made

Audio Research Corporation (ARC), based in Minnesota, was in the vanguard of the American high-end audio movement in the early 1970s. By then mass-market transistor electronics had all but killed off the vacuum tube, but ARC's founder, William Z. Johnson, not only believed his tube amplifiers sounded better than solid-state gear, he thought tubes were technically superior. That's why ARC billed itself as a "high-definition" company since its start, decades before HDTV came on the scene. ARC was in large part responsible for starting the tube renaissance, and time has proven Mr. Johnson correct, as there … Read more

Call it a "wind-win" opportunity: there's a new push on for a "WindMade" certification label for U.S. companies, services, and products.

The announcement yesterday (on Global Wind Day) in New York by a group of organizations marks the start of a two-month development period. But the first draft of the standard allowing the use of the WindMade label requires that a company source at least 25 percent of its electricity from wind in order to qualify.

The idea for a WindMade label was originally proposed in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos … Read more

Cogentrix Energy has been granted a $90.6 million conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build a 30-megawatt concentrated photovoltaic solar plant in Alamosa, Colo., the company announced yesterday

The company also said it plans to source a minimum of 80 percent of the solar farm components from within the U.S. That promise is significant given the size and scope of the solar farm, and its technology.

The Alamosa Solar Generating Project will be the largest solar project in the world using high concentrated photovoltaics (HCPVs) with a dual-axis tracking system. That means that each concentrated … Read more

Rejoice, weekend DIY fans, for ReadyMade magazine has released a download-and-print book called the ReadyMade 100, a manual of 100 DIY projects that can be completed on an average weekend at home.

ReadyMade is a magazine all about DIY ideas that are fun, stylish, and clever. And many, like the ones we've selected for the gallery, stand out as being very Crave-worthy. This list is far from definitive, so if you like what you see here, you'll want to check out all the projects in the book, which includes how-tos for most of them, while others serve simply as awesome inspiration.

The list is a collection of DIY projects submitted as part of a contest the magazine had late last year, and all the entries are impressive. For the most part, they were invented by people like you and me who have a flair for the do-it-yourself.

There's a repurposed Army surplus duffel, a beautiful shim wall to offset a home entertainment center, and a bar top made out of discarded computer keyboards. Not all of these are problem solvers, some are just fun, but that's OK, it's the weekend.

To share your DIY project, simply e-mail a description of 350 words or less, including all the geeky ins and outs of your invention, plus relevant links and photos, to crave at cnet dot com. Please put DIY Weekend in the subject line. … Read more

I've owned, listened to, and reviewed a lot of high-end CD players, but none of them sounded as good as PS Audio's PerfectWave Transport and Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) components.

The Transport uses a CD-ROM drive mechanism that "reads" and rereads the data on the CD as many times as necessary until a bit-perfect match is achieved. PS Audio's Web site says the CD's data is placed in a 64MB memory buffer as the music plays, so you're not directly listening to the CD. To prove that claim remove the disc from the Transport and the music will continue playing for approximately 30 seconds!

The Transport can also play high-resolution WAV files off DVDs, with sample rates up to 192-kHz with 24-bit resolution. I had a few of these DVDs on hand for this review, and the PerfectWave components really shined with high-resolution audio. … Read more

Americans love power. We buy 320-horsepower Chevy Tahoes to haul the kids to soccer practice. For home theater, the magic power number for receivers is 100 watts, and it has to be a seven-channel model, even though 80 or 90 percent of home theater buyers are perfectly happy with five-channel sound.

Americans equate power with quality, but I'm here to tell you there's another way. Sure, power is cheap, and a the-more-the-merrier strategy works well enough most of the time. Let's just be clear on what amplifier power provides: it defines the upper limit of how loud … Read more

The debate over whether General Motors is violating the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA), by not including window stickers that identify where the cars are made, continues.

We reported on Friday that the Made in the USA Foundation claims GM is willfully misleading consumers by leaving out labeling that identifies where the cars were made.

Joel D. Joseph, chairman of the Made in the USA Foundation, said in a release on Friday, "General Motors wants to hide the fact that, even after the government bailout, it has moved production of vehicles offshore. The Cadillac SRX is now made in … Read more

Just where is that Buick Regal made? Answer: Germany. But, according to the Made in the USA Foundation, you wouldn't know this from the label if you saw the car at an auto show.

The foundation has charged GM with violating the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA), which requires all new cars in the retail market to include country-of-origin information.

The AALA requires a window sticker on new cars that includes information such as where the car was assembled, where the engine was made, and where the transmission was made.

According to the foundation, these labels are left off … Read more

Decware makes low power amplifiers and high-end speakers in the United States. Their entry-level Zen Triode amplifier ($775) pumps out 2 watts per channel, and if you need more get the 6 watt Zen Taboo ($995), or the mighty 26-watt Zen Torii ($2,495). The Zen Triode was the company's very first model and has charmed tough to please high-end critics on a regular basis.

Trust me on this; you'd be amazed how good a few watts can sound, and when they're matched with the right speakers, micro power amps can definitely play loud enough to annoy … Read more