LATEST ADDITIONS

I Dodge the Cold Cruel North
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments
Every year I step across the threshold of North Hall, paradise for car-audio fanatics, to be greeted by the impressive roar of dozens (seemingly hundreds) of car subwoofers. This year I wasn't able to bring myself to walk through the hall. I'm just not tough enough anymore!
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Audio Video News
Where's Brian?
SV Staff  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments
I raced back from the Las Vegas Convention Center to fire up the computer I'd left in my hotel room to catch the East Coast feed of the Nightly News at 3:30 pm thinking that Brian Williams would be broadcasting live from the CES convention floor....
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Dolby Turns Up The Volume
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  1 comments
At the Dolby booth, this prototype of the first-ever audio/video receiver with the new Dolby Volume technology was on display outside their mini-theater. Onkyo, with a tradition of early integration of new audio technologies, won the honor of debuting the new process which organically rejiggers the loud and quiet parts of a soundtrack within a scene, such as hard-to-hear dialogue amid background sound effects, as well as equalizing the levels between two different programs when we change channels or go to commercial, with very enjoyable results in all of the demo I've heard in the past year. Clearly this is something that consumers have been demanding, one of those seemingly simple problems that's a bear to solve (otherwise everyone would do it!)
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CES 2009
Kuro Is So 2007
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments

Pioneer’s current Kuro plasmas may be the hot ticket this year, but there’s more in store. It isn’t sure when we’ll see the result of the company’s latest design effort, the Extreme Contrast Concept, in stores. I’m hoping for this time next year, because this is what we have all been waiting for: blacks as dark and rich as the very best CRTs of the past. No, not <I>as</I> good. Even better.

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CES 2009
Pioneer Goes Thin
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments

Thin is the thing this year, with virtually all major manufacturers showing skinny flat panels. But Pioneer takes the prize with this 9mm model (thinner than a 12mm iPhone). It’s likely at least a year from production, however.

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CES 2009
Do-All DVD
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  2 comments

Pioneer’s new DV-58AV ($499), shipping soon, is an upconverting DVD player. With its HDMI 1.2A output it can pass SACD and DVD-Audio as bitstreams over HDMI. And a number of Pioneer’s AV receivers can accept and decode them. Just at those high rez audio formats are loosing serious steam we’re beginning to have equipment that can handle them properly in digital form.

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CES 2009
Sherwood Goes Its Own Way
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments

The new Sherwood R-972 AV receiver ($1800) has the usual features expected in today’s flagships, including HDMI 1.3 and decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. But it also has a unique audio processor. Many of today’s newest receivers use the Audyssey equalization system. Sherwood is going with Trinnov room compensation. Far too complex to explain in a short blog, this processor is based on a $13,000 pro unit with a design goal to “recreate the 3-dimensional soundfield of the original performance.” The Trinnov processing was outboard at the show, (the second box in the photo), but will be built into the receiver itself in production units.

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CES 2009
New Panasonic Plasmas
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  1 comments

Panasonic has a wide range of new plasmas&mdash;and new LCDs, as well. The PZ85 series claims a peak contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, though I’m not sure you can measure this!

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CES 2009
Panasonic Plasma Tech Notes
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments

Specs and features

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CES 2009
More Panasonic Tech Notes
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments

Specs and Features

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