Audio

What's New

Review: So-Na-Wall SonaPod Speakers

These little pods make your home theater sound a lot bigger.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted September 30, 2010
A home theater can sound great, but there's a certain excitement that comes with watching a movie in a large theater packed with giant professional speakers. The sound is just bigger — more like what we expect movies to sound like.

» Read More
Test Report: Martin Logan Motion Series Speakers

An outside-of-the-box design give these speakers a distinct sound that deserves a listen.
- By Daniel Kumin
- Posted September 17, 2010
If Porsche made a front-engine, water-cooled delivery van, would it still be a "real" Porsche? Car nuts could argue such a question 'til doomsday &MDASH; and indeed have, beginning in 1978 when Porsche debuted its muchdebated water-cooled, front-engine Model 928. Audio buffs no doubt are ready to do likewise regarding the new Motion speaker range from MartinLogan.

» Read More
Test Report: Triad Speakers

Designer Series Onwall Mini LCR 3.0 Soundbar, DS300 In-Wall Speakers and Inwall Slimsub/4 Subwoofer.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted September 17, 2010
Did you know they stopped making speakers? Sure, you can still buy things that make sound when connected to an amplifier, but now they;re called "solutions." The idea here is to solve problems that emerge from the public's simultaneous love of good sound and hatred of the traditional speaker form factor. Solutions have been the mantra of late at Triad Speakers.

» Read More
Test Report: Atlantic Technology AT-1 H-PAS Speakers

A serious algorithm translated into a truly impressive set of speakers.
- By Daniel Kumin
- Posted September 16, 2010
I’ve seen plenty of loudspeaker “breakthroughs” in my half-a-lifetime around the audio sideshow, including speakers shaped like ears, tubas, and croquet balls. And there have also been “revolutionary” new driver designs that resembled stars, chafing dishes, and origami.

» Read More
Review Round Up: Soundbars

We test four soundbar systems to see what’s possible when you stuff multiple speakers into one slim box.
- By Ken C. Pohlmann
- Posted September 16, 2010
In a perfect world, we’d all have five huge speakers circled around the sofa and a substantial subwoofer in the corner. And there’d be a Porsche in the driveway. With a Ferrari next to it.

» Read More
It's All Right to Be Wrong

Enjoy your system the way you want, even if it isn't exactly "correct."
- By John Sciacca
- Posted September 16, 2010
We definitely don’t need to be bogged down with more rules. Practically everywhere we go, someone or something is telling us what to do or what not to do. Walk. Don’t walk. This lane 15 items or less. Pants required to eat here. Enough!

» Read More
Review: Waterfall Audio Hurricane Evo Speakers and HighForce 2 Subwoofer

A satisfying blend of sound quality and visual appeal.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted September 2, 2010
If you're more than 30 years old, you may remember when almost all speakers looked like the BIC RtR 1530 featured in a recent Parts Express e-mailer: big woofers and big enclosures, with little or no effort expended to make everything presentable.

» Read More
Test Report: Definitive Technology Mythos XTR-50 Speakers

Surprising depth of sound from strikingly skinny on-wall speakers.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted August 31, 2010
I don't know who said, "You can never be too rich or too thin," but it wasn't a speaker engineer. Thinness is the enemy of good sound because in order to produce sound, a diaphragm of some sort has to move back and forth. The lower the frequency of sound, the farther back and forth that diaphragm has to move.

» Read More
Review: B&W P5 Headphones

B&W's new headphones are aimed at the business class crowd.
- By Michael Trei
- Posted August 9, 2010
- 2
With its enviable reputation for creating speakers that push the technological envelope, you might expect a company like B&W to burst on to the headphone market with an all-out effort that aims to rewrite the rulebook.

» Read More
Inside Dolby Surround 7.1

This new sound format is intended for commercial cinemas-but it may benefit home theaters even more.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted August 4, 2010
- 1
Just when you think they're all done adding more channels to sound systems, they add a couple more. The June 18 premiere of Toy Story 3 also marked the premiere of Dolby Surround 7.1, a technology that allows a commercial cinema to add two additional channels of sound to the 5.1 channels they already have.

» Read More
Harman Kardon? Check. Harman Newsweek?!
- By sandv blog
- Posted August 3, 2010
"He started a business selling FM radios in the 1950s" . . . and now he's running Newsweek magazine! Yes, Sidney Harman, whose 92nd birthday is tomorrow, has bought the ailing publication because, as he quipped to The New York Times, "I think I should stop misspending my youth."

» Read More
Stereo Review's George Jellinek: 1919-2010

Exclusive: the story of a classical-music critic, in his own words.
- By Ken Richardson
- Posted July 12, 2010
"I was born in Budapest in 1919 into a music-loving family."
So begins George Jellinek's own account of his musical life, as it appeared in the January 1976 issue of our predecessor, Stereo Review — a magazine for which he wrote from 1958 to 1999.

» Read More