Expertise

The kit I carried
9 countries. 5 weeks. 3000+ photos. Lot’s o’gear.
The Connected Car: 2013 Edition
New in-dash receivers play nice with smartphones. Plus: Sync and MyLink app updates.
HTC One Video and Audio Measurements
A serious piece of hardware... mostly.

What's New

The Dumbest Thing Reviewers Say

Why a common accolade in product reviews can actually be a bad thing
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted January 25, 2012
- 1
I almost did it myself. I was listening to “King Contrary Man” from The Cult’s Electric, through Phonak Audéo PFE 232 in-ear headphones while sitting in a 757 somewhere over Colorado, trying to get an idea of how well Phonak’s PerfectFit design blocks out airplane noise.

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Inside the Ultimate Download Experience

Here’s why HDtracks high-resolution downloads sound so much better than your CDs.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted January 24, 2012
- 1
What do you want to hear when you listen to music? Do you want a lower-fidelity version of what the artists, engineers, and producers heard in the studio? Or would you prefer to hear exactly what they heard in the studio?
Of course, you’d prefer the latter. But you’re probably getting the former — unless, that is, you’re listening to high-resolution downloads from HDtracks. If you’re listening to CDs, MP3s, or even vinyl records, what you’re hearing is not a precise copy of the original digital recording or analog tape. It’s downconverted. If it’s on CD, the digital resolution has been reduced. If it’s on vinyl, the audio has been remastered and the record you’re listening to is actually a third-generation mechanical copy.
Sure, it might sound ok. But it’s not the best fidelity you can get. HDtracks is. And HDtracks and Sound+Vision have put together an introductory sampler to show you just how good high-resolution listening can be.

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Win a Copy of Raw Talent Guitar

Resolved on playing guitar in 2012? Here's some help — and all we ask for in return is a little advice.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted January 6, 2012
- 20
The end of the first week of January is upon us, and it's high time to make good on those promises you made to yourself. But first things first — you can let that exercise program slide for a few more weeks, but you need to learn how to shred. Just picked up the guitar for the first time? Or are you finally carving out a few extra minutes this year to sharpen your chops? Raw Talent Guitar's instructional software (which we looked at earlier this week) may well be ablet to help you out, whatever your particular guitaristic situation. And even better, the company's given us a copy of the software/hardware package to give away to one lucky reader.

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Ten Tips for the CES Noob

A guide filled with light humor, mediocre advice, and a smidgen of fear and loathing.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted January 6, 2012
- 2
The massive Consumer Electronics Show is in Las Vegas next week. It will be my 12th. Twelve is a pretty good number (a dozen, if you will), but compared to most, I know this is paltry. Brent’s first CES was in 1886, when Westinghouse unveiled their steam-powered discombobulation defenestrator. I believe they also announced a tablet.
CES is rather overwhelming for the first-timer, so I offer these sage words of advice to help you navigate the miles of lightly carpeted floors, brightly lit booths, and slightly malodorous humanity.

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Review: Raw Talent Guitar

A learning system that throws in all the extras — along with a teacher who listens
- By Michael Berk
- Posted January 3, 2012
Maybe you picked up a guitar last Christmas, resolved to learn, got fed up with the Mel Bay books you borrowed, and ended up hanging up your brand-new axe in frustration. Or you gave it a shot in your teens, and haven't found the time again, until now. Or you're planning on getting yourself an instrument, but you just don't see how lessons are going to fit into your already packed schedule, or onto your overextended credit cards. Raw Talent Guitar aims to solve all of those problems, with a refreshing digitally modeled twist on old-school instruction.

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Endings and Beginnings

Introspection on the eve of a new year
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted December 30, 2011
In the grand scheme of things, there’s no such thing as a “new year.” Nor are there “weeks” or “months” really. I know these are just convenient constructs for the human mind to wrap around something complex and inexorable like “time.”
Yet even knowing this, I can’t help but get a little nostalgic this time of year. The idea of one thing ending and another thing beginning brings to mind, well, this one thing ending and this other thing beginning, but in a nostalgic way.
I speak, as I so often do, of Star Wars.

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You Talkin’ To Me? Well I’m The Only One Here.

Soon, people won’t think you’re crazy if you talk to your TV
- By Ken C. Pohlmann
- Posted December 22, 2011
- 1
What is the Great American Pastime? Baseball? Football? Soccer? Actually, it’s none of those. Our great pastime is sitting passively and yelling as other people actively run around. And while shouting from the bleachers is fun, it’s even more fun to sit and shout at the TV.

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Last-Minute Gift Ideas

What do you mean these won’t work?
- By Brent Butterworth and Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted December 19, 2011
Every year, magazine editors around the world solicit ideas from their writers for the compulsory “holiday gift guide.” Every year, we scrounge the Internet in search of items we think our editors will go for. ’Cause the more gift ideas the editors buy, the more money we make.

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Pretty Vacant

Why stripping all the controls off A/V gear is a bad idea.
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted December 7, 2011
- 2
I HAD AN EPIPHANY of sorts last week when I was doing lab measurements for our review of the Creative ZiiSound D5x. Pretty as the product is, it took me about 45 minutes to get it to mate with Creative’s supplied USB Bluetooth dongle. Then it took me another 30 minutes to get it to mate with the DSx subwoofer. In the latter case, I’m still not sure what I did right — it just suddenly started working.

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WTF Santa? These Legos Suck!

Stocking stuffers ain’t what they used to be.
- By Ken C. Polhmann
- Posted December 6, 2011
If there’s a kid on your holiday shopping list, you'd better pay close attention. First, when you get to the Toys “R” Us store, just keep driving. Seriously, if you buy anything there, on Christmas morning, you might as well let the kid unwrap a box of dung.

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What's a Winner?

Does best have to be better?
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted December 2, 2011
- 1
I need your help. Maybe you can explain something to me.
Why do we need winners? I’m not talking about sports and such; I mean with A/V gear, movies, video games, etc. How many articles and forum posts have you seen that proclaim one object the winner over another?
What is behind this desire to declare a winner when there’s no competition being fought?

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4K is Here!

What higher-resolution video means for your current system.
- By John Sciacca
- Posted November 30, 2011
- 1
Today, 3D has become a de facto feature on almost every higher-end TV and even many projectors, and it continues to make headlines. But the biggest news to come out of the CEDIA Expo trade show this past September wasn’t of the three-dimensional variety. The news that took many attendees by surprise was 4K.

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