Guitammer
ButtKicker LFE: $599.95
www.guitammer.com

I learned a valuable less when reviewing the Logitech Z-680 surround speakers a couple of years ago. Remember that scene in The Matrix where Neo passes through the metal detector, then palm slaps that security guard in the chest? The Z-680 was the only speaker set I’ve tested that provided a palpable “thwap!” smack in the center of the listener’s chest, too. The crispness of top-shelf bass is a full-body, tactile experience, not just a sound. No other speaker set I’ve tested, not even Logitech’s recent follow-up, the Z-5500, provides quite the same punch.

This is why you need to sell the ButtKicker to your gaming and multimedia enthusiasts. Essentially, the ButtKicker LFE is a 5.4”H x 5.5”W subwoofer that delivers ultra-low frequency response via a magnetic suspension system. The unit has a resonance frequency of 9 Hz and a range of 5 Hz to 200 Hz, far below even the best PC speaker subs. The unit sits on the floor or can mount to the underside of furniture—even a desk chair—with the appropriate option kit.

This is a far more authentic experience than the cheesy shaker devices that populate the home theater market. Musicians swear by the ButtKicker, and, according to Guitammer, musicians are the ones who designed it. So whether you’re selling into the media center crowd, audio enthusiasts, music performers, or movie lovers, the ButtKicker LFE will put the feel of real life action back into their bones at a price point that real enthusiasts will tolerate.

PANTONE
Color Plus: $99.99
www.pantone.com

Color calibration is the bane of every digital photographer. I just got done testing a slew of photo printers, and one of the things I looked for was to see if the output’s colors matched the source file. But how to tell? Professionals have exotic, expensive systems for doing accurate color calibration on digital media workstations. Pantone, the de facto name in color, has brought some of this capability down to the consumer world. At the heart of the ColorPlus package is a USB-based “7-filter, emissive colorimeter” that mounts to your CRT, LCD, or notebook screen and measures color values with exceptional precision. The results are more vibrant, lifelike colors and better detail in whites and shadows. With the monitor corrected, you can then tell for sure if printer output is accurate.

Konica Minolta
Magicolor 2430 DL: $499
printer.konicaminolta.net/usa

I’ve been very impressed in the past with Konica Minolta’s small business and SOHO laser printers, not only for their quality but for the company’s devotion to the reseller channel and making sure there are profit margins for everyone. In every discussion we’ve had about color laser printing, the application was always for business—sales sheets, proof drafts, and so on. No one thought twice about using lasers as a bona fide photo printer...until now.

The 2430 DL is the first laser printer I’m aware of with PictBridge support, although the best PictBridge results require an additional 256MB RAM upgrade. When both the printer and digital camera support PictBridge, the user can output images straight from the camera to the printer with no intervening PC. Decent PictBridge cameras not only double as the preview window found on an increasing number of consumer photo printers but also feature rudimentary editing capabilities, such as cropping, rotation, and so on.

Can KM’s laser beat an inkjet on quality? Compared against glossy photo media output from the likes of Epson, not quite. The 2430 DL is still only a 2400 dpi printer. But if you take a step down from ultra-fine inkjet glossy, KM holds its own. We didn’t quite have time to obtain a review unit for in-depth examination, but the print samples we saw looked stunning.

The 2430 DL can print on everything from plain paper to transparencies to glossy stock. Better yet, the printer features integrated Ethernet and USB 2.0 connectivity plus the option for a duplexer. This unit’s real advantage over inkjet printers is speed. The 2430 DL cranks out 5 ppm in color and 20 ppm in black and white. You just won’t get full-page performance like that from a bunch of nozzles. Konica Minolta throws in one more value-add by having the consumables all pre-installed so buyers are ready to work right out of the box. The company is still trying to establish a beachhead for itself in the highly competitive laser market, but we haven’t seen the magicolor family miss a step yet, and this model is a great step forward for those seeking novel inroads into business accounts.

BENQ
DW1625: $129/199 (int/ext)
www.benq.com

You might recall that about two and a half years ago, Yamaha released a CD burner technology called DiscT@2 (“disc tattoo”) that used the drive’s write laser to burn graphical patterns, including print text, into the unused outer area of a recordable CD. The advantage of DiscT@2 was that it worked on any brand of media so long as you had a compliant drive. The downside was that most people read in lines from left to right, not in circles, and labels are generally on the label side of a disc, not the data side.

The core concept of DiscT@2 has been reborn in the new LightScribe Direct Disc approach, only now the technology has been done right. LightScribe still uses the write laser, but now text and patterns can be written over the entire surface of the label face. To do this, LightScribe (www.lightscribe.com) had to develop a new chemical coating layer for CD and DVD media that would react with a burn laser’s heat. Far more flexible than DiscT@2, LightScribe can print graphics and text in circular or linear patterns, thus allowing users to dispense with costly inkjet direct-to-disc printing or paper labels once and for all. BenQ’s DW1625 is one of the first LightScribe-enabled DVD burners. (The BenQ 5232 will offer LightScribe in a CD burner format.) The internal drive offers double-layer burning at 4X and DVD+R at 16X. Firmware upgradeable with a 2MB cache, the DW1625 supports both 120mm and 80mm media, handles CD-RW writes at 24X, and does CD reads and -R writes at 40X. If you’re looking for a great way to add value and differentiate your multimedia PCs from the herd, this is the best option I’ve seen in a long time.