My Holiday Gift Guide is Up
My Last Minute, Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide is now up over at Slashgear.com. Happy Holidays, -avi
My Holiday Gift Guide is Up Read Morequick review: beats by dr. dre
Question: My son is here with me today and… he brought up Beats headphones. I was wondering if you’ve seen/have them and your thoughts. He’s sold on how “cool” they are but I’m curious if they’re all hype or not. I get in a lot of headphones but hadn't gotten extended time on the beats until HP gave me a pair to test with its new TouchPad tablet (the TouchPad has a special Beats Audio mode. I tested it with the mode enabled and disabled, the difference is too subtle for most people to notice, but it’s a nice branding …
quick review: beats by dr. dre Read MoreSelling CE to Women: Two Views
CEPro has a new mini-article by Molly Gibson with four tips for selling custom installed home theater products to women, and Julie Jacobson links to an article of hers on the same subject. Here's the summary: Molly thinks that women need a soft sell based on listening to her needs and discovering how she thinks that the system will be used. She also rails against pushing features and future-proofing that goes beyond the buyer's needs, and pushes style as a critical part of the woman's buying criteria. Julie thinks that this has nothing to do with selling to women and …
Selling CE to Women: Two Views Read MoreRoku Goes Retail
It certainly took them long enough, but Roku is finally graduating from online-only sales to retail. It wasn't doing too badly in the old business model – Roku's status as the least expensive and easiest streaming media box allowed it to rack up over a million units sold. Still, Roku always seemed something like a secret that only technically savvy people knew about – and that is not the target demographic for a product designed for simplicity. No, the ideal retail channel ought to be something like Target. Or Best Buy: Roku XD player is available for purchase at Best …
Roku Goes Retail Read MoreHeadphones To Lure the Next Generation
Great article in Dealerscope on how custom audio shops can prepare for the future by focusing more on headphone sales. Money quote: "There are no new audiophiles entering our community any more," Abplanalp said. "For young people experiencing music, the art of building a stereo has lost its cachet. So selling headphones is a very important part of introducing music lovers to different performance levels…" The article also notes that Monster's Dr. Dre Beats line is a key sales driver for this demographic, but oddly undersells the ability to properly demo in-ear headphones in-store.
Headphones To Lure the Next Generation Read MoreWhy there haven’t been any posts here at HTV
I've been on the road pretty much since the beginning of the year – first at CES and then meetings, product launches, and more trade shows. Until I have a second to breathe, here's HomeTheaterREview's (no relation) nice write-up debunking CES myths.
Why there haven’t been any posts here at HTV Read MoreSlate talks about the wonders of outboard DACs, I talk headphones
Fred Kaplan is apparently writing for Slate now*, and he correctly points out that digital music often sounds terrible, either due to poor sampling or poor encoding. He recommends using an outboard DAC to correct the problem. It's a great suggestion for people who listen to music in one spot using high end speakers or headphones, but not at all practical for those who are mobile, using an MP3 player or a smartphone as their playback source. Aside from echoing his related note to bump up the encoding rate when you rip music or download higher quality encoded music in …
Slate talks about the wonders of outboard DACs, I talk headphones Read MoreLast Minute Holiday Gift Guide
My Last Minute, Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide 2010 has been posted over at Slashgear.com and includes a Home Entertainment section.
Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide Read MoreKaleidescape Ships Blu-ray Server (Sort of)
First a bit of background: Kaleidescape is a high end media server vendor. They make boxes you have a custom installer put in one spot, which connect over a wired network to smaller boxes your installer connects to each TV and projector in your home. You – or your installer – copies all your DVDs onto the big box, and then you can watch all your movies anywhere in your home. Basically, it's Sonos for movies for rich people. How rich? Kaleidescape was actually the reason I instituted a policy not to review anything I could not reasonably afford. Years …
Kaleidescape Ships Blu-ray Server (Sort of) Read MoreBuy a Blu-ray Player. Now.
Philip Berne's latest Slashgear column provides a well argued view for buying a Blu-ray player despite the rise of downloadable and streaming content. Full disclosure: I also write columns for Slashgear. If you click on the link, I get… nothing. So I guess that's more of a plug than a disclosure.
Buy a Blu-ray Player. Now. Read More