Bob Ankosko

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CES 2013
A $4,500 CD Player? (Yes, CD) Really?
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 08, 2013  |  1 comments
You might mistake it for a high-end Blu-ray player at first glance but, no, the Parasound Halo CD 1 introduced at CES 2013 is definitely a Compact Disc player (remember those?) and it costs $4,500. Designed in collaboration with Holm Acoustics of Copenhagen, Denmark, the player uses a Linux-based computer running proprietary software and a CD ROM drive running four times the speed of a conventional CD drive to read and process data in a new way. Vast amounts of data are analyzed and read multiple times to reduce errors and, in turn, the negative effects of error concealment. The result is said to be a nearly bit-perfect data stream.

In keeping with the high-end legacy of the company's Halo line, the C1 has a heavily shielded aluminum chassis, separate power supplies for its analog and digital sections and several output options, including balanced XLR, gold-plated RCAs for analog, and digital audio via BNC, coaxial and optical connectors. A novel “Discrete OpAmp” selector offers a choice between listening to the analog outputs directly from the player’s low-noise op-amps or via discrete transistor output stages.

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CEDIA 2013
A Blast from Custom Installation’s Past
Bob Ankosko  |  Sep 28, 2013  |  0 comments
Prominent among the Hall of Fame exhibit at CEDIA 2013 is Audio Design Associate’s (ADA) towering System 56, an expandable multi-zone AV system introduced before CEDIA even existed. Multisource/multizone capability and features such as electronic volume control and turn-on volume presets were cutting edge back 1977.
Premiere Design
A Do-It-All Processor, At a Price
Bob Ankosko  |  Mar 02, 2015  |  1 comments
Steinway Lyngdorf P200 Surround Processor

At last September’s CEDIA Expo, Steinway Lyngdorf offered a sneak peek of the P200 surround processor it plans to start selling in early 2015 for $18,000. (No, that’s not a typo.) The P200 distinguished itself as the first processor to support both Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D. Equipped to handle multiple speaker setups, it’s designed to switch between speakers positioned for either format at the touch of a button. To get the story behind this one-of-a-kind product, we spoke with CEO/CTO Thomas Birkelund.

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Audio Video NewsINSTALLS============
A Garden Oasis in the Heart of Pittsburgh
Bob Ankosko  |  Apr 15, 2021  |  0 comments
How Pittsburgh’s Simply Automated transformed a garden oasis in the heart of the city into a magnificent outdoor entertainment space.
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The S&V Interview
A Hi-Res Call to Arms
Bob Ankosko  |  Jul 01, 2021  |  0 comments

15 Minutes with Jon Kiachian, VP, Hearing Health Technologies at Knowles Corp.

Jon Kiachian has spent the past 16 years working with the likes of National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments in technology-management positions. Today he is a vice president and general manager at Knowles, the global company responsible for developing the tiny microphones that allowed us to hear sound from the surface of Mars earlier this year. Kiachian oversees the business unit that develops technology to improve sound quality in a variety of electronics devices — a pursuit that’s more important than ever as high-resolution (hi-res) music reaches the masses through the likes of Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, and other streaming services. In his role at Knowles, Kiachian has become a hi-res evangelist of sorts who believes audiophiles are “duty bound” to convince the millions of listeners who settle for bad sound that there’s a better option — a way to make the music they love really come alive.

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Home Movie Theaters
A Home Theater Dream Come True
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 16, 2021  |  0 comments
For Michael Meeker, the road to A/V paradise was long and circuitous but also immensely rewarding as he experimented his way from cobbling together a crude setup almost 30 years ago to building the theater of his dreams—one most of us would die for. In those early days, the "marriage of audio and video" was a concept embraced by enthusiasts and a handful of audio companies as they inched their way toward what we would come to know as "home theater."
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CEDIA 2012
A Must for Every Man Cave
Bob Ankosko  |  Sep 06, 2012  |  0 comments
What’s not to love about a leather recliner with diamond stitching, a built-in cup holder for your brewski and an optional LaunchPort swivel-base that holds and charges your iPad? Your biggest challenge will be to not fall asleep during the big game. Best part: You can position the motorized backrest and footrest from a smartphone/tablet or home automation control panel from Crestron, AMX, Control4, Savant and others. Available for $5,500-$6,000 apiece with or without the stitching.

New Products
A New Use for Old Wires: Intellegg Moxivo Multiroom Music Kit
Bob Ankosko  |  Jul 21, 2014  |  1 comments
If you’re one of the six in 10 Americans who have ditched land-line phone service to become a cell-phone-only household, Jeff Eggebraaten has a proposition for you: Use the phone lines running through your walls as a cheap and simple way to spread music around the house. The founder of Intellegg devised a set of cables that make it possible to shuttle music from a computer/laptop or iPod/MP3 player in one room to existing stereo systems or powered speakers in up to five other rooms at the same time. “It’s like plugging an iPod into a stereo, but with Moxivo there’s a phone line in between,” Eggebraaten says.
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Audio Video News
A New Use for Vintage TVs
Bob Ankosko  |  Sep 23, 2015  |  1 comments
In what may be the most creative (and craziest) stunt for a music video, UK director Joe Connor hitched a pair of vintage Sony TVs to a weather balloon with GoPro cameras in tow and sent them to orbit. All to promote the song “Call You Home” by Kelvin Jones. A YouTube post of Jones singing the song went viral last year, eventually leading to a deal with Sony Music.
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Audio Video NewsCES 2022
A Scaled Down CES 2022 Opens Wednesday
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 03, 2022  |  0 comments
On Wednesday, CES 2022 returns to the live, in-person format that has defined the seminal event for 55 years but, make no mistake, it’s a smaller show this time around. Much smaller.
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