With as much a focus on internet connectivity options as on video and audio performance, Sharp's slimline series BD-HP90U Blu-ray Player is loaded with extras and is ready for 3D (whenever the studios, you know, release enough content to warrant swapping out all your expensive gear).  It is also essentially a BD-HP90U, except the color is a glossy black, costs about $50 more, and includes a stand for vertical or horizontal operation.The BD-HP90U from Sharp offers both a built in wired (LAN) and WiFi (B/G/N 802.11) capabilities for connection to a home network, which is becoming more and more common with just about every home electronics products.  Wireless is especially handy for those who have their router in another room.One connected to the Internet, the BD-HP90U is ready to access BD-Live features on Blu-rays as well as a plethora of ...

With as much a focus on internet connectivity options as on video and audio performance, Sharp's slimline series BD-HP80U Blu-ray Player is loaded with extras and is ready for 3D (whenever the studios, you know, release enough content to warrant swapping out all your expensive gear).The BD-HP80U from Sharp offers both a built in wired (LAN) and WiFi (B/G/N 802.11) capabilities for connection to a home network, which is becoming more and more common with just about every home electronics products.  Wireless is especially handy for those who have their router in another room.One connected to the Internet, the BD-HP80U is ready to access BD-Live features on Blu-rays as well as a plethora of audio and video streaming services, including Vudu (whose HDX rentals are the closest competitor to Blu-ray), Netflix, and Pandora.  Firmware updates will also be available over ...

For a long time, Sony’s been struggling with a good problem to have regarding their standalone Blu-ray decks.  It doesn’t matter if their quality strong, the reaction time decent, and the supplemental specifics pleasing to the eye, they always have to combat price-wise against the company’s “flagship” player, the Playstation 3. On most occasions, their standalone decks of a comparable quality (such as the BDP-S560, reviewed here) were, on a good day, the same price as their game-playing iteration, a unit that’s become a reference machine for the likes of The Criterion Collection and others. However, with the whittled-down cost of Blu-ray technology, they’ve finally been able to nail down a wireless, attractive until with their BDP-S570 that’s a good $50 below the PS3’s $300 list price.  With wireless connectivity on-board, a sleek style makeover, snappy loading timeframes and respectable ...

Of all the forms of media, music is the one that has most completely melded with the internet. In fact, getting music online has become so ubiquitous that CD sales have significantly declined and, Record Store Day notwithstanding, online has become the main source for music purchasing. Online radio is also quickly surpassing terrestrial radio, with all sorts of options popping up for getting music on demand without downloading any files. While HD Radio is trying to make regular radio new again, it does require new hardware and doesn’t seem to be making significant inroads. So, like it or not, music is here to stay. Now that the internet is the first stop for getting your music, where does one go? We’re taking a look at the most popular and well-known services to see what they have to offer.Napster is ...

In 1979, Ray Kimber was working in professional sound and lighting and was trying to solve what was then a relatively new problem. The speaker cables he was working with at the time were picking up noise from the lighting system and causing a clearly audible drop in audio quality. His solution was to counter braid the conductors, surmising this would cancel out any magnetic interaction. A solution provided through ingenuity, thus Ray decided he had a marketable idea and began Kimber Kable. He literally began by hitting the pavement, walking into dealers with his cables to demonstrate the difference, and his reputation quickly spread.Fast forward to today and Kimber Kable is one of the most well-known cable manufacturers in high performance audio. Kimber has an interesting business model in that they offer products that cater to audiophiles in every ...