A Collection of New Vinyl Releases – September, 2009

Jason Crawford

When I think of Duke Ellington, I think of Big Bands and his "Live at Newport" album from 1956. I bought "Money Jungle" based on the album cover and the fact that it was released by Classic Records. The cover photo shows The Duke and drummer Max Roach commiserating at the piano while the formidable Charles Mingus looks on in the background with his bass. It's in black and white. The music is not.

Vinyl Music ReviewsVinyl Reviews

JL Audio Fathom F110 Subwoofer

Michael Jude Galvin

It would truly surprise me if anyone reading this review had not heard of JL Audio. Notwithstanding JL Audio's stellar reputation in the car audio world, its Fathom and Gotham series of subwoofers have set the home audio/video world on fire like few products in recent memory.

Subwoofers

Revel Concerta 5.1 Speaker System

Jim Milton

Revel is the upscale speaker division of Harman International, which includes Infinity, Harmon Kardon, JBL and Lexicon. Revel has been making speakers since 1996 and makes the Ultima2 (~ $26K/pair) and Performa series from which the Concerta gets its lineage. The chief designer of these speakers is Kevin Voecks who also has had a hand in developing speakers for Snell and Mirage. With an audio testing facility built by Harman International in California, all Revel speakers go through a rigorous testing process for voicing and timbral accuracy.

Surround Sound Speaker Systems

CEDIA 2009 Show Report

Cynthia Johnson

The SECRETS CEDIA 2009 Team is reporting in the CAVE.....do join us for all the latest news and pictures from the floor....We have a large team covering CEDIA 2009....Joining me are John, Editor in Chief, and Piero Gabucci, Adrian Wittenberg, Chris Eberle, Chris Heinonen, Jim Clements and Jim Milton.......This is our first photo upon arriving at CEDIA 2009.....and it does seem that there are fewer attendees this year than in previous years.

Jim Clements reports.....I really enjoyed the scale and spectacle of my first day at the 2009 CEDIA Expo. The Georgia World Congress Center is an excellent venue for this type of event. My mission is to track down and report on gear that might be assembled into affordable systems. This includes source components, receivers, satellite speakers, subwoofers and accesories.

Join us in the CAVE

Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts

Emotiva USP-1 Stereo Preamplifier

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Emotiva's new USP-1 stereo preamplifier, at $399, sets a new standard in performance in low priced components. Besides the standard full range outputs, this preamp offers a split output where you can adjust the low-pass frequency for one (which goes to your subwoofer) and the high-pass frequency for the other (which goes to your main power amplifier). This allows you to essentially bi-amplify, and with the low frequencies removed from the high-passed output, your power amplifier will run more efficiantly, not having to waste power on low frequencies that your speakers cannot reproduce. And, they toss in a phono stage that has both MC and MM settings. This may mark the beginning of phono stages being a standard part of stereo preamplifiers, rather than having to purchase an outboard phono stage. Long live LP's! Oh, there's a headphone jack too.

Preamplifiers

“Imagine” (NAD Blu-ray Player and Receiver, PSB Speakers)

Jim Clements

Welcome to the inaugural Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity system review! We are planning to publish a series of similar reviews to highlight system packages in the Low (up to $2,500 MSRP), Medium ($2,501 - $5,000 MSRP) and High (over $5,000 MSRP) price categories. The systems will all include a source component, receiver (or prepro and amp), speakers and sub (optional). We will also evaluate products in the burgeoning soundbar category. We will strive to select balanced systems that will offer the best value in their respective price ranges. These reviews will be focused on helping readers select turnkey systems for new installations or upgrades.

Surround Sound Speaker Systems

PSB SubSeries 6i Subwoofer

Jim Clements

The PSB Subseries 6i subwoofer is a very unassuming-looking product, albeit a little on the large size by today's standards. It has a single 12" driver in a ported enclosure. There are two ports that exit at the bottom front of the cabinet. The volume and crossover controls are mounted along the bottom of the front part of the cabinet as well. This arrangement allows the 6i to be mounted inside a cabinet.

Subwoofers

PSB Imagine B Bookshelf Speakers

Jim Clements

The Imagine speakers are PSB's newest speaker line. There are four models in this line – The Imagine T towers, the Imagine B bookshelf speakers, the Imagine C center speaker and the Imagine S surround speakers. I opted to review the Imagine B's for the mains versus the much more common towers for two reasons – first, this is the inaugural Secrets system review and the point is to review affordable system and the bookshelf speakers are somewhat less expensive than the towers and secondly, my system works better with bookshelf speakers.

Bookshelf Speakers

NAD T 747 AV Surround Sound Receiver

Jim Clements

The NAD T747 AV Surround Sound Receiver is a 7-channel two zone receiver that is capable of decoding bitstream inputs of all the latest high-resolution audio formats. I like its understated styling a la NAD. The minimalist front panel has a simple two-line VFD display in the center of the panel. The characters on this display are about 3/8" high. This is a major improvement over the super small logos that are commonly found in so many of today's receivers and processors.

Receivers

NAD T587 Blu-ray Disc Player – Benchmark

Jim Clements

The NAD T587 represents NAD's first foray into the Blu-ray arena. NAD started big by building the T587 to the Blu-ray Profile 2.0 spec. The T587 can also handle CD and DVD discs among other formats such as DiVX. It is not a universal player and will not spin DVD Audio or SACD discs. Its circuitry is based on the Broadcom decoder. A nice touch is that the player comes with auxiliary feet that closely resemble Vibrapods.  This player is reviewed as one of the Imagine Affordable System components.

Blu-ray Players