Featured Reviews & Articles

Summit Wireless has announced a low cost speaker module design and companion amplifier targeting entry level home theater systems with its Summit Wireless technology. The new speaker module design is said to represent a 53% reduction in size over the current implementation, while still retaining the robust high definition link performance with built-in four antenna diversity allowing placement of a speaker anywhere in a room without signal loss or interruption. An OEM manufacturer can implement this technology into their speakers to provide a fully amplified and wireless hi-definition experience to their consumers. Summit Wireless is working on dongle that can connect directly to USB to pull audio from all sources attached to an HDTV display for surround decoding wirelessly to Summit enabled speakers. We saw a demo and and like of their prior demos, we were most impressed.

Summit Wireless™ is an audio integrated circuit solution that will be embedded in speakers, audio/video receivers, digital televisions, gaming devices, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes, enabling them to broadcast high-definition surround sound wirelessly and simply. It has the potential to deliver where other wireless audio solutions have failed. It can be installed in less than 30 minutes and generates interference-free, low latency, uncompressed HD quality audio that today’s A/V systems are capable of decoding. Summit seems ideally suited for the retrofit and retail markets opening the door for new business models while taking home theater experience to a new level.

Almost everyone loves surround sound, (except for an eccentric actor whom I know who actually prefers mono!) and what’s not to love? Our ears are on each side of our head, canted forward, but we hear sounds from every direction with almost equal precision. For that reason multi-channel sound reproduction is intrinsically more realistic and believable. But how many surround speakers are required to present a plausible illusion of the real thing?

Audyssey as a company is sort of a brain trust that creates and licenses signal processing solutions. They employ the sciences of psychoacoustics, acoustics, signal processing and use highly complex mathematical algorithms to put those Mega Flop DSP chips to work to do dynamic equalization and derive extra channels for surround sound.

We are consistently asked about connecting a PC to a home theater system. It's not as easy as it sounds. For example, while many sound cards on the market can pass Dolby Digital and DTS "raw" signals for decoding by the receiver, most EAX/A3D surround games are only able to be output via the sound card's analogue outputs.

Many people have asked us about connecting a PC to a home theater system. It's not as easy as it sounds. For example, while many sound cards on the market can pass Dolby Digital and DTS "raw" signals for decoding by the receiver, most EAX/A3D surround games are only able to be output via the sound card's analogue outputs. Dolby Digital and DTS have both offered solutions to allow for a real-time, digital 5.1 encoded signal from a PC to be made to your home theater system.

With the advent of home theater, consumers are continually demand higher performance. As technology improves and becomes more competitive, increased performance is realized at lower cost to the consumer. The market floods with newer and newer technology, allowing consumers to be less easily impressed and more picky, sometimes loosing touch with what was involved in producing this marvel of technology that only a few years ago, would have been a nearly impossible feat.

THX' new Games Mode is a brand new audio post-processing technology and listening feature for THX Certified Home Theatre components. Games Mode enables video game enthusiasts to experience truly immersive sound presentations on home theatre systems when their system is properly configured for ASA (Advanced Speaker Array).

Dolby Digital is the next step forward in sonic realism and listener involvement. It has already changed the way you experience your favorite films in movie theaters, and is now doing the same for video programming at home.