2 Days left in this contest to win some awesome equipment.

Here is the skinny from HomeTheaterReview.com. I’m game, I entered, Cary Audio makes some fantastic gear and I would love to own some myself.  Easy and quick questionnaire along with fill in name and info.  No BS.

- audioREVIEW

Enter To Win A $1,500 Cary Audio Xciter 32bit/192k USB DAC!

In July 2009, readers of HomeTheaterReview.com are invited to enter to win a $1,500 Cary Audio Xciter 32bit/192k USB DAC. Plug in everything from your CD transport to your computer right into this cutting edge audiophile component and prepare to be blown away. Entry is simple. Just fill out your information and answer the questions (its on a few pages) and you are entered to win. Its that easy.

Enter Here

source: hometheaterreview.com

www.caryaudio.com

What truly is better? Plasma or LCD or CRT?

Plasma has been stamped of late as ‘dying technology’ but LCD still has a lot of haters. Displaymate.com did a shootout of Plasma, LCD, CRT.  Dr. Raymond Soneira compares two Plasmas, eight LCDs, and one CRT Sony Professional HD Trinitron Studio Monitor at the DisplayMate Technologies Demo Lab. They go over Features and Specifications, Set Up and Calibration, Photometry and Colorimetry, Brightness and Contrast Ratio and Viewing Angles.

If having a true picture perfect HDTV is a priority for you, I suggest you read this.

There is also an interesting discussion about the results of the shootout going on in the audioREVIEW forums.

It sure does appear that Plasma is still the way to go. But don’t think that wont stop pixelthis from defending LCD to the death in the forums.

via: 3db | displaymate.com

What receiver would you throw down a black hole, never to be seen, and more importantly heard from again?

You ever had a receiver that just never sounded right, or blew up, melted away soon after purchasing? Wish you have never heard it, wish you had never seen it, wish it had never existed, wish you could throw in a black hole never to be heard from again? I have. A nice cheap-o Sony 7.1 surround sound receiver.  About 6 months after I got it for the computer (we watch movies on the computer at home) something happened and the sub basically went full power all the time.  Well, that ended that.

But what about you? Best story of a receiver hell you wish you could catapult into a black hole never to be heard again WINS an audioREVIEW T-Shirt.

Leave your story below in the comments. We’ll pick a winner next weekend.

What set of speakers would you throw down a black hole, never to be seen, and more importantly heard from again?

You ever hear a set of speakers you wish you have never heard, you wish had never existed, you wish you could throw in a black hole never to be heard from again?  I have.   Cambridge Soundwoks Model Seventeen by Henery Kloss.  For $100 I spent on these back in the day…boy if I had only….  Turned out to be weak, toneless, real pathetic bass less speakers.  Can’t even give’em away on craigslist.

I realize this just my opinion, which actually differs considerably from ‘some guy‘ who reviewed the Model Seventeens on audioREVIEW and gave them a 5 of 5.

But what about you?  Best story for speakers you wish you could catapult into a black hole never to be heard again WINS an audioREVIEW T-Shirt.

Leave your story below in the comments.  We’ll pick a winner next weekend.

BoingBoing.net found a great post on the BBC, 13 kid given a 30 year old Sony Walkman.  This is a great read.

- audioREVIEW

“Throughout my week using the Walkman, I came to realise that I have very little knowledge of technology from the past. I made a number of naive mistakes, but I also learned a lot about the grandfather of the MP3 Player.

You can almost imagine the excitement about the Walkman coming out 30 years ago, as it was the newest piece of technology at the time.

Perhaps that kind of anticipation and excitement has been somewhat lost in the flood of new products which now hit our shelves on a regular basis.”

image source: BBC “The Walkman was a nostalgic sight for Scott’s parents”

Read the whole article here…

source: BBC

via: BoingBoing.net

Electronic music, you wonder where it started, how, why?  Why it is so popular in modern pop music? Boing Boing has a post on Jean-Jacques Perry with appearances from Air, Angelo Badalamenti and others. A youtube.com video for the trailer and a link to the full VOD in French with English subs.

Read a bit more on boingboing.net

via: boingboing.net

full video and more details

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0R0wQZTEQw

source: boingboing.net

image: emusician.com

read a bit more on the orgine of electronic music from audioREIVEW blogger auricauricle’s post “Denizens of Electronic Music’s Mount Olympus“

I ran across an pretty slick trendy Japanese gadget sight and thought I’d share.  It loads fairly slow but it is worth a look if you like gadgets with some spunk.

“Gizmine brings you to the heart of Tokyo. Get all the smartest gadgets, cutest (kawaii) culture, and lifestyle goods here”

www.gizmine.com

CrunchGear has a nice little piece about DIY cables.  With video and guide.  For the price and quality for MonoCable and BlueJean Cables are pretty damn good and cheap.  There is a lot of cable chatter on the audioREVIEW cable forum.

- audioREVIEW

image source: crunchgear

Spend some time making noise instead of playing boring flash games at work. A friend and I tweeked out on these Flash proggies for a few hours today. Enjoy…

baasnotes.com post a few days back about this awesome site called lab.andre-michelle.com that has a collection of Adobe Flash based audio and some image programs.  Hook your computer up to some good speakers and waste a couple hours making some fun music.  There are things like a Flash based 909, get your bump tap bump tap on or just irritate your co-workers with 180bmp distorted kicks! The Tonematrix (I personally think is awesome, pictured below) and a bunch of there stuff.

- audioREVIEW

(This is the ToneMatrix from Andre Michelle.  Totally hypnotic)

source: bassnotes.com

Make sure you have the latest Adobe Flash installed. If not get it here at Adobe’s site.

Matthew Moskovciak over at CNet has post a  helpful article rounding up the ’09 Blu-ray players to come out so far. Pretty good piece of information if you are in the market for Blu-ray. Speaking of which, is Blu-ray dead yet? If it isn’t than you should also look at just getting a Sony Playstation. You get web access, play games, hard drive and more. You can also check out AudioREVIEW’s Editor’s Choice Best Cheaper Blu-Ray Players article for great Blu-ray players at a big of a better cost.

-audioREVIEW

Blu-ray may have started out as a mess, with confusing “profiles” and painfully slow load times, but this year’s standalone players have finally gotten their acts together. The new 2009 Blu-ray players are already hitting retailers and we’re happy to report that all the units we’ve tested have full Profile 2.0 compatibility, as well as onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential. The days of half-baked standalone Blu-ray players are pretty much over.

The Samsung BD-P3600 is the standout player of the bunch, going beyond the basic features to include Netflix and Pandora streaming, 7.1 analog outputs, 1GB onboard memory, and an included Wi-Fi USB dongle. We were also very impressed with its operational speed, as it’s the only player we’ve seen that is generally as fast as the Sony PlayStation 3. Mix in its excellent image quality on Blu-ray Discs and its sleek design, and you’ve got one of the best Blu-ray players we’ve laid our hands on.

read the rest and see the spec of the suggested players at CNet.  Actually a very helpful guide.

source: CNet