Audioholics Featured Reviews & Articles

A flurry of activity went on today as Cnet broke a story about Netflix adding 1080p and 5.1 audio to its entire streaming library later this year. Since all of the three major game consoles - Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii support Netflix, the Wii's addition of this feature would alone be crippled by the lack of support for HD and surround sound. Existing televisions, DVD players and other media streaming devices (like Roku) would fare just perfectly with an update. Turns out we may have to wait a while.

Super Bowl XLIV will be transmitted to CBS in pristine, compression free HDTV thanks to Level 3 Communications Inc. Unfortunately, thanks to re-compression, most Cable and Satellite TV subscribers won’t get to see all of its pristine glory. It’s enough to make you want to put up an antenna and go over-the-air for the cleanest digital video signals possible.

Apple’s iPad announcement has been met with disappointment among tech-press. The biggest disappointment with iPad, besides its unfortunate name, is not just about features but that Apple failed to bring its User Interface magic to the tablet form-factor. Apple’s new upsized iPhone seems symptomatic of a ground-breaking tech company coasting on past success.

The wizards at YMAX Corporation, the company that created MagicJack, have a new trick up their sleeve – they want to turn it into Skype. The way MagicJack works is simple: A USB device not much bigger than a thumb drive connects your PC and telephone, then presto, an instant VoIP connection. When people first started seeing the product on late-night infomercials they snapped it up in droves. The company says it’s sold in excess of 5-million units so far.

Nintendo Wii picks up a new feature, Netflix streaming. The biggest question here is ... why? We hope Mario and company hasn't changed the gaming first philosophy that made Nintendo the most successful console game system of the current generation. Perhaps Nintendo is just bending to market realities and seeks to be more competitive.

The AVR-3310CI and AVR-990 (both retailing for $1500) join the ranks of the AVR-4310CI and AVR-4810CI with Audyssey DSX. The upgrade will be available on Feburary 1st at a cost of $100. DSX will give the receivers the ability to add either height of expanded width channels by assigning other speakers or analogue output terminals to the additional speakers. No word yet on whether the upgrade will be applied to future offerings of the receivers or if it will remain a firmware upgrade option only.

When you are looking for audio quality control, who do you look to? Well, if you are NBC Universal and you are covering something as important as the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, you look to Denon Electronics. This marks the 6th straight Olympics that Denon has provided Audio Quality Control products to NBC Universal during their coverage of the Olympics. This year's winter games will be held from February 12th through the 28th.

Chinese manufacturer Haier decided to steal the show at CES this week by showing off a 32-inch TV set at CES that is running completely wirelessly. And when we say completely... we mean COMPLETELY. In addition to wireless HDMI transmission the 32-inch TV is also receiving wireless POWER. Look, Ma, no wires. No, seriously.

Monster is introducing a power line conditioning home theater plug that may actually make a little of its own digital noise as a power line networking device. On the Monster PowerNet 1G, you can clearly see the Clean Power status indicator light on the device itself, as well as the various network status lights. Of course, the primary purpose of the device is to provide network communications over electrical wiring while ensuring that your sensitive home theater equipment is isolated via power line conditioning. What struck us as funny was the fact that a device like this actually makes its own digital noise, which it then has to filter away from your delicate analog gear. After so many years of Monster touting the importance of eliminating noise, and selling expensive gear to do just that, they finally came up with something that makes its own noise... and then eliminates that as well.