The Sountina Glass Speaker
Sony announced their six foot glass speaker Sountina NSA-PF1, which is designed for large rooms or halls. The system features a 50Hz to 20kHz frequency response, both analog and digital audio inputs, and is put together under an amber, blue or purple-lit organic glass tweeter that is three feet long. Read more
The Submersible Wireless Speaker
Summer, yard, Saturday, kids, pool, chicks, wet. The very familiar mini-party system that’s been going on for decades in an American family is now about to receive a complementary technology infusion. Read more
The Montegiro Lusso Turntable
The Montegiro Lusso turntable makes us think of the retro style, yet its characteristics are as modern as they could. The manufacturers used acrylic and aluminum to create the three height-adjustable cones it is made from. Read more
Goldmund Media Room Gets Another Teammate
This week I inherited $300,000. Very cool, huh? So, these days I was thinking what to do with this money and I decided to buy a speaker system. I found the perfect system at Goldmund but they won’t let me buy it because they will integrate it into the Goldmund Media Room. Darn, just when I was thinking of how would sound a $300,000 speaker setup. I guess you can’t have it all. Ok, so I was joking about my inheritance, but the Epilogue Speaker System really costs $300,000. These are things in life that are too expensive for my tastes.
Fill Your Wall With Hive Modular Speakers
Most of the people who are trying to buy a sound system are facing a problem – they can’t find suitable speakers that match the design of their interior. Now, Oskar Daniel came up with an interesting idea called Hive modular speakers which can be placed on the wall. Actually, the speakers can entirely fill up the wall with their pleasant modular shape.
The Hive needs only one cable which includes both the audio and the electricity. The modular speakers can be placed individually in order to provide a better surround system.
Plantronics Discovery 925 Looks Good, Sounds Better
Plantronics has just presented the unisex Plantronics Discovery® 925 Bluetooth® earpiece collection, last week at CTIA Wireless 2008 – Las Vegas, available in Onyx Black, Alchemy Gold and Cerise Pink. Along with the other stylish headsets collections, such as Voyager or Explorer, Plantronics Discovery 925 is a VFrameTM design masterpiece. But wait, this is not just another good looking expensive headset; it also includes Plantronics’ AudioIQ® noise reduction technology, which removes background noise. You can use it for 5 hours, based on its battery, and another 5 hours, based on the carrying case’s extra charge. Plantronics Discovery 925 will be available in Black Onyx model in April 2008 and in Alchemy Gold and Cerise Pink in May 2008, for the price of $149.99.
Mind-Reader Neckband Can Speak
As if Bluetooth technology wasn’t enough to ease the way to talk on mobile phones, Ambient Corporation of Dallas, Texas, came up with a special neckband able to sense and process the brain impulses to vocal cords, even when we don’t speak, but just think about speaking. The signals gathered by the neckband are sent to a computer, which converts them into words.
Initially designed for people with speaking disabilities, the high-tech necklace might be used in other circumstances, such as speaking loud or on the cell phone in a theatre or a church. Well, just think that an improved version of this necklace might be able to provide telepathic talking and in my opinion that offers endless possibilities…
Ferrari Released Pricy Super Speakers
Ferrari has just released a sound system, that’s probably world’s most expensive, being only 1,000 models available. The Ferarri Art.Engine features the same red paint job as the super cars and is very powerful, including an amplifier so i can be plugged in an iPod, MP3 player or computer. Also it can be connected to a PC or you can listen to Internet Radio via WiFi.
It’s four feet tall and has 16 speakers that produce a great power and quality, being as good as a Ferrari car, but it’s price is also proportional, costing $20,000.
via Dvice
Pagani Releases Luxury HiFi Sound System
The supercar producer Pagani, that became famous with it’s Zonda, has unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show a luxury sound system, made of carbon fiber and blushed aluminum. It’s bass speakers look like Zonda’s exhausts and produce a whopping 350watts.
Along with this sound system, Pagani has also unveiled two turntables, a power amp, stereo amp and a CD player. Everything looks and sounds great, excepting the price.
LG Chocolate HT972TR Home Theater System
We have seen LG go into Chocolate territory with their home theater products before, but now we really do have the new Chocolate HT972TR Home Theater system that looks like a gigantic LG Chocolate mobile phone. Hey, the LG Chocolate was the most successful mobile phone they ever launched and mainly because of how it looks and feels. It is only normal that they want to cash in even more on that so we have 4 vertical surround speakers that imitated the LG Chocolate mobile phone. The new Chocolate HT972TR Home Theater system is not just a try to look and feel like a mobile phone. The entire system also boasts higher than before features, but not that high.We have 1000 watts coming out of this baby, with the fours speakers getting 155 each and the sub receiving the remaining 255 watts. We also have HDMI port and the system handles DiVx video, JPEG images, can upscale DVDs to 1080p video resolutions and also looks like Chocolate. The LG Chocolate HT972TR Home Theater system will appear in South Korea and there is still no detail available that hints at an US launch. It still is a pretty interesting system to have at home but not that special though. It just mimics the mobile phone and this is the biggest modification we found.
NetStreams CinemaLinX IP Home Entertainment
NetStreams is a company that is well known for their IP-based video and audio distribution systems and now they just showed off what was tagged as “the world’s first IP home theater”. The NetStreams DigiLinx IP-based video distribution system made a debut at CEDIA last year and is currently selling. When it comes to audio, the company made a partnership with Polk Audio. This made it possible for the creation of IP speakers that is based on NetStreams’ StreamNet technology. All of this is now topped with the introduction of CinemaLinX surround-sound receiver.
The CinemaLinX receiver will take in DTS or Dolby surround signals and transform them in IP packets that can be delivered on an IP network. IP speakers will then connect to a home network and take in the sent streams. You even have the possibility of streaming one channel to any particular peaker. This is achievable through StreamNet networking technology. It actually synchronizes video and audio streams in a network. Many would think about possible latency but according to NetStreams this is reduced to 1 millisecond. Such a delay would mean that the echo effect disappears.
The question at hand is why use IP technology in a home entertainment surrounding. The answer stands in the fact that the technology used makes everything tweakable. For instance, you can use the Polk LC265IP in-wall speakers in combination with CinamaLinX. In this connection you will find that EQ calibrations are done at the speakers rather then in the device sending the signal. This automatic sound equalizing makes it possible for the speakers to be positioned anywhere in a room and still deliver a very high quality surround experience. The digital amplifiers that are present will create no degradation when converting from analog to digital.
NetStreams will demonstrate the system in their Sound Room at CEDIA. Two different home theater environments will be shown, one traditional and the new IP based one, and the company claims the digital demonstration will be much superior.
Yamaha’s Home Theatre Alternative
The Yamaha YSP-800 sound projector is a great compromise if you hate wires and own a small apartment. When compared to a home theater system you can expect it to fail in tests but what is surprising is the high sound quality and how well the 23 sound beam drivers can create a good sound experience.Yamaha enjoyed success with the device and decided to launch a new model, the YSP-4000/YSP-3000 and they will feature new features and options that are not available with the previous model. The YSP-4000 has forty sound beam drivers and two midbass speakers. The YSP-3000 has just 21 beam drivers. Both sound projectors can recreate DTS Neo:6, DTS, Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic II. We can also see the added HDMI pass throughs and analog 720p/1080i upscaling to 1080p. This makes a great connection if you combine the sound projectors with a capable HD monitor.
When it comes to compatibility, the two models are XM Satellite Radio and iPod ready and feature 2 HMDI output/inputs together with an integrated FM tuner. These devices offer many features in compact packages and this explains the big results on the market. They are perfect for small apartments. The YSP-4000 will be available for purchase in October at $1799 and the YSP-3000 model will be available soon for $1195. Just in case you are wondering, the YSP-900 costs around $900, depending on seller.
Cerwin-Vega CVHD 5.1 Surround System Review
Cerwin-Vega was a very big name when talking about speakers in the 1970s. Now only few people know about the company and this is sure to change as Cerwin-Vega is back on the scope. The fact is they never actually disappeared but focused on something else. There are a lot of individuals that now have car audio systems signed by them or have used their gadgets in movie theatres or clubs. Cerwin-Vega is now ready to step back in the speaker system game with their CVHD 5.1 series. At first look it is very impressive and supports impressive sound quality and low prices that can attract customers. Let us put it to the test on our review bench!
The Cerwin-Vega 5.1 6 piece subwoofer/satellite system first surprises through the five satellite speakers because they are identical. This guarantees a near perfect surround imaging and eventually guarantees that the system supports power and delivers a high quality home theater dynamics mixed with low distortion. Each of the satellites measures 22.5 inches in height, 5 inches wide and 5 inches deep. This makes them smaller than some speakers and bigger than others so not too bad.
Design wise we can see one problem. Floor stands are not included and need to be purchased separately. Unfortunately they are not that expensive as a complete kit for all of the speakers ranges around $185-$250. Cerwin-Vega does not offer a table stand and you are left with either wall mounting the speakers or investing in floor stands. The speakers can not stand on their one because of poor design.
Talking about performance we can say: “Big Bassâ€. We really have a bodybuilder of a subwoofer here and the best thing is that the satellite speakers also have the power to keep up. The surround experience was pretty high and unexpected. We had the feeling of testing a much bigger sound system when we watched some DVDs and an emphasis on every recorded sound was clearly seen. The “Requiem for a Dream†soundtrack never sounded as good before as with the CVHD. CD playback was simply awesome and the acoustic guitar sounded so clear that it seemed near us. The subwoofer and satellites work well together and distortion is so low that when we raised the volume music sounded even better. You can clearly see why Cerwin-Vega is known as the “Loud speaker companyâ€.In conclusion, the Cerwin-Vega CVHD 5.1 is a tremendous system that is worth its money ($1000) but it would be even better if we didn’t have to buy extra floor stands or similar accessories. Maybe a higher price but some better design or mounting facilities would have added to overall satisfaction. The surround system is highly recommended for everybody, especially for those that love deep bass.
Sony DAV-HDX500 Review
Sony’s 2207 Bravia home theatre in a box (HTIB), DAV-HDX500, is something new on the market, stepping away from Sony’s classic Dream systems. It comes with a compact head unit that can combine with an AV receiver and a five disc DVD changer together with a 5.1 audio system. It presents a generic design but with a twist because of the black plastic that makes it classy in a world of silver. Previous models were very noisy but with the DAV-HDX500 we are pleased to announce that this part is quite fixed. The HTIB model weighs 11.5 pounds and measures around 3.5X17X17.25 inches. There is even a glow in the dark remote and the box’s button organization layout makes it very easy to find what you are looking for.The Dav-HDX500 does not offer any treble or bass tone controls and access to the subwoofer volume level is difficult. This was a problem with all of Sony’s HDTIBs and it does not change now. On the upper hand we are pleased to see each of the 5 satellites having a maximum of 143 watts and a subwoofer that offers 285 watts. We can also notice a varied jack pack. The only thing that might be needed and is not present stands in the lack of audio outputs.
A good video feature is the possibility of up scaling DVDs to 720p and 1080i resolutions. You can not compare this with the quality of a Blu-Ray disk or of a HD DVD but it sure comes close and can make regular DVDs look better on HDTVs. Switching resolutions is a button away so easiness in DVD and CD playback has reached an acceptable level.Audio performance is high with the DAV-HDX500. Every DVD used in our tests was handled very well. Even concerts had a very good audio output. Unfortunately not the same can be said for every audio CD we did listen to. By cranking up the volume on some popular rock tracks we saw that the speakers started to sound a little hollow and combined with a going down quality of bass. Acoustic CDs on the other hand sounded incredibly good and Pink Floyd’s Aqualung track was a delight to listen to.
To conclude the review of the DAV-HDX500 we can sum it up as a HTIB that is perfect for home theatre oriented users. When it comes to music orientation we can not say the same thing. An Onkyo HT-SR800 is a lot better but this model does not have a DVD player on the stand-mounted front speakers although the overall sound quality is better. The Sony DAV-HDX500 is a great device but if you do not buy it to watch movie DVDs you will be disappointed. If you do use it for movies you will be thrilled.
Creative GigaWorks S750
The chase of more and more audio channels in audio systems leads to 7.1. This is supposed to be very good for gamers or film fans. There are seven sealed, wall-mountable satellites are two-way units, with a 3.5-inch polymer midrange driver and a 1-inch titanium tweeter. The spring clips make the attaching of the cables to the GigaWorks S750’s satellites in a strange but good way.
If you want to listen to music, it can be very good for you. But if you want to listen to music very loud, it may not be the best thing. If you want to play games, things change and this is for sure a good choice. Same thing if you’re a movie fan, because the center speaker delivered dialogue clearly, striking a good balance between brightness and smoothness but in a clear way that doesn’t hurt your ears.
 
The subwoofer sounds respectably but it doesn’t reach very high quality; expanding the ambient soundfield makes you feel like you are in the middle of the action but it doesn’t have some significant benefits.
It also has two-way satellites and control pod and remote control but all that wiring may be a problem. Price is $412.99.