bookshelf

I had a good feeling about the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speaker even before I heard it. First, the high-gloss black finish was perfect, and the heft of this 19-pound beauty left no doubt about the speaker's build quality. It seemed solid.

I've confessed many times on this blog my fondness for big speakers, but if you don't have the space for a set of tower speakers, so-called bookshelf speakers are the way to go. I said so-called because the last place you'd ever want to put a set of bookshelf speakers is in a bookshelf cabinet. … Read more

I've long admired Aperion Audio's Intimus speakers, but for one reason or another, I never auditioned the company's higher-end Verus speakers. The line starts with the $350-per-pair Verus Forte satellite speakers, but I went for the bigger Verus Grand bookshelf speakers that run $598 a pair. The speaker has a 1-inch dome tweeter and 5-inch woven Kevlar woofer. It measures 13 by 7.5 by 9 inches, weighs 14 pounds, and the curved sided cabinet feels like it's well put together.

Aperion Intimus speakers' satin real cherry wood or high-gloss black finishes are superb, but the … Read more

My fondness for big speakers is longstanding, but I'm almost as big a fan of smaller speakers that sound big. Take Definitive Technology's StudioMonitor 55 speaker ($299 each). Measuring 13x7.8x12.3 inches it's not all that big, but it weighs a hefty 15.4 pounds. The StudioMonitor 55 is a handsome, but conventional-looking design, until you peel off the cloth grille on the top of the speaker and see the "racetrack bass radiator." It's a unique Def Tech feature, and one that really helps the StudioMonitor 55 outperform similarly sized speakers.… Read more

First a confession: a lot of audiophile speakers can't rock out. They're "voiced" to sound best with acoustic jazz or classical music. Nothing wrong with that, but when you want to party some of them can't cut loose. The new GoldenEar Technology Aon 3 is very much an audiophile-oriented design, so sure, it sounded clear and clean playing Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue."

But what really made me sit up and take notice was the way the Aon 3 knocked out the Drive-By Truckers "Go-Go Boots" album. This CD sounds like … Read more

I admit it: I like big speakers, the bigger the better as far as I'm concerned.

Big speakers sound more realistic, they play louder with lower distortion, and they have better and deeper bass than small speakers. Then again, I'm an audiophile, so I prioritize sound quality over almost everything else. I also know big speakers are out of the question for most folks, but what if there were a reasonably sized speaker that produced big-speaker sound? The Atlantic Technology AT-2 is such a speaker.

It was just last year when Atlantic's AT-1 tower speaker ($3,000 a pair) rocked the audiophile world and garnered a slew of rave reviews, so when I heard the smaller AT-2 ($1,800 a pair) was about to be released I just had to get it for review. It did not disappoint. … Read more

Google Books has great tools for keeping track of things you've read, are reading, or want to read. However, it can be a cumbersome task to add each book to the virtual bookshelf individually. So instead of spending countless minutes keying in numbers, follow these steps so you can easily scan and add all your books at once:

1. Install Barcode2File from the Android Market.

2. Open the app and press the Scan barcode button to start collecting a list of ISBNs from the books (one list at a time).

3. Once you're finished scanning, press … Read more

Remember Early Edition, the iPad app that presents your RSS feeds in an attractive newspaper-style format? Well, I've shelved it for now while I indulge my fascination with Blogshelf, a blog and RSS reader that has a dazzling iBooks-style presentation.

Designed for "casual users," Blogshelf ($4.99) offers roughly the same experience as browsing the magazine shelves at the library. It comes with about 20 popular blogs--Autoblog, Cinematical, Serious Eats, and so on--already configured, but you can line your "shelves" with preselected blogs from 18 categories.

It also has a search option to help you … Read more

Don't you hate that bulky projection screen? Or are you running out of shelf space for your DVD collection? Here's an Italian way of killing two birds with one stone from designer Matteo Ragni.

The Livit "Fly" is an unassuming-looking shelf system which hides a projection screen. It comes in 4:3 aspect format with a screen size measuring 1,700 x 1,280mm and is available in four different colors.

(Source: Crave Asia)

If you really love Tetris, you're bound to have a lot of books about Tetris. You've also probably got a DVD archive of your greatest Tetris performances. It just goes with the territory.

Odds are, if you've got that many books and DVDs about Tetris, you might as well go all-out and display them on a Tetris-themed bookshelf/DVD organizer.

Courtesy of the handiwork of Instructable user odecom5, the online DIY showcase Instructables has step-by-step instructions on how to build your own Tetris bookshelf/DVD rack.

This isn't some half-hearted production, either. All five of the … Read more