HARDWARE
It was frustrating. My TV was just a few feet from my home theater system's front speakers, but those speakers were already hooked to my home theater receiver. Fine for VHS and DVD, but to get good sound for TV broadcasts I had to turn everything on - the set, the receiver, and my VCR - and then tune the VCR to the desired channel. Way too much trouble for ordinary viewing. So I listened to broad-casts through my set's tiny, tinny speakers, buried in the TV cabinet.
No more. Now, both TV and receiver feed those speakers through a Niles ABS-1. The little gadget feeds the television signal to the speakers, automatically switching to the receiver when it senses a home-cinema signal. Setup involved only wire and strippers for the extra connections and a few seconds of tweaking the ABS-1's two knobs. Now I hear sounds I used to miss, from musical nuances to Mulder's footsteps in a dark warehouse.
ABS-1: $99.95. Niles Audio: (800) 289 4434, www.nilesaudio.com.
STREET CRED
Interplanetary Dance Fever
Backhandheld Computing
Take Me to the Bridge
Rhyme Machine
Another Frame Job
Violent Type
Conference Call in a Bottle
ReadMe
Music
The Gift of Fear
Just Shoot Me
Better Red Than Dead
Just Outta Beta
Sound Switcher
Wingo-Rama
Password Snatcher
Palm Cam
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