LATEST ADDITIONS

Getting back from CEDIA after being out of the office for a week is like traveling to a hurricane and finding out an earthquake happened while you were away. After two weeks back, I can actually see the top of my desk in spots, under all the receipts, press releases, mail from last week, bills and everything else that piled up on me over here.

I wish I could say I had some clever reason for reviewing two nearly identical plasmas. Perhaps there was, but it's lost to me now. A few months ago, Panasonic asked me if I wanted to review the TH-50PZ700U, so I said sure. Then, a month or so later, they asked me if I wanted to review the TH-42PZ700U, so I said sure. It's not all magic here, folks. Sometimes this kind of excitement just happens.

In-wall loudspeakers, specifically those with open backs, can yield unpredictable results because their sound quality is highly dependent upon the wall cavity in which you install them. Typically, the wall cavity's volume doesn't load the woofer correctly. Plus, the wall can introduce rattles and vibrations, which obviously degrades sonic performance (and can be very annoying). Critics cite these problems as reasons to reject in-wall models for serious consideration as high-end speakers. Increasingly, manufacturers are seeking to overcome these performance issues by designing in-wall speakers that include enclosures—sort of like a bookshelf speaker in a wall. Atlantic Technology is one of them. Their new IWCB-626 speaker comes in a closed-back enclosure. An enclosure eliminates the wall cavity as a variable and ensures more consistent performance. It also makes installation easier and brings the sound of in-wall speakers closer to that of freestanding speakers. In-wall speakers are popular with homeowners because they are less visible and don't take up floor space—many homeowners want audio without speakers and wires cluttering the room. But homeowners also demand good audio performance, and a sealed-box in-wall speaker can potentially come closer to achieving both goals.