Category Archives: Testing

You can’t test everything

Posted on May 13, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

In my reviews I try pretty hard to find all the defects in a product that could reduce user convenience or performance, but, of course, I frequently miss stuff. Last night I was playing a CD of The Who’s Tommy, … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, CD, Testing | Leave a comment

We need a videophile’s High Definition Digital TV Receiver

Posted on April 26, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve been struggling to get my head around this for some time. The problem has been a lack of replicable test signals. But I think I’ve got it nailed, at last. I was watching a late night movie on ABC … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, HDTV, Testing | Leave a comment

Going insane, and then relief

Posted on June 29, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

So I’m reviewing mid-priced ($AUS2,000 to $4,000) home theatre receivers at the moment. Most of them are equipped with HDMI switching. I’ve been using one of them for a couple of weeks, with a HDMI DVD player plugged in along … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, Equipment, HDMI, Testing | Leave a comment

The flexible eye

Posted on August 15, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

The eye/brain mechanism for seeing is remarkable. We rely intensely on its ‘defects’ for home theatre. Consider a projector. It is casting an image onto a white screen. Yet with a good projector in a dark room, the black areas … Continue reading →

Posted in How Things Work, Imperfect perception, Testing, Video | Leave a comment

A-Weighting, the saviour of many a poor piece of equipment

Posted on February 21, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

The aim of makers of high fidelity audio equipment is — or at any rate, ought to be — to produce equipment that does not modify the signal, other than convert it (from a digital to analogue representation, or from … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, General Tech, Imperfect perception, Testing | Leave a comment

Apple iPod Arrogance?

Posted on February 6, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Busy doing reviews of hard disk based portable MP3 players. You know the thing. The Apple iPod and its competition. Except for one small problem. Apple, here in Australia, has a policy of not providing review samples of the iPod … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Equipment, Portable, Rant, Testing | Leave a comment

Mythbusting Killer CDs

Posted on February 5, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Since it started up on SBS here in Australia a few weeks ago, I’ve been keenly watching MythBusters. Scientists the guys aren’t, but I do like the way they just whip up a test rig from whatever they have laying … Continue reading →

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HDMI woes resolved

Posted on October 28, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

That picture to the right is the HDMI output socket of the very fancy Krell Showcase DVD. A little oddly, this doesn’t actually have HDMI out installed as standard. It’s an option, but the distributor put it in at my … Continue reading →

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Aladdin DVD appears – with THX Optimizer

Posted on October 16, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

The Region 2/4 DVD of the 1992 Disney animated feature Aladdin was released a few days ago. This provides another opportunity for people to set up their audio systems and display devices properly, thanks to the inclusion of the THX … Continue reading →

Posted in Disc details, DVD, Testing | Leave a comment

Home theatre receiver power output measurements

Posted on August 10, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Since I outlined my measurement methodology in the entry below, here are some recent results found using that methodology (1kHz output only reported). Model Specification Power output per channel (1kHz continuous) 7 5 2 1 Denon AVC-11SR 7 x 125 … Continue reading →

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