Home audio

Netgear today teamed up with Broadcom to announce and demonstrate a new line of wireless networking products that use Broadcom's 802.11ac chips. These are the chips that Broadcom showed off in preparation for and during CES 2012.

These devices include two routers, the Netgear R6300 WiFi and the R6300 WiFi, and one USB adapter, the A6200 WiFi.

All of these devices are based on the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard (or 5G Wi-Fi, as Broadcom calls it). The Netgear R6300 is the top of the line and supports the three-stream 802.11ac standard that offers up to 1.… Read more

I've known about Adam Audio for a long time, but for one reason or another I never reviewed one of its speakers. Adam (Advanced Dynamic Audio Monitors) may have started as a pro sound company, but it now also makes audiophile speakers. To get a handle on their sound I started with Adam's least expensive model, the ARTist 3, a compact desktop monitor. The company was founded by physicist Klaus Heinz and electrical engineer Roland Stenz, in Berlin in 1999.

It was in the early 1980s when Heinz met Oskar Heil, a decade after the good doctor caused … Read more

British audiophile brand Arcam appears to be making a greater effort to go mainstream these days with products such as the Arcam rCube iPhone dock and now, an entry-level USB DAC/headphone amplifier (amp) combo.

Meant as a smaller (and cheaper) alternative to the rDac digital-to-analog converter, this model only has a single USB input, with an asynchronous DAC. Audiophiles tend to prefer asynchronous USB inputs on DACs for the more consistent audio quality they're supposed to provide as the device creates the clock signals and not the (sometimes ancient) USB controller.… Read more

Denon is always last to announce its new AV receivers each year, but the company just rolled out its new 2012 line.

Denon's AVR-1912 was a hit last year with built-in AirPlay support, and now AirPlay is available on all but the entry-level $250 Denon AVR-1513. There aren't many surprises otherwise, although Denon's back panels are looking more minimalist than ever before. Here's how Denon's 2012 line of AV receivers breaks down:… Read more

Sjofn Hi Fi of Seattle, Wash., makes an amazing little speaker, the Clue. When I heard it at the New York Audio & AV Show last week I could not believe that something that small could sound that big.

The Clue has a proprietary, made-in-Denmark 5.5-inch woofer and an 0.8-inch silk dome tweeter. The heavily braced, medium-density fiberboard cabinet is beautifully finished in real maple, cherry or piano black. The cabinet is made in China, but the rest of the speaker is assembled in Sjofn Hi Fi's garage in Seattle. The Clue measures a tidy 14 by … Read more

Headphones are among the most popular products on CNET, and, not surprisingly, many of you are looking for a pair that delivers a lot of bang for the buck.

With that in mind, I've put together a list of our favorite headphones that offer good -- and sometimes excellent -- performance for the money. It's a bit of a hodgepodge of products, with a mix of in-ear, on-ear, and over-the-ear headphones, and even a few Bluetooth models.

Since there are literally thousands of models available, we've most likely missed some great deals, but we're determined to find as many headphone bargains as we can, so feel free to offer up your own nominations in the comments section below. We'll be reviewing additional headphones throughout the year and will be updating this list as we go along. … Read more

If Geordi La Forge were to go punk, we imagine he'd wear something like these OneSense headphones.

Designed by Joe Doucet, this work of art will be on display at a design exhibition in Milan soon and are meant to encourage users to focus on listening to music and not be distracted by the world around them.

According to Doucet, the cautionary red hue and intimidating spikes are meant to "alert others not to intrude, while covering the wearer's eyes reduces distractions. There's no word on the actual specifications of these headphones (we doubt they actually work), but we have to admire the idea behind this Lady Gaga-esque design. … Read more

Onkyo and Pioneer have already spilled the details on their 2012 midrange AV receivers, and now Yamaha has released two new models to its RX-V line.

The RX-V573 ($550) and RX-V473 ($450) are available immediately, and both feature built-in AirPlay, 4K video pass-through, 3D support, and four HDMI inputs. AirPlay is a new feature for Yamaha's receivers, as it was a noticeable omission from last year's models, while competing Pioneer and Denon models offered it. The RX-V573 and RX-V473 are both also DLNA-compliant.

The new models will continue to use Yamaha's color graphical user interface, and Yamaha's AV Controller app has been updated for both iOS and Android devices, including tablets. The major difference between the models is that RX-V573 is a 7.1 channel receiver, while the RX-V473 has 5.1 channels.

Yamaha also announced that it will be releasing more models in the RX-V line later this month. Here's a breakdown of the key features of models announced today:

… Read more

Samsung's high-end, tube-powered DA-E750 audio dock was impressive enough at CES to garner a Best of CES nomination in the home theater category. Now Samsung's initial foray at luxury home audio finally has a price: a whopping $800.

Pricing was also announced for Samsung's other vacuum-tube-amplified home audio product, including the two home theater systems, the HT-E6500W ($800) and HT-E6730W ($1,000). The shipping date for all three products is still a vague "spring," so it may be a month or two before these start showing up. Samsung's step-down audio docks will be coming … Read more