“The Max 5510 is Panamax’s most feature-packed power filtration/protection product, designed to handle the power needs of an entire home AV system in one (small) power amp-sized box. Panamax calls the 5510 an “AC regenerator”, adopting a hot catchphrase of the past several years. This, I think, is a case of the marketing department getting a little carried away…”

“Just in case you somehow hadn’t noticed, portable audio is hot. White hot. Ipod white. The Ipod has become the Sony Walkman of the 21st Century and gained a cachet and ubiquity in popular culture unrivalled perhaps by any piece of audio equipment ever invented. Ipods are now the object of enough consumer lust that they can actually be dangerous to their owners…”

Highlights Include: Anthem Statement D1 Home Theater Processor/Preamp, Harmon Kardon DPR 1005 Home Theater Receiver, Yamaha YSP-1 5 Channel Digital Sound Projector, Aurum Acoustics Integris Preamp/CD Player, Bryston BP-25 DA Preamp/DAC, Roku Soundbridge M2000 Network Music Player, Panamax MAX 5510 AC Regenerator, Shure E5C Isolating Earbud Headphones, Infinity Modulus II Home Theater Speaker System, Klipsch Reference RVX-54 Home Theater Speaker System, Axiom Epic 60-500 Home Theater Speaker System and more…

“The Statement D1 is among the most expensive home theatre processors in our experience, but offers just about every imaginable feature, as well as exceptional build quality. It will take much of this review just to outline its complement of capabilities. As their brochure claims, it is “nine high end components in one”: “preamplifier, 24-bit/192 kHz precision upsampler, analog-to-digital converter, digital-to-analog converter….”

“I suppose this, the least expensive Clearaudio phono reproduction package, could be said to epitomize the company’s approach. Everything is acrylic except for tonearm, cartridge, and platter bearing. If not completely clear, the turntable is definitely translucent, and mechanically very simple for a record reproducer…”

“These three powered monitors were measured in our standard fashion, and all performed reasonably well, with good dispersion to 30 degrees off axis, and the required slight reticence in the midrange you need for a speaker you listen to at close quarters. I can see why Aaron was less enthusiastic about the Edifier, with its rolled-off treble and upper midrange. Though very flat through the range from 70 to 1000 Hz, it was about 7 dB down by 4 kHz, with little life above, and zilch sheen at the top…”

“The new subwoofers from this company are relatively small, though the S12.3 is larger than the new Paradigm Seismic 12 with a similarly-sized driver (The Paradigm Seismic 12 is also reviewed in the Fall 2004 issue). The S12.3 comes in a black ash finish with a black grille cover, a volume control with a bright blue LED below it at the top of the front panel showing through the grille cover…”

“As maligned as it is by many audiophiles, the compact disc made the idea of having a serious audio system at work truly practical. Audiophiles lucky enough to have a work environment which could accommodate a pair of bookshelf speakers and a little integrated amp or receiver (or, for some CEO/corner office types, much more elaborate setups) could increase quality of life on the job significantly with some well reproduced music to help the day fly by…”

“At only $99.00 the Edifier R1900 is designed to compete at what is perhaps best described at the upper low end of the multimedia speaker world. It’s certainly a large step above the trashy plastic stuff, and styled to look like a semi-serious bookshelf speaker. From afar it may even look like one, but a close look reveals fit and finish befitting a bargain priced product, especially the vinyl “wood” covering the sides…”

“If the T200A is aimed at the professional/studio market it sure doesn’t look it. In contrast to the non-descript looking black boxes one often finds in studio environments, the T200A is a rather bold looking speaker. It features a triangular front baffle faced with a silver coloured aluminum plate. Two more triangular sections finished in shiny black piano lacquer slope back from the baffle and then stop about a third of the way into the speaker’s 27 cm depth. The rear section of the speaker consists of a more traditionally shaped box which is ported at rear…”

“The HT 208 is a two-way design featuring an 8″ mid/woofer (which, although the material is not specified, seems to be made of polypropylene) and a 1″ metal dome tweeter. The tweeter is mounted in what Genelec calls a Directivity Control Waveguide�. It’s basically metal plate which sets the tweeter a little deeper into the cabinet, creating a slight horn-loading effect. This not only squeezes more efficiency from the tweeter, the Genelec website notes that “the improved directivity control reduces the reflected sound at the listening position…”

“More than just a headphone jack (the Indigo actually has two 1/8″ gold plated mini jacks) the Echo Audio card is a D to A converter as well as a high quality analog output stage. It supports up to 24 bit, 96 kHz signals, uses a 100 Mhz Motorola DSP chip and has a nice, chunky analog volume control knob right on top. For those looking to use their notebook as a recorder, Echo also makes an Indigo with an analog input as well as a model aimed at DJs, featuring two independent stereo outputs.”

“This is the kind of product you’re likely to start hearing more and more about in the coming years as computers make greater inroads into home audio. If it hadn’t been clear already, the success of Apple’s Ipod and Itunes player/music store have driven home an unmistakable trend: Commercial music is not going to be bound to a physical carrier forever, and there is already a large and growing group of people listening to their music as files on computers and portables instead of on little silver discs…”

Highlights Include: Sim2 Domino 30 DLP Projector, BenQ PE8700 DLP Projector, Rotel RSP-1098 HT Processor/Preamp, Yamaha RX-V1400 7 Channel Receiver, Energy S12.3 Subwoofer, Echo Audio Indigo Laptop Sound Card, Mirage Omni 250 Loudspeakers, Dynavector DV-20X H MC Cartridge, Creative Labs SoundBlaster Wireless Music System, Aurum Acoustics Integris audio system, XLO Signature Type 2 2.2 Balanced Interconnect cable and more…

“I can remember this brand in the days of quadraphonic sound for their monster receivers; they weren’t alone, as companies like Marantz, Akai and others also offered giant 100-pound-plus receivers in the 70s. It was, I guess, rather like all those muscle cars during the same period (is history repeating itself?)…”

“DLP projectors are getting better with each new generation of chips from DLP’s inventor, Texas Instruments. The Domino 30 uses the most recent, with 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, which is native 720p. High resolution optics are employed with motorized zoom and focus adjustments. The projector bulb is said to have a service life of 6000 hours or more…”

“A new name in the A/V firmamant, BenQ claims to be the 3d largest manufacturer of LCD panels in the world, and has come into Canada as a subsidiary of BenQ America Corp., and the parent company has manufacturing plants in Malaysia, Mexico, China, and Taiwan. The product presented here, however, is a projector that, like the SIM2 Domino 30, uses the newest HD2 Mustang 720p DLP engine…”

“The Menttor is a plug-and-play 5.1 surround system, but here it is through headphones, and therefore may be of interest to many who like music, movies, or TV at hours when others in the home are sleeping. This quite large, but very light, headphone system, has 6 drivers, and the amplifier/DAC box, which is very small, has a Dolby Digital/DTS chip, and 6 channels of amplification…”

“When the Planar 3 evolved into the P3 a couple of years back the biggest change was a new motor and motor mounting arrangement. Whereas the motor on the Planar 3 was suspended below the plinth on a pair of elastics, the P3’s new motor can be rigidly mounted to the plinth, owing to its much lower levels of vibration. The new motor also does away with active, electronic trimming, apparently enhancing its smoothness even further…”

“Perhaps an odd name for a company making products out of acrylic, Iron Audio was, until recently, called Sheer Audio and you may have seen their platters marketed under this name in the past. As with the Origin Live upgrade this one is for Rega users only, Iron Audio’s acrylic platter designed to fit the Planar 3, P3 and the P25. The company also makes a model for the Planar 2, P2 and NAD turntable…”