Recent Shopping Tip Articles

We’ve received numerous emails, and indeed they come in almost daily, inquiring about the best televisions, which format is better and how to determine if Set A is better than Set B. These seem to be videophyte questions, however almost anyone shopping for a new display or television will run into many of the same issues.

Shopping for a new speaker system is a lot like buying a new car. One must always find the right balance between performance, aesthetics and practicality while keeping within their budgetary constraints. Unfortunately looks can often tell very little about loudspeaker performance. In fact, some of the best looking, highest priced designs often look much better than they sound. The purpose of this article is to help the average home theater enthusiast pick and chose the right system based on their needs and budget.

We provide an ongoing series of documents outlining the feature sets on the products we review. This enables consumers the ability to ensure the products they are interested in have the functions they want and need.

Is there some kind of accepted price/performance ratio between home theater components? For example, if I am buying a $3000 set of home theater speakers is it pure heresy to hook them up to a $900 receiver? What price point amplifier would be appropriate? I know most of this is subjective, but would you buy a $900 Blu-ray player to connect to an HDTV that cost only $1000? This article helps define some guidelines for budgeting the components in your home theater system. Also check out our recently added YouTube Video discussion on this topic.

We decided to visit some of our local dealers to observe and listen to their latest offerings of electronics and speakers. It seems lately that more and more gimmicks are surfacing in the audio world and the consumers are letting the industry get away with it. It is sad to see so many companies are simply implementing what we call "cookie cutter" designs. What we mean by this is that they are actually not designing loudspeakers. Instead, they are implementing design guidelines set forth by driver manufacturers that specify types of crossovers and enclosure dimensions to use with their drivers. Many of these so called loudspeaker "designers" don't have the proper test equipment and engineering technical staff and necessary tools to accurately design and measure their loudspeakers performance.

Audio terminology can be very confusing and ambiguous. Below is a basic list of most common words related to audio specifications and terminology.

This document will allow consumers to look through the features and functions of the many DVD players we have reviewed and see which models have the options and specs they are looking for. Use this as a helpful aid in your shopping.

In a world with dozens of media center manufacturers and hundreds of choices, picking out a media center can be confusing. What features should I look for? Which ones do I really need, and which ones are just "icing on the cake?" Here are the top 10 Premium Features that we think media centers must have...

Arguably, Media Centers are currently the most misunderstood home theater components available in the marketplace today. Yet, media centers are also one of the most revolutionary home theater products available. Why is there this huge discrepancy? Unfortunately, the term " Media Center " is used by many manufacturers for products that could arguably never possibly act as a home theater device.

If that major electronics brand knows how to build CD players, audio/video receivers or TV monitors, they must know how to design and build excellent loudspeakers, right? Not always.

We decided to give a quick run-down of the differences and similarities between the two platforms based on the information that is now wildly circulating around the Internet. This could be considered the Playstation 3 vs. Xbox 360 comparison for all who are looking to make a purchase this coming year.

Today's home theater is nothing like it used to be. There was a time that your hi-tech entertainment system was simply a TV in a corner. Now you toss in a DVD player, surround sound system, digital video recorder, and the like, and your home theater has grown to proportions your parents would have never dreamed of.

Choosing the right DVD player is not a trivial matter in a market flooded with products from various hardware vendors. There are more than several players to choose from in each price category and the notion of spending more money will buy you better performance does not always apply here, especially when DVD players are concerned.

The purpose of this guideline is to educate the consumer about Home Theater A/V Receivers to assist them in purchasing the best product for their money when buying time is evident. Decide based on power, # of speakers you're connecting, streaming features, and AV connection, support. What factors are most important to you when choosing a new AV receiver?