“It could be said that this new projector is a truly international product (at a truly international price, too), in that much of its technology comes from the US and it’s manufactured in Italy. It features the new Texas Instruments HD-1 Digital Micromirror Device 16:9 (1280 x 720 pixels) DLP chip to support 720p resolution, and uses the increasingly popular Faroudja/Sage DCDi chipset for deinterlacing and video enhancement…”

“This is a delightful film, and its real star is an audiophile favourite, singer Rebecca Pidgeon, who in the film doesn’t sing a note. She just steals the movie with her warmth and humour. State And Main is about the exploits of a film crew who descend on the small town of Waterford, Vermont, and their interaction with the locals, including Pidgeon as owner of the local bookstore…”

“There are two things that distinguish this film from other historical movies. The first is the remarkable performance of Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy, and how much of a pain in the ass the mannered and historically inaccurate posturing of Kevin Costner as Ken O’Donnell becomes as the film proceeds. But the overall story is compelling, especially for those of us who lived through it; in my case, I was living away from home for the first time in university residence, and these events tended to add to the feeling of isolation and loneliness…”

“I’ve owned this film on laserdisc for years, and have actively sought the DVD for the past year or so, and recently found it at Future Shop. The reason for my desire to own it is something that overshadows even the performances, the story, and the star power: the locales. The cinematography is truly spectacular and the locations in and around Moscow and St. Petersburg, not to mention Lisbon, are breathtaking…”

“I knew this film reminded me of something but I couldn’t put my finger on it until I watched Charlize Theron trying to seduce the physically and mentally revolting character played by Allen: I was watching a high school play. Back at Aurora High a friend of mine wasn’t having much luck with the ladies so he joined the drama club, wrote a play, and made sure he played a character that got to kiss a pretty girl. The plot was irrelevant - some ridiculous concotion involving hypnosis and stolen jewels.

“At an audio show, it occasionally happens that I walk into a room and am struck by the quality of sound from speakers you can hardly see. That’s what occurred at the Festival Du Son et L’Image in Montreal this year when I first heard the AEGO2 stereo version of the Aego5 system. I simply couldn’t believe that the full range, extremely well defined, and dynamic sound was coming from boxes 2 1/2 inches wide by 4 inches high and 3 inches deep, and a single sub…”

“Synthesis is an Italian company that, like many firms in that country, makes beautiful things. Theirs do not happen to be cars, or fashions, but high fidelity components. And there seems to be a certain sense of style in their product names, too…”

“I’ve argued that unless all DVD and SACD players are like this one, both formats will fail, or at best limp along for a few years like SQ surround sound did. The DV-47A combines both DVD-A and SACD multichannel capability, going a step beyond our reference DV-AX10, which offers only stereo SACD reproduction…”

“This is yet another complex A/V receiver that tries to make operation simple while introducing new features and maintaining those that have become standard. It’s a 7-channel design, with 110 wpc all around (8 0hms), with the new DTS 96/24, ES, and NEO:6 formats added to Dolby Digital EX and Pro Logic II. Though there are 7 Cinema and 10 music sound field programs, there are no THX ones, which is a blessing…”

Highlights Include: Bryston 3B SST, Bel Canto DAC 2, Musical Fidelity A3 24 DAC, Synthesis Pride CD Player, Paradigm Phantom v3, SIM2 Seleco HT300 DLP Front Projector, Pioneer Elite Pro-1000 50″ Plasma Display, PMC DB1 Loudspeakers and TLE1 Subwoofer, Acoustic Energy AEG05 Surround Speaker System, Sony STR-DA4ES Home Theatre Receiver, Synthesis Ensemble Integrated Amplifier, Dahlquist Orbit 5.1 HT Speaker System, and much more…

“The SST series of amplifiers is a not unexpected development after the introduction of the 14B and the 6B 3-channel amp, both of which used new Motorola output devices of greater linearity and wider optimum operating range to minimize both distortion (particularly crossover distortion) and transient speed The SST series also has, according to Bryston’s white paper, “doubled filter capacitance for even deeper and better controlled bass…”

“Since audio reviews generally rely heavily on comparisons, and, more specifically from the cataloguing of differences gleaned from such comparisons, this review might be a little shorter than usual. You see, the products in question here are similar in more ways than any two I’ve reviewed before…”

“According to the manual, the VSX-49TX is “the first receiver in the world to be THX Ultra2 certified”. Among the new technologies embodied in this are “ASA (Advanced Speaker Array [in case you thought it might be something for a headache]), which can process any 5.1 channel source for 7.1 channel playback (THX Ultra2 Cinema and THX MusicMode), or 6.1 channel playback (THX Surround EX)…”

“The Elite PRO-1000HD is either the third or fourth generation plasma model from Pioneer, and incorporates all the improvements they’ve made to this technology. Most of these are in the areas of resolution and motion artifacts, both serious considerations with fixed pixel displays. In the past, plasma sets have tended to work best when a scaler or line doubler is between the video source and the display to provide compensation for artifacts, and provide the exact resolution that works best with the particular display…”