I don’t travel much, but in the last two months have stayed at three different hotels in major metropolitan areas (Los Angeles and Silicon Valley). While they weren’t five-star resorts, they were upscale hotels of major chains that cater to business travelers. I had nicely appointed rooms, complete with flat-screen HDTV’s.

Not only could I not find any hi-def programming, but the picture quality was terrible! It reminded me of watching over-the-air signals through a set of rabbit ears, or basic analog cable. All of the displays were hooked up to a special box for purchasing services (such as on-demand movies and internet through the TV). I don’t know whether the box is to blame, or something else in the signal chain. But it seemed such a waste to spend money on HD displays, when they produced such poor images. Kind of like buying a filet mignon and then boiling it.

The VPI HR-X turntable arrived, and I installed it in our lab over the weekend. Here is a photo.

This turntable is very large and is extremely heavy (the platter alone is about 25 pounds), so I have ordered a 2″ thick platform to place on top of the welded steel rack which will give me a few more inches of depth. THe HR-X is hand-made, with each component lathed to fit that individual turntable. Although using a 12″ tonearm does not usually require an anti-skate mechanism, I had one installed on the turntable so I could experiment with it and measure the results on our Audio Precision test instrument. At $13,600 this fully tricked out HR-X should give me a lifetime of listening fun.

The McIntosh MT10 turntable will be used to compare various cartridges that we review (our Manley Steelhead phono preamp has three inputs, so I can simply switch back and forth between cartridges as both turntables are playing). The cartridge in the MT10 is also MC, and it will be the reference because of its fantastic sound quality, and I will put review cartridges in the HR-X. A second reason the MT10 will be the reference is that the turntable, tonearm, and cartridge were designed as a unit by Clearaudio. This means that everything was matched in the design stage to work together, whereas with most turntables, you just choose a cartridge to go with it, or, if a cartridge is supplied, it is not necessarily one that the turntable was specifically designed for. (I have already found some interesting things comparing the Blackbird to the MT10 cartridge, and will discuss them in our Vinyl vs. CD series.)

The tonearm rests on a very sharp pivot point rather than moving on a gimbal joint, so there is virtually no friction as the arm moves up or down or side to side. Thus, when I installed the Sumiko Blackbird cartridge (MC, $799, compliance 12, mass 9.6 grams, tracking force 2 grams), the arm tended to tilt to the left as shown below (look at the rear of the tonearm).

To correct this, I adjusted the “lateral tracking angle” by rotating the tonearm counterweight, pointed out by the arrow in the photo below. The counterweight is oval shaped so that when you rotate it, additional weight is placed on one side or the other, depending on which way it is rotated. I then had to recheck the tracking force, just to make sure it remained at 2 grams.

This eliminated the tilt, such that the cartridge was now horizontally level with respect to the surface of the platter, as shown in the photo below (the cartridge is mounted with an angle to the left so that it is tangential to the grooves, which is the “azimuth” adjustment).

I am using the HR-X turntable for the discussion of three phono preamps in the next installment of our Vinyl vs. CD article series tro be pubished shortly.

I went into the local grocery store a couple of days ago and saw that they had installed a gelato stand. That is basically ice cream with an Italian twist. Anyway, it was $3.99 for one scoop.

I am shocked that stores are not realizing the state of the economy here in the USA.

Needless to say, there was no one in line to purchase a scoop of ice cream at 4 bucks a pop.

I see also that there are still groups of people in unions threatening to strike for more money and better medical benefits.

Blu-ray movies are about $30 each.

Is everyone in La La land these days?

It is time to cut the “got to make a nice profit no matter what” attitude.

So, the ice cream will get icy and not get sold, the unions will stay out of work for months and get a small settlement that ends up actually costing them compared to what would have happened if they just stayed on the job in a horrible economy, and I don’t know about you, but I am not prepared to pay 30 dollars for a Blu-ray movie except maybe for Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, Casablanca, and a few others. Perhaps in a year or two when the word RECESSION is a memory, but not now.

Everyone must get used to the concept of decreased cash flow. Everyone, including big businesses. The time will come when Big Oil faces that too, because the electric cars are roaring towards consumers like a freight train. My family will be driving two of them in 2009 when they hit the dealer showrooms.

So, we have less money to spend. The gelato needs to sell for $1.29 a scoop. Those ready to strike should forget about it for at least one year, and be delighted that they just have a friggin job. Blu-ray movies should sell (sticker price) for $19.99, with the conventional DVDs at $14.99 maximum. And, “20% Off on all Movies this Week” should be on lots of store windows.

Blu-Ray is supposed to represent the “next generation” of watching movies on our home theater systems.  At least, many consumers think that’s what they are getting when they decide to shell out the twenty-five or thirty dollars to get the disc.  Unfortuntely, we are still seeing many titles being released that don’t deliver on that promise and they skimp on both quality and features thus watering down people’s expectation of what they get with the format.

For instance, there are far too many recent Blu-Ray titles that don’t include a Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD lossless audio track.  Furthermore, a fifty gigabyte disc is available and yet we still see plenty of titles being released on the smaller twenty five gigabyte format thus limiting what will fit on the disc.  Remember, one of the features that made Blu-Ray more desireable than HD-DVD was the extra storage capacity.  Now that Blu-Ray has won the format war its time the studios use that extra capacity. 

Consumers have been paying the full price regardless and they aren’t going to continue doing so until their expectations of high quality are met each and every time.  It seems like Warner Brothers has caught on though and some of their recent announcements indicate they will be devoting more attention to quality in future releases.

When there becomes a consistent high level of quality, the format will really start to thrive and flourish.  It’s been growing here and overseas at a steady rate, but it can grow even faster.  Personally, I have only been buying a sparse few Blu-Ray titles that I’m really a fan of such as No Country for Old Men, Hellboy, and Pan’s Labyrinth.  When more titles start delivering amazing sound in either high resolution Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD and amazing picture with exquisite dynamic range, I will be far less picky and it will be the desire to see and hear the quality of the production rather than my affinity for a film that drives the purchase.

Well, it’s a week after launch, and I still can’t get the new 3G iPhone. All of my local stores are sold out, with estimates of several weeks before new shipments arrive. That’s what I get for not camping out in line, but I haven’t pulled one of those all-nighters since queuing up for tickets to the 1985 Springsteen tour.

But it got me thinking, when was last time (or any time, for that matter) that a new A/V product caused that level of consumer frenzy? I’m taking the traditionalist view, so game consoles don’t count. Do you recall any piece of audio or video equipment that was so unique, paradigm-shifting, must-have cool that people were lined up to get them and the manufacturer couldn’t keep them in stock? I’m drawing a blank. It does make me wonder what would happen if the designers and engineers at Apple decided to sink their teeth into a traditional home theater product.

Two weeks ago I got wind of a sub-C$400 price on Sony’s BDPS300.  At the time I questioned whether that supplier was on the up and up, but now this past week any number of sources indicate that some price relief on Blu-Ray is in the pipe, at least on players.  Even my local dealer pro actively called me up saying he had new pricing on the coveted Panasonic ‘50.

Finally some indication of long-term incumbency for HD-on-disc.

Movies on the other hand seem to remain at a relatively high premium compared to DVD which, although of no consequence to the movie renting masses,  seems like poor reward for the movie collectors who have driven the market up to the present.

Like many, I don’t go to the cineplex that often.  High ticket prices, noisy attendees, and even the higher costs of driving to the theater have kept me happily enjoying my dvd and blu-ray collection at home instead.

Recently though, I have made a couple trips out to the theaters for the movies Hellboy II: The Golden Army and WALL-E .

In both cases, the experiences were well worth the high price of admission.  Okay, I probably should add that I saved money by not buying candy, popcorn, or drinks.

I have been a fan of the first Hellboy movie and I often find myself using it for home theater evaluation because its chock-full of mammoth action scenes that make good use of a surround sound system.  The second film in the series delivers even more visual and aural goodness with enormous battles that are a perfect blend of modern CG, live action, and exciting sound effects.  Fans of director Guillermo Del Toro’s visual style can also appreciate his use of unique character design that combines elements of both fantasy and science fiction genres.  Its somewhere between The Fifth Element and Lord of the Rings.  Needless to say, I will be eagerly anticipating the Blu-Ray release of this film. 

Anybody who is a home theater afficionado probably has a couple of Pixar titles in his library as the films highlight exceptional color depth and detail and are a great way to show off a modern HD display.  But, besides that, Pixar animations are just plain fun to watch and there is often a positive message behind the storylines.  Wall-E is entertaining because of all of the superb visuals and sound effects and also because the story is unique in that it is developed with a minimum of dialogue.  Its not too far off from the way a silent film spins a tale.  The way this story was told combined with its intense visuals made it one of the most entertaining movies I have seen recently.    

Ok, I admit it. This blog is just my recommendation to go out to the theaters and see either or both of these films while they are available at a cineplex that has good equipment.  Everything from the visuals and sound effects to the characters and storyline make them worth watching on a really large screen.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy them as much as I did.     

Coming home from a benchmark training trip a few evenings ago, I looked in my driveway and saw these packages stacked one on top of the other.

Believe it or not, these represent one turntable.

The McIntosh MT10 turntable that I have been using for our Vinyl vs. CD article series is reference quality, and in order to test other cartridges, I would have had to remove the one in the MT10. The McIntosh is not configured for exchanging cartridges easily, and I also wanted to be able to go back and forth between two cartridges in my listening tests. So, I decided to acquire a second reference quality turntable.

Searching all over the place on-line and reading a lot of reviews, I decided on VPI Industries, which makes a number of very high quality units. I chose the HRX. It’s there in all those boxes in the photo. Actually, it’s the same model in the photo on Page 3 (Turntables, Tonearms, and Cartridges) of the Vinyl vs. CD article series.

I also ordered a cartridge to compare with the one in the MT10. The new cartridge is an MC (moving coil) unit, but it has 2.5 mV output instead of the 0.75 mV output of the MC cartridge in the MT10.

Results will be forthcoming shortly.

I have been using the “diNovo Edge” keyboard from Logitech for some time and it has worked out well. There are several features I like. Among them:

• An integrated TouchDisc, so I don’t need a separate mouse. The TouchDisc is responsive and can be used to scroll both horizontally and vertically.
• Communication with the PC is handled over BlueTooth and the range is good.
• A built-in rechargeable battery with a quick charge cycle. A charging base is provided and the charge holds for a good length of time.
• A slim-profile
• Light-weight
• Some special function keys with labels that light up; I would have liked the entire keyboard to be backlit.

Logitech’s line also includes a keyboard for use with the PS3, the “MediaBoard Pro”, offering similar functionality. It does not include a built-in rechargeable battery, and some of the media control keys are also missing. This keyboard should work with a PC, although it may require some tinkering. It is also less expensive, so if your budget cannot accomodate the “diNovo Edge”, you can consider this alternative. Hopefully the price of this keyboard will come down over time. I would also like to hear about other options that people are using, so if you have a keyboard (BlueTooth or RF based) that you like to use with your HTPC, please post.

I was helping my son shop for a birthday present, particularly focusing on his interest in a game console. I tried not to nudge him towards a PS3, but a little voice kept saying “Blu-ray player, Blu-ray player. . . .” Eventually, the angel on my other shoulder won out and I decided I would just buy a stand-alone player rather than co-opt my own child’s birthday present. As of today, the best Blu-ray player with Profile 2.0, relatively fast-loading time and a decent price, is the PS3. A game console, for $400.

I appreciate that having the studios line up behind different formats made for an untenable situation. But the “old” Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player in my rack, like every other HD DVD player, was based on a stable set of specifications (as Adrian just noted,  BD-Live is still ramping up).  And I paid $99 for it.

I had hoped that, with the end of the format battle, consumers would rapidly see a stable set of specifications, and more players available at a wide range of price points. Especially that all important entry-level player to introduce people to the joys of high-def video (kind of like those $999 HD flat screens).

Well, the big CEDIA show is less than two months away. I can still hope, right?