Home theater

Buying music or books online makes a lot of sense, but I'd draw the line at speakers.

Maybe there's no place close enough to go to for an in-store demo--a lot of shops closed their doors--precisely because too many people used their service to audition gear, and then bought online to get a lower price.

Nice, so now there are fewer places to hear speakers before you buy them. So even if you're reasonably happy with what you bought online you never had the luxury of comparing one speaker against another and picking the best of your choices. Good enough is good enough.

Over the past 30 years--16 as a high-end audio salesman and 14 as a paid audio reviewer--I've listened to thousands of speakers. My sales experience gave me a deep understanding of how all sorts of people, not just audiophiles, listen to and buy speakers.

Some buyers need to touch the speaker, get a sense of its build quality, and some buyers, even after reading a review, are surprised by the speaker's size or some other quality. It's one thing to read about a speaker or peruse its specifications, seeing and hearing it for yourself is so much better.

I draw upon those experiences when I review speakers, but I still can't predict how each reader will react to their sound. Everyone hears differently, and preferences are all over the place.

Some customers want lots of bass, some just want to play loud, or quietly, some care most abut stereo imaging. One guy plays dance music, another only opera. But most speaker shoppers can't articulate what they want from a speaker. That's the rub, and why reviews, even ones as well written as mine for CNET and magazines, may not be the best possible guide to the right speaker. … Read more

That's right--five speakers for $299--and we're not talking about one of those flyweight packages with itsy-bitsy speakers.

The Fluance SXHTB system features a pair of floor-standing tower speakers, a full-size center-channel speaker, and very decent two-way surround speakers. There's no subwoofer, but the Fluance towers make a lot more bass than tiny satellites, so some buyers won't need to add a sub. I reviewed this system for CNET in 2005, but it's still available.

I'm not claiming the system is a bona-fide giant killer or offers the sort of refined sound you'll find on much more expensive systems. But if you're on a limited budget and have the room for a full-size speaker set, the Fluance SXHTB's combination of credible sound quality and solid construction represent an amazing value.

The entire ensemble is finished in a durable natural beech vinyl wrap (the only finish option). The speakers' robust MDF wood construction cabinets are built to a high standard.

Standing 38.8 inches tall, the towers definitely qualify as full-size speakers, and each one weighs a hefty 33.4 pounds. Each tower's elegantly proportioned cabinet rests on an integrated base, which in turn features adjustable brass feet. The 15.8-wide center speaker is no less impressive, and the surround speakers, which also include bases, are wall-mountable. They're the babies of the package--just 8.8 inches high.

The towers feature dual 6.5-inch poly-coated woofers and a 1-inch silk-dome tweeter. The center channel speaker sports a pair of 4-inch poly-coated woofers and a 1-inch plastic tweeter, while the surround speakers include the same type of woofer and tweeter. All of the speakers are ported designs.… Read more

Some of today's DVD and Blu-ray soundtracks are so densely mixed that dialogue can be hard to understand.

When actors' lines are obscured by onscreen mayhem, you may miss important plot details. The dialogue intelligibility problem is even worse for people who are hard of hearing.

Here's a simple fix to improve intelligibility that also works like a charm for quiet, late-night movie watching.

Turn up the center channel volume level. Please understand, that's not the same thing as cranking up your receiver's volume control. Raising the center channel volume relative to the left/right and surround channels makes dialogue louder than the music and sound effects, so it's easier to understand what the actors are saying.

The easiest way to make the adjustment is with your receiver or home theater-in-a-box system's remote control. Check and see if your remote has a button marked "Channel Select." My Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver's remote has such a control, marked "CH SEL". It toggles through left, right, center, etc., and once I got to the center I used the "Level -" and "Level +" buttons to adjust the center channel volume.

Experiment to figure out how much louder you want the center channel speaker to be, but start with turning it up by three decibels. That might be enough, but don't hesitate to turn it up higher if that's what you need.

Of course, you can also use the CH SEL feature to boost subwoofer volume to taste whenever you switch movies or CDs. Or adjust the surround channels volume. … Read more

Atlantic Technology's new 1400 SR-z speaker was designed with Dolby's Pro Logic IIz "height" surround processor in mind

The new speaker's compact size and shallow profile allow it to be unobtrusively mounted high on the wall above the system's front left and right main speakers. The 1400 SR-z sells for $425/pair MSRP.

The company claims that the 1400 SR-z's "voicing" and timbre will match all of Atlantic Technology's speaker systems.

Each 1400 SR-z uses a pair of 3.5-inch full-range polymer-treated cone drivers. The wedge-shaped speaker disperses sound laterally … Read more

Let's face it, headphones always sound like headphones--that is--they never really sound like speakers.

Headphones "squirt" sound directly into your ears, but the new AKG K 702's much-larger-than-average earcups allow the drivers to be placed farther away from your ears, so the sound seems less direct. This headphone was designed for recording engineers and studio use, and the sound quality is right up there with some of the best headphones ever made. Priced at $540, it's not cheap, but it's not at all out of line for what you get. This blog is a preview of my upcoming full CNET review.

I found the K 702's expansive sound hugely appealing; that's why it sounds less like a headphone and more like speakers in a room. Not the same as, but less headphone-like than most.

The AKG K 702 is, in fact, the professional version of the consumer K 701 model that came out a couple of years ago. That one received raves from the audiophile press, including me, so naturally I had even higher hopes for the K 702, but it's essentially the same design as the K 701. The K 702 is matte dark blue (looks black to me) instead of gloss white and features a detachable cable.

Thanks to the way the K 702's real leather/metal wire headband distributes the weight of the 'phones evenly across your head, and those large, extra soft velour covered cushions, you can wear these headphones for hours at a time and they'll remain nice and comfy. Build quality, durability, fit and finish are all first rate.

I've made the point in previous blogs, but to get the best sound from high-end headphones plug them into a high-quality headphone amplifier. Sure, the K 702 sounded fine plugged into my Onkyo SR-TX 805 AV receiver, but the headphone was sweeter and prettier sounding with my Woo Audio WA6 SE tube amp ($1,050). Then again, the K 702's sound over my ancient 15GB iPod wasn't too shabby. … Read more

Betamax was one of Sony's biggest blunders.

The videocassette format was introduced in 1975, and initially sold well. But when JVC's VHS tape cartridge was introduced in 1978, Betamax quickly lost its lead. The media loved Beta for its superior picture quality, but Standard Betamax tapes were only 60 minutes, and VHS 3-hour tapes could record more TV shows.

VHS was more popular, but Betamax refused to die. Production in the U.S. ended in 1993, and the last Betamax machine in the world was produced in Japan in 2002.

Ah, but the Compact Disc was a hit from the get-go. On August 31, 1982, an announcement was made in Tokyo that four companies, Sony, CBS/Sony, Philips, and Polygram had jointly developed the world's first CD system. Talk of the CD's demise are premature, sales are still in the hundreds of millions of discs a year.

The MiniDisc was introduced January 12, 1992. The recordable music format was originally based exclusively on ATRAC audio data compression, but the format never caught on in the U.S. MiniDiscs were popular in Japan and Asia as a digital upgrade from cassette tapes.

Which reminds me, Sony's ill-fated Elcaset came out in 1976. Like Betamax, Sony was trying to make a higher quality tape format, in this case better than the Philips Compact Cassette. Elcaset was better, but it was too large and cumbersome. Elcaset was a flop. … Read more

In the beginning of recorded sound, there was mono. One speaker, period.

Mono speakers were plopped wherever it was convenient, and that was that. Consumer audio remained strictly mono until the late 1950s with the introduction of stereo tape and LPs. Now you needed two speakers.

Home theater upped the ante to 5.1 channel surround sound--five speakers, plus a subwoofer--and setup hassles were getting tricky. Dolby's Web site offers very specific requirements for the placement of the front left, center, right speakers, and the side surround speakers. 6.1 and 7.1 systems add rear surround speakers.

It's one thing to look at a diagram, but your room probably doesn't look like the diagram. Reality sets in, so very few 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 system buyers get remotely close to the recommended speaker placements.

I've seen countless 5.1 home theater in a box systems in real people's homes with all five satellite speakers clumped in a row under or over the TV. Some buyers spread the speakers out across their entertainment furniture, still with all the speakers in front, near the TV. Obviously, those people don't want to string wires across the room. I don't blame them.

On one hand it'll sound "fine," but the envelopment the film sound mixers worked so hard to achieve will be lost. Don't worry, the Dolby Police won't arrest you for improper placement and the certain destruction of the filmmaker's intent.

If you have all of your speakers sitting in a pile, but I've made you a little curious, temporarily move the surround speakers out into the room. Put 'em on something to get them off the floor: A chair, bookcase, furniture, and so on. Play a few big action flicks and see what's up with surround. It might surprise you and just maybe you'll be inspired enough to make the effort to find permanent, around the room locations for the surround speakers. Hey, in 5.1 it's only two skinny wires.… Read more

I'm asked this question all the time: "Are there any great-sounding TV speakers?"

People want "something good," but they don't want hassles, and they sure as hell don't want to decipher techno-babble setup instructions. Nowadays there are plenty of single speaker systems to choose from, but most of them don't sound all that good, and setup--while way better than a bona fide multichannel system--is still more complicated than it ought to be.

Enter the Zvox Z-Base 550 Low-Profile Single Cabinet Surround Sound System ($500). From the front, it looks like just another … Read more