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Reviews

Emotiva ERT-8.3 Tower Speakers, ERM-6.3 Monitor, and ERD-1 Surround Speakers

Jim Clements

Emotiva has been recognized as a value/performance leader in amplifiers for quite some time. Recently, they have ventured into the speaker arena with several models. In this review, we cover the new ERT-8.3 Towers, ERM-6.3 Monitor (used as the center channel), and ERD-1 Surrounds. I enjoyed these speakers about as much as any I have ever had in my system. They are well-designed and solidly constructed. They represent an excellent value as well. Learn more about these exciting new speakers by clicking on the photo to read our review.

Surround Sound Speaker Systems

Pioneer BDP-09FD Elite Blu-ray Player – Benchmark

Chris Heinonen and Adrian Wittenberg

Many people have been waiting for Blu-ray players to hit the magic price point of $200, where people think mass adoption will start to take place and it will slowly overtake DVD as the dominant home video format. However, there's also another range of players that are starting to come out now, those of reference quality designs with virtually no expense spared. The BDP-09FD from Pioneer is their entry into that arena.

(Check out the video tour of the player's features at the bottom of Page 2.)

Blu-ray Players

ARE Audio Light Roast Speakers

Jared Rachwalski

ARE Audio consists of two East Coast Canadian childhood friends who have created interesting speakers with a twist. They currently produce two models, the bookshelf Light Roasts and a floor stander called the Grinder. These guys do more than just build speakers; they also customize the speakers to your taste.

Bookshelf Speakers

ButtKicker BK-Kit-4 Wireless Tactile Transducer

John E. Johnson, Jr.

ButtKicker has been making tactile transducers (shakers) for several years now. These are devices that make your chair, couch, or floor vibrate when low frequency material is playing. They were always very powerful, and in fact, more intense than many consumers wanted. You could always just turn down the volume, but then, you were paying for high power shaking that you were not using. So, ButtKicker decided to produce a shaker that is smaller, with less maximum shaking potential, and include a smaller amplifier. The BK-KIT-4 is the result.


Shakers

Denon AH-D7000 Headphones and Headroom Ultra Desktop Headphone Amplifier

Chris Groppi

My first "high end" system consisted of Sennheiser HD-580 headphones, an original HeadRoom headphone amplifier, an Audio Alchemy DAC in the Box, and a Sony Discman with an optical digital out. I was a college student at the time, and there was no way of having a real, properly set up hifi system in my dorm room. It was clear to me at the time, listening to both my system and uber high end Hifi in shops, that my little headphone setup blew away many high dollar loudspeaker based systems.

Headphone and Earphone Reviews

Dynaudio X16 Bookshelf Speakers

Tyler Stripko

The Excite is Danish manufacturer Dynaudio's second least expensive speaker line, comprised of five different models: two towers, two bookshelves, and one center channel. The X16 is the larger of the two bookshelf speakers, with a 1" hand-coated silk dome tweeter and a single 6.5" mid/woofer configured in a classic two-way ported design.

Bookshelf Speakers

ZVOX Z-Base 550 Surround Sound Solution (Sound Bar)

Jim Clements

ZVOX is an e-tailer based in New England. They currently manufacture and market seven different models of sound bars. Their products are available on-line direct from the manufacturer. All purchases carry a 30-day no-risk guarantee.The low profile Z-Base 550 is one of their products. It is designed to support a stand-mounted flat panel display. Will a compact 20-pound single box surround system prove worthy of recommendation?

Soundbars

Velodyne SC-600 In-Wall Subwoofer

Jim Milton

The name Velodyne is practically synonymous with subwoofers. They have been creating innovatively designed subs since the 1980's with such features as high gain servos, anti-clipping, dynamic driven control systems and digital drive accelerometers to produce high volume, low distortion sound. Their latest product is part of their SubContractor Series. The SC-600 IW and SC-600 amp are a smaller, more affordable version of their SC-1250 in-wall design. Does this sub live up to its slogan of "Cut, Plug and Play"? Can a subwoofer that is less than 4 inches deep produce powerful bass?

Subwoofers

Furman IT-Reference 20i Power Conditioner

Rick Schmidt

I've been suspicious of power conditioners ever since they first appeared – sometime in the Jurassic Park period I think. Just like the science in that movie is a little glossed over, so is the science of AC power glossed over by wild claims for power conditioning products.

Power Conditioners

Cadence CSX-15 Subwoofer

Richard Stevens

I remember building my first home theater system many moons ago. I can still feel the agonizing pain of shopping for a subwoofer. Of all the components in my system it was the one item I obsessed over the most. Being the newbie that I was I had two basic requirements, big and loud. Over the years as my tastes refined I started to care less about size and subwoofers that go "boom" and began to care more about detail, finesse and accuracy.

Subwoofers

Onkyo TX-SR606 7.1 A/V Receiver

Jim Milton

Onkyo has recently added a new line of receivers to its already long list of stellar audio/video equipment. The new TX-SR606 is the latest upgrade to the well reviewed TX-SR605.In one-upmanship, it has the added features of 4 HDMI (1.3) inputs and Audyssey 2EQ. SIRIUS and IPod docking are available, too. This is my first foray in using Audyssey and I was anxious to take it for a test drive in my upstairs, dedicated media room. MSRP is $599, which puts this receiver in the entry to mid range in price (though I have seen a street price as low as $399), and for the money, the 606 comes very well equipped!

Receivers

AV123 ELT 525 Surround Sound Speaker System

Secrets

To say I was excited about the prospect of reviewing AV123's new entry-level surround sound system is an understatement. For those that don't know, AV123 is one of many companies that sell loudspeakers from their website only. The drawback is that one cannot audition the speakers before you purchase them. However, these companies usually offer an “audition period” where you can listen to them in the comfort of your own home without any pressure to buy as the company will refund 100% of your payment (these particular speakers carry a 3 year warranty with a 30 day trial period

Surround Sound Speaker Systems

MK Sound M Series Speakers

Ross Jones

They're baaaaack! A long time ago (1973 to be exact), Walter Becker of Steely Dan asked Ken Kreisel to design a reference subwoofer suitable for mixing their Pretzel Logic album. For more than three decades, Miller & Kreisel was the name in speakers for music and motion picture studios. M & K also developed a tremendously loyal following in consumer audio, the MK 150 series speakers in particular creating fanatical devotion among owners.

Surround Sound Speaker Systems

Denon DVD-1800BD Blu-ray Player – Benchmark

Tyler Stripko and Adrian Wittenberg

The Denon DVD-1800BD is Denon's newest and least expensive Blu-ray player. For the $599 MSRP you get a Bonus View (profile 1.1) compliant player with HDMI 1.3a and component video outputs, bit-streaming (not decoding) of all the latest lossless surround formats, a front panel SD card memory slot for the playback of MP3 and JPG files, and full Divx and Windows Mediaâ„¢ Audio playback support.

Blu-ray Players