Archive for the ‘Hardware Reviews’ Category
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2010
Last year it was my pronounced pleasure to receive and review Oppo’s first entry into the Blu-ray player market. The company was already known for quality DVD, particularly Upconvert DVD, players. The BDP-83 was everything I expected from the company, and much more. But there was one possible trouble with that unit. It was not intended to be an entry level machine, so that cost was a bit prohibitive for many of you thinking about getting your first Blu-ray player. It carried a hefty price tag, but was well worth the cost.
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Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 8th, 2009
Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many hardware reviews. When I first heard that Oppo Digital was breaking into the Blu-ray player market with their new model BDP-83 I was immediately intrigued. The company had almost singlehandedly set the standard for upconvert DVD players just a short time ago. To say I was eager to get my hands on one of these units was an understatement.
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Hardware Reviews by Jeremy Frost on May 30th, 2007
Oppo digital, while not owning the same strong name recognition as the major electronic players (Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc.), are starting to make quite a name for themselves. They are doing so by producing reasonably priced up-scaling DVD players that perform very well – even when up against units priced 2-3 times higher.
Continuing their product line growth, Oppo has now added their first 1080p Up-converting Universal DVD player to their lineup – the DV-981HD.
Appearance and build qual…
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Hardware Reviews by Jeremy Frost on May 3rd, 2007
With the growing popularity and commonality of Home Theaters, many people are now looking to expand their audio/video experience to include a third dimension – that of motion. To achieve this new dimension, tactile transducers (also known as bass shakers) have been developed to add this much desired motion to the home theater experience. These seat mounted shakers take the .1 LFE channel from home entertainment audio tracks, and transform it into a non-audible rumble… making you actually feel the films action.
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Hardware Reviews by Rod on April 12th, 2007
Aperion 4-Series: Part One
Aperion Audio 4 Series: 422 Harmony HD, inlcuding:
- 6x 422-LR satellites
- 1x S10 10 inch powered subwoofer, 100 Watts
- 1x 422-C Center Channel
First off, let me preface this review with the declaration that I am woefully new to speaker reviews, and know little of the art or science of speaker design. On one hand, that makes me under-qualified to do an in-depth speaker review, as I won’t be commenting on impedence levels, p…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on May 22nd, 2006
Have you ever given any thought to the influence that dirty power has on the output quality of your home theater system? How does it negatively affect the picture and sound quality of all that gear that you bought to be able to better enjoy your movies? We spend money on new TV’s, higher end DVD players and lets not forget cables, sometimes the cables are worth more then the new piece of gear we just bought. Well the guys (and girls) at Monster Cable have spent some time thinking about it and maybe it’s time we all d…
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Hardware Reviews by Jeremy Frost on May 10th, 2006
Carada Screens is a rather new entrant into the Home Theater projection screen market – a market that is pretty much dominated by the two industry leaders – Da-Lite and Stewart Firehawk. Carada may not have the same industry clout and brand recognition as these two powerhouses, but they add one key differentiation point – value. Not to say people will not find Da-Lite and Stewart Firehawk to be of good value, but the cost associated with getting a on of these products will be felt in the pocketbook.
Ca…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on April 11th, 2004
Introduction
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Harman/Kardon name they are one of the preeminent audio manufacturers. The company is owned by Harman International who also owns well known brand such as JBL and Infinity as well as ultra high-end brands Mark Levinson, Lexicon and Revel (never mind the professional audio companies that they own as well). As a matter of fact any time you watch a movie or listen to a CD at one point in time a Harman company product was used in the production of i…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on March 3rd, 2004
Introduction
River Cables is another one of the new breed of online only, high quality lower cost cable manufacturers that have started popping up over the last few years. A huge difference between River Cables and the other guys is that they are the only company to individually certify all of their cables before they ship them out and they even include nifty “birth certificates”, pretty cool. Lets not also forget that they offer a 30 day Home Trial, if you are not happy with the product then send it…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on February 11th, 2004
Introduction
Harman/kardon is one of the preeminent audio brands in the world and with the brands that the parent company Harman Int. it is an absolutely juggernaut in the audio world. Having said that they have never really been known for making video gear (Lexicon, one of the Harman group companies make some ridiculously good gear with a huge emphasis on video performance). This DVD player can be purchased separately or comes in the Harman/kardon DPR System One with the DPR1001 receiver.
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on November 7th, 2003
Introduction
Jamo is the second largest speaker manufacturer in the world, and is certainly number one in Europe. In North America they remain a somewhat unknown brand but have been gaining in recognition over the last few years. If you have a look at their website their product offering is very broad with stylish Lifestyle speaker designs all the way up to the mega-buck audiophile grade (a couple of friends of mine own the D8 towers and I can say with confidence that they are stunning).
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on November 4th, 2003
Introduction
Jamo’s product offerings are very broad with stylish Lifestyle speaker designs all the way up to the mega-buck audiophile grade (a couple of friends of mine own the D8 towers and I can say with confidence that they are stunning). This speaker system is the entry level product in their lifestyle range so these products are designed to look as good as they sound.
Features and Build
The first thing you will notice about these speakers are that they don’t really …
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on October 15th, 2003
Introduction
Interconnect cables are an often overlooked part of most peoples audio components but can often have just as much effect on your overall sound quality as the components you buy. Home theater and audio enthusiast seem to fall into two categories when it comes to cables, the first one being that as long as it is better then what came in the box and it did not cost me an inordinate amount of money then that is perfect. The other camp treats them like jewelry, the more expensive, cooler sou…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on October 15th, 2003
Introduction
Power cables on some home audio components are replaceable so cable manufacturers have started to produce replacement power cords of superior quality to the OEM units. Bettercables.com is a Virginia based on-line only mid to high end cable manufacturer that makes cables to try and appeal everyone. They are backed with good technology, high-end looks and are very reasonably priced (in comparison to some other high-end prestige brands).
Features and Build
The PO…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on October 15th, 2003
Introduction
Zu Cable are an online retailer of mid to high end audio cable and speakers systems. The Varial audio cable is their top-of-the-line audio interconnect. When you start looking around at high-end audio cables you suddenly discover that you can easily spend more money on cables then your entire system is worth but, cables are important and should be treated like another component of your system and not just an afterthought. The owners and designers at Zu have worked for some of the highest…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on October 15th, 2003
Introduction
Zu is a relative newcomer to the audio industry, launched at the 2000 CES in Las Vegas and based out of Ogden Utah. The owners, designers and engineers for Zu have worked in the audio industry since the mid 1990’s for such high-end manufacturers as Kimber Cable, Talon Audio and Wasatch Cable Works. They have a number of proprietary technologies that are trade secrets and their products are mainly available on-line which helps to provide the end user with a higher quality product at a low…
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on October 15th, 2003
Audiophiles maintain that digital coaxial cables will always sound better then optical cables as optical cables are not a perfect connection. Well I don’t know that I agree with this my first experience with this was hooking up one of the first outboard Dolby Digital processor, when we listened to it there was this strange static spark sound that we got every so often when using the coaxial connection, we tried different cables to no avail and then tried another unit with the same result (we even tried a different brand), used an optical cable and problem solved.
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Hardware Reviews by Kevin Hartle on October 15th, 2003
Introduction
Video cables, like audio cable, can have a huge impact on the performance of your system. A lot of people tend to overlook this and simply use the supplied cables with their equipment, which is a shame as those cables are nothing more then an after thought. Replacing your video cables with higher quality ones are literally like getting an upgraded piece of equipment for a small investment. Bettercables.com are well know for producing some of the best video cables out there at a fraction …
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