Category Archives: Testing

How — and why — I measure home theatre receiver power output

Posted on August 10, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

A reader, Tony, suggested a couple of months ago, that I write an article on ‘The Steve Dawson method of testing Receivers’. I don’t think it’s worth an article as such, but I would like to outline my process, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Equipment, Testing | Leave a comment

Harman Kardon DVD 30 revisited

Posted on February 20, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Yesterday I received the most recent edition of Sound and Image which, as usual, contains a number of my articles. Amongst others it has my rave review of the Harman Kardon DVD 30 DVD video/audio player. I like this player … Continue reading →

Posted in CD, Equipment, Testing | Leave a comment

My Denon DVD-2900 review on-line

Posted on September 23, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The DVD User Group has come to arrangment with Sound and Image magazine to reproduce some of the magazine’s hardware reviews on-line. My review of the Denon DVD-2900 DVD player is now there (you need to become a member — … Continue reading →

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Pioneer’s new Australian line-up

Posted on September 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Pioneer Australia is flying me down to Melbourne tomorrow for the release of its new product line up. The company is strong in Plasma displays and DVD players, although its budget DVD Audio/SACD DV-655A is a disappointment (no real setup … Continue reading →

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AIX 8200: not quite a DVD-Audio test disc

Posted on September 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Well, I remain on my so-far fruitless search for a DVD Audio disc with useful audio test signals. I had my hopes up for the AIX 8200 Start Here disc, which I just bought today from Rockian Trading for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Testing | Leave a comment

‘RMS Power’ — an inappropriate term

Posted on September 3, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Electronics professionals cringe when they see the terms ‘RMS Power’ or ‘RMS watts’ in publications. This new article explains why.

Posted in General Tech, Testing | Leave a comment

Subjective vs Objective testing

Posted on August 16, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Here’s a report of a study that bears somewhat on the problem of assessing the performance of home entertainment equipment. In brief, it seems that statistical models are significantly better at predicting outcomes, diagnosing illness and all sorts of other … Continue reading →

Posted in Imperfect perception, Testing | Leave a comment

Wow, what a find! Free audio analysis software

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The poor freelance audio writer simply cannot afford to buy all the test gear he would like. Golly, even something as mundane as 250 watt 8 ohm resistors for testing power outputs cost around $AUS100 each … and this writer … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Testing | Leave a comment

Blush!

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I shan’t make a habit of this, but this is the inaugural bit of hifi-writer.com correspondence. Ben Kwong writes: Hi Stephen,I recently just got back from the Sony Product Launch and did a search on the new KVHR36M31 Tv and … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Testing | Leave a comment

Setup DVDs

Posted on July 29, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

One of my editors has just written to me: I have a letter from a reader asking where to buy Video Essentials. I bought our NTSC version from online … I remember receiving something about there being a PAL version, but … Continue reading →

Posted in DVD, Testing | Leave a comment