Mark Fleischmann

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Audio Video News
Want HD Radio With That?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 30, 2008
Wouldn't it be convenient if all satellite radio--meaning Sirius XM--receivers also handled over-the-air HD Radio? A bill in Congress would mandate this pairing. The Federal Communications Commission is also considering it as an outgrowth of its approval for the Sirius XM merger.
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Audio Video News
The VCR Is Dead
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 29, 2008
The VCR quietly passed away this month as JVC stopped making standalone VHS decks. There are still some VCRs in the pipeline--and VHS will survive in DVD/VCR combos. But the era of the VCR has drawn to a close.
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AV Receiver Reviews
Yamaha RX-V463 A/V Receiver
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 27, 2008
Price: $350 Highlights: Five channels times 105 watts • HDMI with high-resolution PCM • Includes Yamaha’s YPAO auto setup

Home Theater Out of the Box

Why would anyone buy a budget receiver and satellite/subwoofer speakers instead of a simpler home theater in a box system? To the uninitiated, the HTIB seems like a no-brainer. It spares the consumer the rigors of equipment matching and sometimes even throws in a disc drive.

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Home Theater Systems Reviews
Panasonic SC-BT100 Blu-ray HTIB
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 27, 2008
Price: $1,000 Highlights: HTIB with Blu-ray drive • Wireless surround speakers • Bamboo fiber speaker cones

Lady Sings the Blus

How do you define high end? Is it the gear that delivers the highest performance, sells for the highest price, or represents the most agile and innovative thinking? If that last criterion means anything, the Panasonic SC-BT100 is the very definition of a high-end home theater system—in a box. It includes a Blu-ray drive, makes daring use of bamboo fiber speaker diaphragms, and employs wireless technology to deliver signals to those two lonely surround speakers in the back of the room. Moving backward to the second criterion, price, the system sells for $1,000, on the moderate to high side by HTIB standards. And what about the first criterion, performance? Sorry, but you’ll have to read the review. Throw me a bone here—this is how I earn my living.

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Audio Video News
Samsung BD Players to Deliver Netflix Movies
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 24, 2008
Samsung Blu-ray players are learning some new tricks. The BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 will stream movies rented from Netflix's online service. And the first of those two models will also stream music from Pandora Radio.
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Audio Video News
Circuit City's Blood in the Water
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 23, 2008
Attention, shoppers. Circuit City may close 150 stores as an alternative to bankruptcy. The reason this grim news may be of interest is that when stores close, inventory gets liquidated--and that could mean sweet deals for consumers down the road.
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Ears On
soundmatters foxL Personal Audiophile Speaker
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 22, 2008
Since the advent of the iPod, the stature of portable audio products has risen. Still, some taboos have remained unbroken. You can make audiophile-approved choices in what you load into your player, what headgear you plug into it, and even what iPod docks and iPod-friendly systems into which you plug it. But the notion that a portable audio system might approach the go-anywhere versatility of the iPod itself has languished. Oh, there are good ones, and some are even rechargeable, but they're still more for briefcase or knapsack than for purse or cargo-pants pocket. That may change thanks to what soundmatters calls the foxL personal audiophile speaker.
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Audio Video News
TV Prices to Drop This Holiday Season
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 21, 2008
Brace yourself. Visualize a 32-inch LCD HDTV in a store. Then visualize a pricetag on it that says...$350. At least, that is what one analyst is predicting for the forthcoming holiday shopping season.
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Audio Video News
Movie to Debut on Sony Net Platform
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 20, 2008
The latest Will Smith movie Hancock will make its video debut on Sony's Bravia Internet Video Link before it reaches Sony's Blu-ray disc format (or DVD for that matter). The release-window experiment will run from October 28 to November 10.
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Ears On
Dueling Loudness Corrections Explained
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 17, 2008
While reviewing the Onkyo TX-SR806 receiver ($1099) I did some to-ing and fro-ing with the THX and Audyssey people regarding THX Loudness Plus and Audyssey Dynamic EQ. These new loudness corrections operate in roughly the same territory--but in a different manner. Their common goal is to compensate for sonic losses that occur naturally at lower volume levels. As volume drops, the frequency response of human hearing changes. Loudness Plus and Dynamic EQ both tackle this problem by adjusting channel levels and frequency response. But beyond that, there are differences between them, and I asked the THX and Audyssey people to be specific about those differences. Here's what they said.
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