Wireless HDMI Round Up

Chris Heinonen

Now that our TVs are thin enough we often want to hang them on a wall, and manufacturers keep pushing the limits of thickness year after year. CES this year saw the advent of OLED TVs that are just millimeters thick as they no longer need backlighting systems, and serve double duty as a cheese slicer with their razor-thin profiles.

Wireless

Accell UltraCat HD HDMI Extender

Sumit Chawla, Ph.D.

During CEDIA 2011, one technology that caught my attention was HDBaseT. It provided a solution to the all too familiar cable clutter problem. Below is a picture that I took at their booth which shows a set of cables whose signals could all be transmitted over a single Cat5e/6 cable at distances up to 100m.

Wireless

IOGear

Secrets
IOGEAR headquartered in Foothill Ranch, CA, offers innovative Consumer Electronics and IT solutions that enable convergence through connectivity in the home...
AV Directory

Belkin

Secrets
Belkin International, Inc., offers an extensive range of innovations designed to give computer and consumer electronics users seamless integration in their homes, cars...
AV Directory

DVDO

Secrets
DVDO offers the ultimate in HD Freedom. DVDO's video processors give you the ultimate in video processing...
AV Directory

Velodyne vPulse In-Ear Headphones (Earbuds)

John E. Johnson, Jr.

With the prevalence of portable music players to the point that you must be from Mars if you don't own one, there is a huge aftermarket for high quality earphones (headphones is the category, with over-the-ear headphones, on-ear-headphones, in-ear headphones, in-ear-earphones, and in-ear earbuds being the specific type of headphone one is referring to). Velodyne, renown manufacturer of subwoofers, not to be left out of this trend, has released a set of in-ear headphones called the vPulse....and best of all, they sound like Velodyne all the way . . . a.k.a. very, very good.

Headphone and Earphone Reviews

Anthem P2 Two-Channel Power Amplifier

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Anthem's statement multi-channel power amplifiers are called the P series. They come in two versions, a five-channel (P5) and a two-channel (P2). My home theater test lab has a 200 watt x 5 amplifier which works great for the majority of applications, but it is driving electrostatic speakers (ESLs), and for a handful of Blu-ray movies, the amplifier will go into protect mode when at high volume, because ESLs typically have a very low impedance (1 ohm) in the high frequency range.

Power Amplifiers

Rein Audio X-DAC with USB Input

John E. Johnson, Jr.

USB DACs are hot items now because you can play music from your computer through them and into a set of headphones or to your main hi-fi rig. Some of these DACs only have a USB input, (no S/PDIF inputs) because their main purpose is for use with a computer. Of course, all computers come with audio ciruitry on the motherboard, and if you have a sound card installed in one of the PC card slots, it may very well have an S/PDIF output. However, their quality is often questionable due to the typically low cost of the sound card. Rein Audio, a German manufacturer, makes the X-DAC, which is a 24/192 DAC with both coaxial and Toslink optical S/PDIF inputs, but also, it has a USB input (24/96) to be used with your computer, giving you better sound quality than you would get from your computer's audio circuit.

DACs

ZVOX Zbase 555 Speaker System to Place Under Your Flat Panel HDTV Pedestal

Jim Milton

So here is the problem. Actually, there are two problems. Problem one: the new HDTV flat panels are getting thinner and thinner. The speakers inside those panels are also getting thinner and thinner. The sound from those speakers…well...

ZVox comes to the rescue with a powered speaker system that sits underneath the pedestal of your flat panel HDTV. Called the Zbase 555, it retails for only $399.

Center Channel Speakers

Accell

Secrets
The expansion of commercial and home theater audio and video systems are driving the need for enhanced connectivity and distribution solutions.
AV Directory

PSB Imagine mini-Monitors

Piero Gabucci

For the audiophile world to take seriously a small bookshelf speaker, let alone a "mini"-monitor there has to be some significant backing and/or history. Much has been said and written about the NRC, or National Research Council located in Ottawa, Canada.

Bookshelf Speakers

Spin-Clean

Secrets
The Spin-Clean story began in Chicago around 1974 when Fidelitone Inc., a manufacturer that sold record needles and other record accessories to retailers...
AV Directory

Integra DTR-80.3 9.2 A/V Receiver

Robert Kozel

The Integra name always makes my short list of leading companies in the receiver and processor market space. While Integra is a premium manufacturer of high-end A/V equipment catering to custom A/V installers, their products offer a great mix of leading-edge technology along with outstanding performance at an attainable price. At CEDIA 2011 this past September, Integra introduced their latest product updates, including the flagship DTR-80.3 receiver, which I cover in this review.

Receivers