Mark Fleischmann

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Phil Jones Pure Sound Vi-410 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 05, 2009
Price: $3,300 At A Glance: Unusually shaped sub with graphic equalizer • Satellite grilles present unique face to listener • Good bass, solid overall performance

Little Speakers, Big Sound

As I’ve said so many times that I’ve lost count, I’m an advocate for well-designed satellite/subwoofer sets. They usually save space, and they often bring surround into places where it previously wasn’t welcome. But to make the sat/sub concept work, you need a great sub, one that not only produces low bass, but produces high bass in the place where the sub crosses over to the sats. That’s where most affordable sat/sub sets are deficient—the sats perform well, but integration with the sub falls down on the job. I’m always on the lookout for a sat/sub set with exemplary bass performance and integration.

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Audio Video News
Philips Exits U.S. TV Biz
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 09, 2008
Philips will no longer sell television sets in the North American market. Instead it will license its Philips and Magnavox brand names to Funai, which makes TVs for Wal-Mart among others. The license is for five years. Other Philips consumer product businesses in North America will not be affected.
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Ears On
Philips Recalls Ambilight Plasmas
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 10, 2006
A good idea has gone slightly awry with the recall of 11,800 Philips Ambilight plasma HDTVs. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, nine users have reported arcing in capacitors on the back of the enclosure. Arcing is a prolonged and visible electric discharge—not the sort of thing you like to see when you're kicking back to watch American Idol. Affected models include the 42-inch 42PF9630A/37 and three 50-inchers: 50PF9630A/37, 50PF9630A/37, and 50PF9830A/37. All sets are from the 2005 model year. For more information see the USPC warning or call Philips at 888-744-5477. Despite all this, Ambilight is a very cool feature that builds backlighting into the set, easing strain on the optic nerve. An x-treem optimist might even point out that Philips has reinvented the fireplace.
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Audio Video News
Philips Sells TV Brand to Chinese
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 19, 2011
Royal Philips Electronics, the Dutch conglomerate, is selling a controlling interest of its 80-year-old TV division to Hong Kong based TPV Technology Ltd.

Philips will retain a 30 percent interest and receive royalties, but this clearly puts the Chinese company in the driver's seat. The TV division's 4000 employees will be transferred to the new company and no layoffs have been announced.

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Ears On
Philips Turns Off Aptura Backlight
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 14, 2007
Philips has decided to say goodbye to the initial version of its Aptura TV-backlighting technology. As Philips explained, it used "high-output fluorescent lamps, operated in scanning mode." In effect, the backlight blinked rapidly. This, Philips said, would "cancel out the sample-and-hold effect, which is characteristic of LCD technology," thus reducing motion smear. Better contrast was another benefit, as the backlight dimmed for dark scenes, and worked in tandem with video processing to reduce light leakage. The "deep dynamic dimming" also increased viewing angle. Philips has long been selling non-switching backlit TVs in its Ambilight line, and plans to explore a new and little-used backlighting scheme using LED technology. Philips already markets LED products through its lighting division. (Thanks to Geoff for spotting this one.)
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Ears On
Philips/Decca Cough Up Richter Re-Releases
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 20, 2007
In a Diablog about my pianistic hero Sviatoslav Richter, I ended by wishing aloud for the re-release of an 18-disc boxed set Philips originally issued about 15 years ago. Following up with an email, I got this response from Ken of the Decca Music Group: "I'm happy to confirm that all Decca and Philips's Richter recordings are due to be re-released over the coming months, and you'll be able to read about them, with US release date information, on the iClassics site." The first three freshly released two-disc sets entitled Richter: The Master celebrate his command of Beethoven and Mozart, with a third volume of Scriabin, Prokoviev, and Shostakovich and presumably more on the way. The packaging is nothing special but it's great to see this material becoming widely available again. The reissue series will cover both the Philips and Decca catalogues, including (I hope) Richter's late-in-life examinations of Haydn. And it will give a new generation of listeners a chance to buy recordings sold until now only in used form by ripoff artists. Some of the Philips "authorized recordings" titles, issued separately from the box, command secondhand prices as high as $60--and the box itself goes for up to $2000. Me happy boy.
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Ears On
Philips: 'Have We Gone Too Far?'
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 29, 2006
The CEO of Philips Electronics North America seems to be having a midlife crisis. Or at least, his company is. Asks Paul Zeven: "Have we gone too far? Are we in step with the needs of today's American consumer?" Philips research suggests that manufacturers have gone astray. "My company has studied the relationship between technology's complexity and consumers' attitudes and found that two out of three Americans have lost interest in a technology product because it seemed too complex to set up or operate. We also found that only 13 percent of Americans believe technology products in general are easy to use. The study concluded that only one in four consumers reports using the full range of features on most new technology products. If these findings aren't enough of a wake-up call, the study also found that more than half of Americans believe manufacturers are trying to satisfy perceived consumer needs that may not be real." It's telling that Zeven looks not to the hardware sector for a new role model, but to the likes of Google and Craigslist. The solution, he says, is "design, manageability and functionality."
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Audio Video News
Picture Quality Tops Viewer Priorities
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 16, 2008
Picture quality, brand, and price were the three top priorities of TV shoppers surveyed by iSuppli.
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On-Wall Speaker Reviews
Piega AP-3 Speaker System and Arcam Solo Movie 5.1 System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Nov 15, 2007
Flat meets flat.

The big trend is smallness. Flat is the new phat. Manufacturers who want space in your home compete most effectively by taking up less of it. And, in case you hadn't heard, less is more.

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Audio Video News
Pink Floyd Stops EMI's Single-Track Sales
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 15, 2010
A piece of conventional wisdom about the nature of online music sales ran into a brick wall last week when a court ruled that Pink Floyd's landmark album Dark Side of the Moon cannot be broken up and sold as individual songs.
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