Home Audio News

A member of AVSForum has posted an interesting review of Panasonic’s latest Pure Digital receiver. The consensus is that the receiver sounds great for its price but skimps on some unimportant (remote) and important (no OSD, limited level adjustment) features. This receiver looks like a great buy in the sub $250 price range if you can handle its cosmetic and functional limitations.
View AVSForum thread
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Slim Devices has just released the third iteration of their network music player, Squeezebox. The internal hardware remains the same as version two; v3 sports a redesigned exterior and the 3.3 volt regulator has been changed to a linear supply from the switching supply in version 2. It looks like those of you that are interested in mods are better off with version 2 which is still available at a lower price.
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View Audiocircle thread

AV123 is having another raffle for charity, their last one for the year. $50 gets you a 1 in 200 chance of winning a complete home theater setup valued at $5593. The proceeds will be donated to Ballet Nouveau Colorado.
Home Theater Prize
RS850 Main Speakers
RSC200 Center Speaker
RSS300 Dipole Surrounds
UFW-10 x 2
Emotiva Ultra-Line Processor and Amplifier
Buy a Ticket

In the spirit of the season, here’s a link to a tutorial on how to make a stencil from your favorite scary movie to carve into your pumpkin.
View Halloween pumpkin stencil tutorial

AV123 has begun shipping their newest product in the X-Line (extreme value), the XCD-99. It is a budget audiophile cd-player that is an upgrade to the XCD-88. Like the XCD-88 the XCD-99 features Burr-Brown 1732 DACs, a Philips CDM-12.1 transport controlled by a CD-7mkII servo, OPA 2604 op amps in the output stage and used for low pass filtering, and HDCD decoding. The upgrades from the XCD-88 include new cosmetics, better internal dampening, and gold plated output RCA jacks. It will retail for $499.
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Do you need some demo material for that new monster subwoofer? There is a 14 page thread on hometheaterforum where a few of the members have posted waterfall plots of some of the scenes from popular movies with extended low bass.
View Hometheaterforum thread

A member of the Audiocircle forums has posted a review of Omega’s Aperiodic 8 single driver crossoverless speaker that uses the Visaton B200 8in full range driver. The speakers were driven by a Red Wine Audio Clari-T amplifier.
View Audiocircle thread

AV123 has begun shipping a magnetostat supertweeter designed to aument the high frequency reproduction of any speaker. It has a frequency response of 8khz-45khz (+/-3db) and is housed in an attractive piano black enclosure that is devoid of any logos or branding so it will blend with any speaker. The ERT has an adjustable 6db/octave crossover with two selectable points (11khz and 15khz) and stepped attenuator that allows 4 different gain selections (87.5db, 89db, 90.5db, and 92db @ 1W/1m).
ERT Product Page
View Av123 Forum thread

Axiom Audio has recently released a series of in-wall/on-wall speakers based on their popular bookshelf and center speakers. The Architectural Series consists of three main speakers (W2, W3, and W22) and two center channel speakers (W100 and W150). The models feature the same 1in titanium tweeter and 5.25in aluminum woofer from their bookshelf speakers in an enclosure that recesses into the wall but features an the same attractive exterior as their other speakers. The bottom ported enclosures have a thin profile designed to complement LCD and Plasma TVs.
MSRPs
W2 - $440
W3 - $490
W22 - $650
W100 - $340
W150 - $495
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There is a preliminary review of a Teac A-L700P amplifier that was modded by Vinnie Rossi of Red Wine Audio. The modification includes conversion to battery power through two 12V SLA batteries, replacement of capacitors in key locations, and rewiring of the path to the tripath chip.
Read the review on Audiocircle
Red Wine Audio mod product page