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AV Receiver Reviews
The Marantz SR9600 THX Ultra 2 AV Surround Receiver
Michael Fremer  |  May 26, 2006

DVD players have become so "commoditized" that it's typical today for players to sell for less than $100. And you know what? Some of these inexpensive players feature progressive scan output and perform quite well overall. I saw one such player advertised in my local paper today selling for $18! It wasn't too long ago that de-interlacing meant adding a $10,000 Faroudja scaler to an already expensive DVD player.

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Ears On
soundmatters FULLstageHD
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 26, 2006
The explosion of flat-panel and microdisplays has multiplied the number of manufacturers and products on the market. Unfortunately this happy profusion leaves a performance gap on the audio side. My Sharp AQUOS LCD HDTV has excellent speakers—by TV-speaker standards—but I don't depend on them for movies. And the sound on a typical no-name LCD set is simply wretched for any content, even sitcoms. So what do you do when you've uncrated your new display only to discover that the other half of the home theater equation is a shaping up to be a big zero?
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Tower Speaker Reviews
Vandersteen Model 3A Signature System: Short Take
 |  May 25, 2006

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/506vander3a.1.jpg" ALT="506vander3a.1.jpg" WIDTH=220 HEIGHT=281 HSPACE=4 VSPACE=4 ALIGN=RIGHT><B>Price</B>: $11,673 as configured in SCB's former reference system.

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The S&V Interview
HT Talks To... Doug Liman
Chris Chiarella  |  May 25, 2006
Straight Shooter Director Doug Liman hits the mark every time.

In less than a decade, Doug Liman has established himself as one of Hollywood's most versatile—and successful—directors. He has nimbly moved from comedy to thriller to a unique hybrid of the two in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, soon to be re-released in a new, unrated DVD edition from Fox Home Entertainment. Here he talks about the challenges of making quality movies in a demanding business.

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AV GlossaryOther Tech
HD DVD Versus Blu-ray
Gary Merson  |  May 25, 2006
What's the difference?

The next generation of prerecorded video content is here. The new machines use a blue-violet laser to read discs with far more storage capacity than current standard-definition DVD, and they can play high-definition content in full 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. The big attraction is the promise of the best picture quality you have ever seen on a display. The prerecorded, high-definition content offers pristine, near-perfect images with fewer artifacts (noise and blocking) than is possible today with broadcast or D-VHS content.

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Geoffrey Morrison Blog
The Death and Life of CRT
Geoffrey Morrison  |  May 25, 2006
We love it, but it's time to go.

Don't get me wrong—I love CRT displays. They still offer the best picture quality across the board, and I can't imagine having anything else for my computer monitor. That said, the technology isn't long for this world. Fewer and fewer companies are coming out with new models as consumers spend their money on big screens and flat panels. So, when contributor John Higgins mentioned that his TV had died, I knew what had to be done. I needed to give it a fiery send-off. I needed to destroy it.

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Ears On
Can't iPodiophiles and Audiophiles Just Get Along?
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 25, 2006
Interesting piece by Wired columnist Leander Kahney on the iPod's steady rise to acceptance as a hi-fi audio device. But I think he oversells his point when he says the iPod has audiophiles "spinning in their soundproof graves." He also oversimplifies, asserting that "to purists, only old-fashioned vinyl platters cut it." This stereotype (pun intended) ignores a whole universe of digital audio developments such as SACD and DVD-Audio, great concert videos in lossy surround formats, and the use of Dolby Pro Logic II to coax surround out of stereo source material (whether from CD, WAV, MP3, AAC, or none of the above). Speaking as an audiophile, I find these things just as interesting as my LP collection or, for that matter, my iPod. The biggest problem with high-performance audio, according to 56 percent of consumers in one survey, is that not enough of them have heard it.
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Tower Speaker Reviews
Thiel CS3.7 Speaker System: First Look
Ultimate AV Staff  |  May 25, 2006

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Tower Speaker Reviews
Paradigm Cinema 220 and Cinema 330 Speaker Systems: First Look
Ultimate AV Staff  |  May 25, 2006

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Tower Speaker Reviews
PSB Alpha Series Speaker System: First Look
Ultimate AV Staff  |  May 24, 2006  |  First Published: May 25, 2006

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