Reading back over some of my old What Hifi Magazines looking for a review of Anthony Gallo's unique speakers. I stumbled across a review of Multi Channel Music setups and the photo introducting the speakers got me thinking.
Why do dedicated multi-channel speakers systems have a Centre Speaker?
Surely a mulichannel audio setup would be best served with an array of matched speakers?
Just a thought.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
NXT gets Cubed
British speaker Manufacturer Mission have further refined their NXT panel offerings from the FS2 Series to produce the new M-Cube Speaker system.
The new system comprises 5 small cube speakers around 9cm cubed with a matching subwoofer at 32cm cubed. The system isn't available in Australia yet so I haven't had a chance to listen to the speaker system yet. However all reviews suggest that the speakers have to be heard to be believed. The review in the latest What Hifi states the speakers are "Small, perfectly formed, and with excellent sound quality, M-Cube is just the ticket to unobtrusive home cinema heaven" and gave them 5 Stars.
The design of the speakers is outstanding and they come in Black or Ivory and is construced from extruded aluminium. They also come with 5 different fabric mid sections to allow them to be matched with any decor.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Funky Beats
As I'm getting ready to go on my long car trek I was starting to put a CD together of my favourite Funky Tracks.
Chris Joss - Discotheque Dancing
Katalyst - Passing of Peace
Ramsey Lewis - Do you wanna
Dynamo Productions - Get if Together
Greyboy - Got to be you Love
Ruben Steiner - espangnolade
Zepher Timber - Abstact Fusion
Moby - Run on
Marc Moulin - Into the Dark
St. Germaine - Rose Rouge
Katalyst - Fusion (Remixed:Blunted Stylus)
Rhibasome - Get Ready
Ramsey Lewis - Do What You Wanna [Mr. Scruff's Soul Party Mix]
Jamiroquai - Litte L
Chris Joss - Discotheque Dancing
Katalyst - Passing of Peace
Ramsey Lewis - Do you wanna
Dynamo Productions - Get if Together
Greyboy - Got to be you Love
Ruben Steiner - espangnolade
Zepher Timber - Abstact Fusion
Moby - Run on
Marc Moulin - Into the Dark
St. Germaine - Rose Rouge
Katalyst - Fusion (Remixed:Blunted Stylus)
Rhibasome - Get Ready
Ramsey Lewis - Do What You Wanna [Mr. Scruff's Soul Party Mix]
Jamiroquai - Litte L
Monday, April 11, 2005
Only 2 More Sleeps!
Ok I've been bugged enough to get my Birthday list up. (apparently the list of DVDs wasn't enough)
So here goes. (I'll get around to putting some more stuff up here....)
DVDs....
The Wish List (it's pretty close to up to date)
Games and Stuff....
Car Stuff....
MD Case for the car.
New steering wheel similar to this.
Hifi Stuff...
Jaycar MiniSub
Harmony Remote from Logitech.
IXOS XHV704 (1713) Component Video 3 RCA to 3 RCA
Bike Stuff...
Cycling Jersey
Music...
JONES, SHARON AND THE DAP KING DIPPIN WITH
RUSSELL, ALICE UNDER THE MUNKA MOON
POLYPHONIC SPREE TOGETHER WERE HEAVY
MUSIC WELCOME TO THE NORTH
So here goes. (I'll get around to putting some more stuff up here....)
DVDs....
The Wish List (it's pretty close to up to date)
Games and Stuff....
Car Stuff....
MD Case for the car.
New steering wheel similar to this.
Hifi Stuff...
Jaycar MiniSub
Harmony Remote from Logitech.
IXOS XHV704 (1713) Component Video 3 RCA to 3 RCA
Bike Stuff...
Cycling Jersey
Music...
JONES, SHARON AND THE DAP KING DIPPIN WITH
RUSSELL, ALICE UNDER THE MUNKA MOON
POLYPHONIC SPREE TOGETHER WERE HEAVY
MUSIC WELCOME TO THE NORTH
Thursday, April 07, 2005
What an Incredible day!
After being restrained and keeping my DVD purchases down I've succomed and purchased
The Incredibles yesterday (on it's release).
Having thouroughly enjoyed the movie at the cinemas, I must say seeing the movie again exceeded my expectations. The retrostyled animation (which is by far Pixar's best animation) suits the style of the movie perfectly and has one of the coolest soundtracks around.
This movie is a must see Pixar release, even if it's only to see the scene where Edna displays her wares. It's definately a brilliant test DVD, especially the scenes with the Omnidroid.
The Incredibles will be moving straight to my Best Test DVD list.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Addiction... Thy name is Burnout 3
I've never got around to getting a racing game for the latest generation of consoles. I was fairly addicted to Ridge Racer on Nintendo 64 but I've been fairly sceptical about many of the racing releases since.
When I went to trade some of my older titles in for a new set of Konga's and Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat I ended up with more trade than new game and under presure I reached for the cheapest game that I could remember wanting.
The result was Burnout 3: Takedown for X-box. It had review well in just about every review that I'd seen but had never got around to buying it. Mainly due to being wary of games that do well in every review (e.g. Halo 2 which I never really got into and was recently traded for Kongas)
However, with Burnout 3 it resulted in almost instant addiction. From the outset you start unlocking new elements and from then you're hooked, just one more track, just one more car, just one more award. The graphics are great, the soundtrack is pretty good (with some familiar artists such as Franz Ferdiniand and The Von Bondies) and the racing is frantic and engaging.
The most disappointing thing about it's addictive gameplay is that Vanessa is completely hooked. One of the challenges in the Burnout World Tour (see also Career mode) is Crash for Cash, where basically you drive your car into an intersection with the aim to smash as many vehicles as you can. Vanessa has barely been able to put the controller down since she started. So much so that she's now over twice as far through the game as I am and have to fight to get my X-box back!
Damn your addictive gameplay Burnout 3.... I'm off to by another X-box! :)
When I went to trade some of my older titles in for a new set of Konga's and Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat I ended up with more trade than new game and under presure I reached for the cheapest game that I could remember wanting.
The result was Burnout 3: Takedown for X-box. It had review well in just about every review that I'd seen but had never got around to buying it. Mainly due to being wary of games that do well in every review (e.g. Halo 2 which I never really got into and was recently traded for Kongas)
However, with Burnout 3 it resulted in almost instant addiction. From the outset you start unlocking new elements and from then you're hooked, just one more track, just one more car, just one more award. The graphics are great, the soundtrack is pretty good (with some familiar artists such as Franz Ferdiniand and The Von Bondies) and the racing is frantic and engaging.
The most disappointing thing about it's addictive gameplay is that Vanessa is completely hooked. One of the challenges in the Burnout World Tour (see also Career mode) is Crash for Cash, where basically you drive your car into an intersection with the aim to smash as many vehicles as you can. Vanessa has barely been able to put the controller down since she started. So much so that she's now over twice as far through the game as I am and have to fight to get my X-box back!
Damn your addictive gameplay Burnout 3.... I'm off to by another X-box! :)
Have I forgotten how to blog?
Although it appears that I have become severed from my blog! I have managed to work out how to blog again.
A lot has been happening since I last posted, most recently we became owners of a new camera. We're heading off on holidays in just over a week and have been planning a trip along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Our last camera, a Pentax which Vanessa brought back from a trip to New Orleans, is well and truly on it's last legs and is past being useful for anything other than a paper weight.
I was keen to get the latest Lumix from Panasonic. I had played with the orginal Mega Zoom camera from Panasonic and was really happy with the pictures that it took. The latest offering in the range is the DMC-FZ20 a 5 Megapixel camera with 12x Optical Zoom and Manual Focus. About as close to a Digital SLR as you can get.
After a bit of research we decided we didn't have enough time to do full research on a new top of the line camera and decided to go for a happy snap option. The winner in that department was the Pentax Optio s30 which Vanessa is Very Very Happy with!
A lot has been happening since I last posted, most recently we became owners of a new camera. We're heading off on holidays in just over a week and have been planning a trip along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Our last camera, a Pentax which Vanessa brought back from a trip to New Orleans, is well and truly on it's last legs and is past being useful for anything other than a paper weight.
I was keen to get the latest Lumix from Panasonic. I had played with the orginal Mega Zoom camera from Panasonic and was really happy with the pictures that it took. The latest offering in the range is the DMC-FZ20 a 5 Megapixel camera with 12x Optical Zoom and Manual Focus. About as close to a Digital SLR as you can get.
After a bit of research we decided we didn't have enough time to do full research on a new top of the line camera and decided to go for a happy snap option. The winner in that department was the Pentax Optio s30 which Vanessa is Very Very Happy with!
Monday, April 04, 2005
Jazz goes Digital.
In something that seems fairly ironic the newest available digital radio channel in Brisbane is Dig Jazz. Now you can enjoy endless Jazz tunes with all the clarity of your CD collection.
dig JAZZ is available on free to air digital TV on Channel 201. dig and dig JAZZ may also be available on pay digital TV, check with your provider. Listening to dig's music stream on Digital TV gives you very high quality sound - almost CD quality. And, just as on the dig website, there are no interruptions - just great music.
dig JAZZ is available at a higher quality than the main dig channel on the dig website. They use a technique called multi-bitrate streaming, which automatically uses the highest amount of bandwidth that your connection can handle. The maximum connection speed for dig JAZZ is 128kbps. 1 minute of audio streamed at 128 kbps is equal to downloading 0.9229 Megabytes. If you have a broadband plan with a download limit you may wish to keep a close check on your usage. Most broadband providers have a usage metering service; contact your ISP for more details.
dig JAZZ is available on free to air digital TV on Channel 201. dig and dig JAZZ may also be available on pay digital TV, check with your provider. Listening to dig's music stream on Digital TV gives you very high quality sound - almost CD quality. And, just as on the dig website, there are no interruptions - just great music.
dig JAZZ is available at a higher quality than the main dig channel on the dig website. They use a technique called multi-bitrate streaming, which automatically uses the highest amount of bandwidth that your connection can handle. The maximum connection speed for dig JAZZ is 128kbps. 1 minute of audio streamed at 128 kbps is equal to downloading 0.9229 Megabytes. If you have a broadband plan with a download limit you may wish to keep a close check on your usage. Most broadband providers have a usage metering service; contact your ISP for more details.
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