Introduction Last summer, my wife and I decided to put our condominium on the market and buy a house. As part of the process, we had our realtor walk through the condo and make recommendations for “staging” it to make it more attractive to more buyers. The first thing she asked me to do was to get rid of my large floor-standing towers in the living room and replace them with something smaller. I was mortified, as I really enjoyed having full-sized speakers in my living/theater room. I spoke with Mike Manousselis of Dynaudio shortly thereafter and explained my situation. Mike assured me that he had a system from the Contour series that would fulfill my needs. It was like a scene out of one of those fix ‘em up shows on the DIY Network, but I needed a bigger house ...

Introduction It should come to no surprise that flat panel televisions are all the rage these days, and rightly so. They look great, can be hung on the wall for mega-wow factor and are the reason for marital bliss in countless homes nationwide. The fact that flat screens are as much a fashion item as they are a source of entertainment has done wonders to ease the age-old conflict between a man’s desire for a huge video screen for watching football and a woman’s desire to have an orderly living room. It is my belief that this conflict was a primary motivation for manufacturers to create televisions thin enough to hang on the wall in the first place. I can hear the meetings now: “Make it look nice, so wives will like it and will let their husbands go crazy and ...

Introduction The concept of power, or “active” loudspeakers, is one the audiophile community has fought since the beginning of time. Audiophiles have been wrong in their initial fears about all new audio formats (think LP, CD, DVD-Audio and even the almighty iPod), anything to do with EQ and, most importantly, room acoustics – they are wrong about active speakers, too. The idea of a company building amplifiers into speaker cabinets that are specifically designed to power the drivers and electronic (active) crossovers that make up a speaker system are in many cases better left to people who have real measurement tools and fixed environments to design from, rather than audiophiles who have a Platinum card and are looking to tweak. And tweaking is exactly what many of us have heard from the audiophile publications as they spew their misguided sermons of ...

Introduction I could bore you with a brief summery about the whos and whys surrounding the electrostatic loudspeaker manufacturer MartinLogan, but truthfully, if you consider yourself a fan of high-end audio, then the MartinLogan story is among the most well-known in the business. So instead I’ll lead with this: I have in my possession the coolest iPod speakers ever dreamed of. There has been a lot of to-do over the mighty MP3 player from Apple, as AV manufacturers clamor to jump aboard the train, manufacturing countless accessories and glorified clock radios in a relentless quest to cash in on the seemingly endless success of the iPod. After a recent visit to my local Apple Store, several high-end companies were displaying products that utilize or feature the iPod, hoping to squeeze an ounce of high fidelity out of the otherwise personal player. ...

Introduction Boston Acoustics was founded in 1979 and over the years has grown into a true powerhouse in home, mobile aftermarket and OEM audio systems. My history with the brand dates back over 20 years ago, when I purchased a pair of their Pro 5.2 separates and Pro 12.0 subwoofer for my car. Mobile audio was where my interest in the audio hobby began – and Boston Acoustics played a big part in what made it so much fun. The speaker system I was asked to review was Boston’s budget-conscious Horizon surround sound system. When I unpacked the main speakers, the HS 450s, my first thought was, “When did Boston start making electrostatic speakers?” These speakers are dead ringers for panels. When viewed from the side, they have a leaned-back graceful arc from top to bottom and stand about three-and-a-half feet ...