GoldenEar Technology Aon2 Bookshelf Speakers

Chris Heinonen

As GoldenEar president Sandy Gross says, his desire is to take the sound he manages to get from far more expensive speakers, and engineer that into his own products at a much lower price. With his Triton line of towers he has certainly succeeded, but how good could he really make a $400 bookshelf speaker? They sure sounded good when I heard them at the CEDIA Expo, but those shows are never an environment in which to make any final declarations. With a pair in hand, I was ready to find out.

Bookshelf Speakers

JVC X55 Three-Chip D-ILA Projector

Chris Heinonen

With their updated e-shift technology, a full-featured CMS, and black levels that are untouched by other projector manufacturers, the new JVC X55 projector is capable of some truly stunning images. The kind of images that will likely have you painting that room, covering the carpet up with a dark rug, and putting electrical tape over the LEDs on your system components to prevent any little thing from entering the room to distract from its performance.

Projectors

Pro-Ject Xtension 10 Superpack Turntable System

Jim Clements

This beautiful turntable from Pro-Ject Audio Systems is dubbed the Xtension 10. This new model is a smaller version of the highly acclaimed Xtension 12. Pro-Ject retained most of the design features of the Xtension 12 to include a built-in precision speed control, a balanced sandwich platter, adjustable magnetic feet and a precision inverted ceramic main bearing. The over-designed Xtension 10 weighs in at a healthy 48-1/2 lbs net! It comes with a heavy record clamp and acrylic dust cover included.

TurntablesTurntables

Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5020UBE 3D LCD Projector

Chris Eberle

Recently I reviewed Epson's new Home Cinema 3020e projector and found it to be a tremendous value in the under $2000 class. It offers killer 3D, wireless HDMI, and superb image for less than the price of a 60-inch TV. It was only natural that I should also check out its big brother, the Home Cinema 5020UBE.

Projectors

A Collection of New Vinyl for the Audiophile – June, 2013

Jason Crawford

Big Jack White was ambassador for this year's Record Store Day.  I don't know what that means except that he had a video of some sort that I never watched on the official RSD website.  I think the word's pretty much out about this guy by now.  He likes analog.  In fact, there's a note in the Elephant liners explaining that "No computers were used during the writing, recording, mixing or mastering of this record."  And Elephant is why we're here.  The White Stripes classic was reissued for RSD on double vinyl.  Double crazy super vinyl, that is.  I'll try my best to explain...

 

Vinyl Music ReviewsVinyl Reviews

Surround Sound Systems: 5.1 or 7.1?

Jared Rachwalski

I'm going to be in the market for my first surround sound system. I was wondering if you know if what I'm looking for exists. I'm looking for a surround sound system that can be expanded to more speakers. Like a system that is a 5.1 surround that has ports to add an additional two speakers to make it a 7.1 surround. A kind of modular surround sound system. I'd love to get the 7.1 right away but if I can save some money right away with a 5.1 and maybe in 6 months or so add a couple speakers that would be the best.

- Bill Russell
Bismarck, ND

SECRETS Home Theater Q&A

Dune HD – Base3D and TV-303D High Definition Media Streamers

Ofer LaOr

Streamers have been around for quite a few years. It took them quite a while to reach maturity. When this field was at its infancy, HD was just starting to get popular and Streamers offered a way to play back a DIVX or TS file without requiring a Home Theater PC in your living room. The beginning was very slow and tedious, early streamers were buggy and often had serious image, sound and build quality issues. Typically, you had to place your content in a hard drive inside the unit, or even burn a DVD containing your desired content - not exactly something that most people are prone to do.

HDTV