Premiere Design

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Premiere Design
Audiophile Oppo
Scott Wilkinson  |  Dec 22, 2009  |  19 comments

Ever since <A href="http://www.oppodigital.com">Oppo</A> introduced the BDP-83, I've thought it to be among the best Blu-ray players money can buy&#151;and at $500, it doesn't even cost all that much, especially compared with, say, the Denon DVD-A1UDCI, another universal player that lists for $4500. Now, Oppo has introduced an upgraded version, calling it the BDP-83 Special Edition, for a list price of $900.

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Premiere Design
Avantgarde Acoustic Zero 1 XD Speaker
Bob Ankosko  |  Aug 26, 2016  |  0 comments
I’m going to date myself here, but the first thing I thought of when I laid eyes on the Zero 1 XD was the stark white interior of the spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Am I crazy, or would it fit right in? In sharp contrast to a traditional horn-based speaker (think JBL or Klipsch)—and even the spectacular floating horn designs for which Germany’s Avantgarde Acoustic is known—the speaker’s ultramodern appearance is unique with its molded baffle and slim rectangular enclosure.
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Premiere Design
Avantgarde Trio G2 Speaker System
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 08, 2010  |  2 comments

Horn-based speakers have been around since the earliest days of audio reproduction, and they continue to find favor among audiophiles today. Germany's <A href="http://www.avantgarde-acoustic.de/hornlautsprecher.php?lang=en">Avantgarde Acoustic</A> is no stranger to horn speakers, basing its business on them since 1991. At the top of the company's considerable lineup is the Trio, shown above in the Classico configuration with a massive Basshorn subwoofer.

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Premiere Design
Ayre Acoustics DX-5 Universal Disc Player
Scott Wilkinson  |  Dec 21, 2010  |  0 comments
The title of this Ultimate Gear entry identifies the DX-5 as a "universal disc player"—the better to snag search-engine hits with—but American manufacturer Ayre Acoustics calls it a "universal A/V engine." Why? In addition to playing every available audio and video optical-disc format, this box also provides a USB port that allows it to act as a portal for the music files on a computer.
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Premiere Design
B&O BeoVision 4-85 3D Plasma TV
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 25, 2011  |  1 comments
Danish design king Bang & Olufsen creates beautiful-looking A/V gear whose performance is often outstanding as well. Its latest TV offering is the BeoVision 4-85, an 85-inch plasma flat panel with 3D capabilities using active-shutter glasses, which provides undisputed full HD resolution to each eye.
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Premiere Design
B&W P5 Headphones
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 31, 2011  |  0 comments
Bowers & Wilkins is well known for its superb high-end speakers, so it's really no surprise that this British company would enter the headphone market. However, I'm a bit surprised that its first offering in this arena—dubbed the P5—is a set of portable headphones intended for the iPod and other MP3 players.
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New ProductsPremiere Design
Back to the '70s: Tannoy Legacy Series Speakers
Bob Ankosko  |  Oct 12, 2017  |  1 comments
Do you feel like you’re back in the ’70s, when vinyl ruled and fashion was…well, let’s just say, questionable?

There’s a good reason for that: Tannoy’s new Legacy Series is based on the popular High Powered Dual (HPD) Series released in 1974, the year after Pink Floyd mixed The Dark Side of the Moon at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios on a pair of newly installed Tannoy Lancaster monitors.

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Premiere Design
BAlabo BD-1 DAC, BC-1 MK-II Control Amp, & BP-1 MK-II Power Amp
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 20, 2010  |  3 comments

When I profiled the incredible Transmission Audio Ultimate speaker system last year, I mentioned that the $2,000,000 package includes power amps and a preamp from Bridge Audio Laboratory, otherwise known by the odd contraction BAlabo. Here, I concentrate on these two beauties by themselves, along with BAlabo's new 2-channel DAC.

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Premiere Design
Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 10 LED-LCD TV
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 15, 2010  |  4 comments

When <A href="http://www.bang-olufsen.com">Bang & Olufsen</A> hosts a press event, it doesn't mess around. Last week, the king of Danish A/V design unveiled a new member of its flat-panel lineup at the Kopeikin art gallery in Los Angeles, and journalists got to see the BeoVision 10 in action as we sipped Dom Perignon and nibbled on gouda-apple pizza and other delicacies.

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New ProductsPremiere Design
Bang & Olufsen BeoSound Shape Wireless Speaker System
Bob Ankosko  |  Nov 14, 2017  |  1 comments
You’ve gotta hand it to the design team at Denmark’s Bang & Olufsen. Always super creative and always thinking outside the box—the speaker box, in this case. What could easily be mistaken for wall art or a serious acoustic diffuser is a unique modular speaker system. Indeed, the BeoSound Shape is the only wireless speaker system we know of that is modular and customizable in terms of performance and aesthetics. In other words, it’s ridiculously flexible.
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Premiere Design
Behind the Curtain
Scott Wilkinson  |  Sep 24, 2009  |  9 comments

Who doesn't love <I>The Wizard of Oz</I>? No one I know. Rated as one of the best films ever made, this timeless classic has been released on various home-video formats no less than 16 times since 1980. Now, 70 years after its theatrical debut, <I>Oz</I> is getting its first high-def treatment on Blu-ray for the 17th iteration. I was fortunate to be invited to a press event celebrating this milestone at Warner Brothers' Burbank studio, and I learned a lot about what went into making this ultimate version.

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Premiere Design
Beography
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 16, 2009  |  2 comments

Danish A/V manufacturer <A href="http://www.bang-olufsen.com">Bang & Olufsen</A> is undoubtedly one of the most innovative companies in the world when it comes to industrial design. Founded in 1925 by engineers Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, its products not only offer superb performance, they are works of art in their own right.

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Premiere Design
Blades of Glory
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 01, 2009  |  0 comments
In its ongoing effort to advance the state of the speaker art, British manufacturer KEF has created a one-of-a-kind tower dubbed the Concept Blade. And by "one-of-a-kind," I don't mean a unique product that you can buy—I mean a speaker built for the sole purpose of investigating and demonstrating various speaker-design principles. Only one pair exists, and it's not for sale at any price.
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Premiere Design
BMC M1 Monoblock Power Amp
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 07, 2011  |  0 comments
As anyone interested in high-end audio knows, balanced signals are far superior to unbalanced ones because of their ability to reject induced noise and interference. German newcomer BMC knows this well—in fact, the company name stands for Balanced Music Concept. Its products are distributed in the US by Aaudio Imports and include the M1 monoblock power amp profiled here.
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Premiere Design
Body of Evidence
Scott Wilkinson  |  Oct 09, 2009  |  4 comments

Danish speaker maker <A href="http://www.dynaudio.com">Dynaudio</A> has earned a stellar reputation among audiophiles since its founding in 1977. The current flagship line, known as Evidence, is not new&#151;the Master model was selected as one of <I>Stereophile</I>'s products of the year in 2000&#151;but that doesn't mean it can't still kick some serious butt. I wanted to see what the ultimate Evidence home-theater system would consist of&#151;and how much it would cost.

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