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There are only 4 days to Christmas and as Sean Means of the Salt Lake Tribune reminds us that means 4 more days of listening to Christmas music. Some of us listen even longer. Sean’s article “Which songs bring out the Grinch?” shares the songs that put him in a most un-Christmas mood. Here they are; What Child is This, Do You Hear What I Hear?, Do They Know It’s Christmas?, Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas), Christmas Shoes, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
I’ll admit I don’t know a few of these but it’s worth reading his reasons for tiring of these tunes. No matter what you’re listening to, hearing Christmas music through Marantz HI-FI equipment will likely make it sound better. Well, most songs anyway.
Internet radio and streaming music have grown dramatically in the past decade. Over the past several years Pandora, Slacker, Rhapsody and many others have been growing in popularity. A Pew research study showed a 17% increase in streaming music listening from 2004 to 2009 among adults of all ages. The largest group of listeners fall into the 18-33 year old age group at over 60%, but the largest increase was in younger baby boomers (56-64) which grew 20% in that time period.
Marantz offers several components that offer streaming music with the level of quality you’d expect from Marantz.
The SR7005, our flagship AV receiver let’s you choose from 1000s of Internet radio stations with vTuner and listen to your favorite music through Rhapsody, Napster, and Pandora. You can even view photos with flickr.
The M-CR603, our compact Network CD receiver lets you access the world of Internet streamed media through the Pandora, Rhapsody and Napster music services, and you can choose from 1000s of Internet radio stations with vTuner.
Also check the NA7004 Network Audio Player and the AV7005 preamplifier/processor, both capable of delivering Marantz quality to streaming digital content.
Researchers Emily Nusbaum and Paul Silvia of University of North Carolina at Greensboro asked students about how often they felt chills down their spine, got goose bumps, or felt like their hair was standing on end while listening to music. They also measured their experience with music, and five main dimensions of personality: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Of all these dimensions, only openness to experience was related to feeling chills. People high in openness are creative, curious about many things, have active imaginations and like to play with ideas, and they much more frequently feel chills in response to music.
Why might people high in openness to experience report feeling chills more often?
Apparently the study showed that the type of music listened to had less bearing than if they played a musical instrument, rated music more highly in their life and owned a Marantz AV receiver. OK, I made the last one up but hey, I think it’s likely don’t you? What type of music or song gives you the chills? From Science Daily
 Thirty years ago today John Lennon was murdered by a crazed fan outside his New York home. Whether you loved him with the Beatles, during his solo career or not at all, his effect on the music world has been profound. As part of that celebration of Lennon’s life, Rolling Stone magazine has devoted its final 2010 issue to a nine-hour interview the singer did just three days before his death on December 8, 1980. What if any John Lennon song had the most profound impact on your life?
 The holidays can be a stressful time, but maybe taking tme out to listen to your favorite music can help you cope. Suzanne B. Hanser, chairperson and founder of the music therapy department at Berklee College of Music, has a new book on reducing stress and pain through music. Hanser was recently interviewed by the Boston Globe and spoke about how our heart rate, our gait, our circulation, our breathing is all very rhythmic. So, we are music, we create music very naturally out of our own rhythms and cycles. Read the article here
 It’s Veterans day and we here at Marantz wish to say thank you to all the veterans who’ve faithfully served our country. Over the years music has played multiple roles in our military tradition. Perhaps no musical notes are more recognizable than the simple 24-note melody played at our Military funerals. NPR has a short article on the “Lonely Yet Comforting Sound of Taps“.
This may be a Blu-ray holiday. This season there are a flood of new and old movies coming out on the high definition discs. Here are just a few releases scheduled for November 2010. Any of these on your list?
- Inception
- Avatar
- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
- A Christmas Carol 3D
- Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010
- Fantasia 2 Movie Collection
- The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story
- The Last Airbender
- The Polar Express 3D
- Despicable Me
- Salt
- Shrek: The Whole Story
- Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D
- A Christmas Carol (Disney)
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
- Grown Ups
- The Pacific (HBO)
Not what you’re looking for? What Blu-ray movie is on your wish list?
Want to make sure you’re getting everything you’re supposed to out of your new movies? Check out the Universal Disc players from Marantz and you are sure to see and hear it all.
 Flat panel TV prices will hit all time lows in the coming weeks. Combine that with pent up demand and you have the makings of lots of sales.
By the end of this month, LCD TV prices will be about 5% lower than they were at the same time last year, according research firm DisplaySearch. But a tailspin will start in October: In the last three months of the year, the firm forecasts that prices will keep falling until they bottom out at 12% below 2009 levels. CNN
The article goes on to caution that prices will bottom out in early 2011 as inventories are reduced.
With prices going down will you be upgrading or adding to the TV’s in your home?
 HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the an industry standard cable that supports uncompressed, all-digital audio/video via a single cable, eliminating the need for separate cables for audio and video.
What is the difference between HDMI 1.3 and 1.4?
HDMI 1.3: Supports Deep Color, High Speed and high frame rates. It can transmit uncompressed lossless compressed digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
HDMI 1.4: The HDMI 1.4 Audio Return Channel, 3D Video, Expanded Color Spaces and more. All 2010 Marantz Receivers support HDMI 1.4a
- Audio Return Channel: Allows the TV to send
audio data upstream to the A/V receiver via the HDMI cable, eliminating
the need for an extra cable.
- 3D Video: 1.4 allows common 3D formats and resolutions for HDMI-enabled devices,
enabling 3D gaming and other 3D video applications. Please note that 3D video requires 3D source material and a 3D capable television.
- Expanded Support For
Color Spaces: HDMI now supports color spaces
designed specifically for digital still cameras, enabling more accurate
color rendering when viewing digital photos.
Even if you don’t plan on purchasing a 3D TV the advantages of an Audio Return Channel and Expanded color space may be worth upgrading your system.
How long of a HDMI cable can I use? Up to a maximum of 10 meters without the use of a repeater.
Click for more info on HDMI 1.4 and click to view the full line of 2010 A/V Receivers that support HDMI 1.4a
 It’s Halloween weekend and we went looking for the top 10 lists of all time best scary movies. Here is what we found.
What’s your favorite horror movie?
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