When Digital Met Analog

Ditch the transistors and go tubing with old-fashioned, oh-so-analog vacuum tube audio gear from Peachtree Audio and Fatman.

Your Vinyl Answer

USB turntables are nothing new, but have previously required a computer to do their analog-to-digital thing. Converting vinyl into MP3s is a wonderfully liberating feat. But who keeps a computer next to his stereo stack or has the room for a turntable (and accompanying record collection) in the office?

Enter Denon's DP-200USB turntable, fully equipped to provide the user experience we old-timers are used to, while introducing the iPod set to the magic of LPs.

At an invitation-only event in New York City, Boston Acoustics unveiled (literally, complete with white sheets) the full line of high-value step-up loudspeakers in their new Vista series.

Definitely upscale in terms of design and performance, the Vista line has been several years in development, with four of the models available now or by the end of the summer.

Public Humiliation… Now Private!

I don't claim to have my finger on the pulse of the entire video game industry, but I know what I know. I recall first seeing Guitar Hero at RedOctane's booth on the floor of a trade show in New York City. Cool idea, I thought, but no one really wants to play this game with a standard PS2 controller, you really need a big plastic guitar with buttons, but who's going to go for that?

Everyone in the civilized world, apparently.

Larynx Hero

We have become a nation of legendary guitar players and rock bands, if only in our imaginations, or at least in our living rooms. But long before plastic Stratocasters became a videogame staple, karaoke (Japanese for "empty orchestra") was a popular techno-pastime, and not just for inebriated Asian businessmen.