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
Turkey Days and TVs – November 2011
Karbon Home Theater wanted to welcome in falling leaves and turkey days with some great fall deals. Including a summer outdoor speaker inventory close out and an amazing 55″ Samsung Smart TV. We also wanted to share with you some news from Sonos regarding their great apps for your iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. 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.
A Media Server for your House:
-A Media Server for your House: Extravagance or Absolute Necessity?-
Let’s face facts, folks. It’s 2011. We are, by all accounts, in the future. And while we don’t have hovercrafts, robots, and space colonies on Mars, we do have iPads, awesome home media centers, and the unfathomable variety of the worldwide web.
This brings us to a key question: Do you need your own home media server?
With so much digital media pouring into your life – no doubt terabytes at this point, every year – you need some way to systematically store, assemble, and pipe all those bytes through your various electronics without spending a fortune, wasting half your life trying to figure out how to get various devices to “talk” to one another, and so forth.
Condensing and streamlining all this digital media is a priority. But do you really need your own server? The answer depends on your preferences, needs, and the amount of information that’s flowing through your home or business.
Here are some examples of people who might benefit from this solution:
• Family of six. Picture a typical San Francisco Bay family of six. The kids are chatting with their friends, downloading movies and songs, constantly Facebooking and Twittering, and perpetually yearning to buy the biggest, greatest, and most expensive information technology upgrades possible. The parents are equally as guilty. Maybe the dad runs an internet home business, so he needs to access a lot of digital information – client videos, etc.
• Small business owner. Whether you run a competitive technology business or you just have a lot of information from clients, vendors, and suppliers streaming in and out of your business, you may want to opt for a media server solution. There are many reasons to do so: safety, convenience, redundancy, speed, efficiency, etc.
• The “I love tech” customer. Maybe you just love to explore the most cutting-edge technologies. You don’t necessarily need a home media server in the same way that the family of six or the small business owner do. But you are intrigued by bleeding edge tech. Having it puts you ahead of the curve and makes you look more “tech savvy” than your annoying, geeked-out buddies, who are constantly bragging to you about how great their setups are.
Irrespective of why you are searching for a home media server, the friendly and effective team at Karbon Home Theater Consulting can help you master your project, save money, and get results.
Connect with our team at 925-798-7600, or get a free estimate by connecting with us online at www.hellokarbon.com.
History And Concept of Bluetooth Input Devices/Adapters
Bluetooth has been bringing people together for over 1,000 years. Literally! King Harold Bluetooth, a Danish king of yore (from the 1100s), famously united various warring Scandinavian factions into a cohesive entity. Likewise, Bluetooth technology today helps various wireless devices – which otherwise might “fight against” one another – connect.
In other words, using Bluetooth tech, different products — manufactured by different companies — can connect and talk to one another. Bluetooth creates ad-hoc temporary networks that allow multiple devices (up to seven) to communicate. These devices generally need to be in physical proximity for the technology to work. To “talk” successfully, they need a Bluetooth adapter. Otherwise, they can’t join the conversation. Continue reading
Is Wireless Surround Sound Right For You?
Wireless Surround Sound – Awesome Idea or Horrific Mistake? We Look at the Pros and Cons.
Are you a tech wizard? Do you have a complex home audio project brewing in your mind? Are you a business owner who needs a unique, smartly contrived sound solution?
Depending on your needs and preferences, you might seriously consider a wireless surround sound speaker system. Typically, every satellite speaker connects to an amplifier – the “wired” route. Moving to wireless affords you more flexibility and allows you to shape, mold, and refine the architecture of the sound environment. But is that flexibility worth the cost?
Let’s look at the pros and cons.
Pros
First off, when you go wireless, you don’t have to deal with the wires anymore! How great is that? Of course, you will still need to connect components to the main unit. But you can operate your speakers using infrared or radio signaling. This reduces clutter and allows you to transform your soundscape easier. This is great, especially if you run a small business where you have customers coming in all the time and don’t want people to trip on loose wires. Continue reading
Are You Ready For Some Football?
It’s time…
Samsung LN46D550 LDC
$899.99 plus tax
Add Great Sound..
Samsung HWD550 Audiobar with Sub
Experience dynamic, full-bodied sound with Samsung’s new HW-D550. Hear all the action with its virtual surround sound capability. This sound bar has it all with built-in amplification to power its six drivers for clear dialogue and spacious, lifelike effects.
This audiobar also includes a subwoofer bringing exciting bass punch to your favorite movies and sporting events. Because its wireless, you can place the sub anywhere in your room. It fits on a TV stand or you can mount it on the wall. At 2-1/8″ deep, it’ll look great below flat-panel TVs.
Features:
- 160 watts (80 watts x 2 peak)
- Dolby® Digital and DTS® decoding and virtual surround processing for a more engaging listening experience
- Audio wall mounting bracket included
- 41-3/4″W x 3-3/16″H x 2-1/8″D
Subwoofer:
- 150 watts (peak)
- Wireless subwoofer – place it anywhere in the room
- Requires AC power
Karbon has complete 40 inch combination packages starting at $1049.00 plus tax
Experience every minute of action this season
Call Karbon Now!!!
Karbon Home Theater
925-798-7600
The Pros and Cons of Simulated Surround Sound – 5.1 versus 7.1
Whether you’re a would be (or actual) movie or commercial director – and you crave a precise surround sound system; or you’re just an audiophile freak who wants a top performing system, enjoy this analysis of the pros and cons of simulated surround sound. Continue reading
