Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD Blu-ray Player

Kris Deering

Without a doubt Pioneer represents the high end of the Blu-ray camp at this point. While we've seen Blu-ray players from several respectable hardware companies already, I don't think any of them carry the clout that Pioneer does with home theater enthusiasts like the Elite line. Pioneer Elite has a solid reputation when it comes to DVD playback and I was excited to finally have the opportunity to review one of their higher end Blu-ray players.

Blu-ray Players

A New Way to Plot Speaker Impedance: the Smith Chart

Chris Groppi

Impedance is the extension of the idea of electrical resistance to AC signals (like music). In high school, we all likely learned Ohm's law at some time or another. Whether we remember it or not is another story! Luckily, the refresher course is easy. Resistance is a way of relating voltage and current in a simple DC circuit.

Technical Reviews

APC S20 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup

Steve Smallcombe

When I was asked to review the APC S20, a power conditioner with battery backup, I didn’t fully appreciate how important or perfect this unit would be in controlling and protecting the gear in our Home Theater, but after using it for a few months, I now consider the APC S20 an essential part of our setup.

Power Conditioners

Integra DTC-9.8 THX Ultra2 7.1 SSP

Sandy Bird

The SSP (Surround Sound Processor) world has been a sad place for the last couple of years.  All the mass market companies were implementing HDMI on just about every model of receiver they had, but all the high-end SSP companies hesitated, because HDMI versions kept changing.

Processors