Noise canceling headphones are a must. A must, I say. There is no way I’m riding in a disease-riddled airliner and listening to the guy behind me hack up tuberculosis. Hells no. I sit down, don some noise canceling headphones and pray the Almighty makes it painless. Any of the following three headphones feature noise cancellation that’s more than adequate but each one fails in another… → Read More
Here’s the right thing for all audio freaks out there who happen to be ready to shell out a lot of cash for a very unique product: Japan-based tech company BifrösTech (what a name) is selling egg-shaped speakers [JP] that are priced at $3,580 for a pair. The so-called D’Egg TGA-2R1 is sized at 140×140×235mm and weighs 2.6kg (including the stand that’s included in the price). → Read More
Yamaha Japan today announced the YSP-5100 [JP], a digital sound projector for your home theater. Sized at 1,200×90×212mm and weighing 11kg, Yamaha says the device is suitable for 50-inch TVs or video projectors. It supports 7.1 surround sound and is compatible with dts-HD, dts ES and Dolby TruHD/Digital Plus/Digital/ Digital EX/Pro Logic and Pro LogicⅡ/x. → Read More
Welcome to CrunchGear’s Gala Best of 2008 Awards featuring the Best Gear, Gadgets, and Software of 2008. Best of all, we tallied your responses and collated them in the People’s Choice awards. Now that I’m wearing my tux, let’s get right to the awards. → Read More
Short Version: The Philips DC910 is great-sounding system for playing music from your iPod, a USB thumb drive, an SD card, FM radio, or up to two external sources — all for under $150. → Read More
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an audiophile. I enjoy music and I enjoy good sound but I have yet to be bitten by the high end audio bug. I understand that good audio gear is expensive but have also yet to feel that headphones are worth $1,700. And yet, why am I so fascinated with the Ultrasone Edition9 headphones, a pair of closed-back cans with natural surround sound and an… → Read More
Quick Version: In a world chock full of streaming music devices, the Philips Streamium NP1100 blends into the crowd as a straightforward, easy-to-use network device. → Read More
The Quick Version: The DVDO Edge will restore amazement and wonder to your high definition TV. It’s that good. → Read More
For months now, I have been trying to play .MKV and other video files on my living room front projector. At first I tried to connect a laptop directly to the TV. But this didn’t always work, the audio was crappy, and it was awkward to have a laptop connected to the projector. I started using my XBOX 360 to play video files. At first I wanted to stream the files across my network. This worked… → Read More
We’ve reviewed a lot of home audio solutions, and they all offer different benefits and drawbacks. The big trend is “music everywhere”, whether through powerline networking or wirelessly. Most of these products require a specific music source to feed into the system. Sonos brings something rather more complete to the goal of “music everywhere”. Read on for the… → Read More
Short Version: The EOS wireless audio system is dead simple to set up and use, although a high price tag and so-so sound quality might keep some people away. → Read More
Short Version: Are you an iFamily? Got lots of iDevices between you, your iDo, and maybe some iKids? Is your house sooooo big that it’s just too much trouble to walk to where your computer is to charge said iGadgets? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Griffin PowerDock 4 is 4U. If you are Brady-sized, you will need two of these. → Read More
To the point: A nice plasma that offers a quality image, good colors, and a great scaler. Too bad it’s overpriced. → Read More
Short Version: A full-featured 22-inch HDTV with a built-in DVD player for under $400, the N2201w from ViewSonic is a great option as a bedroom TV, office TV, or dedicated gaming TV. → Read More
As a dilettante musician I enjoy the concept – if not the process – of recording my reedy, whiny voice to digital files. Until recently, that process was fraught with trouble and high quality recording equipment was difficult to obtain and expensive. Now anyone with a six-string and a dream can record fairly acceptable audio with something like the Belkin GoStudio. → Read More
Why do you need a pig-shaped iPod dock? I don’t know, but it exists and it’s a sensible little device. The pig blows out some thin music but it’s nice and heavy on the bass and it looks great in a kids room. It is audiophile quality? Absolutely not, but it comes with a mini-remote that controls most iPod features and it costs about $150 – probably less when it comes to… → Read More
Quick Version: The $99.99 Pure-Fi Anytime is a good choice as an alarm clock and single-room speaker system. If you’ve got your life on your iPhone, you’ll appreciate this gadget as it pulls double duty as a bedside phone charger and music player. → Read More
The Pinnacle Video Transfer is a $99 device that promises easy one-touch recording to a myriad of devices including USB memory sticks and external hard drives as well as direct recording to the Sony PSP and iPod Video, Nano, and Classic devices. In short, it’s super easy and it works well. → Read More
There hasn’t been a gadget that I was initially interested about more than the ZvBox. In my world of 250 press releases a week and thousands of random gadgets, that’s something. The device hijacks a QAM channel over your home’s coax network and streams digital media through it. Since most people already have coax ran, at lease close to their HDTVs, the concept is solid. With that being… → Read More
These Wi-Fi radios have come a long, long way. Case in point, I have an old Linksys WMLS-11B from almost five years ago that requires me to spin around in a circle two times, add a single drop of blood to exactly 6.3 ounces of room-temperature tap water, and paint the Toyota Camry logo on my chest backwards before I can get the thing to reliably stream music wirelessly. Fast forward to the present… → Read More
My TV has two HDMI inputs but I have four HDMI-based entertainment devices I’d like to hook up to it. What’s a girl to do? Boy! I meant to say “boy” instead. Welcome to the exciting world of HDMI switchers! Today we’ll take a look at the HDS-41Rv13 HDMI switcher from RT COM. → Read More
I’m new to the video review thing, so forgive me if the thing above is too long by half, which I’m pretty sure it is. I’ve included a traditional text review as well, in case you don’t want to look at my smirking video-face. Anyhoo, I’m reviewing Razer’s Piranha gaming headset. If you’re in the market for a headphones/microphone combo, this is a pretty… → Read More
Everyone wants to have parties outside, music thumping under the sun. It just feels classy. Plus you get to show your neighbors how many friends you have. Thing is, most boom boxes turn to breathless junk as soon as they’re outside and, between wiring and weather proofing, rigging up a high-quality speaker solution outdoors is a bit past the average consumer. The $699 OutCast speaker is… → Read More
The promise of VoIP has a tendency to sometimes fall short when it comes to simplicity. After all, a VoIP solution is supposed to replace the standard landline telephone — one of the simplest communication devices of all time. Ever seen an old person work a landline? They rock those things, no sweat. IPEVO’s ST4RT (pronounced “Start”) attempts to blend the simplicity of an old school… → Read More
Making music on your PC has never been easier – or harder. While the recording side of things is fairly straight-forward, getting good audio using your PC’s limited complement of hardware tools is difficult. Hissing, bad levels, and odd artifacts plague home recording. That’s why I like the G-Track microphone from Samson. It essentially puts a good microphone and nice line-in… → Read More
I got the VUDU wireless kit a few weeks ago, set it up, and promptly forgot it was there — a sign of a good wireless networking product. The VUDU service (see our initial review here) requires a broadband Internet connection in order operate and, up until now, your options were to either connect the box to your router with an ethernet cable or use a wireless bridge. → Read More
In a world full of iPod accessories, the Unison i-X5 strikes a nice little balance between price and performance. Manufactured by Australian company Cygnett, the i-X5 speaker system can be purchased here in the states with an MSRP of $249, which is a pretty good deal for what you’re getting. → Read More
Rather than bore you with words, I chose to do a video review for the Smartparts digital frame mashup. It poops out 4×6 glossy photos and handles a variety of memory cards. The UI is simple to navigate and there isn’t a whole lot to it, so it’s perfect for anyone with any sort of tech knowledge. One ink cartridge is good for 36 prints and refills cost $20. Swapping ink cartridges… → Read More
What can’t Netflix do? First, they destroyed weekend trips to Blockbuster with their ubiquitous red envelopes and now they promise to destroy the postal service by totally cutting out the middle man. The Netflix Player by Roku is the first in what portends to be a long line of devices designed to download and stream movies from Netflix. While in its current incarnation the device is fairly… → Read More
The SageTV HD Media Extender is a $250 ($200 if you already have a SageTV license)box that streams high-definition content from a PC over an Ethernet connection. Supported files include MPEG1/2/4, H.264, WMV, AVI, MP3, JPEG, PNG, and GIF and if you’ve got a TV tuner installed on your PC, you can watch and record television. It’s a nice option for fans of the SageTV media center… → Read More
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