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World's most 'perfect' speaker gets even better

Every year product life cycles in the consumer marketplace grow ever shorter and we see ever faster turnover in cameras, phones computers, and so on. On the audio side, the latest and greatest receivers become yesterday's news faster than you can say "HDMI 1.4." It seems like no receiver can stay current for more than a year or so.

Speaker companies show a little more restraint and "refresh" their lines every few years, but even then new models rarely demonstrate actual performance improvements over the previous generations' models. Speaker manufacturer Magnepan doesn't play by those rules; it invests years of development in each of its models before introducing a new speaker. It has to sound better--a lot better--than the outgoing model before it's released to the world.

And not just in the opinion of the designers. New-model Magnepans undergo extensive "blind" listening tests with a wide range of audiophile and non-audiophile listeners (the listeners don't know whether they're hearing the old or new model). The new speaker must consistently score better than the old model before it goes into production.

When I first heard the Magneplanar 1.6 back in 2008 I said it was the best under-$2,000 speaker on the market. Incredibly enough it was 10 years old at the time! The Magneplanar 1.6 has stayed in production for 12 years, but now it's about to be replaced with the new Magneplanar 1.7.

Magnepan, based in White Bear Lake, Minn., builds nothing but panel (boxless) speakers. Not only that, Magnepan designs forgo conventional dome tweeters and cone-type woofers. As I pointed out in my August 14, 2008, blog that's why the company's Magneplanar 1.6 speaker mostly avoids sounding like a speaker. The speaker earned the top position in my Top 10 greatest audiophile speakers blog earlier this year.

The new Magneplanar 1.7 is also a flat-panel design, 64.5 inches tall and a mere 2 inches thick! The new speaker looks a little more contemporary, thanks to its aluminum, wrap-around edge molding. The old model was a two-way design, with a 48-inch-tall aluminum ribbon tweeter and a 442-square-inch mid/bass panel. The Magneplanar 1.7 is a three-way design, with a woofer, tweeter, and super-tweeter. The super-tweeter comes in around 10,000 hertz and is said to produce wider dispersion and better-resolved treble than the Magneplanar 1.6 did.

The other big difference is the Magneplanar 1.7 is a "full-range" ribbon design.… Read more

Simply the best

The latest edition of the incredibly popular game The Sims was released in June 2009, and it featured several changes and improvements. Open, continuous neighborhoods and "moodlets" make the game that much more lifelike, and players now have more options than ever when it comes to creating and controlling the lives of their Sims. Some players, no doubt, like to wander aimlessly through the game, figuring things out as they go. For players who really want the inside scoop, however, there's The Sims 3: Prima Official eGuide. This 255-page e-book provides detailed information about every aspect of … Read more

Lexicographicalicious

Once upon a time, desktops were the tops of actual desks, and nearly all of them had a paper dictionary on or near them. The best dictionaries were so huge they needed their own stands. You can still see them in libraries. But nearly everyone who has a computer uses a Web-based dictionary, such as the cleverly named Dictionary.com, or some kind of software-based reference. TheSage's English Dictionary and Thesaurus is the latter sort. It's a free utility that maintains a huge dictionary and thesaurus locally, not online, so it's completely portable, though it can access … Read more

Custom Mustangs on Display at 2009 SEMA Show

Earlier this week, we took a quick glance at a few of the many production and concept cars making their debuts at the 2009 SEMA Show last week at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Well, today's video needs little explanation, simply because I don't have much extra information to give you. This Web clip shows off four nice customized Ford Mustangs that were exhibited at the most recent SEMA Show in Vegas, and really, this video is just a lot of nice eye candy for Mustang enthusiasts. Observe...

This video is more or less a commercial for Stage … Read more

Coupon finder

ShowTheOffer helps you discover money-saving vouchers, coupons, and discounts on any Web site that offers them. While this program is not without its flaws, it could help you keep money in the bank.

ShowTheOffer's interface is a mixed bag, in our opinion. While it embedded itself neatly into our toolbar and was easy to navigate, its online Help file is more of a commercial than an instructional. Fortunately, the program is simple enough to use with common sense; in fact, ShowTheOffer requires almost no effort to use. While you surf online, a pop-up window appears whenever the program detects … Read more

The $1,000,000 speaker

High-end audio prices are getting crazy lately, but this $1,000,000 speaker--the Ultimate--may be the most expensive speaker in the world.

Please understand that $1 million buys one speaker, so you'll need to shell out $2 million for stereo, and at least $5 million for your Ultimate home theater.

The Ultimate is a rather large speaker--each one consists of six, seven-foot tall panels. Each Ultimate houses a total of forty 15-inch subwoofers, twenty-four 8-inch woofers, and massive arrays of 2-inch wide and 1-inch wide ribbon tweeters. All of this is for a single channel/speaker, double those numbers for stereo! A pair of Ultimates are nearly forty feet wide!

That pretty much rules out my chances of getting the Ultimate for review in my Brooklyn apartment, oh well.

Each Ultimate speaker comes with its own power amplifiers, with an output of 31,000 watts, and the manufacturer claims the Ultimate can generate up to 146dB SPL, that's a lot louder than a jet plane taking off. And just because it can play that loud, doesn't mean it has to. Just because a Ferrari can go 200 mph, doesn't mean it can't cruise at 55.… Read more

Novero launches TheFirstOne Bluetooth headset

Novero has just launched a new Bluetooth headset today, dubbed TheFirstOne. It has a rather stylish look with white and silver accents all around. It comes with a car charging cradle, a desk stand, a necklace, a wearable clip, and seven interchangeable ear loops. Features include dual-microphone noise cancellation, three-way calling and voice dialing with one button press, and a talk time of up to 4.5 hours. Nothing too different here, and the name is a tad cheesy, but it does look quite attractive. TheFirstOne is available for $149 from novero's website and Amazon.com.

The 404 348: Where we need a Doctor's opinion

Aside from some technical difficulties today and a giant bug bite, we've got a great show featuring all three of your favorite Web celebrities. Before we get to the stories, we want to remind everyone of The 404 logo contest and of our appearance on our buddy Clayton Morris' FoxNews.com's Strategy Room to talk about all the good tech, video game-related goodness at 2 p.m. EST.

On today's show, find out ways that kids now are using abbreviations in text messages to hide things from their parents. Apparently, "RU/18" is something that kids these days are getting on their cell phones. Also, Pfizer is giving away free three-month supplies of Viagra and Lipitor because of the recession, but only if you were on the drugs before you got laid off. We hope Justin isn't itching to get fired for this deal.

In regard to a story about China shutting down a sex-themed park, Wilson gives us way too much information about "the talk" with his mom when he was 15. Justin and Jeff learned everything from "Sesame Street." Speaking of more things naughty, there is a new version of "Star Trek" called "Star Trix", and we can't really say much more about it other than it's totally NSFW.

Finally, showers make you more productive at work. Just be sure to watch out for peephole-size openings at work. Be sure to write in at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. We'd love to see more of your submissions for our logo contest. See you on Tuesday after the Memorial Day break!

Episode 348 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Wilco beats leaks by streaming its own album

Wilco on Wednesday began streaming its new album, "Wilco (The Album)," in its entirety from its Web site. The band began circulating the record about a month ago, and anticipated that the album would be leaked on file-sharing networks. As soon as it appeared via P2P, the band offered it up as a free stream, reasoning that hardcore fans would pre-order the new album regardless, and showing confidence that fence-sitters would find it engaging enough to buy it as well, or at least be aware that the band will probably be bringing its (amazing) live show to town … Read more

iPhone succumbs to puppy madness

You love your puppies, but maybe hanging out with them at home just isn't enough for you and you want to peek at others' puppies, too. Now you can indulge this puppy love whenever you want, wherever you want, with the potential of seeing an unlimited number of puppies, as long as you have an iPhone.

TheDailyPuppy.com, a Web site that dog enthusiasts have no doubt been using as their home page, announced Wednesday the availability of its application for the iPhone. Now you can get puppies delivered to you via just a few touches of the finger--and … Read more

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