Home Theater

Darryl Wilkinson

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Sony STR-DA5800ES A/V Receiver

Filed Under: AV Receiver Reviews

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: May 13, 2013 • 0 comments

Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

Price: $2,100 At A Glance: Free iOS and Android remote control apps • Built-in Control4 home automation controller • Four Easy Automation multi-parameter programmable scenes

A chimera is a mythical animal consisting of parts from various other animals. In Greek mythology, for example, a Chimera (with a capital C) was an unpleasant, fire-breathing creature that had a serpent’s tail, a goat’s body, and a lion’s head. (Insert standard joke about previous spouse/significant other, mother-in-law, editors, etc.) Although it’s not an official definition in the A/V world, I consider a component that’s been soldered together using parts from different components to be a chimera, too. The active soundbar with its amalgamation of amps, speakers, processor, and etc. is a good example of such an electronic creature. The deviant TV/VCR/DVD Franken-combo, on the other hand, is an example of how things can go terribly wrong.

More Power To the People

Filed Under: Remotely Possible

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: May 06, 2013 • 1 comments

Power cords. Three-prong adapters. Wall-wart power supplies and USB chargers with their thin, inevitably tangled cords. Running out of available outlets. These are all things I hate. Hell, even polarized plugs annoy the crap out of me. Let’s just say that when wireless power transmission – or power-harvesting devices – ever becomes a reality, I’m going to be a particularly happy individual. (If only Tesla were still alive…) In the meantime, the previously mentioned assortment vexing electrical necessities are things we all have no other choice than to deal with.

Fortunately there are plenty of devices out there that are specifically designed to lessen the pain of dealing with power cords and power supplies...

SONTE Wants You To Be a Part of the (Wi-Fi) Film Industry

Filed Under: Remotely Possible

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Apr 19, 2013 • 4 comments

If the folks at SONTE have their way, the company’s new Kickstarter project is going to be curtains for the window treatment industry. Or, rather, it won’t be curtains…

Researchers Use Quantum Entanglement to Create Wireless, “Invisible” Speakers

Filed Under: Remotely Possible

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Apr 01, 2013 • 1 comments

Einstein disliked it, famously calling the phenomenon “spooky action at a distance”; but if a team of scientists at the Linear Research Particle Accelerator (LRPA) facility have their way, the bizarre effects of “quantum entanglement” could bring about loudspeakers that are both truly wireless and totally invisible.

Polk SurroundBar 9000 IHT Soundbar

Filed Under: Soundbar Reviews

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Mar 26, 2013 • 2 comments

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

Price: $800 At A Glance: Learns commands from your TV’s or other remote control • Wireless subwoofer with automatic pairing • Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoding

Addicted, as millions of us are, to the near instantaneous gratification of loaded DVRs and streaming services capable of providing lifetimes of mindless entertainment, it’s no surprise that we want speed and simplicity to apply to the entire process of watching TV. In fact, digging the remote control out from under the couch cushions ought to be about the limit of the physical and mental effort involved.

Digital Killed the Sound City Studio Star

Filed Under: Remotely Possible

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Mar 25, 2013 • Published: Mar 25, 2013 • 6 comments

At first glance, you’d think a documentary about a defunct recording studio would have a hard time maintaining the interest of anyone other than a recording engineer for its entire 108-minute runtime. When I tell you that this documentary spends a great deal of those 108 minutes reverently reminiscing about the analog mixing console at the studio, it’s likely you’ll start wondering what insane, “analog forever”, diehard audiophile thought this subject would ever appeal to more than a dozen or so people. Frankly, it’s the sort of film you’d expect to find in the mosh-pit discount bins of DVDs and Blu-rays in the aisles of Walmart.

Is That a Hopper In Your Pocket, or Are You Just Happy to Watch TV?

Filed Under: Remotely Possible

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Mar 06, 2013 • 0 comments

At CES 2013, DISH’s CEO, Joe Clayton, used the occasion to once again display his insatiable infatuation with Australian marsupials…as well as promote some key features included in the soon-to-be-released “Hopper with Sling” whole-home DVR. Surprisingly, after less than 12 months, DISH felt it was time to futz with what was arguably (and I’m not the only one to have made the argument) the world’s best whole-home satellite DVR available until now—the original “Hopper”.

MartinLogan Motion 40 Speaker System

Filed Under: Floorstanding Speaker Reviews

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Feb 12, 2013 • 6 comments

MartinLogan Motion 40 Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value

Dynamo 1000 Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

Price: $4,345 At A Glance: Folded Motion tweeters • Dual 6.5-inch aluminum cone woofers • Custom five-way bi-wire tool-less binding posts

A couple of years ago, I took a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Waterbury, Vermont. Whilst there, I heard the tour guide refer to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as super-premium. I was intrigued because: 1) I’m thinking about using it as a nickname for myself; 2) I’d never heard the term used in reference to ice cream before; and 3) I wondered if there were additional levels of premium-ness. (Ultra-super premium? Super-duper premium? Maximum-ultra-super-duper premium?) I was disappointed to discover that, although the FDA sets standards for the use of nutrient descriptors. Less air and more butter fat promotes higher premium-ness—all the way up, I assume, to the heart-valve-clogging, airless, 100-percent pure, frozen-block-of-butter-fat variety.

In the case of loudspeakers, it’s the opposite. More air and less fat—no one likes tubby bass—results in super-smooth, premium sound.

Your Brain as the Ultimate Universal Remote Control?

Filed Under: Remotely Possible

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Feb 11, 2013 • 0 comments

It’s not quite the stuff of a Philip K. Dick novel, but Freer Logic’s BodyWave technology promises to bring mind control to the masses.

Smart Watches? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Smart Watches!

Filed Under: Remotely Possible

By: Darryl Wilkinson • Posted: Jan 23, 2013 • 0 comments

It didn’t start out being about knowing what time it is. Nor did it have anything to do with making a techno-fashion statement. It all stemmed from a random comment I heard on the radio about so-called “smart watches”. “I’d have no use,” the voice declared, “for a smart watch of any kind...unless maybe it displayed the caller ID from my smart phone so I could look at my wrist instead of pulling my phone out of my pocket to decide whether or not to take the call.” That thought sent a tweet to my cerebral cortex, which then forwarded on an email to one of my frontal lobes which then flashed an Instagram picture. “I’d like that, too,” I thought. “But,” my normally incoherent pattern of thought went on, “I’d really like it if I could use the watch to control my home theater – or, better yet, control the entire Control4/Lutron automation system in my house.” Of course, once you’re on this kind of a roll, it’s hard to stop anywhere near reality. “And I want it to have voice recognition for commands – like Siri, but without the sulking “unable to take requests” rebuffs – so I can just talk to my watch and make things happen!”

Oh, Lady Technology, you can be such a tease...

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