Tech2

In the last year, we’ve seen lots of super-compact audio systems that sound surprisingly good: the Jawbone Jambox, the Q2 Internet Radio, and the Soundmatters FoxLv2 are three great examples. But the NuForce Cube comes in at just a fraction of their size: The enclosure measures less than 2.5 inches on all its sides. One look at the Cube and it’s hard to imagine you’d want to listen to it for long.

But behind the Cube’s grille hides what may be the most serious attempt at a 1-inch full-range driver I’ve ever seen.

If I were forced to choose between the $20K worth of audio test gear I own or the demo CD that cost me probably 20 cents to make, I’d take the latter without hesitation. Test gear is great for telling me how well an audio product is engineered. But when I want to find out what an audio product does — i.e., how a listener will perceive its sound — the demo CD is a much better tool.

There's a coffee cup on the remote, an icon unmistakably a cup and saucer. Maybe it's tea. It's the largest button. It's backlit. It might be taunting me.

So begins my time with the Epson MegaPlex MG-850HD Projector, a plucky little PJ that makes me question the logic of every flat panel in existence.

Announced today, Dolby has added a new trick to their TrueHD encoding. It allows studios and authoring houses a way to upconvert standard 48 kHz content (the sampling rate of most movies) to 96 kHz for Blu-ray.

At an event at Dolby headquarters in San Francisco, I got a chance to hear the results. Interestingly, it was quite... interesting.

It is the job of every generation to complain that the younger generations are inferior, or headed for destruction, or whatever the latest cause célèbre is. Even in the lifetimes of those reading this blog, it's easy to point to the mass hysteria surrounding rock and roll, then heavy metal, then rap, then video games, as examples of one generation making mindless accusations about another.

In the audio world this is just as common, it's ongoing, and Harman has released a study that shows that the old people need to shut the hell up (I'm paraphrasing).

The ability of a display to upconvert standard definition content (like a DVD, or many cable/satellite channels) was once a key component of its overall performance.

But now, most TVs do a reasonable job, and more important, I don’t think most people actually have any SD content.

Should we bother to continue testing it?

Burbling quietly as it rolls down the back of the flatbed truck, the Panamera appears an expansive stretch of undulating blue sheet metal. With nary a paper to sign, the delivery driver hands me the keys and says, “have fun” with a wry smirk.

Because it amuses me (and probably my neighbors), I park it next to my 1975 Porsche 914, which cost me a hair north of 1% of the sticker price of its great-great-grand sibling.

It’s going to be a good week.