The very aptly named HiFiMan has been around since 2007, and I first became aware of the company from the ads for their high performance portable file players. They have developed into a one-stop shopping destination for portable audio lovers. In addition to players, they currently offer headphones, headphone amps, cables, accessories, and a DAC.I have seen many positive reviews from professionals and, more importantly, the user community, of HiFiMan products. Users often noted exceptional comfort, sound quality and value. The company is especially known for planar headphones. Planar ‘phones are noted for exceptional dynamics and resolution. For review, I received their $99 RE-400 In-Ear Monitors (IEMs). In the distant past, I have had iffy relationships with "ear buds." I was never able to find one that was comfortable or that stayed in my ears. I did discover, recently, that ...

With the rapid increase of more home theater owners using central storage to pipe their media around the home, it’s inevitable that we will want the same viewing experience when the theater room is being used and the kids are taking up all the other televisions in the house.  The HP 2310e monitor is a step to that direction with 23 inches of display that offers a lovely 1920 by 1080 resolution for all your high definition content.  Aesthetically, the design of the 2310e is stunning and really takes after Apple’s take on minimalism as well as making a small footprint on the home office.  The sleek black bezel is accented by the shiny gray base.  Putting together the panel with the base is a painless one step option that’s simple and looks great when connected.  The front of the ...

As the top of the line in their HKTS series, Harman Kardon's HKTS60 5.1 Home Theater Speaker set is a nice upper-entry-level or lower-mid-range (depending on where you're sitting) surround sound system that features five 2-1/2-way dual driver satellites and a 200w powered subwoofer.Harman Kardon calls the HKTS60 the most advanced speaker package they've ever made, designed specifically for movies and today's high-definition content sources.  The four identical satellites and matching video-shielded center channel speaker each feature a 1-inch dome tweeter made of HARMAN's advanced CMMD Lite material.  CMMD Lite is "a sandwich of aluminum and ceramic, which creates a tweeter that is extremely strong yet lightweight, so it can reproduce high frequencies with incredible detail, accuracy, and clarity."  Each of these tweeters sits in a Harmon Kardon "constant directivity waveguide" which purports to create an "incredibly wide stereo image ...

The way that we save, catalog and digest television, movies or other forms of media is vastly different than ten years ago, or just even five years ago.  DVR services like TiVo rose and fell in popularity over the years while the DVR technology made its way slowly into the home theater through cable boxes and satellite receivers.  Even for the more technically apt HTPC crowd, the number of DVR options in hardware and software has climbed dramatically.Enter the Hauppauge HD PVR set-top box.  This high-definition personal recorder has a fairly versatile design, allowing the consumer the ability to connect any high-definition source via component cables into the box and output that feed simultaneously to your HDTV / Projector and your home PC.  There’s no hard drive inside the PVR, hence you have to connect it to a PC to ...

Integrated amplifiers have come a long way in the last three decades. For years, they've had a reputation (deserved or not) as sonically inferior to separate preamp and power amp setups. Naysayers  argue any component containing pre-amp and power amp modules is subject to cross-talk and bound to introduce unwanted noise and distortion into the signal chain. Still, an integrated's advantages – lower cost, space saving and fewer connections – make it a popular choice for music lovers faced with budget and/or room constraints. I believe most audiophiles would prefer stereo separates, but it's tough to go wrong with a well-designed integrated amplifier serving as heart of an audio system. And well-designed describes Hegel Audio's H100 integrated amplifier, a 120-watt  designed to trounce distortion. Hailing from Oslo, Norway, the H100 is Hegel's entry-level amp. Though its $3,000 asking price may ...