Daniel Kumin

Shopping Made Simple: Home Theater Speakers

A buyer's guide to systems from $1,000 to $2,000

By Daniel Kumin
Posted May 6, 2003

So you're shopping for a home theater speaker system and you've got between one and two grand to spend. Welcome to the jungle. This is one of the most densely populated and competitive price ranges in all of speakerland. The good news is that there's lots to choose from.

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Giving Receivers

Three digital surround receivers that pack a home theater punch

By Daniel Kumin
Posted June 29, 2003

Homepage photo, remotes, and back panels by Tony Cordoza Sure, when it comes to A/V receivers, the $4,000 flagships get most of the attention in our fantasy lives, and the $399 loss-leaders get most of the play in the Sunday-paper circulars.

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A/V Connections from A to Z

Perplexed by mysterious jacks on your A/V gear? Our comprehensive guide will help you hook it all up.

By Daniel Kumin
Posted June 30, 2003

Your new A/V receiver's front panel seems friendly enough with its softly winking LEDs and ergonomic layout of buttons and knobs. But turn that sucker around, and you'll find a menacing thicket of jacks, terminals, and other connectors - some familiar, some not.

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Denon DVD-2900 Universal DVD/SACD Player

By Daniel Kumin
Posted September 22, 2003

Photos by Tony Cordoza My old man told me I'd get nowhere trying to be all things to all people, but Denon appears to have done pretty well by flouting this adage with its new DVD-2900. (I always knew Dad was full of it.) It plays optical discs in just about every current video or audio flavor.

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Rotel RSP-1098 A/V Preamp/Processor

By Daniel Kumin
Posted October 14, 2003

Photos by Tony Cordoza Not too long ago, a loyal Sound & Vision reader wrote complaining that the "audio/video" preamps and receivers we regularly review are really just plain-audio components with a few video inputs and switching thrown in. Point taken. So here's an A/V component with some actual video: the Rotel RSP-1098.

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Pioneer DV-563A Universal DVD/SACD Player

By Daniel Kumin
Posted November 3, 2003

Photos by Tony Cordoza

Have you been waiting for the high-resolution audio formats, Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, to get their acts together? Have you, like me, said, "Format war? Bah! No flippin' way am I buying two more players just for these things! And it's for major sure I'm not spending a grand or two on a new combi-player!"

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Athena Audition Series Home Theater Speakers

By Daniel Kumin
Posted November 10, 2003

Photos by Tony Cordoza As I unpacked Athena Technologies' Audition Series home theater speakers, I recalled that Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, reason, and purity. Was it wise and reasonable, I wondered, to expect purity of sound from a six-piece system that costs less than $1,500? If anyone could make such a system, though, I figured Athena could.

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Open Receivers

Three ways to score a home theater touchdown and still keep within your salary cap

By Daniel Kumin
Posted November 18, 2003

Photos by Tony Cordoza Long ago, I used to sell audio/video gear for a living (not a very good living, I might add).

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Test Bench: Marantz SR5400 A/V Receiver

By Daniel Kumin
Posted December 2, 2003

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Samsung SIR-S4120R TiVo DirecTV DVR

By Daniel Kumin
Posted January 20, 2004

Photos by Tony Cordoza Samsung's SIR-S4120R neatly combines two of the coolest products in today's pantheon of A/V wonders - digital satellite TV receivers and TiVo video hard-disk recorders (HDRs) - in one trim component that looks more or less like an ordinary DirecTV receiver.

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