Pete's Write

Tomorrow War was meant to be a summer blockbuster until Covid hit and relegated it to a streaming movie. Everything about it begs us to watch it on a large screen, but these are the times. An ex military special forces protagonist who is now relegated to being a teacher with broken ambitions and a estranged relationship with his PTSD father is called upon to answer the draft again and serve. Except the war is fought in the near future, with creatures we don't see until about a third of the way. In the process, he has to save the world, save his daughter and also his relationship with his loved ones all in the same move.  The movie is a bit derivative, and channels ideas from many other movies. It mixes Oblivion and Edge of Tomorrow, using fast moving creatures from the latter, the time shock element of meeting a loved one from the former. The trouble father with a troubled past who has skills is also borrowed from past movies (the latest which comes to mind was Angel Has Fallen), b...

A while back, noise canceling headphones were mainly used in aeroplanes, and other places with a constant drone. These days, they not only allow less of the ambient noise in, they also pack other functions and have become wireless. A good microphone, long battery life and good Bluetooth performance as well as sonic performance are de rigueur, and with Covid and conference calls being part of our lives these days, almost everyone owns a Bluetooth equipped headphone that has noise cancelling functions built in.  In the past, Sennheiser ruled the roost for noise cancelling headphones, but the early models have an extra dongle, and the sound quality was not great. Later on, Bose got into the act and these two have been the dominant force for quite a few years. Just check out the cans you see on an aeroplane. Sony has also been involved in headphones with some very decent models, and I still have some of their early in ear models dating back to the 80s from the Walkman era.  The So...

It may not be rocket science, but there are some things one should look out for so you don't end up buying the wrong ladder and worse yet, have nowhere to store it.  https://issuu.com/corporateoffice/docs/the_visual_dictionary_of_house_amp_/168 Parts of a ladder: https://archive.org/details/gov.law.ansi.a14.1.1990  Some important questions: Firstly, what are you using it for? Most people use a ladder to reach some place higher up, but will you be using it daily or just on the odd occasion?  Will you need to carry something on it? Will you be standing on it long? Will you have anyone to help hold the ladder? Do you need to carry it around? How much money do you wish to spend on it? A simple extendable ladder might be useful to climb onto the loft, but if there is no one holding it, you may slip. An A Frame ladder will allow you to use it alone, but these are not meant for standing on for long durations. You may wish to get a platform ladder which has a working flat platfor...

Wall switches uses to be purely functional. These days they help compliment the style of the home, add an additional tactile feel and even sometimes a touch of color. You can talk to your Interior Designer and should plan ahead. Firstly let's talk terminology: Gang: This refers to how many switches are there in a cluster. If there are two switches, it's called two gang switch set. In my opinion, I would limit it to two or three, otherwise you'll find that you may accidentally turn on the other switch. 1 or 2 way: Some areas require a relay switch, where you can turn on the switch at one end and turn it off at the other. Often these are used in stairs or in a bedroom where you can control the switch from the entrance to the room and at the bedside. Other considerations: - cluster It's important to think ahead on how many switches you want and group them accordingly. Having a huge nest of switches can add to confusion since you or even your guest may start turning on and ...

So what is the Tribute Edition? Well, as you may imagine, someone took a standard model, the A11 and CD 11 in this case, and sprinkled their magic dust over it, with some important component changes. The main changes come in the form of capacitors which have been swopped to better performing ones.  In the CD 11 eight capacitors in the D/A stage and nine in the power supply. In the A11,  upgraded components have been added in the preamp, volume circuit plus capacitors in the output stage. In addition,  damping on the chassis have also been added to both.  Not bad, and all for the better, you might say, it's common for companies to release such 'enhanced' editions. But the interesting bit comes in who was behind it.  You many be surprised to know that Ken Ishiwata was the genius behind this effort. Many will know he is the wizard behind many of the wonderful audiophile components that have come out of the factories at Marantz. But somehow in 2019, the company part...

In days gone by, plasma TVs had the best contrast, motion handling, and black levels. LED TVs mostly gave a greyish kind of black levels, but times have changed. Sony produced the Sony Z9D, which was good enough to compete with the OLED technology and it was a light cannon. However it was also very expensive and beyond the reach of the average consumer. The new 2021 XR X90J is the replacement for the X900H, and offers the latest XR processing, as well as improvements in both picture and sound.  At a fraction of the price of the Sony OLEDs, can it come close in performance? So our review today focuses on the latter. Some info from the official site: https://www.sony.com.sg/electronics/televisions/x90j-series?cid=Bravia_SG_-_Brand_Models:sem:goog:SG:txt_Brand_Models&pkw=X90J&gclid=Cj0KCQjws-OEBhCkARIsAPhOkIbezNuOenGNeiZjjBcrVZUp-gsD_ywLb_G0zR8Hb-JfUl5ZucLX-NMaAqEwEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds  Features to note: - new XR processor, which promises gains in motion contrast and ...

Once upon a time, Pioneer plasma TVs ruled the roosted and made the best TVs bar none. When they left the market, there was a void, which makers tried to filled with LED but there were obvious differences and also deficits in those panels. With time refinements made LEDs better, but only the top panels could really look anywhere close to the Kuro plasma panels. Then came OLED panels, made solely by LG and you now could experience the kind of inky blacks previously seen in the Kuro panels. Over the years, they have refined them and these OLEDs have come to represent good quality contrast, motion flow and if not for their price and the potential risk of burn in, they would have have captured a larger market share. Although LG is the only company making OLED panels, Sony and other companies buy their panels and add their own components such as video chips to them to make it their own. LG OLED panels have been doing pretty well, and amongst the various options, the C series has been well r...

Dynaudio is a company that has been in the speaker business for more than forty years and prides itself on making most of its components in house, especially the drivers and most of the cabinetry. Through the years they have developed many beloved components for their top end products and have also distilled them down to the masses whenever they launch a special edition. So they have adopted a similar format and take some of their finest drivers, an Esotar 3 tweeter and a woofer derived from the Evidence range and placed them into a more traditional walnut veneer speaker for us to sample.  Thus the Heritage Special (HS) was born. The catch ? Well there are two.. firstly it’s by no means cheap, even though it uses choice components. Second there are only 2500 pairs so if you’re waiting to get one, don’t ! And that’s the sum of my review if you may. If you’re a Dynaudio afficiando, just plonk down the deposit that had planned for the annual summer holiday and get this instead. Now re...