TGM-100 Theater Grand Media Server, Sunfire has added a signal source to its excellent speaker and amp products, so now you can have a complete Sunfire system. The server sucks up DVDs and CDs and stores the content on the TGM-HD6 Theater Grand Hard Drive. Note that the latter, on the bottom, has eight slots. Available drives hold one, three, or six terabytes. Sunfire will explore the Blu-ray angle "when it makes sense."
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Polk Will Do Its Cryin' in the Rain
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
Matthew Polk wanted to design the kind of outdoor speakers he would like to use in his own house. One of the more inspired things he came up with is the Atrium Sat30 ($150/each), a teardrop-shaped speaker that can dangle from the eaves or sit on the ground. If rain gets in, I was told, it evaporates.
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Wadia Sends iPod into Digital-Out Territory
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
The Wadia 170 iTransport is the first iPod docking device to coax a digital signal out of the iPod (incidentally, my 82-year-old mom loves hers). Till now the iPod could output only a line-level analog signal to docks. How Wadia managed this is a story yet to be told. The company insists that there is no need to pay a hacker to crack the case –- the 170 is Apple-approved. Price: $379.
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Monitor Audio Is Sending These Babies to Me
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
When the show is done, Monitor Audio will pack up the PL-100 and its center-channel companion and send them to me. Nyah, nyah, nyah.
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Harman Kardon and Dolby Volume Make Joint Debut
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
The Harman Kardon AVR 7550HD ($2799) is the one of first surround receivers to feature Dolby Volume, one of the most sophisticated signal manipulation circuits to come along in years. It can take the edge off offensively toppy TV ads and intelligently reduce the dynamics of movie soundtracks, for late-night viewing, without losing intelligibility. Other attractions include 110 watts times seven, internet radio, and of course the full panoply of next-gen surround codecs via HDMI 1.3a.
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Infinity Tower Has Sexy Flat Drivers
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
The Infinity Prelude Forty ($6000/each) is a slimline tower with dual eight-inch side woofers, four flat-panel midranges, and tweeter. Wish my abdomen were as flat as those diaphragms.
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PSB Imagines a Better-Sounding Future for You
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 05, 2008
PSB's Paul Barton shows off his new Imagine line to showgoers. With trickle-down technology from the bleeding-edge Synchrony line, it's a great-sounding family of speakers, as I discovered at a recent demo in New York. Put it on your short list of must-hears.
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Better Acoustics are in Sight
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 05, 2008
Auralex is trying to make acoustical control attractive to more than just hard-core home theater owners. At CEDIA they showed off some of their new SonicPrint custom-printed ProPanels – fabric-covered acoustic absorptive panels – that can be outfitted with fabric covers printed with any kind of design or image you want. They have thousands of licensed artwork available, or you can send in your own image(s) for immortalization on your home theater wall. Auralex has some movie poster artwork available already, and their negotiating to have even more. Hanging an acoustic panel that looks like a movie poster on the wall will sure sound better than hanging a real movie poster covered with glass in a frame on the wall.
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