Fred Manteghian
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AV Receiver Reviews
Fred Manteghian Feb 10, 2008 0 comments

In Donny Darko, Drew Barrymore's character, Ms. Pomery, says that a famous linguist once proclaimed "cellar door" to be the most beautiful phrase in the English language. I'm here to recommend we consider "Marantz" for that title, because it reproduces the most beautiful sounds in any language. Be it Zoot Sims on JVC XRCD, Claudio Arrau playing Beethoven sonatas from a Philips CD, or that gawd-awful good Transformers movie on HD DVD, the Marantz is beauty personified!

Fred Manteghian Blog
Fred Manteghian Jan 28, 2008 12 comments

Part I - Jump Already!

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 12, 2008 0 comments

When I saw the Escalante Design Fremont speaker at HE 2007, I was mightily impressed with their neutrality and precise bass. Fast forward to CES 2008, and things were different. While the midrange and upper frequencies were still sublime, the switch to KR Audio tube monoblocks, from the VTL Reference S-400 stereo amplifier were a mistake as for all of KR's other virtues, bass control was not one of them. Still, one of the better sounds at the show.

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 12, 2008 1 comments

Grade-A nice guy Graemme Brown of Zen Mastering is explaining the setup in the Soundlabs / Isomike room before newphew Nate starts the proceedings. Those of you not familiar with Kimber Kable's IsoMike™ technique of recording, suffice to say it produces some uncanny result if you like image specificity and "you are there" realism. With Pass amplifiers, the Sound Lab Prostat speakers stand 8' 8" tall and project along a slight horizontal arc. It's really just two of their Majestic 945 speakers standing side by side in order to get enough horizontal coverage of the large room in which they were positioned. There were also a pair (or is that a quad, hehe) in the rear, but these weren't on for the demo when I was there.

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 08, 2008 2 comments

Last night, Mitsubishi took the Moon nightclub on the roof of the Palms Casino and turned it into a discothque to premier their long in development laser TV. Using fanfare fitting the unveiling of a major work of art (which in a way, it was), Mitsubishi lit up three of their rear projector laser engine TVs. They were at least 65" in diagonal, though we weren't told an exact size. Each was also about as thin as the thinnest DLP or LCD rear project TVs.

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 08, 2008 0 comments

Designer Kevin Voecks accepts the Ultimate AV magazine's 2007 Speaker System of the Year award for Revel's Ultima2 Studio2 system. This $36,000 system (click here to see a full list of this year's award recipients) earned high praise indeed from Tom Norton in his review when he referred to it as the best sound he has ever heard in his home theater.

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 08, 2008 0 comments

Jon Banner took this wonderful picture with my Panasonic Lumix TZ3 camera. Those are Ultimateavmag's Product of the Year Awards lined up on the table in the SourceInterlink suite at the Venetian. Outside the window is a long view of Las Vegas.

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 08, 2008 1 comments

From left to right: Luke "I am your father" Jervis, Amber Bell, Scott Wilkinson, Rosemarie Torcivia, Jon Iverson, Shane Buettner, Fred Manteghian, Jon Banner, Angela Speziale and Wes Phillips.

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 08, 2008 0 comments

Demonstrating their wireless 7.2 channel speaker / amplification system, Neosonik's system uses a proprietary 5 GHz wireless system to transmit signals digitally to each speaker. A central controller will accept an HDMI input and then transmit audio digitally to each speaker. Each speaker in turn has digital amplification for each driver. I asked about the video portion of the HDMI signal that had been routed to the controller. They've a device that transmits that signal digitally as well to a small receiver connected to your display.

CES 2009
Fred Manteghian Jan 08, 2008 0 comments

Aaron is a reporter for the Scholastic Kids Press Corps. I immediately asked him about what he thought about how Chelsea Clinton dissed the nine-year-old reporter from the Scholastic News in Iowa last week, and he and his Mom (right) were surprised it took so long for anyone to ask.

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