Speakers & Sound Systems

Recently Braden started looking for some new speakers for his house. Recommendations came flooding in, but one that really intrigued us came from good friend Ray. He suggested we check out what HSU Research has to offer. We know they make great subs, but were unfamiliar with their speakers, so we decided to check them out...

Pretty much since we have been doing the HDTV and Home Theater Podcast we have had listeners ask us about wireless solutions. We have been pretty happy with products from Rocketfish™ and AudioEngine. Today we take a look at the Aperion Audio Home Audio Link (HAL) which will transmit high quality uncompressed audio up to 100 feet.

Features...

We first saw the Yamaha YSP-4000 Sound Projector in use at CES 2007. At that time we were quite impressed that a single unit could generate a 5.1 sound field. For those of you who are not familiar with what the Yamaha Sound Projector, it is single unit resembling an oversized center channel that decodes surround sound and generates multi-channel experience by bouncing sound waves off the walls in your room. The advantages are obvious...

There are quite a few solutions on the market for wireless digital audio. When Logitech acquired Slim Devices a couple years ago, they jumped into the fray with the Squeezebox line of products. Logitech quickly turned out their own twist on the product line, the Squeezebox Duet. We've had one in the HT Guys lab for quite a while and recently got the chance to plug it in, power it on and give it a listen.

According to the Logitech Website, the Squeezebox Duet lets you...

Orb Audio makes small speakers and sells direct to the consumer similar to Aperion and many other speaker manufacturers. By cutting out middle men the company is able to sell speakers at a greatly reduced cost. The speakers are small in size measuring 4 3/16" W x 5" H x 4 7/8" D with stand and weigh 2.0625 pounds (.94 Kg). They also come in a center channel orientation with the two spheres mounted side by side.

The speakers are made out of American carbon steel and hand made in the USA (California and Oregon). The only exception is part of the subwoofer, which is made in Canada. The speakers come in 5 finishes (Metallic Black Gloss, Pearl White Gloss, Hand Polished Steel, Hand Antiqued Copper, and Hand Antiqued Bronze) so there will definitely be something that the aesthetics committee will approve.