Geoffrey Morrison Blog

CEATEC (See-Tech) is a yearly trade show in Tokyo, Japan. For the most part it is either a preview of what the Japanese manufacturers are going to show at CES, or what they’re hoping to come out with in the near future. Then there’s the rest of the massive building that has parts like LEDs, IR transmitters, and all the bits that are in the products you buy.

If you read the post below, it is obvious that I was in Germany, though I neglected to mention why. Every year, the IFA show takes place in Berlin. It is a truly gigantic trade show that encompasses a few dozen buildings. CES, every year in Vegas, probably has more booths. But the average size of each booth at IFA is much larger. Some of them are entire buildings.

Part III: Starting Over

It was way back in the June 2005 issue that I built an HTPC from scratch—I mean really from scratch, as in out of wood. For those of you who may have missed it, you can find it at www.hometheatermag.com under the GearWorks section. It was a great experiment, and it basically worked. I haven't felt any effects of the RF radiation of 3.6 gigahertz (there was no shielding), and the minimal amount of innards-securing hasn't been an issue. (At 54 pounds, it does not get moved much.)

It seems like nearly every high-end audio company is trying to get out of the house and into the car these days. While at first this appears strange, it makes a lot of sense. The home audio market has been stagnant for years, and every bit of exposure can only help. The car also has several aspects that make it somewhat easier to design for than the home. For one, you know where your listeners are going to be, and you know with a lot of certainty what and where the reflective and absorptive surfaces are. The downsides, of course, are road noise, and less than perfect speaker placement. There are many ways a company can approach these problems, and done well, they can sound vastly better than the stock system, and often better than any aftermarket system as well.

Sony unveiled a slew of new TVs at their recent TV unveiling in NYC.

Pioneer announced eight new plasmas on Wednesday. That in itself is not terribly exciting. What is exciting is that it is based on their 8th generation glass, which I’ve talked about before.