Introduction There’s nothing more satisfying while watching a movie or listening to music than deep, bone-shaking bass. While surround sound in the home has given us a magical experience of movie-watching in our living rooms or home theaters, a lot of home set-ups tend to ignore the lower frequencies, the argument being that as long as it booms and fits in the living space, what more could be achieved? Then came alternatives. High-performance mini-cube subwoofers garnered acclaim by producing a better sound than the subwoofers that come in pre-packaged systems and it didn’t intrude on the décor. People were amazed at what these diminutive cubes could produce, with their long excursion drivers and high-powered amplification. Seemingly, the quest for a home friendly subwoofer had ended. But as impressive as the performance of the space-saving miracles are, they don’t generate the sound pressure levels and true lower frequencies that their bigger cousins produce. In order to get ...

Introduction As much as you love speakers and all the lust-worthy toys that go along with them, one thing you are glad you don’t do for a living is running a start-up speaker company. With names like Infinity, Bose and Boston Acoustics gracing the interiors of some of the finer automobiles and taking out many big-dollar ads in magazines and newspapers, the task of competing in the loudspeaker market has become nearly impossible – actually, it has been that way for more than 20 years. I say “nearly” impossible because one man, Sandy Gross, has been at the head of launching two speaker companies – Polk and Definitive Technology – that have not only made it but prospered. Definitive Technology, Gross’ current company makes some of the sleekest, most powerful speakers designed for home theater systems. Have they sold their souls to the Devil to be able to rock Axis’ Bold as Love in ...

Introduction Audio enthusiasts struggle to understand why every DVD player can’t always play every kind of disc. The answer is complicated and often has to do with nothing more than the raw cost of the universal drives. It is expensive, especially for a high-end audio/video company, to buy a transport from an OEM manufacturer and make it into a player that can play all of the new formats. Some of the early players that can play both DVD-Audio and SACD skimp on bass management for SACD and/or convert DSD (the technology that makes SACD sound its best) into PCM, which is the technology that is most associated with DVD and even CD. For an audio enthusiast, these compromises are wholly unacceptable, which presents a difficult challenge. In order to do DVD-Audio and SACD correctly, audiophiles needed separate players, as well as a receiver or a preamp with two sets of six-channel analog inputs. Up ...

Introduction Audio enthusiasts struggle to understand why every DVD player can’t always play every kind of disc. The answer is complicated and often has to do with nothing more than the raw cost of the universal drives. It is expensive, especially for a high-end audio/video company, to buy a transport from an OEM manufacturer and make it into a player that can play all of the new formats. Some of the early players that can play both DVD-Audio and SACD skimp on bass management for SACD and/or convert DSD (the technology that makes SACD sound its best) into PCM, which is the technology that is most associated with DVD and even CD. For an audio enthusiast, these compromises are wholly unacceptable, which presents a difficult challenge. In order to do DVD-Audio and SACD correctly, audiophiles needed separate players, as well as a receiver or a preamp with two sets of six-channel analog inputs. Up ...

Introduction Audio enthusiasts struggle to understand why every DVD player can’t always play every kind of disc. The answer is complicated and often has to do with nothing more than the raw cost of the universal drives. It is expensive, especially for a high-end audio/video company, to buy a transport from an OEM manufacturer and make it into a player that can play all of the new formats. Some of the early players that can play both DVD-Audio and SACD skimp on bass management for SACD and/or convert DSD (the technology that makes SACD sound its best) into PCM, which is the technology that is most associated with DVD and even CD. For an audio enthusiast, these compromises are wholly unacceptable, which presents a difficult challenge. In order to do DVD-Audio and SACD correctly, audiophiles needed separate players, as well as a receiver or a preamp with two sets of six-channel analog inputs. Up ...