TechBloggin.com

Filed under: Home Entertainment

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/hardware/MonsterCable_vs_CoatHanger_Audiophiles_can_t_see_difference’;We’ve always believed that the perceived quality boost that comes from using high-end cables is really just a trick of the mind (read: justifying the ridiculous cost of premium cables to yourself) — if you’ve dropped enough cash, you can probably hear anything you want. Still, our belief is one thing — cold hard proof is another, and it looks like a group of 12 self-professed “audiophiles” recently couldn’t tell the difference between Monster 1000 speaker cables and plain old coat hangers. Yeah, coat hangers. The group was A-Bing different cables, and unbeknownst to them, the engineer running the test swapped out a set of cables for coat hangers with soldered-on speaker connections. Not a single one was then able to tell the difference between the Monster Cable and the hangers, and all agreed that the hangers sounded excellent. No wonder Monster has to rig HD displays. Still, we bet people still fall for the hype — oh hey, if you’re looking for the ultimate in sound, we’ve got half a meter of oxygen-free, triple-wrapped double-insulated Sonically Shielded AmpliSized Egyptian Llama cable here that we’ll part ways with for just a couple grand.

[Via BoingBoing]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Networking

It looks like the multitude of problems stemming from the recent slicing and dicing of five undersea cables could soon be eased significantly, with Reuters now reporting that three of the cables should be repaired by this weekend. Those include the FLAG Europe-Asia cable between Egypt and Italy and the FALCON cable system between Dubai and Oman, which are each expected to be fixed by February 10th, and SEA-ME-WE 4 cable near Egypt, which should be fixed by Saturday at the latest. What’s more, while the causes for most of those cuts and outages remain a mystery, the culprit behind the cut to the FALCON cable between the UAE and Oman has now apparently been determined to be a ship’s anchor, which was reportedly found abandoned near the cable. That’ll likely do little to put most folks at completely at ease, however, and we’re guessing they won’t be until everything is back up and running, and stays that way.

Read - Reuters, “Three undersea cables seen fixed by weekend”
Read - Physorg, “One Internet cut explained, but four others still a mystery”

[Image courtesy of I Love Bonnie]

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Sure, you could always wait around for Meridian’s wicked cool iRIS dock to output videos on your iPod in 1080p, but for those not looking to spend upwards of $370, Apple’s got a new peripheral just for you. The Component AV Cables — which are said to only play nice with the 3G nano, iPod classic, and iPod touch — enables you to pipe those movie clips onto a television set via component outs. Additionally, the accessory touts stereo audio inputs, a USB adapter for charging your iPod while it’s playing, and even an AC adapter in case your laptop (or any powered USB port) isn’t nearby. Reportedly, the 3G nano and iPod classic can output imagery at 480p or 576p resolutions, while the iPod touch supports 480i / 576i. Shipping in two to three weeks for $49.

[Thanks, Mauricio T. and Nick D.]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

To help clean up that rat’s nest of cables behind your AV rack, semiconductor company AMIMON is now shipping its Wireless High-definition Interface (WHDI) chips to manufacturers. Loewe and Funai will be demoing WHDI products such as wireless HDTVs and high-def DVD players at IFA in Germany next week, following up on the WHDI-equipped projector prototype Sanyo showed off at CES. The chipset supports streaming uncompressed 1080p over the unlicensed 5GHz spectrum — with worldwide compliance up to 1080p / 30fps — at ranges up to 100 feet (30 meters) and a latency of less than 1ms. Let’s hope you can handle the dust bunny apocalypse you’ll release from behind the stereo.

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Source: Erik Hanson

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