Audio-Cable Reviews

The 64 MB irock is the coolest, cheapest mp3 player out there. The player itself has good sound qual. you cant beat it! I do suggest you get a better pair of headphones, though. It's software WORKS WITH WINDOWS XP!! There are no drivers to install. You can also use MusicMatch to put music on the player. I had 26 songs on mine, in 10 minutes! This mp3 player isnt for those people who want the song title to appear on the LCD screen...because it doesn't. It runs on 1 AAA battery and is the size of a floppy disk (well a bit smaller)...Mario

First impressions of this unit are stellar. I owned the PCI version of this card and was very happy with it. I fried it by accident. It gave me a good excuse to upgrade. The pricing on this unit is actually LESS than what I paid for the PCI card about 2 years ago. The Delta Control Panel interface is redesigned completely. But it doen't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. The frequency response is a few db better than the original too, which I like. I like the extra 1394 port to plug in my harddrive. You have to turn on the interface to get the harddrive to activate in Windows "My Computer" though. A "refresh" of My Computer is also required if you plug in the drive after booting. What I like especially over the PCI version is the GREAT DRIVERS. They actually come ON THE PROVIDED CD. Whoopee!! NO "dowload the latest driver at, blah blah blah!"

I'm a mobile user and I appreciate the well organized form factor of a retractable firewire cable. I especially like that the cable is 6 pins to 6 pins firewire and also includes a 4 pin converter/adapter that can be slipped over one of the 6 pin end to make the cable 4 pins to 6 pins firewire. Currently, I use it to connect my notebook computer to an external firewire hard drive or my iPod.

Pro's:
- convenient, small, retractable form factor...clean, simple design...no more cable messes

- easy to use...pull out the cable to desired length and it clicks into place...press a button to retract the cable
- both 6 pin to 6 pin, or 4 pin to 6 pin firewire capable (with included 4 pin adapter)

Con's:
- 4 pin adapter is a loose piece and could be lost/misplaced---this is the only reason I give 4 stars, instead of 5 stars
- labeling is a little cheap looking (stickers)...but that's being nitpicky
- a little expensive if all you want is a firewire cable but don't need the retractability

this product made by sony is very dependable. Its a great bargain for this high quality product. My only complaint is that the cable is a little to short for my needs. Other than that it is a great product.

I never thought I would pay $40 for 12 ft of cable but I did and is worth every penny. My powered sub sounds so much better now, less boomy and tighter bass. Before installing this cable my bass seemed localize (you could tell where my sub was located), now it seems to fill the room. If you are currently running 16 ga. speaker wire to your line level input on your sub like I was, do yourself a favor and get one

this is an ok cable but is not very cheap. you can get much cheaper cable. the cheaper cable is about as good as this one too. so check around first before buying this cable

I bought this cable a while ago to connect my computer to my stereo receiver. The cable shields fairly well and is of decent quality for the price. It is not gold-tipped, which means that the connectors may oxidize after several years, but I do not see this as a big problem. A balanced cable from Monster or Acoustic Research would give better performance, but the Recoton series is fine for most applications. I plan to buy two more to connect my 6-channel sound card to a 5.1 receiver I am getting for Christmas.

I tell ya, friends can be a real pain some times. Oh sure, they're cool to hang out with and talk to and stuff, but there are those moments when they'll drive ya right up a freakin' wall! Take last week for instance: one of my buds finally returned my DVD player and remote control to me. It was nice to finally get my stuff back... but it was the stuff that was MISSING that had me miffed. For one thing, the remote control was lacking both the battery cover door and the batteries! When I asked him 'bout this, he gave me some weak song and dance about the batteries goin' dead on him. Which was really strange, 'cuz I'd put in a fresh set a week before he borrowed my player! As for the missing battery door, he claims he's "still on the lookout" for it. Yeah, and O.J. is "still on the lookout" for the real killers...

The other thing that came up AWOL was the player's audio/video connector cable. Having absolutely no desire to hear his pathetic attempts at explaining this omission, I grabbed a new one (this particular make & model, 'natch), and reconnected my player to my TV set, threw in a fave Trek-flick platter, kicked back, and watched the show. I was somewhat disappointed that I paid a few bucks more for the new cable than I did the old one, and there wasn't any improvement in picture and sound quality. But hey, at least I'm able to actually view my digital platters again; what more can a DVD-phile ask for?

Needless to say, if my friend ever wants to borrow my DVD player ever again, he's gonna hafta provide his own freakin' remote batteries and hook-up cable! And a security deposit, just to be on the safe side...

'Late

I was thinking about purchasing some new surround sound speakers for my laptop which I use as my primary computer. Most laptops don't have built-in surround sound capability, and I absolutely refuse to pay $80 or more for the Audigy USB solution. On a recent trip to Circuit City, I found the Starlogic for about half that and bought the Logitech Z-640 speakers based on other reviews.

The Starlogic is very easy to set up. Just plug it in to a USB port. If you are using Windows 2000/XP, it automatically recognizes it. No drivers required. The built-in sound card was automatically disabled and sound output was sent to the Starlogic. The manual has a lot of grammatical errors as if it was written in a foreign language and translated to very bad English. There is one major step that was left out. You must go into the Control Panel > Sounds and Multimedia and change the speaker setting to 5.1 Surround and then again in the configuration options in your favorite DVD player.

There are three buttons: MUTE, SUR, MIC. The SUR emulates surround sound ("Q-Space technology") if you are listening to music or whatever that was not encoded with Dolby Digital sound. It is automatically disabled if you are playing back DD sound. My biggest complaint is that it is not automatically re-enabled when you are done watching a DD-encoded movie. The MIC button toggles the amplification of the line-in port. On the enclosed CD is a copy of WinDVD 3.1, a speaker testing application, some really lame movie previews, and a no-name CD music ripping/burning application.

Overall, the sound isn't as good compared to my Koss C220 Home Theater. That could be the speakers, but I definitely have surround sound now. Anything is better than the cheap 2.1 and built-in laptop speakers I was using before.

I liked the layout of this remote, and with the learning capabilities, I figured that this would be ideal. However, I couldn't get it to "learn" a single command. It kept showing the ERROR sign. When I programmed my CD player with the only code that would work, only one function of that worked...and that was the wrong key! Needless to say, it got returned.

We have a Sony TV, Panasonic DVD, Hughes Satellite Receiver, RCA Tuner/Receiver and an RCA VCR. Of all the things for the remote to not work on it was the RCA Receiver and VCR. I'm not saying it didn't work completely. . .for the VCR, it wouldn't operate the fast forward and rewind shuttle (different speeds). On the receiver is where we have our master volume control, but if you are under another function key like TV or Sat, you have to hit AUD to change the volume...and here's the kicker--when you hit the AUD button, it automatically puts the receiver in Tuner mode (turns the radio on). Really irritating when your in the middle of a movie on SAT. But I figured, no problem, it's an RCA component so I'll just call the helpline and they'll have a simple answer.

The toll-free helpline is a JOKE! It's all automated and when you finally get through all the number pressing, it's just a voice recording of exactly what's in the manual!! Why do they bother?? Their website's a joke, too...always errors, can't find pages, etc.

I returned this remote for the somewhat mediocre ONE FOR ALL UNIVERSAL 8 DEVICE LEARNING REMOTE. It comes with an IR extension so I can use the Satellite Remote in the Bedroom. At least it didn't have that irritating change-over to TUNER when I wanted to change the volume.

I have an large home theater setup, and I hate the idea of sorting through 6 different remotes to preform a single function. The RCA RCU810 really did combine all of my remotes into one. There was not a single function it couldn't handle.

Despite what other reviews have indicated, this remote CAN handle another components functions while in a different mode. For example, I set the remote's volume up/down keys to control the receiver's volume no matter what mode it's in. So even if I'm in TV or DVD mode, pressing the volume button will always control the volume on the receiver. This keeps the button-pressing to a minimum.

This remote is not without its flaws, however. As others have stated, the backlight is a nice feature, but the button to turn it on is hard to find in the dark. Plus, it makes a slight humming noise when its on. Another annoyance is that the DVD/VCR controls; ffwd, pause, stop, etc. are placed at the very bottom of the remote. This makes it very awkward to press these buttons, especially with one hand.

Another problem which seems to be a common among everyone is the clock resetting. This is a very common occurance on mine. I've given up on setting the clock because it resets itself at least 1-2 times a week. Thankfully, you don't lose any of your programmed functions when this happens. If it did, I would've returned it right away. I think the problem is directly related to the use of the backlight function. Poor circuitry perhaps?

Finally, some more macro buttons would have been nice. I can think of a million uses for this feature if there were more. This remote only give you 3, which isn't enough.

Overall though, I'm satified with this product. It does what it says, and all my other remotes are now in a cabinet.