A Home Theater Build Project – Part I

Mark Vignola

We all have a spare room. Well, many of us do. And those of us bitten by the A/V bug often dream about what we would do with that room. I have such a room, and six years ago embarked on a wild odyssey to build a dedicated A/V room from scratch. How could someone with limited construction skills, moderate budget, and even more limited tool selection, go about making a clean, professional looking dedicated home theater?

Custom Home Theaters

Harman Kardon and Definitive Technology

Jim Clements

This is a complete 5.1surround sound system. The front end is the new Harman/Kardon BDP1 Blu-Ray player. The Harman/Kardon receiver is also a new model, the AVR 3600. The speaker package is the Definitive Technology ProCinema 800. These products are not typically discounted, so the anticipated system price comes in just under $2,700. This places the system just over the threshold we've established for "Mid Priced" systems which we have defined as systems with a street price between $2,500 and $5,000.

Bookshelf Speakers

Legacy Studio HD Monitor Speakers

Jim Milton

Legacy Audio has been making speakers amongst the cornfields in Springfield, IL for over 20 years. Bill Dudleston (president and founder) and Doug Brown (VP) gave me a tour of their facility last summer which allowed me to see first hand how their speakers are assembled, tested, tuned and shipped. Legacy has many models to choose from, including floor-standing speakers such as the Whisper, and the Studio HD Monitors, which are reviewed here.

Bookshelf Speakers

Telluride Film Festival 2010

Rick Schmidt and Ray Keller(Photos)

Passes were nearly sold out at this year's festival but getting around and getting into movies seemed a quite a bit easier than in past years. This might have been dumb luck or it might have been that a bunch of people were trying to see James Franco in person at screenings of 127 Hours. Usually we get five movies per day...don't miss the Telluride presentation about the past and present of 3D.

Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts

Monster Turbine High Performance Ear Buds

Steven Hornbrook

Monster, long time suppliers of speaker cables, interconnects and power conditioning products, has recently entered into the portable audio market. They now offer a full range of products from the Dr. Dre branded Beats headphones all the way up to the professional Turbine Copper Pro ear buds. I had the pleasure of checking out their middle-of-the-line offering, the Monster Turbine High Performance ear buds. (Monster calls them "In-Ear Speaker".)

Headphone and Earphone Reviews

Manley Stingray iTube Stereo Integrated Amplifier

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Manley Labs designs and manufactures tube components. With the Stingray iTube, you can now plug your iPod directly into a dock on an integrated tube amplifier.The iTube can be switched between triode mode and ultralinear mode, giving you a choice in how much output the amplifier will deliver. It comes with a very unique remote control that you would only expect from Manley.

Integrated Amplifiers

Earthquake Sound Cinenova Grande Multi-Channel Power Amplifier with Class A Bias

John E. Johnson, Jr.

We reviewed the Earthquake Sound Cinénova Grande multi-channel amplifier several years ago, but it has gone through some changes in the circuitry, including significantly higher output, so we thought it was time to revisit this legendary product. It is available with up to seven amplifier modules, each capable of delivering 360 watts RMS into 8 ohms. Our review unit came with five modules.

Power Amplifiers

High Definition Music Album Downloads for the Audiophile – October, 2010

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Sales of high definition (high resolution, or "high rez") music on discs has floundered, and producers are in a difficult bind because it is expensive to master them, and with profits on low sales being low, they are looking for a different outlet. Well, downloading high rez music is the answer. The music studios, as well as independent musicians, can simply transfer the original high resolution masters (usually 24/88.2 or 24/96) to websites that specialize in selling music by download. The high rez disc does not have to be created, packaged, or distributed by the studio. It costs them nothing to put the music on a website store. The consumer downloads the music and burns it to a disc or plays it from a computer. The reviews here represent our first set of high resolution albums that were downloaded and burned to DVD-A. Most are 24/88, but one is 24/96, and another is 24/44.1. I burned them all to DVD+R media and listened to them with an OPPO BDP-83/NuForce universal player, Lamm LL1 preamplifier, McIntosh MC1201 power amplifiers, and Carver Mark IV ribbon speakers.

CD Music Reviews

CEDIA 2010 Show Coverage from Atlanta

The SECRETS Team

CEDIA 2010 is underway in Atlanta.......The SECRETS Team has arrived and is reporting......with continuous coverage from the floor over the next few days.  The Secrets Team.....Piero Gabucci, Chris Eberle, Jim Milton, Chris Heinonen, Jim Clements and Mark Vignola....... will be attending numerous press conferences and booth tours over the next few days. Check out the reports, pictures and videos from the team and check back often for updates.  John and Cynthia are attending as well....check out John's CEDIA summary early next week!!  Reports are live from Jim Milton, Jim Clements, Chris Heinonen and Chris Eberle!  Piero, is that an iPad??

Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts
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THE CEDIA 2010 3-D STADIUM

Secrets

THE CEDIA 2010 3-D STADIUM September 19, 2010 Boca Raton, FL , Mount Sinai, NY and Miami, FL. SMX CINEMA SOLUTIONS, CINEPRO MUSIC AND CINEMA SYSTEMS, and CINE...

Press