Avi Greengart – Page 7

RIP Snell, Escient

July 14, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Not sure where I was when this crossed the wire back in April, but I was saddened – but not surprised – to learn that D&M Holdings shut down both Snell and Escient. Snell was a high end speaker brand without enough brand recognition. Selling $30,000 speakers in a recession is extremely hard. Selling $30,000 speakers from a brand that only involved enthusiasts have heard of is basically impossible, no matter how terrific they measure and sound (Snell was famous for rigorously achieving ridiculously flat frequency measurements). I suspect that the recession did in Escient, which made well regarded music …

Audio / Industry / Television

New Onkyo Receivers Come with HDMI 1.4 and Buyer’s Remorse

June 3, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - 6 Comments.

The problem with 3DTV – aside from the glasses and the nausea and the total lack of content – is that you need to buy an entirely new equipment chain. It is not enough to replace your TV with a 3D capable set, you will also need a 3D-capable Blu-ray player, and – much to the delight of Monster Cable – you may actually need to upgrade your HDMI cables to handle the increased signal bandwidth. The typical HDMI connection in most devices today is 1.3b, but you'll need to upgrade to HDMI 1.4a for 3D. This has implications for audio …

Uncategorized

Front Projector Sales Up! (Or down. Depends on your point of view.)

May 25, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

CEPro reports that Quixel Research says home-theater front projector sales rebounded in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, with a 51% increase in unit sales and 17% increase in revenue. Woo hoo! Then again, sales are down consecutively from last quarter (the overall market value was $72 million at the end of the first quarter, down from $97 million in Q4 2009). Q1 sales declines are normal – most people buy projectors for Christmas, not the Super Bowl. Nice to see that the high end of the market is recovering overall.

Audio / Computing / Music

Sonos Goes Stereo

May 18, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Just a quick note today: Sonos just started shipping a new software update that adds some new Internet radio options, crossfading between songs, some new language support, new alarm settings, and the ability to use two S5's as a stereo pair. None of the features is critical on its own (though the S5 stereo feature is quite cool; when everything is digital, you can do all sorts of neat things) but Sonos already built the best multi-room component system. I sent back my Sonos review system so I can't test this personally. Sigh. With the Sonos gone, we've been using …

Industry

The New HT Sales Environment

March 2, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

HomeTheaterReview – not HomeTheaterVIEW, which is what you're reading right now – has an interesting take on how the home theater sales environment has changed since the recession, and how to cope. It's partly a pitch for online advertising, partly a manifesto. Oddly enough, I agree with the advertising part, but he's missing a few pieces in the manifesto: Are boutique bricks-and-mortar A/V stores relevant in an amazon.com age? (Short answer: only if they're truly boutiques.) Is seated home audio relevant in an iPod/dock age? (While there are exceptions — witness the rebirth of vinyl — generally speaking the answer here …

Uncategorized

Mailbag: Is it Time to Upgrade to a “Blu-ray capable” Receiver?

February 11, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - 3 Comments.

Here's one from the mailbag: I’m thinking about upgrading my receiver. Currently I have a Denon AVR-987. It’s 3- 4 years old and does not have the current technology for blu ray. I’m thinking of going with a Sony STR-DA2400ES receiver. I have a 52” Sony XBR and a Sony BDP S-300 blu ray player. My speakers are Soundworks MC300 front/Soundworks original surrounds and JBL Northridge for the center. Any advice would be appreciated. It really depends on why you think you need the upgrade, but I wouldn’t do it. You’d be surprised, but your current receiver can handle Blu-ray …

Uncategorized

Off to Apple’s Special Event

January 26, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I'm off to Apple's Special Event tomorrow. Journalists who want to contact me for comments afterwards can call me at 201 658 7729 or email me at agreengart @ currentanalysis com. Once Apple madness is behind us, more HTV posts are coming, including a post-CES wrap-up, VUDU review, and an end to my quest for an A/V receiver with enough HDMI inputs to serve as a test center.

Audio

Strange New Home Theater System from Yamaha

December 23, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

Yamaha just announced the YHT-S400, a two piece home theater in a box. The soundbar is par for the course, giving people pseudo surround sound from just a single enclosure you can mount below your flat panel TV. Soundbars are incredibly popular right now, as they match the design of today's televisions (which also don't intrude on the living space) and don't require stringing wires all over the place. The YHT-S400's receiver is unique, in that it has a built-in subwoofer. Oddly enough, it reminds me of the mid-1980's PC, the Coleco Adam, which combined a daisy wheel printer with …

DVD

Cheap Blu-ray Upgrades from Warner

November 18, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Well, this is nice: some of us have felt like suckers, buying the same titles over and over as formats have shifted from VHS to letterbox VHS to laserdisc to DVD to special edition DVD to Blu-ray (and I probably missed a few format changes in there). If you've got a bunch of Warner DVDs and feel compelled to upgrade them to Blu-ray, check out this Warner Brothers site: http://www.dvd2blu.com/. You'll have to physically mail in your DVDs, and shipping charges apply if you have less than four to upgrade, but if you have four or more from the list …

Displays / HDTV / Industry / Television

Lessons From Panasonic’s Plasma Day

November 12, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, I, along with a handful of tech journalists, was invited to attend a briefing by Panasonic in New York to show off their latest line of plasma televisions. The emphasis was on the technical capabilities of Panasonic's plasma technology relative to the latest LCD with LED backlighting. Some things I learned: Never have a Japanese engineer who doesn't speak fluent English give a marketing presentation to journalists. Yes, there was a lot of technical detail included, but the fundamental reason Panasonic was doing the briefing was to spin the technical detail, otherwise they would have just provided a …