Author Archives: Jim Lee

Kaleidescape – the Ultimate Home Movie & Concert Source

Think of it as a totally uncompromised movie library which allows you to get the absolute best performance from your Home Audio/Video system.

When people purchase and stream movies off of Netflix or Amazon and others, there is no doubt they can look and sound pretty good.

Or so I thought.

We recently invited Danny from Kaleidescape to our showroom to demonstrate their new flagship line of products. He spent an hour explaining why their technology is better than anything else available today. The downfalls of streaming movies and concerts over the internet is that they require significant compression in both the sound and visuals. He made a very convincing case for why people who want the best will want to have Kaleidescape.

Later we moved to our home theater for his demo of the new Strato Player.

We watched a few minutes of a female action-movie called “Lucy” streaming on Amazon through our top of the line Roku player. Then we switched to the Kaleidescape Strato Player and cued up the same movie. It was immediately one of those “Oh my God” differences. Not just the amazing picture quality difference, but oh the sound too. I bought it on the spot and we should have it here in our showroom by Saturday for demo. I want to invite anyone who is interested in getting the very best quality from their Home Theater to please allow us to demonstrate this amazing accomplishment.

I have to warn you, you are going to want it too.

Our 30th Anniversary

Nuts About Hi-Fi is celebrating serving our customers for 30 years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. A lot has changed in audio and video technology since 1987, but one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s our commitment to providing the highest level of service possible to our favorite people, our wonderful customers. So a big thank you to all our customers over the years, as well as to our suppliers who design and manufacture the best audio and video equipment in the world. Here’s to the next 30 years, who knows what kind of technological marvels we’ll be installing in 2047!

Samsung Redefines the Art of Flat Screen TVs

I recently attended the San Diego CEDIA show looking for new fun toys to offer at our showroom. While walking toward the Samsung booth I noticed they were displaying fine artwork next to their new television sets. I thought to myself how clever. Then I realized what I was actually looking at was a high definition flat screen TV. For sometime I’ve wanted a bit larger screen in my bedroom but didn’t like the idea of an even bigger black panel on my wall. I knew immediately this could be a great solution.

The way these sets emulate the art is very convincing.There are unlimited choices of art work to select from or if you prefer you can use personal photos. Samsung offers a good library and even an art store through an application you download onto your phone or laptop style computer. This app can also find your personal photos or allow you to customize photos you have downloaded from the web. They also allow you to choose the color and type of matting to give the illusion it is a framed picture or painting.

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Upgraded Listening Room

Here are a few photos of one of our favorite customer’s listening rooms. We recently upgraded their the digital music playback system utilizing Meridian’s Ultra DAC, along with the Sooloos Music Library.

They also purchased a new pair of our Focal Sopra 3 loudspeakers and a pair of JL Audio F 113 series 2 subwoofers.

I haven’t had a chance to hear it yet but can’t wait to go over and help them break this beautiful system in.

Thanks you two! Hope you have many, many years of listening pleasure.

The Audiophile’s Media Room

Over the last year we have had the pleasure of helping one of our good friends turn an unfinished basement into one of the best sounding media rooms. From designing the wall layout with the contractor to figuring out the best placement for speakers, this was a blank slate.

For the video, we used Sony’s VW1100ES 4K projector onto a new 100″ Screen Innovations Slate motorized screen. The Atmos surround sound is handled by an Anthem AVM60 pre-amplifier/processor, an Anthem P5 amplifier, and an Anthem P2 amplifier.

The main speakers are processed through a Krell Evolution 202 before the signal reaches the pair of Aesthetix Atlas mono-block amplifiers. The main speakers are Focal Stella Utopia EMs accompanied by a pair of JL Audio Gothams. The surround speakers are Focal Sopra No3s, the four Atmos in-ceiling speakers are Focal IW1003BEs; and we have a JL Audio Fathom F113 running as the theater subwoofer.

In the back corner of the room, we have the gorgeous ClearAudio Statement V2 turntable playing all of his LPs at their fullest potential. The entire system has Nordost wiring and Nordost QKore grounding to help lower the sound floor and bring out all of the detail. It has been fun seeing a room without drywall turn into one of the best sounding media rooms we’ve heard.