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CD Players

Marantz PM6005 Integrated Amplifier and CD6005 CD Player

Don Disbennett

Marantz is one of the legendary names in audio and has remained a brand noted for high quality audio devices from power amplifiers to CD/SACD players, integrated amplifiers, home theater receivers and processors. The PM6005 integrated amp and CD6005 CD player are part of Marantz' Slim Line components and are updated versions of the PM 6004 integrated amplifier and CD 6004 CD player reviewed by Secrets' writer Jared Rachwalski in May, 2012.

 

Integrated Amplifiers

Parasound Halo CD 1 Player

Rick Schmidt

The Halo CD 1 is a flagship CD Player from the well regarded, San Francisco based, Parasound. CD Player? Surely I mean 'DAC with Transport'. Nope. CD player, put your CD in, music comes out. No, you mean it's part of a server system, the data is stored for later retrieval by a computer system. Well, only if you count the internal buffering and Intel ITX computer running Linux inside the CD 1. In implementation then the CD 1 is quite modern, it's a computer, dedicated to CD playback only. In practice, it's an old fashioned (and in this case, that's good) CD player.

CD Players

Epson

Secrets
Epson America, Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, a global technology company at the forefront of technological revolutions in imaging, robotics, precision machinery and electronics.
AV Directory

Home Theater Movie Renter’s Guide – August, 2010

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Brooklyn's Finest (Blu-ray), Unthinkable (Blu-ray), True Blood Season 2 (Blu-ray), Hot Tub Time Machine (Blu-ray), Jason and the Argonauts (Blu-ray), Big Trouble in Little China (Blu-ray), Jimmy Hollywood (Blu-ray), Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (DVD), Black Narcissus (Blu-ray), The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (Blu-ray), Greenberg (Blu-ray), The Breakfast Club (Blu-ray), Heroes Season 4 (Blu-ray), Henson's Place (DVD), Repo Men (Blu-ray), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Blu-ray), Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 (Blu-ray), Kick-Ass (Blu-ray)

Movie Reviews

December CD Reviews for the Audiophile – Holiday Recordings to Savor – Part II

Jason Serinus

It's that time again, boys and girls. Santa, egg nog, menorahs, craziness, last-minute shopping, and empty bank accounts to ring in the New Year. You're going to need some good music to get through it all, and even more to entertain family and friends. Whatever your family situation, if you're looking for music appropriate to the holidays, you need look no further. There are some really goodies in the list of mostly new releases that follows. Enjoy!

CD Music Reviews

JVC GZ-HM400U High Definition Video Camera

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Up until the past year, the sensors in HD video cameras were just barely enough in pixel count (2,073,600) to get 1920 x 1080 video. That has changed now, and camera manufacturers are putting sensors in their HD video cameras that have a much higher pixel count. The main reason is so that consumers can take high resolution snapshots with their video cameras, similar to the high resolution photos they can get from dedicated digital snapshot cameras. The serendipity is that the high resolution image can be downsampled to 1920 x 1080 rather than there being only just over 2 megapixels to start with, and this gives a sharper video image. The JVC GZ-HM400U is just such a camera, with its 10.3 megapixel sensor. Have a look at our review to see how it performed.

Video Accessories Misc

Denon AVP-A1HDCI Surround Sound Processor and POA-A1HDCI Power Amplifier

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Denon's new AVP-A1HDCI sports 12 configurable XLR fully balanced output channels. It handles all the newest codecs, including DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. Using its Denon Link, along with a DVD player that also has the Denon Link, you can play SACDs with the native DSD bitstream being sent to the processor for decoding (no conversion to PCM like most other systems do).

Processors

Sony Bravia KDL-46X3500 46″ 1920x1080p LCD HDTV

Ofer LaOr

When the local Sony dealer asked me which model I wanted to check out, I wasn't sure if I should get the smaller 40" or the larger 46" model. On the one hand, statistics say that the 40" model will be a lot more popular, but they also suggest that the 44-50" segment, particularly in the US, is growing at an amazing rate.

HDTV