Audio / Computing / Industry

2005 In Review / CES 2006 Review, Pt. 3: Audio

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Part III of my post-CES rantings; each of the next few posts includes a quick look back on 2005 trends and a quick discussion of products introduced at CES 2006. This installment: Audio In 2005… Apple’s iPod ate up whatever audio interest there was left after the purchase of that HDTV. The audiophile approach (ignore it and it will go away) didn’t work, the competitive approach (building servers or portable products that compete with the iPod head on) dramatically didn’t work – though there were a handful of exceptions, and the conciliatory approach (if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em) …

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Audio / Industry

2005 In Review / CES 2006 Review, Pt. 2: Speakers

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Part II of my post-CES ravings; each of the next few posts includes a quick look back on 2005 trends and a quick discussion of products introduced at CES 2006.  In 2005… To try to appeal to the flat panel TV crowd, speaker manufacturers at all price points built flat speakers, small speakers, and speakers intended to be mounted on the wall (some with just one cabinet to simplify wiring, or wireless rear speakers). Big brands did well with these offerings, but they tended to pull sales from elsewhere, not grow the category.  The other approach was to develop a …

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Displays / Industry

2005 In Review / CES 2006 Review, Pt. 1: Flat Panels

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I have just returned from CES 2006 in Las Vegas, where 150,000 geeks showed up to gawk at the bodacious sights to see in Las Vegas (103" plasmas) and ignored everything else (it seemed like half the shows in Vegas were dark). I’ll be breaking out the next few posts into a quick look back on 2005 trends and a quick discussion of products introduced at CES 2006.  In 2005… LCD, Plasma, and DLP TV sucked the life (or, more accurately, the money) out of every other aspect of home theater.  Prices on the big panels dropped enough that consumers …

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Accessories / HDTV

Product Review: Newpoint argo XL lifestyle antenna

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

The word "lifestyle" in this industry usually refers to speaker systems, designed to be as small and unobtrusive as possible. This often leads to poor sound quality – after all, physics are involved when pushing air, and its harder to do with less volume for the pushing.  You can beat physics with unique designs like the tiny subs with huge excursion (from Definitive Technology and Sunfire, among others), or simply tune products to what consumers are looking for (bright and punchy) and forget absolute musical accuracy.  Bose saw tremendous success getting way ahead of the lifestyle trend, but with general …

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Industry

Sony’s Qualia Hunt Ends Without a Kill

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

The high end of the market is evolving: mainstream brands offering the same thing – only better – are having a tough time.  A couple of months ago Sony pulled the plug on its Qualia brand, despite excellent reviews of its SXRD projector and RPTV sets.  It seems Qualia was one luxury Sir Howard Stringer couldn’t afford in his reorg.  No reasons were given for the move, but I’d speculate that having a high R&D halo brand only helps when the main consumer electronics business it fuels makes money.  Since Sony is losing money across the line, it makes more …

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Audio / Industry

Sonos Expands Distribution Through the Front and Back Doors

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Sonos announced today that Tweeter will be carrying the eponymous product at more than 150 retail locations throughout the U.S. (mostly in the Northeast).  Tweeter is now the largest retailer in the country to carry the Sonos Digital Music System, and Sonos claims a "quality over quantity" approach to signing up retail partners. Nonetheless, Sonos is on track to have 500 retail location partners by the end of 2005, the first holiday buying season that Sonos is available. Tweeter should be a good fit for this mid-tier product: Sonos fits in between the half dozen $200 – $300 streaming music …

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DVD / Industry

Format Wars II: Revenge of the DVD

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Tekrati picked up my post last week on the death of VHS, and implied that I said that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD killed off VHS.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  I often question whether there’s any mass market demand for a high definition format in the first place (and before I get flamed, yes, there is strong enthusiast demand.  I certainly want to go beyond 480p).  But only 11% of households have an HDTV, and anamorphic ("enhanced for widescreen") DVD looks pretty darn good on those sets.  We’re also going into the format war without clear and massive support …

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DVD

Format Wars: A Format Dies!

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Yes, at long last, the industry is consolidating the number of media types for pre-recorded movies… unfortunately, it looks like both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be launched as is, without any compromise.  This really isn’t all that unexpected, given the jockeying back and forth lately: Blu-Ray announced that its media can be manufactured inexpensively (which was supposed to be a key HD-DVD advantage) and HD-DVD announced 45GB capacity versions (nearly matching Blu-Ray’s 50GB storage, which was supposed to be a key Blu-Ray advantage).  But the two formats are fundamentally different at a technical level.  For example, the laser reads a …

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Industry

Engadget’s Walk Down Memory Lane

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Engadget unceremoniously posted a version of its witty, sardonic take on all things gadgety (including some home theater content) circa 1985, as if Engadget started out as a BBS (Bulletin Board System – a pre-pre-pre-cursor to web sites).  Was today April 1, and I missed the memo?  This is brilliant, brilliant stuff.  Of course, there wasn’t much of a home theater industry back in 1985 – which in and of itself is interesting, showing just how fast this market has grown.  The best you could do then was HiFi VHS and a 35" TV — RPTVs were just too dim …

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