Founded in 1998 and quickly making a name for themselves in the subwoofer market, SVS is now a global maker and distributor of complete speaker systems. They are a unique organization, with a design ...
Italian speaker maker Opera has been making headlines recently with their great-sounding demos at various audio shows, earning them positive print and online reviews. I reviewed their floor-standing Seconda model, which I found ...
Active speakers have had a tough road in the audiophile world. They are fairly commonplace in recording studios and other pro sound environments. I have heard several theories for this, including the fact ...
Rein Audio impressed me when I had the opportunity to review their very fine sounding X-DAC last year. The German based company, just a few years old, has since developed a few more ...
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 ...
With the move to computer and hard drive based digital sources, one would think a format tied to a physical medium would be odd in 2013. But SACD has proved to be remarkably resilient ...
I’ve enjoyed reviewing several Rogue products over the last few years. The Brodheadsville, PA based company makes beautifully built, excellent sounding tube preamps, power amps, and integrated amps. They have products ...
Audience, out of San Marcos, CA, is one of the most respected companies in the power conditioning arena, with their line of adeptReponse series consistently getting rave reviews from the audio press and ...
PS Audio, out of Boulder, CO, has been a major player in high end audio for decades. Their power distribution/conditioning units and digital source components have been go to products for droves ...
MartinLogan enjoys a place at the mantle occupied by a relatively small group of state of the art speaker companies enduring the test of time. Nearing its third decade, the Lawrence, Kansas company ...
Boston Acoustics was founded in 1979 and quickly made a name among budget audiophiles, and later home theater enthusiasts. They became a big player in car audio as well. In 2005, D&M Holdings ...
Sometimes good things appear in big packages. So it was when Federal Express arrived at my door with two huge boxes that happen to house one Opera Seconda loudspeaker each. Opera manufactures its ...
Pretty much every new phone on the market has some sort of touch screen functionality. Tablets are of course touch screen oriented. TVs haven't really gotten there, but that's something LG is out to change. "The PenTouch TV brings all the excitement of touch displays, computers and the Internet to the world of television, with functions and programs that are great fun and really educational," say LG senior vice president Jay Vandenbree. "Families, in particular, will have more than ever to enjoy on LG PenTouch TV plasma screens."
Alright, this one isn't exactly brand new news and it's not exactly home theater related, but it's too significant not to talk about. Panasonic has a new project in the works and it's not a TV or home theater system or even a Blu-ray player - it's a city. That's right, Panasonic is joining up with a handful of other companies to create a city that will hold 1,000 houses all equipped with the latest in sustainable energy technologies. Homes will have disguised solar panels, space for battery equipment, electric and information networks designed for efficiency and other systems built with future compatibility in mind.
If you're anything like me, you like your TV big, your beer cold and your internet fast. And I'm not talking about that 12mbps download rate that passes for high-speed. I'm talking about the good stuff. Time Warner has launched an impressive service that gives you up to 50mbps down and 5mpbs up at a price of $99 a month. It's not bad for crazy fast internet, but the company sweetens the deal even more by adding a free Slingbox to the offer.
One of the very exciting possibilities that was talked about before the launch of Google TV was the Android Market. Using the same apps on your TV as on your phone, buying on one, using on the other - there are plenty of reasons to be interested in using the Android Market. We're getting closer now, thanks to the launch of the latest Android software development kit (SDK). Google's new SDK for Android allows app makers to prepare their programs for use with Google TV and allows them to start working on new ones.
When setting up a home theater with a projector, some folks do it right. A surprisingly large amount of people don't though. They shell out for a high quality projector, a nice Blu-ray player, a receiver, speakers and the like. Then they sit down to watch a movie that's projected on a wall. This happens more often than it should. A good screen can make a world of difference in terms of picture quality and the new Black Diamond projection screen adds a bit of aesthetic appeal to a room. It can be hung on a wall or flown from cables which gives it an incredibly cool look. Your projector's picture goes all the way to the edge, which make the picture look almost like it's floating.
The Diamond 10 series has been a very good one for Wharfedale and the Jade series steps up the game. Yes, I know, diamonds are more valuable than jades, but shh. The Jade line consists of four stereo speakers - two floorstanding and two, well, not - two center channels, and a wall mountable speaker designed for use in surround channels.
Optoma's new projectors are aimed directly at the custom install crowd. The HD8300 and HD3300 are projectors at two fairly distant price points, but they have quite a bit in common. Both utilize HDMI 1.4 and are compatible with the gamut of mandatory 3D formats and you can even set other modes manually in case you need them. Both offer an RS-232 port, +12V triggers and a VESA 3D port. The new projectors use the company's RF technology and glasses instead of infrared.
