Ken C. Pohlmann

Logitech Wireless DJ Music System

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted December 4, 2006

Not too long ago, you could measure a person's love for music by the square footage of their CD shelf space. Today, however, an audiophile's passion may be hidden away on a hard drive.

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Reality Bytes: Bringing Pirates to Bay

Johnny may be adept, but intellectual-property pirates are awash in trouble

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted December 2, 2006

Parrots, hooks, peg legs, pieces of eight, the Spanish Main: Everybody loves pirates! Surely you know that September 19 is annual Talk Like a Pirate Day (I'm not making this up). Instead of your actual name, like "Kenneth" or "Colonel Sanders," wouldn't you prefer to be called "Cap'n Slappy"? Everybody loves pirates.

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DVD's Most Wanted

Aim for the right features and ride home with a big reward.

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted October 29, 2001

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Mirage UNI-Theater Speaker System

Three channels masterfully squeezed into one horizontal cabinet handle both front and surround duties in this minimalist's dream system.

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted January 10, 2007

The ingenuity of loudspeaker designers never ceases to amaze me. It seems like a simple enough proposition - mount a speaker in a box, then field as many boxes as you have channels.

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CES 2007 - Wilder and Crazier Than Ever

The big picture on the big show

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted January 12, 2007

January 11, 2007 - Imagine that you've wandered into a Best Buy or Circuit City - one that covers 35 football fields, with 65 miles of carpeted aisles, jammed with 140,000 customers and 4,500 news reporters. Every conceivable, and often inconceivable, new product is there, ranging from 108-inch LCD TVs to tiny microchips to implant in your dog.

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Reality Bytes: Flat Is Phat

But whither speakers? And sound quality?

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted January 7, 2007

Someday you'll tell the grandkids about the old days when TV sets were thick. There was something called a "cathode-ray tube," and it stuck out from the wall and had a tiny screen. Then, along about 2008 or so, people pretty much stopped buying CRTs.

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Onkyo TX-SR804 A/V Receiver

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted February 4, 2007

In a world of earbuds, plastic pods, and itty-bitty phones, there's something reassuring about an A/V receiver. In appearance, at least, receivers are throwbacks to the olden days of stout components and heavy lifting. But receivers are dinosaurs in weight only. Case in point: The new Onkyo TX-SR804 A/V receiver, which, looks aside, is thoroughly modern.

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Reality Bytes: Behind the Best of the Best

Editorial selection: Only the fittest products survive

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted February 5, 2007

MAKE NO MISTAKE: The equipment reviewers at Sound & Vision aren't nice people. Without naming names, I'll just mention the following: three restraining orders, steel-cage death-match champion, and a lifetime ban from the National Hockey League. And that's just one of the reviewers. Frankly, they're curmudgeonly, tough SOBs.

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Digital Horizons: Space Invaders

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted March 6, 2002

For a century we've been industriously broadcasting radio programs all across the globe, with the great majority of programs received free of charge. After light bulbs, radios are probably the most ubiquitous electrical devices on earth. Radio is cool. Life is good.

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Reality Bytes: Formats with Poker Faces

Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are holding fast

By Ken C. Pohlmann
Posted May 3, 2007

"DO I FEEL LUCKY?" (Well, do ya, punk?) That's the question that millions of people are asking themselves as they think about buying a new video player. In particular, should they go for Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD? If you choose one and buy a few hundred movies for it, but the format goes bust, you'll be lucky to recoup pennies on the dollar on eBay. That's quite a gamble.

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