Scott Wilkinson

JJ Johnston, Chief Scientist at DTS, talks about acoustics and audio perception, how audio codecs work, his emphasis on increasing audio quality rather than decreasing bitrates as codecs improve, the tendency in commercial music toward increasing loudness while decreasing dynamic range, how audio production differs between commercial cinema and the home, 3D audio, the latest DTS codec called Neo:X, the Neural downmixing algorithm, some hints about future developments from DTS, and answers to chat-room questions.

Run Time: 57:05

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, my favorite awards show of the year is the Grammys. But for home-theater enthusiasts—including myself—the most important awards show is clearly the Oscars, broadcast from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, CA. Watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide, this year's show was rather strange, but I thought most of the winners were well-justified with one or two exceptions.

Intel and Apple today announced the introduction of a new computer I/O technology called Thunderbolt, which makes its debut on the latest MacBook Pro laptops. Yet another connection might seem the antithesis of cool, but this is big news for home-theater PCs.

Founded in 1925, Luxman is one of Japan's oldest and most respected audio companies whose products are distributed in the US by On a Higher Note. Submitted for your consideration here is the mighty B-1000f monoblock, Luxman's flagship amp developed over 15 years for the company's 80th anniversary in 2005.