Darryl Wilkinson

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CEDIA 2017 Remotely Possible

Aura Smart Home Monitoring Senses Disturbances

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 08, 2017

Aura from Cognitive Systems is a dead simple home monitoring system that can be installed in minutes without tools. The system uses a small, rectangular Hub and from one to four identical-looking Beacons that plug into the AC outlets in a home or apartment. The Hub uses Wi-Fi to connect to the network’s router for internet access and creates a mesh network to communicate with the Beacons in the system.

Aura is an extremely unusual home monitoring system in that it...

Remotely Possible

Sure, Anyone Could Do It. But Do You Want Them To?

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 06, 2017

I’m cheap—in large part because I don’t have very much money. So to save a bit of cash, I’m shacking up with several other journalists (who are also, coincidentally, cheap—for the very same reason) at a swanky vacation home rental in La Jolla that we got a super-sweet deal on for the duration of CEDIA 2017. It’s almost embarrassingly nice—certainly too nice for the likes of the crowd I run with.

Remotely Possible

Fibaro's New Smart Plug Lights Up Your Nights

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 06, 2017

Fibaro is using CEDIA 2017 to introduce to the US market a smart power adapter called Wall Plug, a device then company says is “the smallest intelligent power adapter with standard & USB plugs” incorporating Z-Wave Plus. Wall Plug is an unusual smart outlet switch that includes a standard, controllable AC outlet along with a built-in USB charging port and can monitor power levels and energy usage. It’s compatible with most smart home hubs and systems that are Z-Wave-enabled.

Fibaro refers to the Wall Plug as “an intelligent outlet adapter” because...

Remotely Possible

Dot's Amazing! Origin Acoustics’ Valet System Hides Amazon Alexa in Your Ceiling

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 06, 2017

If you’ve ever wondered whether or not there were an easy way to integrate voice control into a distributed audio system (and who hasn’t, after all?) Origin Acoustics announced at CEDIA 2017 today that the answer is definitely, “Yes!”—if you install one (or more) of the company’s new Valet amplifiers. According to Origin Acoustics, the Valet amplifier is designed to seamlessly integrate with an Amazon Echo Dot to create a simple, interactive four- or six-zone audio system. (More zones can be created by daisy-chaining additional Valet amps.)

Multiple features make the Valet system a potential paradigm-changer in the distributed audio world...

CEDIA 2017

CEDIA 2017 Preview

Darryl Wilkinson | Sep 04, 2017

The “only show dedicated 100% to residential technology,” CEDIA 2017 is expected to draw more than 18,000 home technology professional attendees and over 500 exhibitors to the San Diego Convention Center, September 5 through 9. As you might expect, Sound & Vision will be there, too, with plenty of eyes and ears on the show floor posting blogs about the newest and most noteworthy products and technologies demonstrated there—whether it’s something you’ll see in your home (like a new projection screen) or something you won’t (like a new home automation controller). Here’s a quick glimpse at some of the things that we’re waiting to see—and tell you about over the coming days.

In-Wall Speaker Reviews

Origin Acoustics/Bang & Olufsen BOC106 In-Ceiling Speaker Review

Darryl Wilkinson | Aug 29, 2017

Performance
Build Quality
Value

PRICE $1,595/each ($7,975 as reviewed)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Zip-Cliq mount for easy install
IPX6 rated for use in high-moisture locations
10-inch woofer
Optional billet aluminum Advanced Grille
Minus
Expensive

THE VERDICT
The overhead fruit of Bang & Olufsen’s partnership with Origin Acoustics combines superior, finessed sound quality with remarkably refined looks for any ceiling.

Although the story of its beginning may sound like it, Bang & Olufsen isn’t one of those up-and-coming startups that briefly create a lot of noise and then are never heard from again. B&O’s is a classic tale, though. Two engineers, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, tinkering in the Olufsen family’s attic (not garage) in Struer, Denmark, start building and selling radios. They didn’t do a Kickstarter campaign because, well, it was 1925, and Kickstarter hadn’t been kickstarted yet. The fledgling company’s first “commercially viable” product was the ominous-sounding B&O Eliminator, a device that allowed a radio to run off of AC (alternating current) from a wall outlet instead of DC (direct current) from expensive batteries. This early innovation set the tone for Bang & Olufsen ever since: be innovative, use quality materials, and above all (some would argue), do things your own (e.g., the Bang & Olufsen) way.

Surround Sound System Reviews Subwoofer Reviews Tower Speaker Reviews

Paradigm Persona 3F Speaker System Review

Darryl Wilkinson | Jul 28, 2017

Persona 3F Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value

Persona SUB Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

PRICE $31,000 as reviewed

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Beryllium tweeter and midrange drivers
Hand-polished, high-gloss finish
Slender, curved cabinets
Minus
Expensive
Heavy

THE VERDICT
Paradigm set out to create the best, state-of-the-Paradigm-art speakers the company has ever produced, bringing together top-notch cabinet construction and finishing capabilities and advanced driver technologies in hopes of achieving something greater than the sum of its already great parts. They’ve succeeded.

Paradigm, the Canadian loudspeaker company founded in 1982, has a long and respectable history of building excellent-sounding, great-looking speakers at relatively affordable prices—not outrageously expensive but not stupidly cheap, either. Somewhere along the way, though, somebody at Paradigm accidentally said out loud at a company meeting: “What if cost were, well, not no object, but at least less of an object? What if we combined all our best technologies and maybe threw in a bit of new stuff, too? Just how awesome of a speaker could we make? We should try that someday.” And thus the company’s latest and greatest-ever series of speakers was born.

In-Wall Speaker Reviews Subwoofer Reviews

JL Audio Fathom IWS-SYS-1 In-Wall Subwoofer System Review

Darryl Wilkinson | Jul 05, 2017

Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

PRICE $4,500 (plus installation)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Enclosure designed for walls with standard 2 x 4 construction
13.5-inch low-profile driver
1,000-watt external amp with Automatic Room Optimization
Minus
Retrofit install can be difficult
Expensive

THE VERDICT
This subwoofer system does the seemingly impossible in an impossibly seeming way by hiding an amazingly shallow, high-excursion 13.5-inch woofer, along with the 70-inch-tall cabinet it requires, inside a wall having standard 2 x 4 construction, with only a driver-hiding grille screen as evidence—and it does this surprising feat without causing excessive wall vibrations. Even better, it does all that while performing like a top-end in-room sub.

If I needed additional proof of how much Rob Sabin, our esteemed editor-in-chief (and part-time male stripper for the visually impaired) dislikes me, this would be it. He asks me the other day if I’d want to review another JL Audio subwoofer, one similar to the company’s ginormous Fathom f212, which I reviewed in 2012. I have fond memories of, bruises from, and a partial hernia caused by that 220-pound behemoth.

Remotely Possible

B&O Play’s “Sound Matters” Podcast Is a Masterful Exploration of Sound

Darryl Wilkinson | Jun 19, 2017

Not long ago, I stumbled across an unusual podcast series, called Sound Matters. I had some hesitation before listening to what was, at the time, the most recent episode (Episode 10: Sounds From Outer Space) because the podcast series is sponsored by B&O Play...

Soundbar Reviews

Sonos Playbase Review

Darryl Wilkinson | May 03, 2017

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

PRICE $699

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Only 2.28 inches tall
Utilizes Sonos Trueplay acoustic tuning technology
Can be part of a Sonos multiroom audio system
Minus
No volume level indicator
Optical digital and network audio inputs only

THE VERDICT
For the folks who don’t mount their TV on a wall—that is, for the overwhelming majority of TV owners—the Sonos Playbase is an elegant way of creating an excellent-sounding home theater system that’s nearly invisible, super-easy to set up, and blessedly simple to use.

A surprisingly salient special survey by Sonos says that something like 70 percent of slender-TV owners select to stand their set on a flat surface rather than sticking it on a wall. (Say that silently seven times.) Seriously—OK, that’s enough of that—Sonos says that the vast majority of people who own a flat-screen TV don’t mount it on a wall. Instead, they set it on a cabinet, cart, table, shelf, the floor, or just about any other semi-sturdy, close-to-flat surface that isn’t already covered with useless sh-tuff.

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Darryl Wilkinson

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