Recent Home Theater Editorials

The next-gen game-console war officially begins this week when the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One officially hit the market. My own mission to land a PS4 on its launch day was a success; my new PS4 console now has a home in my home theater system and is sure to be a source of unadulterated electronic entertainment joy for years to come. But despite the childlike excitement of unboxing a PS4, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was indulging a 20th century pleasure in a 21st century world.

Avegant's Virtual Retinal Display promises to be a game changer in world of head-mounted displays. Utilizing reflected light technology that projects an image directly on the retina of each eye, the experience promises to be realistic and immersive—especially for 3D and VR applications. Imagine pairing a premium set of headphones with the VRD and you have a potentially amazing, portable entertainment experience. For hard-core gamers, the VRD will also support head tracking in virtual reality and augmented reality gaming environments. Avegant is also envisioning custom content created specifically for the VRD, like virtual reality tours of locations. Exciting tech that we look forward to bringing you more information about as it matures.

As a life-long music lover who often looks for ways to combine my avocation as a drummer/percussionist with my vocation as an electrical engineer, I'm often asked “What does it mean to be an audiophile?”. The fact is, music is so ingrained in my life that it means EVERYTHING; I think about it morning, noon, and night! Let me take you on a tour of my audio evolution, listening habits, and equipment tweaks I've made throughout the years as well upgrades I plan in the future. An audiophiles work is never done!

By every measure, digital audio is superior to analog. However, if I've learned anything over the years of running this website is there is often quite a difference between theory and reality. we assembled a listening panel to compare analog Vinyl records to their digital CD and FLAC counterparts. It's truly sad how much abuse has been done in the digital era of music. Here we are with virtually limitless dynamic range for digital media, but recordings are being squashed down to oblivion often making their technically inferior analog counterparts sonically superior. I think you will find the results are quite surprising and if you're an audiophile searching for the best sound quality, then this is a must read! Also check out our recently added Youtube Debate.

The other day, I came across an announcement from Sony and Panasonic. They have banded together to create a new optical disc standard. This is what I read, " Sony Corporation (‘Sony’) and Panasonic Corporation (‘Panasonic’) today announced that they have signed a basic agreement with the objective of jointly developing a next-generation standard for professional-use optical discs..." A cold shiver ran down my spine. "Not again," I whispered. The last thing we need in this industry is a new format war. We don't need a new type of optical disc for 4K. Blu-ray can work just fine. But if one of the manufacturers thinks they can make a buck or get some sort of monopoly by introducing a new format, don't think they wont.

The Wireless Speaker and Audio (aka WiSA) Association appears to be building up some momentum, having recently announced the addition of several key players in the home entertainment market as WiSA members: Onkyo, DALI, Amber Technologies, and Gibson. For those unfamiliar with WiSA, they are aiming to establish standards to deliver reliable, high performance, interoperable, wireless surround sound audio products to the home entertainment market. Read on for more information about the newest members of the WiSA Association.

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.

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.