Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 2

With the Panorama 2 ($2,200 list), Bowers & Wilkins has refined what audiophiles may consider to be a dubious concept: the high-end soundbar. You could easily question whether it makes sense to spend more than two grand on a single speaker, when you could outfit your room with a top-notch 5.1 system with surround speakers and a dedicated receiver for the same money. But the Panorama 2 is aimed at the listener who wants the best sound possible in a single, beautiful box, and doesn't have the room (or the aesthetic tolerance) for separate components. The Panorama 2 sounds great with movies, with surprisingly spacious left-center-right imaging. But it's not particularly convincing surround-wise, and its slightly colored midrange performance messes with some on-screen voices and puts a damper on using the Panorama 2 as a music playback system.

Design, Connectivity, and Remote
The Panorama 2 is beautifully crafted, with a gently curved outer enclosure that has no seams. The look is clean, minimalist, and understated. It measures 5 by 44 by 7.24 inches (HWD) and weighs 31.1 pounds. It's much heavier than low-end soundbars we've tested, like the Editors' Choice Sony HT-CT260. And it's quite a bit wider and deeper, too, by at least several inches. The mirror black, stainless steel skin and black steel mesh grille exude class and sophistication; no one is going to look at this thing and think "cheap."

Bowers & Wilkins packages two sets of four screw-on feet in the box; the sets are of different heights, and help you get just the right placement. You can also mount the Panorama 2 to a wall. Around back, and unlike the first Panorama model, the Panorama 2 supports HDMI switching with three inputs and one output. There's also a subwoofer output, a 3.5mm analog and digital combination input, and a second, analog-only 3.5mm input. Unfortunately, there's no support for AirPlay or Bluetooth wireless streaming, so you can't use the soundbar as a straight wireless stereo system for your iPhone or Android smartphone, at least without plugging in a wire.

The revised display now includes a proximity sensor; simply wave your hand in front of the display, and it will light up. Sure, Bang & Olufsen has been doing this sort of thing for years, but it never gets old. The display doesn't help all that much, though; while it features touch capacitive buttons for Volume, Surround Mode, and Mute, and features a hardware Power button below, there's no visible volume indicator. More than once, I started playing a scene without realizing the input was incorrect; even after pressing the Volume button down several times, I'd switch to the correct input and then get blown out of my chair.

The Panorama 2 can display an on-screen menu, but you can only see it via an HDMI connection, not over coaxial or optical digital. I found it's worth hooking up this way, though; click the Menu button on the remote, and you'll see many more adjustments for sound EQ, room setup, and tuning, in addition to visual feedback for all settings. You can customize the EQ for how far away you are sitting, whether you're to the left or right of the soundbar, and how far the soundbar is from the left and right walls, sometimes in one foot increments.

The remote control is a bit of a disappointment. It's basically the same unit we saw with the Zeppelin Air. It's not backlit, is made of glossy black plastic, and the individual buttons let out a cheap clicky sound with each press. Worse, it's tough to tell if it's upside down when you pick it up without looking, unless you feel around for the little indentation on the back; I tried muting the sound once and accidentally turned the Panorama 2 off. For $2,200, the remote should be better.

Performance and Conclusions
The Panorama 2 supports Dolby Digital and DTS surround encoding, and also features an all-new array of tweeters, midrange, and low-frequency drivers. There are two 1-inch metal dome tweeters, two 3-inch midrange drivers, two 3.5-inch subwoofer drivers, and four 3-inch surround channel drivers. A 50-watt amplifier drives the two subwoofer cones, while five 25-watt amplifiers handle the rest. In standby mode, the Panorama 2 is rated to consume just half a watt.

We tested the system with the $500 Oppo BDP-103, our current Editors' Choice for high-end Blu-ray players. In Tron: Legacy, the flight and game scenes rang true, with crisp, stunning sound effects and beautiful separation in the front virtual channels. Rear-channel effects were a bit less convincing, though; discs flying by went sort of "up" instead of behind the chair the way proper surround speakers would. Sometimes, dialog from the movie sounded smooth and natural, with excellent dispersion. Other times, various actors sounded oddly distorted at higher volumes?not as if the entire Panorama 2 system was physically distorting, but as if something in the digital surround processing is driving the signal too hard.

With music, the Panorama 2 was also a mixed bag. The unit certainly sounds huge, with plenty of volume and punch. But there's also an overly prominent midrange, with too much low-mid emphasis that makes a mess of electric guitars, sending them too far forward in Rage Against the Machine's "Fistful of Steel." Putting the Panorama 2 in stereo mode helps considerably, of course, but the midrange emphasis is still there. In Muse's "Resistance," the surround mode separated the backing vocals from the lead vocal nicely in the song's chorus, but the reverberant drums were a little hazy in both surround and standard stereo modes, and the bass guitar sounded too prominent in the mix compared with the rest of the instruments.

None of these flaws are fatal, incidentally. Anyone casually walking into the room and hearing the Panorama 2 would be impressed at its clarity, volume, and dynamics; it's clearly a cut above soundbars with a three-digit price tag. And while certain kinds of music and sound effects give away the Panorama 2's lack of a discrete subwoofer, other scenes have plenty of weight and just enough rumble to simulate a real home theater.

Really, the problem is the jaw-dropping price. At $2,200, Bowers & Wilkins is targeting a specific discerning audiophile customer, and this is where the Panorama 2 runs into trouble. At this price level, the Panorama should be just as good at music as it is at movie and TV sound, as if it were an oversized, more-capable Zeppelin Air, and it falls short of that mark. Meanwhile, home theater enthusiasts looking for the best possible sound at this price can do significantly better with separate components, passive speakers, and a powered subwoofer from a range of companies like Paradigm, NHT, PSB, or of course B&W's own excellent line of speakers.

If you don't mind a soundbar with a small, wireless, powered subwoofer, the Harman Kardon SB 30 sounds great with both music and movies and costs less than half of what the Panorama 2 does, although it doesn't look as nice or get quite as loud. But if you have the means, don't have the room for the extra components, and still want movies to sound larger than life, the Panorama 2 delivers the goods.

More Speaker Reviews:
??? Sony HT-CT260 Home Theater Soundbar
??? Vizio SB4021M-A1 Home Theater Soundbar
??? Harman Kardon SB 30
??? Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 2
??? Yamaha YAS-101
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/jG2ZwCtmPtE/0,2817,2415727,00.asp

Army Navy Game john lennon leann rimes pearl harbor Jacintha Saldanha Butch Jones thursday night football

Math Warriors: Season 3

Have you ever watched ?Mean Girls?? It?s one of the movies before Lindsey Lohan really began to let her career slip. She plays Cady, a smart girl, homeschooled by her parents as they lived in Africa until her high school years, where, desperate to fit in AND to ?get the guy?, she dumbs down her math ability. She redeems herself in the end, as you can see in this clip (but not without a lot of stereotypes coming into play) by joining the math team and using her abilities.

This was the very first thing I thought about as I ran across the following series of videos called ?Math Warriors?, which has everything one could ever want in a mini-series; a plot, great dialog, characters you can get to know, a love triangle (ooooh!) and of course, MATH!

Here is the Season 3 Trailer

and the second episode of season 3 adds a bit of beauty pageant fun mixed in with mathematics competition:

(and many of you probably remember the spoof on the evolution question asked of Miss America pageant contestants called Should Math Be Taught In Schools)

The internet is an incredible place. Mini-series that may never find a home on a television network can reach a particular niche audience quite successfully! And here we see a group of students aiming high in college mathematics competitions!

I ran across the Math Warriors Kickstarter project in January. Math Warriors is the brainchild and labor of love of Kristina Harris. Her Kickstarter Project, which exceeeded its goal, was to help her and her team continue to produce this series. You can learn a lot more about Kristina and her project at the Kickstarter blog!

Kristina Harris has a background in film but received her PhD in Biochemistry, giving her a unique perspective from which to create her video series. The actors in the series are not mathematicians, but legitimate actors. They have to learn the jargon and terminology and all of the problems are checked through by Kristina?s mathematician husband, and sometimes eminent math professors make cameos in the series!

If you want to learn and watch more, check out Kristina?s youtube page to watch the entire series and, of course you can also follow them on twitter and like them on Facebook!

Watch a few episodes and let us know what you think!

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=884dc1d4f43d5aebeed355f47171a834

weather channel Rivals beyonce Kaepernick Eddie Vanderdoes finish line puppy bowl

Obama nears deadline on gay marriage decision

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The next phase of President Barack Obama's evolving position on gay marriage may come Thursday, the deadline for his administration to weigh in on a landmark Supreme Court case that could determine whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed.

Gay rights supporters are pressing the administration to file a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to overturn California's gay marriage ban. Obama is not required to file a brief, though he raised expectations in his second inaugural address when he declared that gays and lesbians must be "treated like anyone else under the law."

An administration brief would not be legally binding. But it could offer the clearest insight into Obama's views on gay marriage, which he supports but has said should be governed by the states.

On Thursday afternoon, with the filing deadline just hours away, White House spokesman Jay Carney wouldn't say whether the administration planned to file a brief and referred questions to the Justice Department.

The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 in response to a state Supreme Court decision that had allowed gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriage.

Also Thursday, 13 states, including four that do not currently permit gay couples to wed, urged the court to declare California's Proposition 8 ballot measure unconstitutional.

Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico and Oregon joined with the nine states and the District of Columbia that allow same-sex marriage in telling the justices that states encourage marriage because it enhances economic security and emotional well-being for the partners, and is better for children.

"All of these interests are furthered by ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from the institution," said the brief signed by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and also joined by Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington.

More than 100 prominent Republicans have also signed a friend of the court brief in support of gay marriage. Among them are former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Gay rights advocates are anticipating the administration filing a broad brief, one that would ask the justices to not only strike down the California measure, but also rule that the Constitution forbids any state from banning same-sex unions. But the administration could also file a narrower brief applying only to California.

Even the latter brief would appear to mark a shift away from the president's contention that states have the right to determine whether to allow same-sex marriages.

While an administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the high court, the government's opinion does carry weight with the justices.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli would formally file a brief, though he has been consulting with White House officials. And it's almost certain that Obama, a former constitutional law professor, made the administration's final decision.

In his inaugural address, the president said the nation's journey "is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."

"For if we are truly created equal, than surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," he said.

Obama has a complicated history on gay marriage. As a presidential candidate in 2008, he opposed the California ban but didn't endorse gay marriage. As he ran for re-election last year, he announced his personal support for same-sex marriage but said marriage was an issue that should be decided by the states, not the federal government.

Public opinion has shifted in support of gay marriage in recent years. In May 2008, Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans felt same-sex marriages should not be recognized by the law as valid. By November 2012, 53 percent felt they should be legally recognized.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case on March 26. One day later, the justices will hear arguments on another gay marriage case, this one involving provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The act defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.

The Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law in 2011 but continues to enforce it. In a brief filed last week, the government said Section 3 of DOMA "violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection" because it denies legally married same-sex couples many federal benefits that are available only to legally married heterosexual couples.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-28-Obama-Gay%20Marriage/id-ffbb5ebceae04aaa995dd28a5d0d206f

49ers news saint louis university leprechaun night at the museum pope shenouda bolton muamba sxsw

Obama nears deadline on gay marriage decision

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The next phase of President Barack Obama's evolution on gay marriage may come with the deadline for his administration to weigh in on a landmark Supreme Court case that could determine whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed.

Gay rights supporters are pressing the administration to file a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to overturn California's gay marriage ban. Obama is not required to file a brief, though he raised expectations in his second inaugural address when he declared that gays and lesbians must be "treated like anyone else under the law."

An administration brief would not be legally binding. But it could offer the clearest insight into Obama's views on gay marriage, which he supports but has said should be governed by the states.

Ahead of Thursday's deadline, dozens of prominent Republicans signed a friend of the court brief asking the justices to declare California's Proposition 8 ballot measure unconstitutional. Among them are former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 in response to a state Supreme Court decision that had allowed gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriage.

Gay rights advocates are anticipating the administration filing a broad brief, one that would ask the justices to not only strike down the California measure, but also rule that the Constitution forbids any state from banning same-sex unions. But the administration could also file a narrower brief applying only to California.

Even the latter brief would appear to mark a shift away from the president's contention that states have the right to determine whether to allow same-sex marriages.

While an administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the high court, the government's opinion does carry weight with the justices.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli would formally file a brief, though he has been consulting with White House officials. And it's almost certain that Obama, a former constitutional law professor, made the administration's final decision.

In his inaugural address, the president said the nation's journey "is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."

"For if we are truly created equal, than surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," he said.

Obama has a complicated history on gay marriage. As a presidential candidate in 2008, he opposed the California ban but didn't endorse gay marriage. As he ran for re-election last year, he announced his personal support for same-sex marriage but said marriage was an issue that should be decided by the states, not the federal government.

Public opinion has shifted in support of gay marriage in recent years. In May 2008, Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans felt same-sex marriages should not be recognized by the law as valid. By November 2012, 53 percent felt they should be legally recognized.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case on March 26. One day later, the justices will hear arguments on another gay marriage case, this one involving provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The act defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.

The Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law in 2011 but continues to enforce it. In a brief filed last week, the government said Section 3 of DOMA "violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection" because it denies legally married same-sex couples many federal benefits that are available only to legally married heterosexual couples.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-28-Obama-Gay%20Marriage/id-1e2950d915454b0db26fedd94562dcc7

Stevie J mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy brooklyn nets may day protests

Fast food linked to higher asthma and allergy risk | MNN - Mother ...

Fast food linked to higher asthma and allergy risk

New study links fast-food consumption to a greater risk for developing asthma, eczema and allergies.

Tue, Jan 15 2013 at 8:56 AM

Teens and kids who eat a lot of fast food may be at greater risk for developing asthma, eczema?and allergies, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal's respiratory magazine,?Thorax.

?

For the study, researchers from?the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom looked at surveys from more than 500,000 kids in 51 countries to determine how diet affected their allergy-related risks. They found that?eating fast food three times a week may lead to asthma, eczema?and itchy, watery eyes in children. ?

?

Researchers surveyed kids and their parents to determine whether or not they experienced symptoms of allergies, asthma and eczema. Participants also shared what types of foods they consumed each week. In the study, children in their early teens who ate fast food three or more times each week had a 39 percent greater risk of severe asthma. For 6- and 7-year-olds, there was a 27 percent increased risk. Overall, kids who ate fast food three or more times a week had about a 30 percent increased risk of severe allergies. The results were consistent across all age groups regardless of gender or socioeconomic status. ?

?

Interestingly, kids who ate fruit were able to cut their risk of developing these conditions. Researchers found that kids who ate three or more portions of fruit each week reduced their risk of severe asthma, eczema and allergies by between 11 and 14 percent.

?

Related allergies and asthma stories on MNN:

?

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

Source: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/fast-food-linked-to-higher-asthma-and-allergy-risk

ed reed football schedule jo paterno dead south carolina tuskegee airmen mike james red tails

Power Matters Alliance garners support from BlackBerry, NEC, TI and ZTE

Another Mobile World Congress, another round of highfalutin' talk surrounding the concept of wireless power. We already witnessed a consumer approach by PowerbyProxi, and now we're hearing that the Power Matters Alliance is getting a second wind as well. The self-proclaimed "leading ecosystem and standard for wireless power" took to Boston-area Starbucks locations last fall, and now it has notched support from BlackBerry, NEC, Texas Instruments, ZTE and dozens more. There's still no word on whether all of these factions are going to bite the bullet and come together in order to actually make some progress that consumers can appreciate, but hey -- we've got nothing but time, right?

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: Power Matters Alliance

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/27/power-matters-alliance-support-from-blackberry-nec-ti-zte/

neighborhood watch dennis rodman dodgers sale tami roman jetblue captain los angeles dodgers christie brinkley

Web Design central coast - Build Eye-catching & Easily manageable ...

E-shops offers a cost-effective alternative to brick and mortar stores. In fact, e-commerce business enables many businesses to minimize the overhead and eliminate the need for employees to maintain the store, while adding the ability to compete worldwide and cultivate a larger potential customer base. The primary factor in deciding whether your business needs an E-shop is the type of goods/ service you planned to sell online and whether they can be easily transported in the mail. Normally your E-shop work very well if you planning to offer specialist goods / services to a geographically diverse market, selling competitively priced goods/services, offering an additional services to the existing mail order customers.

Graphic design NSW: In order to start your online business, you need someone on your team who well know the online marketplace. Oz Monkey can help you launch your E-shop so that it promotes your business while keeping customers safe. We've been designing robust, hassle-free e-commerce solutions which can make your potential customers eager to click add to cart and checkout! Web professionals of Oz Monkey can guarantee the future success of your E-shop business activities online. Design of your E-shop is generally attractive enough to grab the attention of potential buyer or customer. This is extremely possible with the help of most proficient web developers, web designers and web programmers and all these from just one web solution provider in Australia.

Since the Internet world becomes an integral part of everyone's life, it is becoming very essential for many business's to provide customers and clients the facility of buying products online. An E-shop evokes the physical analogy of purchasing products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall with the help of Internet. An E-shop gives your company an International reach. You will get the possibility of selling your product to every country in the world.

Create an E-shop as unique as your business. Whether your e-shop needs a makeover or a quick touchup for your e-shop, professional designers of Oz Monkey will work closely with you to turn your vision into reality.

Oz Monkey's goal is to offer a streamlined process for our clients making the idea of creating a web space simple, easy and exciting. We pride ourselves on getting to know our customers by working within there specific budgets and cohering to realistic timelines.

Source: http://www.articleswide.com/article/18109-Web_Design_central_coast_-_Build_Eye-catching_amp_Easily_manageable_E-shops.html

dave matthews ambien wwdc madden 13 cover dalai lama tamera mowry slow jam the news