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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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Monday, 01 September 2003
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Written by
Ben Shyman
Introduction
Consumer
acceptance of DVD-Audio and SACD has been slow despite the undisputed
and enormous improvement in sound quality. While there is no doubt that
the bitter format war between these two high-resolution formats is to
blame, making matters worse is the apparent inability of the record
companies to agree on a non-proprietary digital connection standard.
This not only puts an additional, unwanted layer of digital-to-analog
and analog-to-digital conversion in the signal path, but it creates
further problems as well. Audio enthusiasts looking to add both these
competing high-resolution formats to their systems have been limited by
their home theater processors, which at best contain only one set of
analog 5.1 inputs (Lexicon’s MC-8 is an exception). Initially, this
forced consumers to make a near-impossible choice. After all, many of
my favorite bands have released their music on one format or the other,
but not both. Recently, however, a handful of manufacturers have
designed hybrid players ...
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Monday, 01 September 2003
,
Written by
Ben Shyman
Introduction
Consumer
acceptance of DVD-Audio and SACD has been slow despite the undisputed
and enormous improvement in sound quality. While there is no doubt that
the bitter format war between these two high-resolution formats is to
blame, making matters worse is the apparent inability of the record
companies to agree on a non-proprietary digital connection standard.
This not only puts an additional, unwanted layer of digital-to-analog
and analog-to-digital conversion in the signal path, but it creates
further problems as well. Audio enthusiasts looking to add both these
competing high-resolution formats to their systems have been limited by
their home theater processors, which at best contain only one set of
analog 5.1 inputs (Lexicon’s MC-8 is an exception). Initially, this
forced consumers to make a near-impossible choice. After all, many of
my favorite bands have released their music on one format or the other,
but not both. Recently, however, a handful of manufacturers have
designed hybrid players ...
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Thursday, 01 May 2003
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Written by
Augie Bettencourt
Introduction
When
I first was made aware that I was going to be reviewing the Shanling CD
T-100, my thought was “Who the heck is Shanling?” I’d never heard the
brand name before but, with very little research, I was able to find
many Webophiles were praising the Shanling CD-T100 as an affordable,
good-sounding CD player. With a little more digging, I discovered the
Shanling CD-T100 was a little-known Chinese import. Their importer is
Music Hall, the long time US importer for Creek and Epos, as well as
its own Music Hall branded products. As I so far had experience with
few high-end products from this region, I had my reservations. My
concerns about the Shanling CD-T100 subsided once I heard that Chris
Johnson, founder and former president of Sonic Frontiers, had designed
a modification for the CD-T100 at his new company, the Parts Connexion,
exclusively for The Graham Co. Walter Liederman at The ...
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Thursday, 01 May 2003
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Written by
Bryan Southard
Introduction
There
are few companies that are as synonymous with excellence in digital
design as Meridian Audio, and perhaps no other company has etched its
corporate fingerprint into the future of high-performance digital music
and movies more deeply than Meridian. Powered by the vision of company
founder and technical leader Bob Stuart, Meridian has pioneered MLP
(Meridian Lossless Packing), the universally accepted technology used
for DVD-Audio highest-performance audio playback. Even before the
advent of MLP technology, Meridian has been creating innovative
products, including digital speakers and modular components that
actually live up to the company’s promises of future upgrades.
The Meridian 598 is a single-chassis player that will read many
different discs, including both DVD-Audio and DVD-Video discs, plus CDs
that are dedicated to DTS surround sound music, standard 16-bit CDs and
more. The 598 is Meridian’s answer to consumer demand for a more
affordable version of their critically acclaimed reference transport
player, the Meridian 800. The ...
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Saturday, 01 March 2003
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Written by
Bryan Southard
Introduction
Many
music enthusiasts have placed their digital playback purchase plans on
hold indefinitely, awaiting the end of the seemingly never-ending
digital format wars that have plagued this industry for far too long.
Nobody wants to lay down large green for a digital playback system that
becomes outdated before the new smell has worn off. While all this is
being played out by the mainstream Asian electronics conglomerates,
companies like Madrigal continue to produce CD players at the highest
conceivable level. What will be the next digital format is anyone’s
guess, yet one constant remains – the desire to milk absolutely
everything you can from your existing compact disc collection. Let’s
face it, regardless of what the future holds, you will be listening to
the bulk of your existing disc collection for eternity.
CD playback technology continues to advance, making the best of
yesteryear sound lethargic and dull by comparison. An example of an
advanced design ...
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