The Skinny on Samsung’s New OLED TV
Whether you’re an AV enthusiast drooling for the chance to own your own 55-inch super OLED television from Samsung, or you’re a self-declared “critical thinking shopper” who wants to distinguish hype from reality, this article will introduce you to the key basics about this much talked about (and gawked over) 2012 home entertainment superstar. Continue reading
Move Over Full HD! New JVC Projectors First To Display 2D HD Content with 4K Precision
JVC wowed prosumers and experts alike at the 2012 International CES Convention Las Vegas in January by rolling out the very first home theater projectors to manage 2D HD content with complete 4K precision capabilities. Continue reading
Sonos Play 3: Delightfully Balanced Sound, Wireless Streaming Music
The Sonos Play 3 wireless hi-fi system is a powerful speaker designed to incorporate and mesh with the rest of the Sonos family. Macworld recently gave the device a “5.0 out of 5 Mice,” saying the device “can easily fill a room with sound from [a vast and diverse array of sources, including] your iTunes library, internet radio, and services such as Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, Spotify, Mog, Rdio, Last.fm, SiriusXM, [and many more].” Continue reading
So Many Different Types of HDMI Cables: Which One Should I Choose?
HDMI cables can simplify and streamline your home theater setup. However, the seemingly dazzling and endless variety of specifications and capabilities of HDMI cables can give even seasoned audiophiles pause. How should you choose? Continue reading
The Yamaha Aventage – Evolution Continues
Whether you are an audiofile obsessed with studio grade sound or a professional who needs extremely sophisticated enhancements to your video, the AV receiver known as the Yamaha Aventage can maximize your performance. In this brief blog post, we are going to look at four competitive advantages that the Aventage possesses. Continue reading
Can a Home Theater Take Your SF Loft to the Next Level?
Own a San Francisco Loft?
If you own or rent a San Francisco loft, and you’re an audiophile or a cinephile, you might be attracted by the idea of designing your own home theater system. Maybe you recently visited a friend’s loft and saw his (or her) amazing system. Now, you want to one-up your buddy with a more vibrant, more state-of-the-art system. Or maybe you’re a film or commercial director who needs home theater for professional reasons. If you’ve been on the fence, consider these arguments for “taking the plunge” and experiencing your movies and other media in a richer, more immersive context:
1) Home theaters will amp up your home design.
Gorgeous looking home theaters will improve the aesthetic of your home or loft and contribute to a positive “Feng Shui” to make your space that much more comfortable and fun.
2) Boost the value of your home.
Installing a home theater system can actually be a long term plus for the value of your property.
3) Better listening and viewing experience – and more versatile, too.
When you wire your room for high-quality sound, install high-quality monitors and etc, you get to experience multimedia on a deeper level. There is a reason why the world’s most prominent directors and cinephiles love the home theater experience: it brings you into the story or into the music on a deeper, subtler, and more colorful level.
4) Good insulation can protect noise from “leaking out” into the rest of the loft.
You may be worried about “leaching” sound into other rooms of your house. Good insulation can prevent that.
5) Enjoy a fully immersive theater experience by including a popcorn machine, snack bar,fridge, you name it.
Do you really need to go out to the movies ever again? Why not avoid the frustration of paying $20 for parking, $30 on concessions, and $150 on a babysitter? Instead, invest in a high-end home theater system, and bring the best parts of the theater experience into your home…and leave the worst parts behind (sticky Goobers gumming up your shoes, annoying patrons talking or chomping on popcorn through the entire movie right in your ear, etc).
For help with your San Francisco home theater system, connect with the experts at Karbon Home Theater Consulting at www.hellokarbon.com.
Installing Your Home Theater System
The Benefits of Hiring a Professional
You fancy yourself as someone who’s technically savvy. Maybe friends constantly call you to defrag their computers, fix buggy cell phones, and set up and install home stereo systems. Maybe you even have an older relative or two who asks you to do things like “turn on my computer” and “get my cell phone to stop beeping” or some such nonsense. In any event, whether you are this type of person or not – whether you love the nuts and bolts of technology or not – you should always hire a professional to install your home theater system.
It’s not just a matter of “doing it right.” If you are truly technically proficient, you might be able to figure everything out on your own. And if you truly love solving mechanical problems, more power to you. But most people out there – including most of the “tech adept” people we referred to above – will benefit by hiring a home theater consultant, such as the pros at Karbon Home Theater Consulting 925-795-7600. We advise you to check out our credentials and professional capabilities online. But we don’t simply want to toot our own horn here. We want to highlight the surprising problems – possibly very surprising problems – that you might encounter if you try to “go it alone.”
1. Wasted Time and Frustration
You might think that the installation will take only two hours. But what if it takes 10 hours? What if you have to spend Friday and Saturday night troubleshooting? Your time has value. The more time you spend at work, having fun, playing with your family, in essence, the better your life is. When you are mired in a thankless task – such as troubleshooting and beta testing some quirky part of your home theater system – you miss out on the truly great stuff life has to offer. Continue reading
Awesome News for Audiophiles: See What Yamaha Commercial Audio Is Bringing To The Table in 2011
Countdown to InfoComm:
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems Prepares to Launch Mount Speakers
InfoComm 2011 is practically upon us. And Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. has something pretty darn special to roll out: the VS Series surface mount speakers. Visit booth number 823 to check out these sleek, appealing, and compact adaptable speakers. They are ideal for a variety of business and professional applications, including but not limited to:
- Your church or other house of worship
- Country club
- Restaurant by the Bay
- Public address system
- Organization’s meeting room
- Basically anywhere else you need aesthetic, adaptable, functional surround sound
- Supplemental home theater sound
Two Models, Myriad Possibilities
There are two models in this series – the VS6 and the VS4. The numbers correspond to the size of the woofers. The VS6, for instance, has a cone woofer that’s a whopping 6.5 inches (good forbottom-end sounds); whereas VS4 comes with a 4-inch woofer.
Flexibility is the name of the game
You can install them vertically, horizontally, using U-brackets, etc. The speakers come in black and white – the enclosures and transducers arewater-resistant. The dome tweeter has excellent clarity at very high frequencies – essentialfor big public spaces, like churches, meeting halls, and auditoriums (not to mention hometheater systems), since excellent clarity on high frequencies makes for a much easier listeningexperience. The VS series conforms to IEC60529 IPX3 rating requirements, and the speakerscan operate in two different distributed sound systems: 70 volt or 100 volt.
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems’ Marketing Manager, Marc Lopez, sells these superb unitsthis way: “Even a casual listener will immediately notice the outstanding sound quality in oursurface mount speakers.”
That said, even audiophiles can have a difficult time unpacking their best options – figuring out how to install, design, and execute home theater solutions and other audio solutions. For help with any kind of sound automation design and installation, connect with Karbon Consulting, a San Francisco Bay Area home theater specialist. Learn more about how our audio experts canhelp you at www.hellokarbon.com, or call 925-795-7600 to set up your free estimate with us.
Sony’s Internet TVs Powered by Google: The Future Really is Now
Sony and Google recently collaborated to develop the first HDTV that taps into the deep and powerful resources of Google TV.
When you hear people talk about Sony internet televisions, at first blush, it sounds like these TVs were concocted in the mind of a futurist straight from the1950s. These TVs are almost out of this world.
This article breaks down some of their cool specs and features for you.
