June 2005 - Posts

• Sam Fuller's The Big Red One; The Reconstruction

  When even a competent film director gets to make a movie based on personal experiences of historic events a great film is often the result. Oliver Stone made Platoon based on his own experience ‘coming of age’ in the hell of Vietnam where Read More... Posted Wednesday, June 29, 2005 10:14 AM by | 0 Comments Filed under: DVD Review

• Power Conditioners

  Here's what I've had to say about power conditioners/expensive surge suppressors in the past, it’s still generally good advice. These days at every electronics superstore in North America you can find Monster Cable peddling surge suppressors that Read More... Posted Sunday, June 26, 2005 8:36 PM by | 0 Comments Filed under: Tech Advice

• NHT ST-4 look as refined as they sound

  NHT is a small speaker company out of California that has been making moderately priced high-end speaker equipment since 1987. NHT stands for ‘Now Hear This’ and people tend to comment on the bold name when they first hear about NHT concluding Read More... Posted Thursday, June 23, 2005 7:46 AM by | 0 Comments Filed under: Product Reviews

• Enemy Of Progress

  What’s disturbing about the CRTCs slow approval of Satellite Radio in Canada is the mindset of a group dedicated to standing in the way of these kinds of telecommunications technologies ostensibly for “cultural” reasons. Friends of Canadian Read More... Posted Sunday, June 19, 2005 11:32 AM by | 0 Comments Filed under: Editorial

• Satellite radio finally approved for Canada

  The lumbering wheels of the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) finally got around to approving satellite radio in Canada last Thursday. You know Satellite Radio; that groundbreaking concept in add free digital radio beamed Read More... Posted Sunday, June 19, 2005 8:24 AM by | 0 Comments Filed under: News

• Car Theater; you must be Sirius!

  Sirius, the alternative satellite radio company has been working overtime to topple it’s competitor XM with controversial celebrity endorsements as well as a new video service. If Howard Stern jumping over to Sirius to produce his own uncensored Read More... Posted Wednesday, June 15, 2005 9:54 PM by | 0 Comments Filed under: News

• Arcam AVR receivers, a spartan luxury

  Arcam is a British audio manufacturer who specializes in high end and rather pricey CD/DVD players, receivers, surround processors, amplifiers and pre-amps. Arcam’s DVD players are particularly noteworthy as some of the best DVD players available Read More... Posted Tuesday, June 14, 2005 8:35 AM by | 0 Comments Filed under: Product Reviews

• On Amplifiers

  The purpose of this entry is to set the ground work for future receiver and amp reviews. I’ll probably find an excuse to link to this one. As noted in my last entry the hi-fi industry has long been a playground for pseudo-science and subjective Read More... Posted Sunday, June 12, 2005 9:41 AM by | 0 Comments Filed under: Editorial

• Subjectivist/Objectivist hi-fi

  There is a long standing conflict between two schools of thought in the hi-fi world, objectivist vs subjective. The war has always existed but today the battle rages over the Home Theater market that has brought new inexpensive digital technologies to Read More... Posted Saturday, June 11, 2005 10:17 PM by | 13 Comments Filed under: Editorial

• Bass Management; bitstream/pcm

  Bass management problems include trying to get your CD player to use your sub, or having way too much bass coming out of your dainty rear speakers when you use DVD-Audio or SACD driving them to Hades. If your main media player is a DVD player, be sure Read More... Posted Thursday, June 09, 2005 10:15 PM by | 0 Comments Filed under: Tech Advice

• Lifespan of your iPod

  The Achilles heel of the iPod is decidedly its battery. This “ public service announcement ” about the iPod battery failure has been circulating since the first generation iPod’s hit the market. It’s a grim warning for consumers Read More... Posted Wednesday, June 08, 2005 7:07 PM by | 1 Comments Filed under: News

• Stacking Components

  I get asked some good questions in the forums and this one deserves some elaboration. To paraphrase: Is there a proper stacking order for hi-fi components you have lay on top of each other? Someone that has never owned a component hi-fi system before, Read More... Posted Monday, June 06, 2005 8:49 PM by | 15 Comments Filed under: Tech Advice

• The Future of Home Theater Gaming

  There is a lot of talk about gaming eventually becoming a dominant part of the future of Home Theater . The interactive storytelling paradigm and digital technologies found in console and computer games today coupled with the grand scale of the latest Read More... Posted Sunday, June 05, 2005 12:29 AM by | 0 Comments Filed under: Editorial