Geek with Family

It looks like everyone’s favorite super-expensive ethernet cable company, Belkin, are inflating the price of their $199 HDMI Interface 3-to-1 Video Switch, the same OEM HDMI box as BetterCables and Comects’ Neptune (also favorably reviewed by Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, described as “inexpensive” at $222). It appears Monoprice has the same hardware for $67.46.

You have to ask yourself what premium you are willing to pay for branding from BetterCables and Belkin. As AV consumers we expect higher quality from our boutique brands. We assume that we are paying a higher price for their product because the company invested many hours on R&D and quality assurance. But what if that warm feeling is just a placebo caused by a rebadging of an OEM product? What if the only creative thought that went into these products was where to place your logo and how to spin the tech copy to justify its price and also scare you away from more affordable (or even fairly priced) alternatives (that look suspiciously like the same product).

Video switchers are not a sexy product, they are completely utilitarian. It’s awful that we even have to consider paying this much money for a boutique company’s product that is really an affordable OEM with the exact same functionality and performance. A backlash to industry wide HDMI price gouging is growing fueled by the extremely low prices of Monoprice and other discount cable suppliers (like RAM Electronics).

I assume as a response to my post this morning (and being featured on Gizmodo), BetterCables has removed the pricing and description of their HDMI switcher. I hope they explain themselves soon. The Secrets site was down this morning (coincidence?) but when they came back their review of BetterCables HDMI Switcher was unchanged.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I’ve been on the lookout for an affordable HDMI switcher in anticipation of an additional HTPC and next gen console (hopefully the Xbox 360 will have HDMI by this spring). Monoprice has a good assortment of HDMI switchers, and I’ve had my eye on their 5X1 Enhanced HDMI Switch, but it has been sold out for weeks (looks like they have them back in stock today). The switcher only costs $88.73 (with an “original value” of $299), so it’s a very attractive option. An AVS Forum member posted this thorough review and found no problems (like sparkling) all the way up to 1080p.

Yesterday, I read the BetterCables Display Magic 5×1 HDMI Switcher ($350) review on Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. The reviewer, Kris Deering, found no fault with the switcher, comparing it in quality to the rest of BetterCables’ product offerings (high). He concludes:

BetterCables has always offered outstanding performance and quality in their products regardless of price point. The Display Magic 5.1 HDMI switcher continues that tradition. Regardless of the source I had connected to it, the unit passed the entire signal and didn’t tamper with it in any way. That is all you can ask of an A/V switcher. The flexibility this adds to a setup that is limited in HDMI switching is immeasurable. This product gets my highest recommendation.

Continue reading HDMI Twins: Is BetterCables Selling an $89 HDMI Switcher for $350?

Popularity: 6% [?]

Captain Jack Harkness: “No idea. We know how to use it, not how it happened…” Torchwood SE1E1.

With so many consumer electronic buying choices it only makes fiscal sense to understand how and why your CD player, processor or amplifier works. All the way from the discrete electronic components (you know Black Gate capacitors are better than Radio Shack’s, right?) to the complicated recipe made up of multiple circuits. I want to understand audio electronic engineering enough to design and build my own DIY projects and gain the ability to detect bull-crank claims in manufacturer white papers and hi-fi press reviews.

Building the CMOY mint tin headphone amp (unfortunately, I’ve only cut the proto board in half and soldered the jumpers in place) got me curious about the inner workings of all my gear. With the CMOY I can follow the instructions and hopefully get good audio out of it without electrocuting myself, but I want to understand more than the beginner instructions and know how to improve the input, output and power supply circuits. So I bought some books.

Continue reading My Quest for How Audiophile Electronics Work

Popularity: 8% [?]

I miss HDTV.

Last year I gave up my HD satellite STB as part of a household cost cutting plan. I only had the box downstairs on the big screen and never watched it for two reasons: warming up my projector and turning on my whole home theater system didn’t fit with my desire for instant TV gratification and the STB had no time shifting/PVR facilities (essential to any TV viewer but more so if you have kids that don’t appreciate midwest prime time).

Recently, I caught a glimpse of HDTV and thought, “Wow, that looks really good, much better than my upscaled DVD video, I should really finally build an HTPC.”

Before dropping any money into video cards and large hard drives I wanted to assess my current HTPC (home theater personal computer) capabilities:

Continue reading Why I Need an HDTV Capable HTPC

Popularity: 10% [?]

Stereophile magazine has infected me with upgraditis (luckily my empty wallet’s immune system is strong). In the last two issues they’ve reviewed Vandersteen Audio’s new 2ce Signature II loudspeaker and Slim Devices’ Transporter. For under $4000, I could take my system to the next logical level. Both these components, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the audio chain, could replace my Airport Express wireless transport and Vandersteen 1c loudspeakers respectively without any regrets.

What you need to know from each review:

Continue reading The New End-to-End - Slim Devices Transporter to Vandersteen 2ce Signature II

Popularity: 7% [?]

Paul Miller, founder of Miller Audio Research and lead consumer electronic measurement pornographer, asks what mysterious scientific measurements are missing that can better define sonic differences between audio electronics in the February Hi-Fi News. He cites the discovery of a method to measure jitter in the mid-nineties as the last new measurement technique. He also suggests that the more measurable a device’s performance the more it can be improved upon. Since jitter’s rise manufacturers of digital components have strived to reduce its ill effects.

So what’s left to measure that will better define a careful listener’s subjective impressions of a new wifi audio player, amp or loudspeakers? Synergy.

What if we figured out how to measure a whole audio system chain at once? How it might work (I have no idea if this follows any kind of scientific method, just my best guess):

• Establish baseline measurements for all individual components: Gather all the same measurements for your source, amplification and speakers as you would now with sine waves and pulses
• Use baseline high bit digital recordings that are viewed both as waveforms and spectrally
• Play both test tones and test songs through the whole system
• Use some really fancy math to compare the system measurements to those of the individual components and derive scores based on error values or 3D spectral comparisons
• Somehow present the results in layman’s terms

So go forth and measure system synergy. Remember, high end audio can only achieve new sonic heights if we set new unattainable goals.

By the way Mr. Miller mentions that everybody’s favorite new AV cable, HDMI, has terrible jitter performance. He doesn’t say how bad but I’m sure there’s a white paper with titillating charts and graphs available on his site or elsewhere.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Hi-Fi News’ Russ Andrews has a system set up column, “Russ’ Top Tips,” where he has suggested that music listeners should place their equipment rack in between the left and right loudspeakers. Many readers wrote in not liking the idea and Mr. Andrews defends the placement in his latest column (at least the issue available in the US, Feb. 2007, page 98, maybe the UK is a month ahead).

According to Andrews, you need to place your equipment rack dead center and maybe a little nearer the front wall of the front loudspeakers (at least behind the front baffles to avoid imaging interference) because that is the quietest and most in time place in the room when music is playing. Huh? I’m not sure how the spot between the speakers is the quietest (though we could all easily check with an SPL meter), but lets take his word for it. What I have a problem with is his reasoning behind the “quiet” spot: all of your equipment’s internal components (diodes, caps, etc.) are microphonic, meaning they are reabsorbing the sound waves out of time and this is distorting the music. Isn’t that called feedback? Shouldn’t we all be dealing with shrill whines from our loudspeakers that change depending on placement?

Continue reading Russ Andrews Microphonic Equipment Placement and Time Smear

Popularity: 7% [?]

The latest Parallels Desktop build (3150) was released this week and it finally has a virtual CD drive that Exact Audio Copy (EAC) recognizes. With previous versions, I always got stuck trying to test the CD drive in EAC’s setup wizard. Now I just need to find some advanced EAC tutorials and I can start ripping better than perfect digital copies of my favorite (or for more fun, worst sounding) CDs into lossless formats (Apple Lossless for me).

After I’ve ripped a few CDs I may also check out Foobar’s Windows playback and find out if it really makes a difference over a Mac OS iTunes, as suggested by Empirical Audio.

Happy Exact Audio Copying Parallels users.

Popularity: 14% [?]