Thomas J. Norton

A/V Veteran
Peter Panned
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 30, 2023  |  5 comments
Peter Pan & Wendy is Disney's latest attempt to re-make one of its classic animated films as live action. It's been done before. Many times...
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A/V Veteran
Survey Suggests Media Rooms More Popular than Dedicated Theaters
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 16, 2023  |  4 comments
Home theater encompasses a range of possibilities. For most enthusiasts it's a DIY affair. For others, it's a matter of hiring a custom installation pro to do the job.
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A/V Veteran
Made in China
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 25, 2023  |  22 comments
We don't like to think about it, or perhaps we've never thought to, but from parts to finished products our AV products come largely from China. Yes, there are other players, but China with its cheap labor dominates the AV space.
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A/V Veteran
Making the Connection
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 11, 2023  |  4 comments
Perhaps no subject in the home audio world is more contentious than cables. You can get them cheap in a big box hardware store (or at least speaker cables and perhaps interconnects) or pay obscene amounts of money for them. What gives?
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A/V Veteran
Hear Here
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 14, 2023  |  8 comments
Most Audiophiles have a pretty fair idea of how the human hearing system works, but there are always new readers who take "obvious" things for granted. I myself also recently learned a few of the finer points while perusing websites on the subject. Here's what I learned...
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A/V Veteran
Lost in YouTube
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 28, 2023  |  1 comments
For years I ignored YouTube because I thought it was filled with cat videos and not much else. When I finally discovered its endless range of absorbing content last year, however, I posted a blog on it. But YouTube's depth of information on almost any topic is so vast that an occasional revisit is worthwhile. Video quality, then and now, ranges from very good to nearly unwatchable, but thankfully most of it is at least good enough for acceptable viewing.
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AV Receiver SetupSpeaker SetupA/V Veteran
How to Use an AV Receiver to Add Surround to a 2-Channel Setup
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 14, 2023  |  12 comments
There's a surprisingly wide range of preferences among audio-video fans. I'll categorize them here into two broad groups: classic 2-channel audiophiles and home theater fans. Not that these groups don't overlap. They often do. But there are listeners in each group who don't intersect with the other. For fans of 2-channel music who are open to adding surround sound as long as it doesn't hamper their enjoyment of listening to stereo recordings, there's a fairly easy way to make that happen.
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A/V Veteran
Two for a View
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 31, 2023  |  0 comments
When I have visitors over to watch a movie, the choice of which film to watch is always a challenge. Typically, none of my regular guests care for either science fiction or animation, and those genres make up perhaps half of my collection. But that evening's selection, Chariots of Fire, was a title I hadn't watched in years.
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Ghosts of CESs Past
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 17, 2023  |  0 comments
I didn't attend the recent CES in Las Vegas. I haven't gone since 2017. CES can be exceptionally expensive these days; the hotels and restaurants dramatically increased their prices some years ago. I once heard a possible reason why: CES attendees, it was said, didn't gamble enough to keep the lower hotel rates profitable. The obvious solution: jack up the hotel rates, both for room and food!

The disruptions of the past three years have been hard on the biggest trade shows...

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Three for Three: KLH Model Three Review
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 29, 2022  |  0 comments

Performance
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $1800/pair

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Tight, crisp bass
Detailed, dynamic sound
Price
Minus
Looks suffer with grilles removed
Needs a subwoofer for bass-heavy films
Vintage style might not appeal to all

THE VERDICT
It might not be at its best in a large room without a subwoofer or two, but the dynamic, open, and detailed sound of the KLH Model 3s can otherwise equal or exceed the performance of many far more expensive loudspeakers.

In the early 1950s Edgar Villchur, Henry Kloss, Malcolm S. Low, and Josef Anton Hofmann founded the Acoustic Research and Development Corporation. Of the four founders, Henry Kloss may be the name best recognized by audiophiles with a bit of mileage on their wheels. Kloss later left AR (along with Low and Hoffman) and founded KLH. Kloss later founded two other loudspeaker companies, Advent and Cambridge Audio.

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