From the outside looking in, Robert Miller is living the American dream. He’s a Wall Street billionaire who lives a life of luxury, has a loving wife and family, and is financially set for life. Unfortunately for Miller, he’s living a lie, and the house of cards he’s built is about to come crashing down.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/arctic.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>This documentary chronicles the real-life adventures of two arctic creatures struggling to survive in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Queen Latifah narrates the tale of Nanu the polar bear cub and Seela the walrus pup with their mothers close by to offer protection and guidance.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/armag.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>A meteor the size of Texas is hurtling its way towards Earth when the director of NASA (Billy Bob Thornton) realizes the planet is doomed. With only 18 days until we join the fate of the dinosaurs, he hatches an absurd plan to land a team of oil drillers onto the massive asteroid in order to drop a nuke into the core and blast it to smithereens.
AT527NC Amplifier Performance Features Ergonomics Value
AT524NC Amplifier Performance Features Ergonomics Value
PRICE $3,695, $2,595
AT A GLANCE Plus
Very powerful
Natural and balanced
Made in the U.S.A.
Minus
LEDs are too bright
THE VERDICT
The days of looking down on Class D amps are over.
Two and a half years ago, I reviewed my first ATI amplifier, and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. The ATI Signature AT6005 five-channel amp set a new benchmark for its designer, Morris Kessler—to the point where he put his John Hancock on the faceplate.
Last year, S&V editor-at-large Bob Ankosko sat down with Kessler to talk about his design philosophy over the years, and the subject of Class D amps was broached. Kessler mentioned that his current designs were all Class A/B, but he was following the developments of Class D very closely—though the initial efforts in this area didn’t meet his high standards because frequency response varied greatly as the impedance of the speaker changed. He hinted at the time that he may have finally found a Class D solution that he could deem acceptable, which turned out to be the latest Hypex Ncore modules.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Outstanding dynamics and headroom
Equal power to all channels
Seven-year transferable warranty
Minus
Very, very heavy
Recommended for two independent 20-Ampere power outlets
THE VERDICT
This amp never broke a sweat driving my 4-ohm speakers at insanely loud levels.
There are quite a few people in the audio world who have become household names, at least among audiophiles. I’m talking about legends like Paul Klipsch, Amar Bose, Saul Marantz, Henry Kloss, Bob Carver. But these aren’t the only influential contributors to the business and history of hi-fi. Among the lesser-known audio icons is Morris Kessler, the founder of ATI.
Here at Sound & Vision we’ve given quite a bit of coverage to Dolby Atmos so far, and rightly so. Editor Rob Sabin has called it “the most discernible advance in home theater sound since the introduction of lossless digital audio formats on Blu-ray. And it’s one that leaves Dolby Pro Logic IIz and DTS Neo: X (height and width-channel surround formats) in the dust.”
In Part 1 of my Atmos upgrade diary, I wrote about my unconventional home theater space with its vaulted ceiling and open floor plan, and how I eventually decided to lower the ceiling and install built-in speakers to achieve my Atmos dreams. Here, in Part 2, I’ll describe how I went about rebuilding my system for Atmos and talk about my first listening tests.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/atonementbd.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><i>When a young girl catches her sister in a passionate embrace with a childhood friend, her jealousy drives her to tell a lie that will change the course of their lives forever. </i>
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/australia.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>At the beginning of World War II, English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) inherits a vast cattle ranch in Northern Australia from her late husband. In order to save the ranch, she needs the help of a local tough guy, Drover (Hugh Jackman), to drive 2000 head of cattle hundreds of miles across the outback with Japanese forces approaching the continent.
Writer/producer/director James Cameron has quite a resume. After a couple of forgettable projects in the late 1970s and early '80s, the low-budget sci-fi thriller The Terminator was his first major breakthrough into mainstream cinema, after which he found moderate box-office success with Aliens and The Abyss. His first major blockbuster came in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgment Day when it broke the $200 million box-office barrier.
In 1997 came Titanic and its estimated $200 million production budget, a record sum at the time. Had Paramount lost its mind bankrolling the project? Fortunately for the studio, its financial gamble paid off when Titanic became the highest-grossing film of all time (not inflation adjusted), earning $600 million in the US ($1.8 billion worldwide) and winning 11 Oscars in the bargain. Cameron truly was the king of the world.