Innholdsfortegnelse for Nov-12 i Home Theater

Of all the products we brought in for review for this issue’s annual speaker focus, the one I was most excited about scoring was an early sample of Aperion Audio’s Intimus 4T Summit wireless system. We’ve been doggedly chasing after a finished product since several of our Home Theater staffers, me included, got demos at CES in January. What really got me during that demo was the combination of apparent sound quality and the robust nature of the wireless link. Aperion knows how to make good audiophile speakers, usually delivering them with the excellent value and fine customer experience attendant to their Web-direct selling model. The wireless technology, which was developed by chipmaker Summit Semiconductor and is being promoted now as a potential industry standard, offers up a number of…

Outlaw Audio’s Model 978 is one surround processor you won’t be able to buy. A competitor spiked the product by cudgeling the Chinese factory, which did business with both companies, into canceling the project and tying up the circuit layout files, firmware, and software... Samsung’s Flagship 75-Inch ES9000 LED-backlit LCD HDTV is just half an inch thick. The $10,000 price tag includes a free Angry Birds video game to play on the gesture-controlled set... Aereo Won the right to survive, at least for a while, when a federal judge judged its online TV service “likely lawful.” Aereo uses flocks of tiny antennas, one for each subscriber, to capture broadcast-TV programming and deliver it over the Internet... Multiroom AirPlay is being integrated into CasaTunes music servers. So AirPlay-equipped mobile devices and…

Price: $249 At a Glance: Size of USB thumb drive • Up to 24/96 resolution • Minijack analog out The AudioQuest DragonFly USB digital-to-analog converter ($249) and the B&W Society of Sound music download service ($59/year) arrived in my listening room at about the same time. They were made for each other: B&W’s 24-bit FLAC files gave the DAC a better chance to strut its stuff than any CD-quality or lossy audio file at my disposal. And the USB DAC enabled the high-resolution files to do an end run around the awful soundcard in my PC. Bowers & Wilkins, the loudspeaker maker, launched the Society of Sound in 2008 to counter the crude lossy music files that increasingly dominate listening time with lossless material that flatters B&W’s high-resolution speakers. Releases…

The Klipschorn was such a revolutionary speaker, it can still hold its own with some of the best of today’s home theater speakers. Paul W. Klipsch founded his company in 1946 in Hope, Arkansas, and built his first 12 Klipschorn speakers in 1947. They were fitted with Western Electric 713A compression tweeters and 12-inch JBL or Jensen woofers. The Klipschorn was designed to fit into the corner of a room, using the walls and floor as extensions of the speaker’s bass horn. The K-Horn became a three-way design in 1951, with 1-, 2-, and 15-inch horn-loaded drivers. Design specifications continued to evolve over the years, and at different times Stephens and Electrovoice woofers were used as the standard drivers. The K-Horn and all subsequent Klipsch speakers are designed in accordance…

PRICE: $32,000 AT A GLANCE: Clear, sparkling highs • Tight, extended bass • Broad, deep soundstage • Stunning fit and finish No Diamonds in the Rough B&W 802 Diamond Speaker System PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 BUILD QUALITY 5.0/5.0 VALUE 3.5/5.0 If you’re unfamiliar with the British speaker company Bowers & Wilkins, perhaps that’s because it’s more commonly known simply as B&W. Founded in the mid-1960s by John Bowers and Roy Wilkins, it’s now one of the most respected loudspeaker manufacturers in the world, with products ranging from budget-priced to Olympic. The 800 Diamond series is the third generation of Bowers & Wilkins’s most sophisticated range, with iconic looks that date back to the late 1990s. The 802 Diamond is one step down in price from the company’s current flagship, the $24,000/pair 800…

This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the Intimus 4T L/R (purple trace) and Bravus 8A subwoofer (blue trace). The L/R wireless loudspeaker was measured with a grille at a distance of 1 meter. Due to the lack of a multichannel analog input, the other channels could not be measured. The Intimus 4T’s listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures +2.01/–3.04 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3-dB point is at 102 Hz, and the –6-dB point is at 82 Hz. The Bravus 8A’s close-miked response, normalized to the level at 40 Hz, indicates that the lower –3-dB point is at 28 Hz and the –6-B point is at 26 Hz. The upper –3-dB point…

PRICE: $2,600 AT A GLANCE: Deep, uniform blacks • Superb out-of-the-box color and crisp detail • Head-tilt 3D crosstalk Edge Light, Done Right Sony KDL-55HX850 3D LCD HDTV 2D PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 3D PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 FEATURES 4.5/5.0 ERGONOMICS 3.5/5.0 VALUE 4.5/5.0 The most popular, current approach to designing an LCD HDTV with LED lighting is to position the LEDs around the periphery of the screen and rely on diffusors to spread the light out uniformly. Sometimes (but not always) the brightness of the LEDs is also altered dynamically to help the LCD pixels create deep blacks, where needed. The edge-lighting LEDs may even be brightness-modulated by location, determined by the scene-by-scene characteristics of the source. We normally object to applying the term local-dimming to zone dimming of edge-lit HDTVs, as it…

AUDIO DECODING: DOLBY: TrueHD, Digital, EX, Pro Logic II/IIx/IIz DTS: DTS-HD MA, HRA, DTS, ES, 96/24, Neo: 6 LOSSY FILE FORMATS: AAC, MP3, WMA HIGH-RES FILE FORMATS: FLAC, WAV STREAMING: Pandora, vTuner OTHER: 12 DSP modes, Full Stage Surround Advance (Focus/Wide), Sound Retriever AIR, Auto Sound Retriever, Phones Surround 3D: Yes THX CERTIFIED: Ultra2 Plus NUMBER OF AMP CHANNELS: 9 RATED POWER (WATTS PER CHANNEL): 140 into 8 ohms, two channels driven SPECIFIED FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 5 Hz to 100 kHz, +1/–3 dB VIDEO PROCESSING: Qdeo with 4K x 2K passthrough AUTO SETUP/ROOM EQ: Full Auto MCACC with Full Band Phase Control DIMENSIONS (W X H X D, INCHES): 17.13 x 7.25 x 17.38 WEIGHT (POUNDS): 39.2 PRICE: $2,500…

PRICE: $799 AT A GLANCE: Sweet but detailed mids • High-gloss finish • Great sats, OK sub From Shenzhen with Love Wharfedale DX-1 HCP Speaker System PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 BUILD QUALITY 4.0/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 One of your best friends calls up to announce that she is about to wed someone rich and powerful. He owns a shipyard that manufactures exceptionally luxurious yachts. You’re happy for her, but you worry, too. Would living with such a strong personality, a guy with all that money and all that power, be good for her? Would it make her stronger or weaker? A few years later you run into her, and after a few hours of conversation, you conclude that she’s in great shape internally as well as externally. There’s a serenity beneath the tan.…

RELEASE THE KRONOS Zeus, king of the gods, enlists the help of his half-human son Perseus in defeating Perseus’ brother Ares, who has allied with Hades in an effort to release Kronos, the leader of the Titans and the father of Zeus and the other gods. But Perseus just wants to be left alone to live as a human with his son. A sequel to 2010’s Clash of the Titans, Wrath throws so much at you early on that I ran to Wikipedia with my head spinning to learn more about Perseus, Zeus, Helius, Pegasus, Poseidon, Hades, Ares, Queen Andromeda, Agenor, Hephaestus, Tartarus, and Kronos. I discovered there that Kronos also had father issues; he castrated his own dad, Uranus, with a sickle. But that’s a story for a different…

LEAVING IT ALL BEHIND George (Paul Rudd) and his wife, Linda (Jennifer Aniston), decide to pursue the American dream by purchasing a closet-sized apartment in the popular West Village neighborhood of Manhattan since both their careers are on an upswing. Their lives come crashing down when George loses his job and Linda’s documentary project is rejected by HBO. Strapped for cash and with nowhere else to turn, the pair packs up the car and heads to Atlanta so George can work for his obnoxious brother. Toward the end of their long journey, they literally crash at Elysium, a free-spirited community of hippies, tree huggers, and a lone nudist. After getting their teeth kicked in by the world, the laid-back lifestyle initially agrees with the couple, but will they be able…

FLAT PANELS ENTRY LEVEL Panasonic Viera TC-P50S30 Plasma HDTV, $900 Reviewed at HomeTheater.com Panasonic Viera TC-P50ST30 3D Plasma HDTV, $1,300 Reviewed September 2011 Samsung UN46D6000 LED LCD HDTV, $1,300 Reviewed at HomeTheater.com Panasonic Viera TC-P55ST50 3D Plasma HDTV, $1,700 Reviewed July 2012 Vizio M3D650SV 3D LED-LCD TV, $1,870 Reviewed at HomeTheater.com MIDRANGE Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 3D Plasma HDTV, $2,500 Reviewed September 2011 Sony KDL-55HX850 3D LCD HDTV, $2,600 Reviewed November 2012 SunBriteTV Model 4660 HD Outdoor LCD HDTV, $2,795 Reviewed July 2012 Samsung PN59D8000 3D Plasma HDTV, $3,000 Reviewed December 2011 HIGH END Sony Bravia XBR-55HX929 3D LED LCD HDTV, $3,500 Reviewed November 2011 Panasonic TC-P65VT50 3D Plasma HDTV, $3,700 Reviewed October 2012 Elite PRO-60X5FD 3D LED LCD HDTV, $6,000 Reviewed January 2012 PROJECTORS ENTRY LEVEL BenQ W7000 3D DLP…

WE WELCOME QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS. E-mail them to editor@hometheater.com. Please note: Be sure to check the FAQ page on our Website (HomeTheater.com) to see if we’ve already answered any questions you might have. Questions about the features and functions of a particular product are best directed to the manufacturer. Questions about what product you should buy are best directed to a dealer who knows all the details of your system, your preferences, and your personal habits. All submissions are considered the exclusive property of Home Theater magazine and Source Interlink Media. Due to the volume of mail that we receive, we regret that we cannot respond to every letter. Let the Head Games Begin I love the mag and have been a subscriber for many years now. I usually buy…

Since the goal is to re-create the local cineplex in your living room, you might as well go the whole nine yards and include concessions. What’s a movie-going experience without popcorn? And we’re not talking about the kind you drop in the microwave or shake over an open flame till it expands. We mean the authentic, buttery goodness that is often devoured before the first preview rolls. And there’s an added bonus to popping kernels in the privacy of your home theater: You can always press pause when you need a refill. Here are a few of the best popcorn makers on the market. IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A LOW-CALORIE ALTERNATIVE, THE TOASTESS TCP713 HOT-AIR POPCORN POPPER uses hot air to cook kernels instead of oil. Its unique airflow design…

Boxee had a problem: It watched in horror as Comcast implemented basic-tier encryption, turning Boxee’s streaming video boxes into doorstops. Boxee lobbied, Comcast listened, and their joint proposed solution is a new category of set-top box called E-DTA. That stands for Ethernet–Digital Transport Adapter. It would send cable signals over a local network via DLNA, the same protocol used to make A/V receivers and other products communicate with networked computers. Both parties would get what they want: Comcast could have its encryption, and Boxee owners could access basic cable. This new class of server-cum-STB is reminiscent of the Federal Communications Commission’s idea for a universal AllVid home gateway. Comcast and Boxee have filed their proposed solution with the FCC and are awaiting a response.…

TIVOLI RADIO SILENZ NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONES Nothing like an intruding jackhammer or jet engine when you’re chillin’ with your ’phones on. If you’re jamming to Metallica, you might be able to pull it off. If it’s John Mayer, good luck. Radio Silenz’s switchable noise-canceling processor is said to reduce ambient noise by up to 85 percent, which should bring Mayer’s depressing lyrics back into focus. When you need to hear what’s going on around you, hit the Defeat button. A single AAA battery (included) is said to power noise-free listening for up to 50 hours. Love That Grain: In a unique twist, the ear cup housings are made of real wood instead of the usual black plastic. Walnut, Cherry, and Black Ash finishes are available. Price: $160 Tivoli Audio • (877)…

B&W 802 DIAMOND SPEAKER SYSTEM L/R Sensitivity: 90 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Center Sensitivity: 90 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Surround Sensitivity: 88.5 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the 802 Diamond L/R (purple trace), HTM2 Diamond center channel (green trace), 804 Diamond surround (red trace), and DB1 subwoofer (blue trace). All passive loudspeakers were measured with grilles at a distance of 1 meter with a 2.83-volt input and scaled for display purposes. The 802 Diamond’s listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures +2.82/–2.79 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3-dB point is at 31 Hz, and the –6-dB point is at…

PRICE: $6,650 AT A GLANCE: Independent ported chambers for each woofer • Dual five-way gold-plated binding posts for biwiring or biamping • Five-way transitional design Sensationally Seamless Seduction PSB Imagine T2 Speaker System PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 BUILD QUALITY 4.5/5.0 VALUE 4.0/5.0 Paul Barton is a nutcase. Oh, sure, he’s soft-spoken, ultrasmart, and intensely passionate about sound. (In the late 1960s, 11-year-old Barton started building speakers with his dad in their workshop because other speakers “didn’t sound natural.”) But that’s just a cover. I don’t know how else to explain the fact that Mr. Barton (the “P” and “B” of PSB Speakers—with his wife, Sue, providing the “S”) has spent so much of his life locked away in the anechoic chamber and testing/listening labs of Canada’s federally funded National Research Council (NRC)…

FULL-ON/FULL-OFF CONTRAST RATIO: 29,500:1 All of the measurements here (2D and 3D) were taken in the Custom Picture mode, through an HDMI input. With the Backlight set to zero, the Picture (contrast) control at 85, the Brightness at 51, the Gamma at –1, and the LED Dynamic Control on Standard, the measured peak white level was 29.5 foot-lamberts and the black level 0.001 ft-L. The latter is the minimum reading possible with our Minolta LS-100 light meter. To get this result, I used a test pattern disc on a Blu-ray player, selected a full-field black pattern, and set the player to pause, producing a small pause bug at the bottom left-hand corner of the image. Without this bug, the LED backlighting shut down completely, and the black level was not…

PIONEER ELITE SC-68 A/V RECEIVER Two channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 144.5 watts 1% distortion at 191.6 watts Five channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 92.3 watts 1% distortion at 138.8 watts Seven channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 90.0 watts 1% distortion at 113.8 watts Analog frequency response in Pure Direct mode: –0.24 dB at 10 Hz –0.07 dB at 20 Hz +0.93 dB at 20 kHz –1.87 dB at 50 kHz Analog frequency response with signal processing: –0.94 dB at 10 Hz –0.28 dB at 20 Hz –1.44 dB at 20 kHz –68.68 dB at 50 kHz This graph shows that the SC-68’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches…

WHARFEDALE DX-1 HCP SPEAKER SYSTEM Satellite Sensitivity: 84 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Center Sensitivity: 86.5 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the DX-1 Satellite sat (purple trace), DX-1 Centre center channel (green trace), and DX-1 subwoofer (blue trace). All passive loudspeakers were measured with grilles at a distance of 1 meter with a 2.83-volt input and scaled for display purposes. The DX-1 Satellite’s listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures +2.04/–2.61 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3-dB point is at 106 Hz, and the –6-dB point is at 92 Hz. Impedance reaches a minimum of 4.70 ohms at 263 Hz and a phase…

HIGH SCHOOL COP-OUT Adaptations of old TV shows are a mixed bag, especially when filmmakers take the risky step of amping up the comedy factor of the original. The new gold standard of this bawdy-yet-reverent approach is 21 Jump Street, with much of the credit belonging to star/executive producer/co-writer Jonah Hill. He plays a brainy high school loser who, years later, winds up enrolling in the police academy at the same time as his brawny erstwhile tormentor (Channing Tatum). As happens, they come to rely on each other to pass the rigors of training, but they have a hard time adapting to the demands of their job on the mean streets. When a bust goes bad, the two rookies are transferred to the undercover Jump Street program, which sends teams…

HAVE MOUSTACHE, WILL TRAVEL The second-highest-grossing movie of 1977 (behind only a certain science-fantasy film of some renown) and one of the biggest hits in the esteemed history of Universal Studios, Smokey and the Bandit combined frequent car chases, vast amounts of beer, and copious nose-thumbing at The Man to create a wildly popular piece of entertainment. Like most movies of the era, it lacks the slickness of modern fare and relies more heavily on the charm of its star, Burt Reynolds, as legendary trucker Bo “Bandit” Darville. He takes a big bet to deliver 400 cases of Coors beer across five states in only 28 hours, an extremely difficult and highly illegal challenge. But with Bandit blocking in a shiny new Trans Am and his partner behind the wheel…

ARIZONA LMC HOME ENTERTAINMENT 15507 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85254 1231 W Warner Rd, Tempe, AZ 85284 htm@lmche.com • www.lmche.com McIntosh Platinum Premier dealer demonstrating 12 speaker lines including Wilson and Sonus-Faber CALIFORNIA DAVID VINCENT DESIGN*# Jim Zoyiopoulos, Owner Home theater and music systems showroom. Lighting control and whole home automation. 26384 Carmel Rancho Lane Carmel, CA 93923 www.davidvincentdesign.com info@davidvincentdesign.com Lutron, Kaleidescape, Crestron, Sony ES, Samsung, Denon, Paradigm, Triad, Sonance, Leon, Salamander, Fortress Seating, Speakercraft FLORIDA HOME THEATER INNOVATIONS/BOB’S TV. Hwy. 441 Ocala/Villages area Over 15 years experience Custom Designed Home Theater Automation/Home Audio (352) 245-2183, www.bobstv.tv GEORGIA GEORGIA HOME THEATER*# 23 Years of Excellence Designing Home Automation and Lighting Control for Atlanta’s Finest Homes. #1 Dealer in Georgia for B&W and Crestron 2534 Cobb Pkwy., Smyrna, GA 30080…

Your current DVR can handle the conflict between Sunday Night Football and Family Guy no problem but leaves you high and dry if you want to catch the latest episodes of The Amazing Race and your guilty pleasure, Storage Wars (the wife hates it). TiVo’s Premiere 4 DVR was created with this dilemma in mind. With its four digital tuners, you can simultaneously record four shows and store 75 hours of high-def programming. The DVR, which replaces your cable box, also serves as a hub, providing ready access to content from your home network and the Internet, including Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, and music from Pandora, Rhapsody, and others. Don’t have an Ethernet connection near your TV? No biggie. The DVR supports MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) home…

Ever seen a TV set disco? Retailers see TVs dance off the shelves two or three times a year as manufacturers refresh their lines. Welcome to the secret language of consumer electronics (CE) retailing. To the public, a set that discos should be mounted on a turntable so that the screen can be swung around by viewing partners from opposite directions. But to those who sell TVs, the term is shorthand for discontinued. Once a TV discos, the retailer will refer to the model as DLNA. No, the letters don’t stand for Digital Living Network Alliance, although the TV may well be DLNA-enabled for streaming photos, music, and videos from a computer or storage device on a home network. In CE terms, it means Discontinued Line Not Available. When the…

Chesky Records aims to re-create the experience of listening to live music from the best seat in the house with its new Binaural+ Series of high-resolution 24-bit/192-kilohertz recordings. Specially calibrated microphones implanted in the ear canals of a dummy head are used to capture a “stunningly accurate and realistic” 3D representation of the soundfield. With traditional binaural recordings, which have been around for decades, distinct left and right channels are recorded as they would be heard by a pair of human ears and played back through headphones—left channel to left ear, right channel to right ear—to create the illusion of a 360-degree soundstage. But when the recordings are played over speakers, the illusion breaks down because sound from the left and right channels becomes commingled. To overcome this obstacle, Chesky…

Going back a few years, the arrival of high definition in general and Blu-ray specifically signaled a new era of entertainment. While home theater has long promised a movie-watching experience that we could enjoy in our pajamas—without getting arrested—the reign of the 1080p optical disc promised us DVD convenience combined with superior cinematic quality. Delivering on that promise wasn’t always so easy, however. Owing to a variety of variables, such as poor film storage, tight budgets, and the simple fact that some studios are more dedicated to the preservation of their libraries than others, many of the most anticipated Blu-ray debuts have been lackluster, frequently mere ports of existing standard-def masters. At the very least, high definition demands the 2K remastering of older titles so they look their best, but…

PRICE: $3,499 AT A GLANCE: Automatic speaker discovery and channel assignment • Uncompressed 24-bit wireless digital audio • No AVR needed Marconi Would Be Proud Aperion Intimus 4T Summit Home Theater System PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 FEATURES 4.0/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.0/5.0 VALUE 4.5/5.0 Not long ago, FedEx deposited a 7.1-channel HTIB from Aperion Audio outside my door. It’s not really fair to call it a home theater in a box because the system actually comes in seven boxes and sells for $3,499. But since it includes source switching and amplification, it technically qualifies as an HTIB, albeit a rather unusual one. Aperion Audio prefers the term pre-configured home theater system. Normally, setting up this sort of home theater package would entail speaker wires crisscrossing the floor accompanied by the requisite grumbling, stripping of…

PSB IMAGINE T2 SPEAKER SYSTEM L/R Sensitivity: 88 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Center Sensitivity: 88 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Surround Sensitivity: 86 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the Imagine T2 L/R (purple trace), Imagine C center channel (green trace), Imagine S surround (red trace), and SubSeries 300 subwoofer (blue trace). All passive loudspeakers were measured with grilles at a distance of 1 meter with a 2.83-volt input and scaled for display purposes. The Imagine T2’s listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures +0.69/–3.55 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3-dB point is at 49 Hz, and the –6-dB point is…

PRICE: $2,500 AT A GLANCE: 32-bit asynchronous USB DAC • D3 Class D amplification • All the Apple trimmings That New DAC Magic Pioneer Elite SC-68 A/V Receiver AUDIO PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 VIDEO PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 FEATURES 5.0/5.0 ERGONOMICS 3.5/5.0 VALUE 4.5/5.0 Like a parent who charts a child’s growth with colored pencil marks on the wall, I’ve been observing the growth of audio/video receivers since the beginning of the product category. The wall is covered with ascending marks: Here’s the first A/V receiver, with composite video switching and no surround processing. Here’s the first Dolby Surround model, the first Dolby Pro Logic model, the first Dolby Digital model—and the first with DTS, THX, lossless surround, room correction, satellite radio, HDMI, network audio, Apple everything. By my reckoning, Pioneer receivers have seen…

INPUTS: VIDEO: HDMI 1.4a (8), component video (3), composite video (5) AUDIO: Coaxial digital (2), optical digital (2), analog stereo (5), 7.1-channel analog (1), phono (1), ADDITIONAL: Ethernet (1), USB (1), USB-DAC in (1), Sirius (1), AM (1), FM (1), IR remote (2) ACCESSORY: Wi-Fi adapter port (1), Bluetooth adapter port (1) OUTPUTS: VIDEO: HDMI 1.4a (3), component video (2), composite video (3) AUDIO: Optical digital (1), 11.2-channel preout (1), analog stereo (2), subwoofer (Z2), 0.25-inch headphone ADDITIONAL: RS-232 (1), IR remote (1), RF remote extension (1), 12-volt trigger (2)…

Last year’s Best Picture, The Artist, embodies a simple enough idea: a silent movie about silent movies, told in the classic style. Set in the waning days of the era, the story introduces us to aging matinee idol George Valentin (Oscar winner Jean Dujardin) who meets the wide-eyed ingénue Peppy Miller (nominee Bérénice Bejo) outside one of his premieres. Seldom does the screen see such an intoxicatingly attractive couple, and yet their relationship is a complicated smolder of admiration and respect that has its share of ups and downs across years of drastic change. When given a glimpse of the latest technology, George brushes aside the proposition of so-called talking pictures as some curious fad. Rather than transform with the times, he commits his own fortune to writing, directing, and…

A MATTER OF DEATH AND LIFE 1971’s Harold and Maude, a cult classic before there was such a thing, undoubtedly remains the weirdest rom-com of all times (classifying this movie as such has me laughing out loud as I type!). Harold (Bud Cort) is an odd young man who lives with his wealthy, high-society widow of a mother and gets his kicks (and much-needed attention) from elaborately acting out his own death. Over and over. While Harold’s mom’s ideas for straightening him out are to put him in the military or marry him off, another of Harold’s hobbies, attending strangers’ funerals, leads him to Maude (Ruth Gordon), a daring older woman and the freest spirit you’ve ever seen. She lives in a renovated boxcar, fights the system in her own…

ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT Four Atlanta businessmen set out in two canoes down the fictional Cahulawassee River before a dam is built to generate electricity for the growing population of Atlanta. Their adventure starts normal enough, but you get the impression that something isn’t right with the inbred people of the backcountry—and their enjoyable river ride turns into a horrific life-changing experience. Based on the book by James Dickey, Deliverance is the type of film Hollywood doesn’t seem to make these days. I love how Oscar-nominated director John Boorman keeps the camera trained on the scene, letting the viewer take everything in versus today’s split-second editing and nauseating shaky-cam shots. The story is creepy as hell and keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.…

This may well be the most regal headphone amp you’ll ever lay eyes on. Make that amps, as in a pair of Class A monoblocks—one per channel—which is how the WA-234 is sold. But its majestic looks and meticulous industrial design (60 sheets of aluminum are used to create those wavy side panels) tell only part of the story. Unlike a typical tube amplifier that uses one type of power tube (or its comparably rated substitute), the WA-234 is designed to work with three different tubes thanks to a clever key system that reconfigures the amp for the triode you select. “You can change the sound signature of the amp by simply using a different power tube,” explains Jack Wu, president of Woo Audio. Select one of three popular tubes—2A3,…