Gizmodo: sound & vision

Sound & Vision Names Best Speakers in Every Class

Mark Wilson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST

Sound & Vision has painstakingly gone through every speaker in the whole wide world and named the best in every class. Some of you will be interested in all of the results, and you should most certainly check out the excellent article. Me? I want to know the cheapest (and coincidentally the smallest) surround sound speakers they liked. Their answer? The Energy RC Micro System ($999).

It's a 5.1 setup featuring five satellite speakers that are just 4.5-inches tall (or about the height of a mug) and a subwoofer that stands a mere 8-inches in the air. In the words of Sound & Vision:

The overall effect, in a small room, is precisely what most folks want from this kind of a mini: "Whoa, all that sound's coming from these?"

Just remember, you'll still need a receiver. And if you have the space, it's pretty much a universal rule that bigger speakers are better. [Sound & Vision and Energy Speakers]

$4300 Kaleidescape 1080p DVD Streamer Reviewed (Still Not Real HD)

Benny Goldman — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:41:22 EDT

Sound & Vision gave a gushing review to the Kaleidescape 1080p player, a DVD upscaler that streams movies from a home server for the price of a nice used car. They especially liked the Gennum VXP video processor chip, which upscales DVD content to vividly sharp 1080p detail, with very accurate colors and high contrast. The Kaleidescape's updated ability to play content without importing it to the server first was also a big draw. But seriously, $4300? Come on.

It still doesn't play real HD (Blu-ray support won't be around till 2009) like a much cheaper Xbox, AppleTV, Vudu or PS3, and we can already import DVDs for a streamer using the freeware Handbrake. If we did want to play high quality content without importing it, we'd just buy a $99 upscaling DVD player. Available now, hit the link for the full review, but please don't believe it. [Sound & Vision]