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Making the Wireless Connection: New HP 3D, TV, and Audio Solutions

A trio of new products from HP don't quite add up to a home entertainment system
- By Michael Berk
- Posted November 16, 2011
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Over the past couple of weeks Hewlett Packard has rolled out a huge pile of new consumer products, among them a clutch of all-in-ones, touchscreen PCs and tablets, Beats-enhanced laptops, and even a curious little Wi-Fi mouse.

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Altec Lansing Debuts Custom In-Ear Headphones

The speaker manufacturer aims to make custom in-ears as easy as A1, A2, A3
- By Michael Berk
- Posted November 15, 2011
Having already moved successfully into the iDevice docking and low-cost earphone spaces, Altec Lansing is testing the premium headphone market. But rather than looking to pick up a celebrity endorser, they've instead gone high-end, announcing today a full line of custom-fit in-ear 'phones: the A1, A2, and A3, offering one, two, and three balanced armature drivers respectively, in medical-grade silicone housings.

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A Look at Panasonic’s Expanded VIERA Connect

. . . and pondering the future of broadcast television
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted November 11, 2011
Panasonic had an event yesterday where they showed off some of the new apps available for their VIERA Connect web-streaming platform.
On the surface, it was merely an update of the platform with some new content providers. But what those providers were offering was interesting. Very interesting indeed.
Potentially. . . it's the future.

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Curvaceous Docks: Monitor Audio i-Deck 100 and 200, Now Available

Curvy design and engineering twists for a pair of new iOS docks
- By Michael Berk
- Posted October 25, 2011
British manufacturer Monitor Audio has a deserved reputation for well-designed, high-performing speaker systems, and the latest offerings in the company's line of iOS device docks, the i-deck 100 and 200, follow in those footsteps. And now they can be yours.

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Win a Peel Universal Remote

Help us out again, and get your home theater under control with a little help from Peel's pear-shaped widget
- By Michael Berk
- Posted October 21, 2011
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The Peel universal remote is a combo platter including a transmitter and receiver that keeps in touch with your home network via ZigBee and passes on commands to your gear via IR, operated via a free app for

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Test Report: Yamaha YSP-2200 Digital Sound Projector

A superbly compact and high-performing soundbar.
- By Daniel Kumin
- Posted October 19, 2011
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I have something that I must confess: I’ve got a love/hate thing with soundbars. On the love side, these one- or two-piece, flat-panel-pandering “surround” systems have rescued tens of thousands of innocent suburbanites from the horrors of tinny TV tintinnabulation.

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Review: PS Audio PerfectWave System

The most significant improvement of any audio component I’ve ever added to my system.
- By John Sciacca
- Posted October 19, 2011
Peanut butter and chocolate. Wine and cheese. Lennon and McCartney. Some things are great on their own, but when they meet their perfect counterpart, the result can be pure magic.

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Rocky Mountain Audio Fest Report, Part 2: Speakers, Amps, and More

The hottest trends and hi-fi gear from last weekend’s Denver show.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted October 19, 2011
The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is growing up. A few years ago, it was known as a gathering of small (sometimes one-man) companies demonstrating exotic (sometimes downright wacky) audio products. Some of those guys are still there, but so now are most of the better-known high-end audio companies.

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Test Report: Sonus Faber Liuto Speakers and REL R-528 Subwoofer

A speaker system that lends itself just as well to audiophile listening as it does to high-impact home theater.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted October 17, 2011
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Romantics see Italy as a place of rich history and sophisticated culture. Not me. As a non-romantic, I can think of Italy only as the birthplace of the Fiat 128 that often left me walking instead of driving, and the location of a honeymoon in which I fought frenzied traffic and struggled to find a decent meal.

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Whole-Home Audio for the Rest of Us

Legrand's new airQast and Sonos' distribution deal with Target make wireless audio more accessible than ever.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted October 13, 2011
Legrand — a leader in residential wiring and custom install components — in something of a surprise move announced the airQast wireless music system at this year's CEDIA Expo.

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Beats by Dr. Dre Holiday Preview

Monster unveils custom colors, a pop-up-shop, a boombox, and a nifty new headphone (or two)
- By Michael Berk
- Posted October 12, 2011
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S+V dropped by the Beats by Dr. Dre/Monster Cable holiday product preview last night, to check out what the company had to offer to follow up on the Beats Pro headphones we looked at in this month's headphone shootout.

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The World’s Most Expensive In-Wall Speaker

What does $110K buy? Three 22-inch woofers per side, for starters
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted October 5, 2011
Somehow when I was walking around last month’s CEDIA Expo, I completely missed what must surely be the biggest, baddest, most expensive in-wall speaker ever created.

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