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Reviews

Eggleston Works The Nine Floor-standing Speakers

Jason Victor Serinus

Sometimes a disappointing start can lead to a glorious finish. Such has been my experience with Eggleston Works' The Nine, a beautiful loudspeaker that more than deserves the copious amounts of praise it is receiving here and abroad. I have spent a long time – far too long, with The Nines. I have done so for purely selfish reasons. I have grown quite fond of these babies, and will be sad to see them go. But other speakers are on their way, and there's only so much room at the Inn.

Floor Standing Speakers

mStation 2.1 iPod Dock Amplified Tower Speaker System

Jared Rachwalski

The mStation 2.1 tower is an all in one solution for taking your iPod music out of your ears and into your room. The tower consists of one down firing 5.25" woofer, and two speaker modules with 2 – 2" midrange and 1 – 1" tweeter per speaker. There is a docking station a USB port and a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo miniplug jack. All in a four foot tall, 14" wide aluminum tower.

Portable Audio

Nordost Thor Power Distribution Center

Jason Victor Serinus

Nordost's new power distribution center is called the Thor. In my system, it took music reproduction to an entirely different level. Within minutes, I felt that everything I had heard before was merely play-acting. What changed? Images that had previously floated in their correct little spaces in that classic, somewhat disembodied "audiophile way" now seemed to hold together in a far more realistic manner. They weren't simply arranged or staged; they belonged together.

Power Conditioners

JL Audio Fathom f112 Subwoofer

Colin Miller

"Seriously, thanks. I haven't had anything this refreshing from audio equipment since a long, long time. This is the kind of $#^+ that makes me want to believe again. As sincerely as a junkie can get."

Subwoofers

Classe CDP-502 DVD Player

Adrian Wittenberg

For a player as expensive as it is, the Classé CDP-502 could stand for some improvement in its core video performance.  Its de-interlacer performance is very good though, and the National Semiconductor AVC 2510 chip set handles most material very well, as there were really only a few minor hiccups it experienced in our DVD Player Benchmark™ tests. It would be hard for me to recommend this DVD player based on its video performance alone, but people in the market for a player in this price class will undoubtedly be looking at it for its ultra high-end audio performance. That, combined with a robust video feature set and the ability to up-convert any material to various HD resolutions through HDMI, makes the CDP-502 an impressive offering overall.

DVD Players

Integra DTR-7.8 A/V Receiver

Ross Jones

The Integra DTR 7.8 seven-channel A/V receiver has cutting edge features such as HDMI 1.3a, and internal processing of the latest hi-resolution audio codecs. It offers THX Ultra2 certification at an amazingly low price, and most importantly, produces the clean, neutral sound that we've come to expect from Integra products. Integra has produced another winner here.

Receivers

KEF Reference 205/2 Floor-standing Speakers

Piero Gabucci

Bigger is still better, period - at least when it comes to two-channel systems. Believe me I've heard many fine sounding monitors (with and without a separate subwoofer) auditioned at shows and in my own listening room. Several reviewed I've purchased or wanted to badly, yet like the preverbal big fish I throw them back to wait for the one that's just too amazing to return. Read our review of the KEF 205/2 floor-standers. They would fit anyone's needs.

Floor Standing Speakers

Qsonix Q110 Media Server

Secrets

The Qsonix Q110 is a media server meant to be put in by a custom installer, but you can do it yourself because it is very easy to work with. It has a 250 GB hard drive that will hold hundreds of CDs in lossless compression format and serves four zones simultaneously. The user interface is a dream and employs a touchscreen that has drag and drop functionality, using your finger to bring music into the que for playback.

Media Servers

Denon AVR-4308CI 7.1 Receiver

Gabe Lowe

Denon's new AVR-4308CI is one heck of a receiver, with 7 x 140 watts and HDMI 1.3 connections, along with Wi-Fi and Ethernet capability. See our review to find out the details.

Receivers

Marantz SR8002 7.1 A/V Receiver

Lee Hower
The Marantz SR8002 7.1 receiver adds HDM 1.3 support and some other things that make it a product that you should audition if you are ready to spring for a new unit. It decodes all the new high def audio formats from Blu-ray discs, so get your tail in gear.
Receivers