Audio Singularity

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		2012-05-17 02:00:00 Synergistic Research Tesla Series AC Power Conditioner and Power Cables Moving can really suck. On top of everything else, it seems like I always lose stuff, at least temporarily. Eventually, that lost pair of shoes will turn up in a box labeled "towels," but it had been a few months since the move and I was still looking for some of the magic of my system. Reviewed here is the Synergistic Research Tesla Series Power Conditioner and Power Cables.

		2012-05-14 02:00:00 Runco LightStyle LS-100d DLP LED Projector For a truly immersive home theater experience, nothing compares to a large image that fills your field of view. Unfortunately many of us don’t have a room that will work for a projector due to space and throw limitations and are forced to make do with a far smaller plasma or LCD display. Runco has a solution for those challenging situations with their LS-100d, a short throw, LED-based projector capable of producing a 100” image while being placed right up against the wall.

		2012-05-07 14:37:03 Emotiva ERC-2 CD Player Emotiva continues to occupy an interesting space in the audiophile realm. It is now possible to get an entire two channel or five channel system consisting almost entirely of Emotiva products, CD player or DAC, a preamp, a variety of amplifiers from one to five channels, a pre-pro on the way and interconnects. The Emotiva ERC-2 is a two-channel CD player with balanced outputs for low noise transfer between the CD player and your preamplifier. At $449, this is a player to reckon with.

		2012-05-07 02:00:00 Sony VPL-VW95ES 3D Projector With the shift from CRTs to flat panel and projection displays, Sony has had to find something to replace the veritable Trinitron that was a symbol of excellence for so many years. Their proprietary version of Liquid Crystal on Silicon, SXRD, has been their high-end technology, appearing in products their Qualia reference line, to the first home 4K projector this year, and in the VPL-VW95ES reviewed here.

		2012-05-04 11:11:31 A Collection of New Vinyl Releases for the Audiophile - May, 2012 Ive always been fascinated by revolutionary political movements. Maybe Im drawn to the theatricality of it as I have absolutely no personal frame of reference for what it feels like to take extreme political action.

		2012-05-04 02:00:00 Home Theater Movie Renters Guide - May, 2012 War Horse (Blu-ray), The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray), Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Blu-ray), A Streetcar Named Desire (Blu-ray), Pariah (Blu-ray), Roadracers (Blu-ray), One For the Money (Blu-ray), Haywire (Blu-ray), Buck Privates (Blu-ray), Albert Nobbs (Blu-ray), Underworld: Awakenings (Blu-ray), Dark Tide (Blu-ray), Men in Black II (Blu-ray)

		2012-05-02 02:00:00 Paradigm SUB 1 Subwoofer One can never be too rich, too good looking, or have too much bass. The first two axioms are ones that unfortunately I cannot test out myself, but the third is one that I am willing to get a shot. For years Paradigm has delivered some award winning, room rattling subwoofers. The SUB 2 is their most powerful subwoofer, and the SUB 1 isnt far behind. In fact, either one of these top notch subs can blow you out of the room.

		2012-04-30 02:00:00 Optoma HD8300 3D DLP Projector Now that 3D has become commonplace in HDTVs, projectors are following suit. Most of the new models introduced at CEDIA 2011 incorporate 3D into their feature set. While 3D has not lured me into upgrading my reference equipment just yet, I can’t help but wonder when I might really want to watch Avatar in 3D. So, I managed to obtain the new Optoma HD8300 DLP projector which just happens to have 3D capability.

		2012-04-25 02:00:00 Wireless HDMI Round Up Now that our TVs are thin enough we often want to hang them on a wall, and manufacturers keep pushing the limits of thickness year after year. CES this year saw the advent of OLED TVs that are just millimeters thick as they no longer need backlighting systems, and serve double duty as a cheese slicer with their razor-thin profiles.

		2012-04-23 02:00:00 Accell UltraCat HD HDMI Cable Extender During CEDIA 2011, one technology that caught my attention was HDBaseT. It provided a solution to the all too familiar cable clutter problem. Below is a picture that I took at their booth which shows a set of cables whose signals could all be transmitted over a single Cat5e/6 cable at distances up to 100m.

		2012-04-18 02:00:00 Velodyne vPulse In-Ear Headphones (Earbuds) With the prevalence of portable music players to the point that you must be from Mars if you dont own one, there is a huge aftermarket for high quality earphones (headphones is the category, with over-the-ear headphones, on-ear-headphones, in-ear headphones, in-ear-earphones, and in-ear earbuds being the specific type of headphone one is referring to). Velodyne, renown manufacturer of subwoofers, not to be left out of this trend, has released a set of in-ear headphones called the vPulse....and best of all, they sound like Velodyne all the way . . . a.k.a. very, very good.

		2012-04-16 02:00:00 Anthem P2 Two-Channel Power Amplifier Anthems statement multi-channel power amplifiers are called the P series. They come in two versions, a five-channel (P5) and a two-channel (P2). My home theater test lab has a 200 watt x 5 amplifier which works great for the majority of applications, but it is driving electrostatic speakers (ESLs), and for a handful of Blu-ray movies, the amplifier will go into protect mode when at high volume, because ESLs typically have a very low impedance (1 ohm) in the high frequency range. So, I figured I just need more power for the front two channels, since they are set at higher volume than the side and rear channels. My center channel speaker is a conventional cone design, so it does not have this problem. I turned to Anthem, and requested their P2 to see if it would solve my problem. It solved my problem, and I think now all the cockroaches that had been hiding in the walls have now left the building.

		2012-04-12 02:00:00 Phase Technology Premier Collection PC-3.5 LCR Speakers The Phase Technology Premier Collection LCR Speaker - the PC-3.5 - is a unique product. It is designed well, and it sounds great for a speaker only 22" high. It can be placed just about anywhere, and can be used as LCR speakers in home theaters or two-channel audio systems (or both).

		2012-04-10 02:00:00 A Collection of New Vinyl Releases for the Audiophile - April, 2012 Bruce Springsteen is a tricky one, huh? I love the guy and his music, but most of that musical love centers around four or five records from a short era in the 1970s. And none of them sound as good as they could have, but they all sound a damned site better than anything he did in the 80s.

		2012-04-09 02:00:00 Rein Audio X-DAC with USB Input USB DACs are hot items now because you can play music from your computer through them and into a set of headphones or to your main hi-fi rig. Some of these DACs only have a USB input, (no S/PDIF inputs) because their main purpose is for use with a computer. Of course, all computers come with audio ciruitry on the motherboard, and if you have a sound card installed in one of the PC card slots, it may very well have an S/PDIF output. However, their quality is often questionable due to the typically low cost of the sound card. Rein Audio, a German manufacturer, makes the X-DAC, which is a 24/192 DAC with both coaxial and Toslink optical S/PDIF inputs, but also, it has a USB input (24/96) to be used with your computer, giving you better sound quality than you would get from your computers audio circuit.

		2012-04-05 02:00:00 ZVOX Zbase 555 Speaker System to Place Under Your Flat Panel HDTV Pedestal So here is the problem. Actually, there are two problems. Problem one: the new HDTV flat panels are getting thinner and thinner. The speakers inside those panels are also getting thinner and thinner. The sound from those speakers…well... ZVox comes to the rescue with a powered speaker system that sits underneath the pedestal of your flat panel HDTV. Called the Zbase 555, it retails for only $399.

		2012-04-02 02:00:00 PSB Imagine mini-Monitors For the audiophile world to take seriously a small bookshelf speaker, let alone a "mini"-monitor there has to be some significant backing and/or history. Much has been said and written about the NRC, or National Research Council located in Ottawa, Canada. The decades of research developed helped shape many generations and iterations of speaker design by focusing on the "physchoacoustics" or specifically the tools by which we analyze sound within a space. Much of the jargon we all use; open, airy, transparent, open, closed, etc., comes from the many papers presented from this group. The NRC gave designers and audio visionaries like Paul Barton the facilities to develop research and experiment. The PSB Imagine mini-Monitors (lower case m on "mini" is on purpose) are some of the many results of Pauls labors, and we find out here if his efforts paid off.

		2012-04-01 02:00:00 Home Theater Movie Renters Guide - April, 2012 War Horse (Blu-ray), The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray), American Pie Trilogy (Blu-ray), Charade, My Man Godfrey & Sullivans Travels (DVD), IMAX: Born to be Wild (Blu-ray), Kate & Leopold (Blu-ray), Bounce (Blu-ray), Contraband (Blu-ray), Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Blu-ray)

		2012-03-28 02:00:00 Classe CP-800 Stereo Preamplifier Classés new CP-800 is a high performance ("High-End") stereo preamplifier, but it is not just yet another preamp with minor changes from previous models. This one has the option of switching in some DSP that adds several EQ bands and dedicated stereo subwoofer outputs. If you dont use the DSP, its not in the signal path, and you can still call yourself a "purist" audiophile. Have no doubts; this is a very unique product, and the performance is stellar.

		2012-03-26 02:00:00 Yamaha BD-A1010 Aventage Universal 3D Blu-ray Player Last year, Yamaha released the Aventage product line, which included first several A/V receivers, then also a Blu-ray player. The Aventage product line is Yamahas new premiere brand, similar to Sonys "ES", and Pioneers "Elite." Last year I reviewed the Aventage RX-A2000 A/V receiver. This time, its the Aventage BD-A1010.

		2012-03-22 01:00:00 Emotiva X-Ref 12 Subwoofer Emotiva is a U.S. based Internet-direct manufacturer, known primarily for their high-power solid-state amplifiers. However, Emotiva makes other products, including three different lines of speakers, and several subwoofers. In this case, we review the X-Ref subwoofer, which has a 12" driver and 600 watts of amplifier power, all at a very reasonable price.

		2012-03-19 09:44:07 Paiste 22" Signature Dark Energy Mark II Ride Cymbal Paiste has several Signature lines, including the Dark Energy. The cymbal reviewed here is the 22" Dark Energy Mark II Ride. Sometimes consumers may think that the word "Dark" means that not only the wash will have intense low frequencies, but also that the ping does not have intense high frequencies. That is not always true. Although the low frequencies are always there in a dark cymbal, the ping can be bright, which is the case with this cymbal.

		2012-03-19 01:00:00 JVC X30 1080p Three-Chip D-ILA 3D Projector After moving last fall, I finally had space for a projection setup and ordered a screen for my basement. When I started to look for a projector for my new home theater, the first recommendation from people was almost always JVC. The JVC X30 is a three-chip D-ILA projector that has 4K resolution for the future, but for now, it is considered a full 1920x1080p projector. I has an incredible contrast ratio for gorgeous blacks, and is 3D capable. Its $1,000 less than it was last year, and they have added memory for lens settings (zoom) so you can have the image at the appropriate size if you are viewing 2.35:1 vs. 2:1, etc.

		2012-03-15 01:00:00 Cambridge 751BD Universal 3D Blu-ray Player In a bit of a surprise, the Universal Blu-ray player market has gone through a big upswing recently. While DVD-Audio and SACD might be considered dead audio formats to the mainstream media, more and more players for home are including support for them now. One fairly recent addition to the group is the Cambridge Audio 751BD Audiophile Blu-ray player. It also supports 3D Blu-ray, and I was quite excited to have the chance to try out this unit myself.

		2012-03-12 01:00:00 Paradigm Cinema 100CT 5.1 Speaker System Ok, Ill admit it. I was not expecting much from this diminutive 5.1 budget speaker system that arrived at my house in a single box. The entire system fits inside the shipping box for my reference subwoofer (MartinLogan Descent i). Granted it is massive and costs more than three of these 5.1 systems...

		2012-03-08 01:00:00 SOTA Nova Turntable SOTA is a turntable manufacturer headquartered in the Chicago area. They have been around for more than 30 years. SOTA’s current management team of Kirk and Donna Bodinet took over the manufacturing and servicing operation in 1997. They manufacture a total of nine turntable models as well as a very popular LP Cleaning Machine. The model under review here is the Nova.

		2012-03-06 01:00:00 A Collection of New Vinyl Releases for the Audiophile - March, 2012 Like a lot of folks, I first became aware of the Flaming Lips by watching "Beavis and Butt-head." Seems like I remember that duo critiquing the Lips video for their song about Vaseline or something. Thats a hazy one as are most memories...

		2012-03-05 15:38:41 Paiste 22" Masters Collection Dark Crisp Ride Cymbal The Paiste Twenty line has been around for some time, and about a year ago, they introduced the Masters Series in the Twenty line. They are B20 alloy, and are some of the most musical cymbals I have ever tested.

		2012-03-05 01:00:00 Pioneer SC-57 9.1 A/V Receiver I’ve reviewed a fair number of receivers, and owned a fair number of them myself as well. The unit that I was the most sad to part with was the Pioneer SC-27 a couple years ago. With its Class D amps, it was fast and powerful, but not harsh. The new SC-57 is a 9.1 receiver, with Class D amplification, but Pioneer has built the amplifier modules themselves rather than using ICEPower modules. Was the sound different? Read on . . .

		2012-03-01 01:00:00 Home Theater Movie Renters Guide - March, 2012 Johnny English: Reborn (Blu-ray), J. Edgar (Blu-ray), Columbus Circle (Blu-ray), The Son Of No One (Blu-ray), Puss in Boots 3D (Blu-ray), Game of Thrones (Blu-ray), The Adventures of Tintin (Blu-ray), The Muppets (Blu-ray), and more.

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