Archive for November 4th, 2009

JBL’s new $30,000 speaker

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JBL as a manufacturer of affordable high-performance speakers, but the company offers a truly vast range of consumer and professional models. The K2 S9900 ($15,000 each) is the best consumer speaker JBL makes. It’s a massive thing, weighing in at 182 pounds, and it’s armed with a 15-inch woofer, 4-inch magnesium, horn-loaded midrange, and 1-inch magnesium horn-loaded tweeter. It can handle amplifiers as large as 500 watts a channel. The JBL K2 S9900 will be equally at home in ultra-high-end music and home theater systems. The K2 was originally developed for the seriously finicky Japanese audiophile market. There it has already achieved legendary status, and it was years before JBL brought it home. American hi-fi at its best. This latest version of the K2, but somewhat familiar with the previous K2 S9800. That one’s sound was huge, incredibly effortless, and capable of delivering truly lifelike dynamic range. That last quality alone goes a long way to making reproduced sound sound realistic.

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GLU Mobile: 2012 Apocalypse

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Playing on a new film about the end of the world, predicted in the ancient Mayan calendar! Save humanity from destruction, controlling four powerful forces of nature – a hurricane, earthquake, fire storm and tornado. Each of the phenomena has its own devastating features! Following the plot of the same name the film, send natural disasters through the maze of city streets, trying to avoid any damage and collect various bonuses. In an additional game mode you will have exactly the opposite goal-to destroy the city to the ground. The more damage you have done for the prescribed time, the more points you earn – release the wrath of nature out! Collect lore items and keep control over an unwieldy, strengthening storm without causing damage to buildings. In the alternative Rampage game mode, travel through cities without restriction, causing as much damage as possible in an anything goes free-for-all.

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Baby Amplifier

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At the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest last year, and the little bugger was astounding. The anodized aluminum chassis is available in four snazzy colors. It feels well made. Stereophile’s Wes Phillips reviewed it for real. He even had the nerve to hook up the teeny NuForce Icon to a pair of Definitive Technology Mythos STS SuperTower speakers, and Phillips was bowled over by the sound! The sheer incongruity of the match-up was disarming, but in the end Phillips heard the limitations of the NuForce Icon. Used as intended driving small speakers, it’s tough to beat for its size and price. It has USB, 3.5mm, and stereo RCA inputs; and headphone and speaker-level outputs. It’s a 12-watt-per-channel desktop amp, so NuForce isn’t touting the Icon as a giant killer, just that it’ll sound sweet used in the context of a desktop audio system. Did I mention it’s little, just 1 by 4.5 by 6 inches. Totally it is awsome.

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