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This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
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Source Components Forum Topics: |
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Classic Audio Sources Reviews |
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Home Theater Audio Sources
Categories in section: Home Theater Audio Sources
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Friday, 06 November 2009
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Written by
Todd Whitesel
In the first quarter of its fiscal year 2009, Apple reported selling an astonishing 22,727,000 iPods. That was a new Apple record. Long before quarterly sales were approaching 23 million, it seemed like every company with a toe in the consumer electronics pool was producing some gadget to charge, protect, link, sense or sync iPods. On Amazon.com, alone, there are more 10,000 iPod Accessories and Supplies for sale. I can't think of another product with such second-hand “support.” But most of all people want to play iPods, and there are similarly hundreds of options for getting sound out of the 'Pod. Portable digital music systems such as Bose's SoundDock were soon the rage, letting users dock iPods directly into an integrated speaker system for playback with sound quality ranging from fair to pretty good. Still, the best way to get ...
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Thursday, 29 October 2009
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Written by
Todd Whitesel
The bug struck me late 2003. I was at a bookstore looking through magazines when a cover lured me in with its display of speakers and amps and CD players – the components of the year as judged by that audio publication. Thumbing through it, I was astonished by the number of manufacturers represented that I had never heard of. My jaw also dropped looking at the price tags of much of the featured equipment. Certainly it would be sweet to have 50K (or more) to drop on a system but my budget was more modest. I bought the mag, took it home and studied it for probably two months, getting familiar with the various players in the audiophile world. I remember among the editors' budget recommendations was a CD player from Rotel – the RCD-1072 – that was praised ...
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Wednesday, 21 October 2009
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Written by
Todd Whitesel
Although the compact disc is now 27 years old, Super-Audio CD (SACD) is still a relative youngster, celebrating its 10th birthday this year. Even as sales of redbook CDs have plummeted through the decade and digital downloads have skyrocketed, against the odds – somehow – SACD has clung to life and managed to survive an industry bent on fragmentation and division. The reason is simple: SACD is sonically superior to its redbook sibling, and certainly to any of the lossy (replace first “s” with “u” for more accurate description) digital formats. The discs contain more musical information and can deliver analog-like sound with all the real and perceived benefits of redbook CD. Throw in surround-sound capability and the SACD is a formidable foe in the format war; if it only had the proper support.And as the music industry continues to ...
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Friday, 01 June 2007
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Written by
Jerry Del Colliano
Introduction
I
have owned various Krell amplifiers in my reference systems over the
years, each providing hours upon hours of listening joy. Recently,
Krell has released a new top-of-the-line lineup of gear under the
Evolution moniker that speaks to those for a need for the best of the
best and a willingness to pay for it. The review system under
evaluation is comprised of a $10,000 Krell Evolution 505 SACD player
with 24-bit 192 DACs, a $15,000 Krell Evolution 202 two-chassis stereo
preamp and the monstrous Krell Evolution 900 monaural amplifiers at
$20,000 each, or $40,000 for the stereo pair as reviewed. My review
samples are done in Krell’s signature silver finish, which is
breathtakingly beautiful out of the rack and poised on a simple table
as it is installed in my reference system.
Set-up
To
start, it is important to note that the Krell Evolution 900 power amps
are nothing short of huge. With a travel ...
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Tuesday, 01 May 2007
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Written by
Ken Taraszka, MD
Introduction
The
format war for high-definition discs wages on, but for now, DVD is
still the reigning king of home video formats. We all have years of
back catalogue DVDs in our collections, and a solid player is of
paramount importance to any theater. High-resolution audio in the form
of SACD and DVD-Audio are still prominent and Denon makes several
levels of players capable of spinning CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and SACD
discs, with their top of the line spinner being the DVD-5910CI priced
at $3,800. The DVD-5910CI is designed to be the primary source for a
high-end home theater or whole home distribution system and, as such,
offers connectivity not often found on consumer level goods. The “CI”
stands for Custom Integration. This is Denon’s way of identifying their
products with connectivity and control features for home integration
and theaters using advance control systems.
This flagship DVD player in the Denon line offers a
vast array ...
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