Premiere Design

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The Big PicturePremiere Design
SRS Advanced Rendering Lab
Scott Wilkinson  |  Dec 08, 2010
A few weeks ago, I visited SRS Labs in Irvine, California, to see—and hear—its new Advanced Rendering Laboratory (ARL). This facility is custom built to test any imaginable physical or psychoacoustic audio system—in other words, it's an audio geek's dream come true.
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Premiere Design
SSE Reference Fixed Frame Acoustically Transparent Projection Screens
Scott Wilkinson  |  Feb 08, 2011
In a joint venture between US-based Seymour AV and UK-based Screen Excellence, the aptly named Seymour-Screen Excellence (SSE) recently announced its new Reference Fixed Frame (RF) acoustically transparent projection screens. Initially available are two materials—Enlightor 2 and Enlightor 4K.
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Premiere Design
Stax SR-007 MK2 Headphones
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 23, 2010
For most audiophiles, speakers are the last link in the signal chain before the music reaches their ears. But the acoustic interaction between the speakers and the room can cause all sorts of problems that are completely avoided by using headphones instead. And the ultimate headphones are widely considered to come from Japanese maker Stax, especially the flagship SR-007 MK2. Unlike most products I profile here, I actually got to try these amazing headphones for myself, and it was an experience not soon forgotten.
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Premiere Design
Steinway Lyngdorf LS Concert Speaker: Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Bob Ankosko  |  Dec 24, 2012
The Steinway Lyngdorf LS Concert speaker is distinguished not only for its towering stature and exquisite looks but for its technical design, which combines the virtues of line-source and dipole speaker design.
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Premiere Design
Steinway Lyngdorf LS Sound System
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 09, 2010

As a musician, I'm well acquainted with Steinway pianos, but until recently, I was unaware that the company had entered the home-audio business with a subsidiary called <A href="http://www.steinwaylyngdorf.com">Steinway Lyngdorf</A> in collaboration with Peter Lyngdorf of <A href="http://www.lyngdorf.com">Lyngdorf Audio</A>. Among its super-expensive speaker offerings is the LS line, a modular in-wall system based on the concept of a line source, in which a vertical stack of drivers delivers smooth horizontal dispersion and sound levels that fall off more gradually with distance than point-source speakers. As a result, the difference in volume between the front and back rows is less than it otherwise would be.

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New ProductsPremiere Design
Steinway Lyngdorf S-15 Speaker System
Bob Ankosko  |  Aug 23, 2017
It’s not new but Steinway Lyngdorf’s S-15 remains stunning in its aesthetic and technical design. Visually, this tiny treasure has little in common with your garden-variety box speaker—nor should it, considering its pedigree. For starters, it’s 10 inches tall, 8 inches wide, and only 3 inches thick—or about a half-inch wider and an inch thicker than the 1997 Webster’s New World College Dictionary collecting dust on a shelf in my office.
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Premiere Design
Stewart Projection Screens
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 03, 2010

Photo courtesy Surround Sounds, Perth, Australia

If you've been reading about home theater for any length of time, you've probably heard of Stewart Filmscreen, a family-owned company that represents the lion's share of the consumer and commercial projection-screen market. Its product range is vast, so I'll focus on three high-end home-oriented offerings—CineCurve, Director's Choice 2.0, and StarGlas.

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Premiere Design
Studio Electric Type Two Speaker
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 27, 2010

If you've ever seen photos of the 1939 New York World's Fair, you might recognize the inspiration for these Art Deco-esque speakers from American boutique maker <A href="http://www.studio-electric.com">Studio Electric</A>. With a design based on the Trylon and Perisphere, two signature buildings at the fair, the Type Two is handcrafted from stainless steel and aluminum by master metalsmith <A href="http://electronluv.com">Josh Stippich</A>.

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Premiere Design
Sweet Space
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 10, 2010

The transition from monaural to two-channel stereo in the 1930s is undoubtedly one of the most important innovations in the history of recorded and reproduced sound. The idea first came to Alan Blumlein when he went to the movies, which had only recently been enhanced with synchronized audio.

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Premiere Design
SWSpeakers Magic Flute Speaker
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 07, 2010

Of all the various types of audio and video products, speakers seem to offer the most potential for design variation. Case in point&#151;the Magic Flute from Swedish maker <A href="http://www.swspeakers.com">SWSpeakers</A>.

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Premiere Design
Symbol Audio Modern Record Console
Bob Ankosko  |  Jul 31, 2013
Visions of the Zenith (yes, Zenith) hi-fi console in the living room of my childhood home filled my head when I saw the Modern Record Console (MRC). The Zenith was simple in design with an AM/FM tuner and turntable under the lift-up top of a luxurious walnut cabinet with louvered speaker grilles. My parents listened to Herb Alpert and Dionne Warwick while I obsessed over Abbey Road, the album that launched my LP collection. My parents tolerated it—maybe even secretly liked it. Ah, but I digress…
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Premiere Design
T+A E-Series Music Receiver
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 26, 2011
Founded in 1978, German maker T+A is well-known for high-performance, high-value audio products. New to the company's E-Series is the Music Receiver, which combines the other two products in that series—the Power Plant integrated amp and Music Player CD/digital-file source—into one chassis.
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Premiere Design
TAD Reference One & CR1 Speakers
Scott Wilkinson  |  Oct 14, 2010
Technical Audio Devices, more commonly known as TAD, is a separately incorporated subsidiary of Pioneer Electronics known for high-end consumer, commercial, and professional audio products. On the consumer side are two exceptional speakers—the flagship Reference One and the new compact CR1.
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New ProductsPremiere Design
Teac AI-503 USB DAC/Integrated Amplifier
Bob Ankosko  |  Jul 10, 2017
As much as it might look like it, this is not your father’s long lost amplifier—the one you remember sitting on a rack in the den next to the Dual turntable and AR-3s—recently discovered in a remote corner of the attic. Nope, behind those vintage VU meters is a thoroughly modern USB DAC/integrated amp designed for the post-analog age or, more specifically, the Age of Hi-Res Audio. Simply put, Teac’s mission with the compact AI-503 is to preserve the fine details and nuances of your carefully curated music collection, whether you’re pulling tunes off your home network, a USB thumb drive, or a digital audio player.
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Premiere Design
The 4K Revolution
Rob Sabin  |  Dec 20, 2011
When the Federal Communications Commission approved the ATSC digital broadcast standard in December 1996, most consumers shrugged as the pundits (us at Home Theater included) heralded the greatest advance in television since the introduction of color in the 1950s. Time has proven us right. With six times the detail of standard-definition video, HDTV has been both a revelation and a revolution. For those who care about picture quality, one quick look was enough to know the world had changed, and we were never going back.
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