Chris Chiarella

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Audio Video News
Bose's New (Sort of) and Improved In-Ear Headphones
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 20, 2007  |  0 comments
Bose recently invited us by their Columbus Circle store in Manhattan to give a listen to their in-ear headphones. While not a new product per se, they wanted to discuss some new and upcoming enhancements that I'll touch on in a moment, but this was my first chance to really evaluate the 'phones and, as someone whose been using earbuds extensively for a decade now, I was genuinely impressed by the sound. While not noise-canceling or sound-isolating, they incorporate the same Bose Tri-Port technology as in their QuietComfort line: small ports in the earpieces that help in bass reproduction without adding great size, so they're a handy accessory to iPods et. al.
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Out Of The Blu
Boss Season One, Hatfields & McCoys, Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 27, 2012  |  0 comments
Three very different TV series arrive on Blu-ray, assuring ample worthwhile programming during the summer doldrums.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Bullet Train
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 18, 2022  |  0 comments
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Technically not a "non-stop thrill ride" (it's a classy commuter vehicle so passengers need to board and disembark periodically), Bullet Train is nonetheless a rousing, violent and quite funny adventure. The story moves as fast as the locomotive itself, indulging themes of fate, luck and revenge as an errand boy (Brad Pitt) dealing with a midlife crisis runs afoul of assassins and international crime syndicates, all of them circling a high-value briefcase while the clock counts down to their ultimate destination.
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Out Of The Blu
Bullhead, Midsomer Murders, God Bless America
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 29, 2012  |  0 comments
An Oscar-nominated Dutch crime drama, a beloved British series and a topical, off-the-wall dark comedy are all arriving on Blu-ray.
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Out Of The Blu
Butter, Doctor Who Season Seven Part One, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 23, 2012  |  0 comments
In yet another unfortunate consequence of the decline of brick-and-mortar video stores, we can't walk in and say "Gimme the Butta'."
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Cabaret
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 14, 2013  |  0 comments
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Interactivity
Four of the 10 Best Picture winners of the ’60s were musicals, but as Hollywood transitioned to a post–Easy Rider era, they had to make even song-and-dance extravaganzas more relevant. And so in 1972, Cabaret redefined what a movie musical could be.
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Home Theater Systems Reviews
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaTheater 505 HTIB
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 05, 2003  |  Published: Mar 06, 2003  |  0 comments
A home-theater-in-a-box means different things to different people. For some, it's the total DVD experience for dummies (or the slothful), in terms of both purchasing simplicity and ease of use. For others, it's a real bargain, compared with the cost of individual components plus the many necessary odds and ends. For Cambridge SoundWorks, it's about the speakers.
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Home Theater Systems Reviews
Cambridge SoundWorks SurroundWorks 200 Virtual Home Theater System
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 24, 2006  |  0 comments
One speaker, a subwoofer, a source component . . . and you.

Virtual surround is nothing new: Some people don't have the space, the know-how, or perhaps the ideal room layout for a pair of surround speakers for true 5.1-channel audio. Wireless surrounds are an option for some. But even those need a place to live, and they still require power cables. All manner of technologies have addressed the virtual-surround challenge, but not until I tried the two-piece Binaura Sound Environment B102A (in our November 2005 issue) did I believe that such simplified gear could produce truly respectable audio. Cambridge SoundWorks of Newton, Massachusetts, is the first third-party manufacturer to license Binaura's patented technology for their own products. They have integrated it into a complete home theater system—three boxes instead of two—with the addition of a progressive-scan DVD player/receiver. Said receiver provides Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS decoding, and this signal then goes to the subwoofer, where all of the amplification and Binaura processing take place.

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Cambridge SoundWorks Table Radio Goes Video
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 08, 2008  |  0 comments
Ah, the splendor of the high-end table radio. SoundWorks i765 is a fab-sounding 2.1-channel system with built-in DVD/CD player plus a radio with improved AM and FM tuners over all previous models. It also now docks, charges, and provides video pass-through for all of the latest iPods, which allegedly is a very complicated affair.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 13, 2014  |  0 comments
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Thawed in the modern day at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger and revealed to the world to be as brave as ever in The Avengers, World War II hero Cap (Chris Evans) is now working for S.H.I.E.L.D., the super-secret, super-powerful organization of good guys. But his Greatest Generation standards of right and wrong are often a square peg in the round hole of our post-9/11 world. Case in point, the launch of a new ultimate weapon calls into question the meaning of freedom, security, and whether one must be sacrificed to preserve the other.
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