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Written by Stephen Hornbrook
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Wednesday, 28 December 2011 00:00 |
 Tags: Blu ray | glasses | Sony |
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Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
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Thursday, 15 December 2011 00:00 |
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 If you have a home theater system where your bass management isn't as flexible as you would like it to be, an outboard crossover network could solve your problems. Bryston makes several models, and the one I chose to review was the 10B-SUB, which is designed for sending the low frequencies to the subwoofer and the mid/high frequencies to the power amplifiers that drive your left and right front channels. You can select the crossover frequency and the slope for both the low-pass and high-pass outputs. It is superbly constructed, extremely flexible, and its bench test results were first rate.
Tags: Crossover | Crossover Frequency | Crossover Networks |
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Written by Rick Schmidt
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Monday, 07 November 2011 00:00 |
CEntrance is a Chicago based company with engineering in the US and Moscow, Russia, design in Holland, and manufacturing facilities in Asia but final assembly in the US . Let’s just say ‘multi-national’. They got their start in pro audio making microphone/guitar pre-amps with analog to digital converters, the MicPort Pro and AxePort Pro in amazingly small packages. Designed to plug inline on the microphone or guitar cord with a USB output (the units are powered by the USB connection) they provide the smallest possible recording studio, enabling musicians to plug a microphone or guitar ‘directly’ into a computer as if they were plugging into tape deck. Here, we review the CEntrance DACMini.
Tags: DACs | USB DACs |
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Written by Chris Heinonen
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Tuesday, 04 October 2011 00:00 |
If you’ve read the previous DIY calibration articles here at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, then you’ve seen us cover ChromaPure and CalMAN calibration systems, and the DVDO Duo video processor. This time we’re going to look at the newest release of ChromaPure, version 2.2, as well as the Lumagen Radiance Mini-3D Video Processor, both individually and together.
Tags: Auto Calibration | Calibration | DIY Calibration |
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Written by Chris Groppi
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Tuesday, 27 September 2011 00:00 |
Computer audio is quickly becoming the source of choice for high-resolution audio playback. A vast number of products focused on computer audio are available today, but most of the attention is paid to hardware: DACs and computer audio interfaces like the Bryston BDA-1 and Halide Design USB to SPDIF Bridge I reviewed last year. In all our reviews, we forget one key component of the playback chain: the software player. I have complained extensively about the difficulty of getting no-compromise audio playback from a computer.
Tags: Computer Audio | High Resolution Audio | Music Servers |
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Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
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Tuesday, 16 August 2011 00:00 |
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 Most of us use portable players at least now and then to listen to our music, using earbuds. But what if there is a lot of ambient noise, such as on an airplane, or if you are in a Starbucks enjoying a refreshment while you are using your laptop, or if you are playing in a band and want to hear not only your own instrument (in my case, it is the drums), but the other musicians and a click track, while the audience is nearly as loud as you are? Noise-reducing over-the-ear headphones are the answer, and the unit reviewed here, the Howard Leight Sync Noise-Blocking Stereo Earmuffs are an inexpensive and very effective solution.
Tags: Headphones |
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Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
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Tuesday, 26 July 2011 00:00 |
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Comects is a Hong Kong-based company that makes A/V accessories, including switchers. We have reviewed a few of their products, and at this point, I had stopped reviewing HDMI switchers because most receivers and processors have HDMI input switching built-in. However, the Comects Neptune 4x2 HDMI switcher is unique, in that it has four inputs and two outputs, and you can route any of the four inputs to either of the two outputs, simultaneously (meaning that it is called a "matrix" switcher). So, for example, if you have a satellite box, Blu-ray player, and media server in your home theater, and you also have an HDTV in an adjacent room, you can route the Blu-ray player to the receiver (which forwards the video to your HDTV or projector) in your home theater, while the satellite box or media server is routed to the HDTV in the adjacent room.
Tags: Accessories | HDMI Switchers |
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Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
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Monday, 18 July 2011 00:00 |
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 NuForce is a small company that has recently become quite visible due to their special editions of the venerable OPPO Universal Players. But, they also make their own products, including DACs and earbuds. The latter, namely the NuForce NE-700X earbuds, are reviewed here. They are inexpensive, fit in the ear canal in the most comfortable way I have ever experienced, and have low distortion. The price? $65.
Tags: Earbuds | Earphones | Headphones |
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Written by Jim Milton
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Thursday, 12 May 2011 00:00 |
As general rule of thumb, I try not to review equipment from manufacturers of products that I personally own as it can lend an air of bias on my part. I’m just letting you know up front that I own a UMC-1 pre/pro and three amplifiers from Emotiva. I find their products to perform very well and are true bargains in the A/V world.
Tags: DACs |
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Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
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Monday, 09 May 2011 00:00 |
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 Pass Labs is highly renown for their audio components, some of which are pure Class A. Besides preamplifiers and power amplifiers, they also produce phono preamplifiers (also called phono stages), having begun with the Aleph Ono in 1997. The XP-25 is their latest version, which was designed by Pass Labs engineer Wayne Colburn.
Tags: Phono Preamplifiers |
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