Audio

Product Review: Sonos PLAYBAR

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Let’s get the disclaimers out of the way up front: Sonos has lent me various components for review, and some are on long term loans. When the PLAYBAR was first announced, I attended a demo and wrote an analytical report for Current Analysis clients, but I was eager to get a unit for a full review. Earlier this year Sonos sent one, along with a pair of PLAY:3’s for use as surround sound speakers (much earlier this year. Sorry!). I also pulled in a Sonos SUB in for a full 5.1 setup. Sonos does not pay anything for consideration and …

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Uncategorized

Belated Happy 8th Birthday, HomeTheaterView!

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Time flies. I was looking for something I had posted a while ago and discovered that this site has been live and somewhat regularly updated since October 24, 2004. So I'm about a month late noticing, but this site is an eight year old! We're a tween!  My first post:  Welcome. Thanks for reading. Now I need to go out and buy a cake.

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Industry

Home Theater for the Fairer Sex

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Here's another link to that unrelated site with the similar name. HomeTheaterReview has a thoughtful piece on an old chestnut: how do you get women to buy home theater gear? (I wrote something similar a bit over a decade ago.) Two things that stand out: While her advice is not new, Adrienne Maxwell has about as strong a pedigree to say it as anyone. She's written and edited home theater magazines at the highest levels. And while she can geek out with the best of them — I've met her at trade events and can confirm this firsthand — she, …

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Accessories / Audio / Industry / Music

CD Players Are Not Dead (Yet)

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Apple’s iTunes now sells more music than any other retail outlet and CD sales are famously in decline, so you’d be forgiven if you thought nobody makes CD players any more – or at least nobody would be foolish to launch new ones. That's why I was somewhat delighted to read this press release: Parasound has just introduced a new CD player, the Zcd. This isn’t a CD player aimed at the mass market, but it isn’t targeting money-is-no-object audiophile snobs, either. It costs $400; mass market CD players start at $17.99 at Target, and audiophile brands can top $4,000. …

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Audio / Industry

Gibson Buys a Big Chunk of Onkyo

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Gibson is looking to diversify away from musical instruments, and is buying Onkyo USA. Onkyo has been doing reasonably well in the shrinking A/V receiver market – I own an Onkyo NR3007 myself – but I just can't figure out why Gibson decided to invest in the incredibly challenged A/V industry rather than, say, ANYTHING ELSE. Here's the press release:  Gibson Buys Stake in Onkyo Japan and Majority Interest in Onkyo USA Forms Strategic Alliance to Take Consumer Audio Experience to a New Level Nashville, TN. January 04, 2012: As part of its continued diversification into the music and audio …

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Accessories

Deal Alert: Belkin Home Theater Surge Protector

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Buy.com has the Belkin PureAV PF30 for a great price ($60). I have this unit's big brother (the PF60), and while I can't claim to hear any difference in the filtered electricity, a good quality 8 outlet surge protector usually costs a lot more than $60 (this unit originally retailed for $199). Note: I get no kickback if you click on the link above. Consider this a public service announcement.

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Accessories / Audio / Computing / Industry

Onkyo Announces First MHL A/V Receiver

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

There is no indication of price or availability, so this "announcement" is almost comically vague, but it is interesting nonetheless. For the uninitiated, MHL is a standard that aims to simplify getting content from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) while keeping the devices charged. The MHL folks were smart enough not to come up with their own unique connector/cable; instead it uses the HDMI or microHDMI connectors, and includes HDMI backwards compatibility. It looks like Onkyo's reciever will pop up windows showing you what content is available on the device, allowing you to easily push that content on to the …

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