Audioholics Featured Reviews & Articles

We follow the folks over at Electronic House and are particularly enamored with their annual Home of the Year Awards. This is where they select from literally hundreds of entries to come up with the home installations that are the very best among the various categories and budget ranges. For the 2013 Home of the Year Awards we checked out the 12 different categories, some of which included several finalists in Gold, Silver and Bronze designations. I think that, after seeing them, you'll agree that any of these homes would be impressive. And that's just on the surface. Any time you're impressed with the look and layout of a home theater or whole-house audio/video system—just imagine all the work it took to design it, lay it out and, of course, install the system.

Each wireless technology has its place, but no one is offering wireless surround sound audio for the home theater with all of the WiSA benefits such as multi-channel surround sound that is interoperable with any compliant system; transmitting uncompressed, interference free HD audio that is easy to set up and easy to use. There is also no reason that AirPlay devices and WiSA certified devices can’t work together. Basically, someone can take the stereo or HDMI output from the AirPlay receiver and plug it into an input on the WiSA certified audio hub. WiSA certification is a game-changer in the wireless speaker world. It IS the new industry standard for high quality surround sound in the home theater. WiSA speaker technology can also be used in portable speaker applications too.

The British Progressive Band known as Renaissance was founded in 1969 by Keith Relf and Jim McCarty after the split up of their band, the Yardbirds. Renaissance was set slightly apart from other Progressive bands throughout the 70s, such as Genesis, Yes and ELP, as they emphasized more on symphonic classical music blended into their progressive themes without relying on hard hitting synthesizer or screaming guitars. But make no mistake; they were equally as popular amongst the same fans. In 2009, they got back together for their 40th year anniversary tour. We had a chance to sit down with vocalist Annie Haslam at her studio in Pennsylvania.

In older homes, home theater really needs to be hidden. If not, then you can ruin the decor of the home. This isn't easy and we give you seven tips to achieve the hidden home theater. My grandma always told me that children should be seen and not heard. I live in an historic part of the city and when it comes to home theater, the exact opposite is true. Around here, people care about what their houses look like and home theater ruins the décor.

We had the good fortune this month of sitting down with Bill Dudleston, Chief Designer and Owner of Legacy Audio to discuss DSP and EQ processing for loudspeaker systems. Bill shares his views of various room correction systems, including listing a couple of his personal favorites. He also discusses the necessity of the EQ system allowing the end user to tweak and also set their own target curve to suite their room acoustics and listening preferences. Bill is a champion of full range speakers even in systems with powered subwoofers to increase room modal density while also greatly reducing system distortion and improving transient response. Some great advice is given on how to properly setup and EQ a fullrange multi-channel loudspeaker system. So, have a read and feel free to comment in our dedicated forum thread.

The first season of Star Trek: Enterprise, that bastard-child of the Trek franchise, is hitting Blu-ray, presented in a six-disc set consisting of all 25 episodes, including the 2-hour pilot Broken Bow. Although the show divided the Trek-faithful like no other, its fans will be tempted to upgrade their 2005 Enterprise DVD set to get their hands on the substantial amount of new material included in the special features. Unfortunately, with the gold standard in Trek Blu-ray conversions already set by the ongoing deployment of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise just doesn't measure up.

These days special effects in movies aren’t limited to what’s happening on-screen but rather how a film is presented at the movies and on your TV. But, are some technical advances ruining video quality at the movies and in your home theater system? TV manufacturers are embracing any new technology in their quest for the next feature that will entice us to replace our aging TVs. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was filmed in High Frame Rate 3D (HFR 3D). Of the moviegoers lucky enough to view Peter Jackson’s giant film in a theater capable of displaying the elevated frame rate, many complained of an artificial quality to the video and said that the so-called enhancements only made the film look suspiciously like a soap opera. LCD displays have been employing artificially enhanced frame-rates for years with features bearing such inventive names as "Motion Flow" and "Clearframe". Many of us find it annoying. So, let’s take a closer look popular video effects you’ll find on new TVs today and we’ll leave it up to you to if you see enhanced motion in stunning 3D, or if your eyes only see a cheesy soap opera effect.

I started working for Best Buy during my senior year of high school and stayed with them up until graduate school. Through that span of six years I saw the company fall from a spot of power and strength and repeatedly fail to get back up. It seems that every story about Best Buy in the past four or five years has been one of defeat. As a former employee I have a unique view on why they are failing. It's easy to blame the changing market, but Best Buy's dysfunction is rooted much deeper than an external economic decline. Throughout my tenure at the organization I have observed a failure in their pay system, an inability to attract qualified employees and a lack of a single vision.

At Mobile World Congress 2013 this week Samsung has introduced HomeSync Android TV. No, it’s not a soap opera about artificial humans, it’s a set-top box for your home theater system that runs on Android Jelly Bean. We don’t usually see set-top boxes unveiled at Mobile World Congress, but in this era of crossover technology Samsung has decided to do show off the versatility of the Android operating system. Samsung promises your ‘droid phones or tablets (not just Samsung) will be able to take control and stream media to its glossy little home-cloud bridge that’s no bigger than a wireless router.