Monster GreenPower Plus HDP 1250G+ PowerCenter, HDP 950G+ GreenPower Bar

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, CES, CES 2012, Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech

Aside from a ton of headphones, Monster also announced its HDP 950G+ GreenPower Bar and HDP 1250G+ GreenPower PowerCenter this mornings at CES 2012. These energy-saving accessories allows the user to select outlets that can be automatically shut off when devices are in standby mode, thus reducing wasted energy costs from "vampire" draw. They also keep your components safe with automatic voltage regulation in the event of energy spikes and surges. the HDP 950+ is the entry-level model and will sell for $199, while the HDP 1250G+ offers the maximum benefits for home theater, and will sell for $229.

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Sonos announces the Sonos Controller 200 CR200 touchscreen remote

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Features, Home Entertainment, Music, Wireless / WiFi

We’ve been waiting on this for a long, long time, and we are happy to share the news that Sonos has officially announced the Sonos Controller 200 CR200 remote. Why is this news to be excited about? Well, if you’re a Sonos owner (or a potential owner,) this means that you get a touchscreen Sonos remote, rather than the old-school click wheel version of the remote. Like the rest of the Sonos gear, this will work anywhere in the home, is meant to be a shared device that can be left in a common area, is more intuitive, turns on instantly when picked up, and has a nice capacitive VGA touchscreen. It even has a replaceable battery. The only thing that the old remote has that this new one doesn’t is that the new one isn’t water-resistant and splash proof. The Sonos CR200 goes on sale tomorrow, and will sell for $349, $50 less than the older model. Even better, the Sonos Controller 100 will be heavily discounted until they are sold out, so if you do want a splash-proof Sonos Controller that you can take to the hot tub, now’s your chance.

We’ve played with the new remote (video coming shortly!) and we can very easily recommend it - it makes finding music from the vast number of libraries and services that Sonos can connect to a breeze, because when you have that much music, a clickwheel just won’t measure up. Be sure to check out our Sonos Controller 200 gallery for a bunch of images of the new remote.

Read More | Sonos Controllers

Gallery: Sonos announces the Sonos Controller 200 CR200 touchscreen remote

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Olive Opus No. 4 2TB music server

Posted by Mark Rollins Categories: Home Entertainment, Music, Storage

According to the dictionary, and opus is considered “one in a series of musical works”.  In the case of the Olive Opus No. 4 music server, this thing is capable of holding 2TB worth of musical works. 

That’s room enough for 6,000 CDs, which can be accessed from the full-color display, stored in a lossless FLAC format. In the back is a WiFi adapter, a left and right analog output, optical/coaxial digital audio outputs, as well as a USB socket and Ethernet port. 

Now how much would you pay?  Try $1,799, buddy. 

Read More | Press Release

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Onkyo TX-SR875 and TX-SR905 Receivers Now Shipping

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Music

After a couple of delays, Onkyo has finally announced that their flagship TX-SR905 and TX-SR875 7.1 surround sound receivers are now shipping. These are the first A/V receivers to include Silicon Optix’s Reon-VX HQV video processing chips, which provide the receivers with some fancy video scaling and deinterlacing capabilities, including upscaling of all video sources to 1080p for output over HDMI. All video sources are also upconverted to HD output via the units’ component video outputs to accommodate video displays lacking an HDMI input. You’ll find 3 HDMI inputs on the TX-SR9875, and four on the TX-SR975. Extra features on the 975 include built-in Ethernet for streaming Internet radio and network media, HD Radio receiver, and USB port for use with digital audio players and USB memory devices.

The Onkyo TX-SR875 is available for $1699 USD, while the TX-SR905 sells at $2099 - excellent prices for receivers that include THX Ultra2 mode.

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