SURVEY OF THE AUDIO & HT PRINT PRESS

SOUND & VISION (May) – The
featured story is “Is Sony’s 70″ Qualia the Best TV Ever?” and it is of
course backed up with a glamorous shot of the set displaying a bikinied
model on the screen. The incursion of the iPod into high end audio
(sort of like $1 color xeroxes into fine photography, isn’t it?) is
illustrated by a cover story on “Top 10 iPod Upgrades.” Four HDTVs are
reviewed in a spotlight on plasma displays, and there is a review of
Yamaha’s One-Speaker Surround Solution. This issue of the
top-circulation AV print publication also carries a special shopping
guide listing 100 so-called budget HDTVs. Editor Bob Ankosko’s article
on how easy it is to lose sight of sound quality in the age of the iPod
is valued reading, but most of the articles here don’t seem to pay much
attention to it.

SOUND & VISION (April) – Three
of the Blue Men Group peer out of the front cover, but inside they
remove their masks and gloves to make an impassioned plea for Music in
Surround! Who knew these blue guys shared AUDIOPHILE AUDITION’s vision!
They in fact decry musicians who can’t be bothered to give music in
surround a try. This issue has more of what was hot at CES 2005,
including “Pimped-Out iPods, Monstrous Plasmas, Wireless Music and
Palm-size Video.” The first photo printer built into a HDTV set comes
from Epson and is reviewed. There are also video projector specials on
both new LCD units and under-$1500 front projectors: Panasonic, Epson,
Sony and Hitachi in the first grouping and InFocus, HP and NEC in the
second. Other reviews: Paradigm Cinema 110 Compact Theater speaker
system, Sony DVP-NS975V SACD/DVD Player, GoVideo VR2940 DVD/VHS
Recorder.

THE ABSO!UTE SOUND (April/May) – Gilmore’s
Model 2 speakers are the main component on the cover and called a
“radical reinvention.” New Electronics from BAT and Conrad-Johnson are
reviewed, and “Hidden Treasures” lists some of the best-sounding LPs.
Other cover hardware mentioned: Thorens TD2010A turntable, Speakers
from Calix, Wharfedale and Verity Audio, 20 pages of great upcoming
audio gear in a report on the Las Vegas CES. Jonathan Valin assembled
the great-sounding classical LPs that are not on HP’s Superdisc List,
and it’s only Part One of a series. His opinion is that there isn’t any
digital format which stores as much musical information as a vinyl
record. A few of the LPs listed have a single asterisk at the start of
their listing. This means the disc is actually still available (and it
means all the rest aren’t – so there!) Still onto vinyl, there is a TAS
Roundtable discussion between Valin, Garth Leerer, Wayne Garcia and
Josh Bizar on The Resurgence of Vinyl. [See our vinyl reviews this
issue if you haven’t as yet.]

HDTV ETC. (June/July) – The
overly-busy cover promotes primarily an HDTV Buyer’s Guide (seems to be
a buyer’s guide in almost every issue of the slick magazine lately) and
“over 5000 HD products inside!” The ones identified on the cover are:
SIM2 front projector, Ultravision direct view display, Panasonic HD
receiver, LG LCD display, Hitachi rear projection set, and Samsung HD
receiver. Feature articles are “Movies, Piracy and You,” “HDTV
Programming,” and a HDTV Glossary.

HDTV ETC. (April/May) – “Format
War?” is the biggest type on the cover; the issue also features a new
buyer’s guide with over 300 LCD and Plasma Displays detailed. There are
features on the Current State of HDTV Technology, Highlights of CES
2005, and an HDTV programming guide. Under test & review are:
Boston Acoustic speakers and sub, Sharp’s AQUOS 32-inch LCD, Sharp’s
LCD Projector, Polk’s Flat Panel speaker ensemble, and Hitachi’s
42-inch plasma in their Director’s Series. Editor Clint Walker’s piece
on High Definition Living assails the consumer electronics industry for
failing to make hi-def understandable and accessible to the general
public.

DVD ETC. (May/June) – The
busy front cover covers the latest on hi-def DVDs from CES 2005, has
special features on the special effects of car crashes, on Anime, a
feature on the director of the anime Ghost In The Shell, and the Test
Center evaluates the NEC ND-3500A DVD recorder & Nero 6 Ulta
Edition software; SimAudio Orbiter Universal disc player (“an
audiophile’s delight,” at $7100), RBH MC Series Mark II 6.1 speaker
system, Yamaha MusicCAST digital audio system, and Monster PowerCenter
HTS 5100. There is a DVD Recorder Buyer’s Guide, and a survey of the
top ten DVDs having to do with Food.

DVD ETC. (March/April)
– “Hot New Theater Products for Any Budget” is the major cover story.
The Test Center evaluates the Yamaha 7.1 channel AV receiver, MBL 7.1
Surround Cinema speakers, V Inc. Vizio 42-inch HD Plasma display, Thiel
Viewpoint speakers, sub and passive crossover, DVDO’s iScan video
scaling engine, and outdoor speakers from JBL, Infinity and Polk. Other
cover reviews are JVC’s 26-inch LCD display, Energy’s act6
sub/satellite system, Onkyo’s THX Universal disc player and BENQ’s
23-inch LCD widescreen PC monitor. There is a look at Adobe’s Encore
software for production of 5.1 DVDs.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW (May) – Seems
to be leaning toward the Blu-ray format in the HD DVD battle, since
these two cover stories are side by side: “Blue-ray Attracts Support;”
“The Need for One HD Format.” (Have to agree with WSR.) Other cover
stories: Analog TV Cutoff for 2006?, Reviews of Sony Qualia 006 SXRD
70-inch RP HDTV; Myrad MXD7000 & MXA7150 Pream/Processor/Power Amp;
Over 40 DVD Reviews. Sword-wielding Elektra graces the cover. Inside
articles: Sharp XV-Z2000 DLP Projector; Eggleston Works Fontaine II
tower speaker system, The future of 3D movies, DVDs under $3.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW (April) –
A feature story on the Broadcast Flag questions FCC decisions allowing
unprecedented control by Hollywood forces over the final viewing or
time-shifting of broadcast programming. The product reviews for the
month include Yamaha’s DPX-1200 Digital Cinema Projector, Arcam’s
AVR300 Surround Sound Home Theatre Receiver, Belkin’s PF30, PF60 Power
Conditioner, Console & HT cabling, and the various AV systems using
in the publication’s hardware and software reviews are listed. Awards
given by the American Society of Cinematographers are featured, and a
story on the CEA’s support for a hard cut-off date for analog
TV-casting.

THE INNER EAR REPORT (Vol. 16 #3) – The
front cover illustrates the Wiener Lautsprecher Manufaktur Gran Viola
& Duo 18 Sub (I kid you not and no typos there either). Other
products listed on the cover: StudioLab Protege speakers, Wilson
Benesch A.C.T. speakers, Neat Acoustics speakers; Benchmark DAC,
Meridian G07 CD Player, Chord 2600 Integrated Amp, ExctPower Regulator,
Straight Wire speaker cables, Pioneer Elite DVD player, Hitachi video
projector, NAD HT amp & tuner/processor, Sharp AQUOS LCD monitor
& system with DVD player, AirPort Express, and Six Synergistic
Systems – by which TIER means groupings of different components they
have reviewed and then hooked together at various price levels and
found worked well together. Categories are Budget System, Budget High
End System, Uncomplicated High End, and The Complex System.

THE PERFECT VISION (March/April) – A
scene from Spiderman 2 is on the screen of a 7-inch-deep RPTV from
InFocus, called An On-Wall HDTV Breakthrough. Other big stories are a
Mega-DVD Player Survey, HD On DVD Is Coming!, World’s Best AV Receiver?
(Lexicon RV-8 Review), Best-Looking DVDs of the Year and more than 25
DVDs reviewed. Five HDTVs are reviewed: LG’s DU-42LZ30 42-inch LCD
Integrated HDTV, Hitachi’s 42HDX61 UltraVision 42-inch HD Plasma
Display, SMI2 HT300 E DLP Front Projector, Samsung SP-H700 DLP
Projector (+ InFocus). The Ayre DX-7 DVD Player, Mordaunt-Short Genie
5.1 speaker system and Stewart Filmscreen GrayHawk RS Screen are also
reviewed. Sony’s Mike Fidler and Toshiba’s Joie Sally are interviewed
about the two possible HD DVD formats. The Insider News discusses the
huge number of 1920×1080 res HDTV sets to be introduced later this year.

HI-FI NEWS (May) – Classé’s
curvy amp with a touch-screen display is on the cover and it’s called
Curves. Cover-promoted reviews are of a new generation plasma display
from Pioneer – the PDP-505, Krell’s HTS7.1 AV processor, Denon’s
high-end DVD-A1XV universal player, and the SME 3009 tonearm. Also the
Turntable 2 Xperience from Pro-Ject and Tim de Paravicini’s 899 Ear
integrated amp using tubes. Other reviews on the inside: Bosendorfer’s
VC7 speakers, Musical Fidelity kW Phono Preamp, Wilborne Labs 300B DRD
valve amp kit, Dynaudio’s Special 25 speaker, Marantz/ SA-11S1
stereo-only SACD player, Ruark Talisman III speaker, Avalong Acoustics
Eidolon Diamond speaker. In an interview electronic whiz Jean Michel
Jarre speaks out for 96K/24-bit as the future of recorded music.

HI-FI NEWS (April) –
The first review of B&W’s new 800D flagship speaker – which has a
diamond tweeter dome – is in the issue and on the cover. The issue
boasts 16 more pages than usual, and in the Home Entertainment section
covers the Naim DVD5 disc player, Denon A1XV monster AV Receiver and
DPL Mercury HD video projector. There’s a report from CES 2005 of
course, and Barry Fox discusses the advantages of the HD video format
war. Other reviews: Elac 207.2 speakers, Etymotic ER-4P earphones,
Exposure 2010s, Hot Tubes JD1, IsoTek Titan, Meridian 808i, Nottingham
Analogue, Theta Compli universal player and Wilson Benesch Curve
speakers. Windows software dubbed DVD2one Remaster allows re-authoring
CDs as sonically-enhanced DVD+Audio thru upsampling and resolution
tweaking.

BOUND For SOUND (Issue #164)
– The audio news section discusses a Chinese amp which can be purchased
direct for about $900 but looks very similar to an amp imported by a
U.S. high end company which sells it for $7000. BfS also weighs in on
the critical side re: DualDisc. Martin DeWulf even says, “How much
longer until we put DualDisc up there on the shelf with the rest of
Sony’s impressive list of failed formats?” Well, DualDisc wasn’t
entirely thought up by Sony, and Martin considers SACD to be part of
that “impressive list!” Part II of Components of Merit appears this
issue and it covers Speakers & Accessories. Among their Most
Meritorious: Merlin, VMPS & Gallo. The Silverline Sonatina III
speaker is reviewed, and Resolution Audio responds to a BfS review of
their Opus 21 CD player. A new contributor, Brandt Kwiram, writes
concering how sensible Audio-only people are vs. the crazy Audio-Video
nuts (his terminology, not mine).

AUDIO XPRESS (May) – The
cover of The Audio Technology Authority is neater this time, with only
three items displayed – Triangular Boxes for Eight Drivers, How Caps
Behave, and Improving DVD Sound. The last article describes simple
circuit mods to improve the sound of any DVD player. Most of this issue
is devoted to vacuum tubes and bringing back the publisher’s Glass
Audio magazine. The reason is the growing resurgence of interest in
tubes, which seems to be tied into the growing interest in vinyl and
analog reproduction in general. There has been an increase in new
companies with tube products and services. Some of the articles
include: A 6336A-based All-Triode Amp, Reducing Filamentary Triode Amp
Distortion, MU: The Last Tube Factory in America (didn’t know there was
one!), The Many Faces of Distortion (by French audio writer Jean
Hiraga).

AUDIO XPRESS (April) – On
the cover: Groove Mechanic 2.5c Software Cleans LPs/Tapes, Is This the
Ideal Tube Amp? (It’s an SE “E-Linear” approach to feedback), Hybrid
Headphone Amp, Quick & Cheap DMM Fix, Line Array Subs Deliver BIG
Horn Sound, Pooge Improves Video. Inside: A Simple Audio System, Pt. 3;
Rescuing Fluke’s Top Digital Meter Cheaply.

MULTI MEDIA MANUFACTURER (May/June) – David
J. Weinberg writes the most critical and courageous review of a
Consumer Electronics Show I have ever enjoyed. To quote, “Never in the
course of human events has the nature of consumer electronics been so
computer-centric, never before has our freedom to control use of
purchased software been so threatened.” He describes the craziness of
CES in general, then visits some of the 2500 exhibits and names names
when he observes expensive plasma displays way too blue-green, or sound
from trés-dear speakers way too shrill and harsh. Another qoute on
equipment reviewing: “I recognize the need for a publication to make
money to stay in business, but I also believe there is an implied
obligation for AV magazines to try to assist and guide their readers,
to help them make more informed decisions as they approach purchasing
new electronic toys.” In other articles Barry Fox writes on The Bitter
Blu-Ray Battle, Nelson Pass on Practical MOSFET Testing for Audio, and
ON Semiconductor is featured in “New Chips on the Block.”