Wild West Electronics Blog

New Rewards Program

Wild West Electronics is developing a new customer rewards program designed to allow customers to accumulate "rewards dollars" that can be used to help pay for future purchases.

How does it work?

For each dollar you spend on www.wildwestelectronics.com you will automatically earn 5% of your sub-totaled purchases in "rewards dollars" that you can continue to accumulate or use on any future purchase.

Do I need to sign up for the program?

No, our order processing system automatically keeps track of all the points you are earning.

$1.00 Spent = 1 point Earned / 1 Point Earned = $.05 towards your "Rewards Dollars" Account balance

How do I redeem my "Rewards Dollars/Points"?

Redeeming is simple. You can earn points whether you place your order online or over the phone and to redeem them all you simply need to do is place a comment on your order stating "Redeem My Points" or if you order over the phone the operator will automatically be prompted to ask you if you wish to use points on your purchase or if you prefer to continue to accumulate them for a future purchase.

When can I start accumulating "Reward Dollars/Points"?

Wild West Electronics quietly activated the rewards accumulation program on May 15th 2008. All purchases made from this date forward have already been accumulating "Reward Dollars/Points". In fact you may have noticed this information on your receipt or packing slip if you made a recent purchase with us.

When can I learn of all of the rules and final details of the program?

We will be launching the full program on our web site within the next several weeks which will offer all of the details beyond what this post offers.

We are very excited to be bringing this program to all of our loyal customers!

Wild West Electronics is Honored as Monster’s Most Monsterous E-commerce Retailer

Wild West Electronics is Honored as Monster’s Most Monsterous E-commerce Retailer

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) January 15, 2008 – On January 8, 2008, Wild West Electronics received The Most Monsterous E-Commerce Retailer of the Year Award from Monster Cable Products, Inc. The award was presented at the 2008 Monster Retailer Awards ceremony during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, honoring the most monsterous retailers of 2007. The awards ceremony was followed by a world-class concert performed by the multi-Grammy award-winning artist “Queen of R&B Soul” Mary J Blige.    

To be considered for  The Most Monsterous E-Commerce Retailer of the Year Award, Monster looks at the retailer’s representation of truly offering the Most Monsterous Online shopping experience on the Web. In this category, it’s all about ease of navigation, strong Monster product presentation, the best Monster product mapping, and the Most Monsterous consumer experience. Other nominees included Amazon, Crutchfield, Huppin’s One Call and Your Electronic Warehouse.

About Wild West Electronics

Since 1999, Wild West Electronics has been a premier online source for finer quality specialty consumer electronics. Wild West Electronics (www.WildWestElectronics.net) is an Internet authorized dealer of every product they sell, including Monster Cable, Cambridge Audio, Adcom, Mordaunt-Short, Wharfedale and Pinnacle.

About Monster Cable

Monster, under its Monster Cable® brand, is the world's leading manufacturer of connectivity solutions for high performance audio, video, car audio, computer, console and computer gaming, professional audio and sound reinforcement. Monster, under its Monster Power® brand, is also the leading manufacturer of high performance AC power line conditioning and protection products for audio/video systems

Contact: Theresa L. Gillis

Phone: 1-405-340-8951

Fax: 1-866-269-9604

Email: tgillis@wildwestelectronics.com

 

http://www.wildwestelectronics.com

 

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Cambridge Audio 740C CD Player

Finally, the worlds most affordable upsampling CD player is now available, the new Cambridge Audio 740C upsampling CD player.

This unit is super cool and sports two Wolfson WM8740 digital to analog converters used in dual differential mode. They are 24 bit 196/kHz resolution. The Cambridge Audio 740c is the first unit at a retail price of $1099.95 to offer upsampling technology, normally this kind of technology is only found in CD players costing many times that of the 740c. The upsampling process used in the 740c was developed in conjunction with Anagram Technologies of Switzerland and can upsample to rates of 24 bits/384kHz.  For the very BEST sound quality, the Cambridge Audio 740c also employs a 32-bit Black Fin digital signal processor from Analog Devices.

Not only is the new Cambridge Audio 740c a really incredible CD player, it also serves well as a digital preamplifier? That's right, a digital preamplifier. That's because the Cambridge Audio 740c also sports two sets of optical and digital coaxial audio inputs in addition to its digital audio outputs allowing you to connect up to two additional external digital devices to allow the 740c to upsample and convert your digital content to an analog signal using its high quality Wolfson digital to analog converters. The result is an incredible improvement in sound for your outboard digital gear such as a digital cable or satellite box, game system or DVD player. How do you think those digital music radio stations will sound when it gets the same audiophile treatment your favorite CDs are getting when playing them on the new Cambridge Audio 740c? Simply put, it will be AMAZING!

Cambridge Audio 740A Integrated Amplifiers

The long wait is now over for the newly released Cambridge Audio 740A  integrated amplifier is available now!

Cambridge Audio continues to meet the needs of audiophiles at all levels and the Cambridge Audio 740A integrated amplifier is no exception. The Cambridge Audio Azur 740A integrated amplifier offers true hi-fi quality but at a fraction of the cost. Indeed the technology in the 740A is normally only used in products costing many times more.

The Cambridge Audio 740A integrated amplifier is the latest in Cambridge Audio’s Azur series. Using technology from both the top-of-the-range Cambridge Audio 840A powerhouse and a new evolution of the highly regarded amplifier circuitry used in the Cambridge Audio 540A and 640A Version 2, the 740A is set to rejuvenate the mid price sector. This integrated amp puts out an impressive 100W RMS into 8 Ohms and with two pairs of output transistors per channel has enough peak current capability to get the best from even ‘difficult’ speakers. A large front panel allows for assignable inputs to be displayed and sophisticated software afford a plethora of features.

Cambridge Audio

Since 2006 Cambridge Audio products have been available at Wild West Electronics, Inc. For those not familiar with Cambridge Audio it should not be confused with the company Cambridge Soundworks.

Cambridge Audio has been around since 1968 and has set new standards in the development and manufacturing of 2 channnel hi-fi products as well as home theater.

Developed in the UK, Cambridge Audio products are designed to stand the test of time, minimilist will surely appreciate extraordinary ease of use and sound quality that only Cambridge Audio products can deliver.

Wharfedale at Wild West Electronics

As of October 2006, Wild West Electronics, Inc. became an authorized dealer for the entire hi-fi line of Wharfedale speakers. The Wharfedale speaker line consist of 3 major lines of products; Diamond 9, Pacific Evolution 2, and Opus on the highest-end. All three lines from Wharfedale are available in a variety of finishes and offer the British designed sound that many love and crave.

Adcom GDV870 DVD Player NEW!

Finally, Adcom has introduced a new DVD player designed to mate perfectly with it's also recently new home theater rreceivers and new flagship preamplifier processor. The new DVD player is callled the Adcom GDV870 and is available for ordering and delivery now!!

The new player sports progressive scan 480p video output with fieeld-adaptive deinterlacing from the component video output and pure, all-digital HD video (up to 1080i) upconversion from the HDMI output.
It also allows HD analog video output up to 1080i through the component video output. On the audio side of the fence, the Adcom GDV870 supports DVD-Audio playback through its direct multi-channel analog outputs.

Most people have now realized that you get what you pay for when it comes to DVD players. The way a DVD player is built and the quality of the components that they are built with goes a long way to the overal audio and video performance. Luckily, Adcom recognizes this and built this unit with high quality and performance in mind. It uses discrete Wolfson 8740 24-bit/192 kHz DACs in each audio channnel used in a noise-canceling, balanced configuration for superior audio quality and high performance DVD-Audio reproduction. Additionally, the Adcom GDV870 employs a Hybrid Power Supply: Digital for high-current servo circuits and High Performance Linear with a massive Toroidial Transformer for low noise video and exceptional audio performance.

As always, we recommend using the highest quality audio and video cables so you can maximize your systems performance. Since your system will only be good as it's weakest link, we suggest following the entire audio video path and ensure you cables used in it's respective path are all of the SAME quality or better. In the case of the new Adcom GDV870 DVD Player, we suggest using Monster Cable HDMI Cable, Component Video Cable and Digital Optical Cables. If you plan on taking advantage of the analog multi-channel outputs for DVD-Audio playback, we would suggest using 3 pairs of the new Monster Cable M Series M1000i audio cables. These cables are redesigned for this year and are significantly less expensive than the previous model.

My Home Theater Power Setup

On my last post, I discussed audio and video sides of my home theater setup. Now let's take a look at the power setup and why it really is inadequate for the type of home theater I have.  But before we can look into why my setup is inadequate, we must first look into the benefits of a properly powered system.

Most regular consumers who have ever shopped a local retail store or bought a computer knows that you have to protect your investment by purchasing some sort of surge protector to prevent power surges or lightening strikes from destroying there investment.  So naturally, when consumers see devices that claim to protect there equipment for $49 and then visit our web site and see some Monster Power Centers for up to $1999, they are unclear of the difference. Or worse, they think there system is not good enough to justify the cost of the more expensive Monster Power Centers.

There are 3 major power problems that occur in all our homes. These power problems exist day in and day out.

Power Problem #1

Dirty Power:

Dirty power comes from everyone's wall outlets. This is perfectly fine for lights and hair dryers, but for home theater systems, it introduces hum, buzz and visual static. The better your home theater system is, the more sensitive it will be and the more noticeable these annoyances will become. In my case, I have 300 watts of Adcom power for each of the 7 channels in my home theater room. These power amplifiers are highly sensitive, so even with the mid-line Monster power centers I am using now, I get buzzing through all of my speakers. High quality filters found in a Monster Power MP HTS5000MKII for example can greatly help reduce the hum, buzz and visual static, but because the power that comes from wall outlets is also inherently imbalanced, only a Monster power center with perfectly balanced power such as the Monster Power MP HTS7000 can fully correct the dirty power problem. More on how I will fix this problem in regards to my situation later.

Power Problem #2

Power Surges:

What is a Power Surge? A power surge is a brief but sudden increase in line voltage, often destructive, usually caused by a nearby electrical appliance such as a photocopier or elevator, or when power is reapplied after an outage. All Monster power products are designed to protect your system from everyday power surges. In fact, even the most basic Monster power strip, such as the Monster Power MP AV600 comes with a connected equipment warranty. You will notice the descriptions of all of the power centers a Joule Rating followed by a number, the higher the number, the more power surge energy the

Monster

Power

Center

can handle before failing. Naturally, the higher in the Monster Power line you go, the higher the Joule rating will be (meaning the better your equipment will be protected) and also the higher dollar amount of protection you will receive from the connected equipment warranty.  Please note that the connected equipment warranty is only valid if you purchase your unit from an authorized dealer such as Wild West Electronics.

Power Problem #3

Brownouts:

What is a Brownout? A brownout is a temporary reduction in voltage, which can sometimes cause data loss. The voltage in your home is supposed to always be at 120 volts. In reality, the voltage will fluctuate all throughout the day from about 100 volts to as high as 130 volts. This causes a tremendous amount of wear and tear on your home theater system. The effect of this problem is akin to a person who always drives his car in the city, versus a person who always drives his car on the freeway. The city driver will surely have MORE repairs than the freeway driver due to the frequent stop and starts the typical city driver encounters.  To solve this problem, you need to have a voltage stabilizer like the Monster Power AVS2000. The only function of this unit is to correct the voltage coming in from your wall to your equipment by stabilizing the voltage to a constant 120 volts.

So now you know all about the power problems that plague all of our home theater systems, which Monster Power unit is right for you?

In terms of solving the first power problem; power surges; you will want to look for a Monster Power unit with a higher joule rating. Remember, the higher the joule rating, the more power surge your Monster power unit will be able to handle before failing. Technically speaking, if you have less than $10,000 worth of equipment to connect, any of the Monster power products will serve protecting you against power surges. But let's be honest, who wants to bother trying to collect on the warranty when you can buy a better unit with a higher joule rating that will reduce your chance of having to hassle with a warranty claim.

Solving your dirty power problem will depend on how sensitive your home theater system really is, the better your home theater system, and the more sensitive it will be. To help consumers find the best Monster Power center for there needs, Monster Cable rates the quality of the audio video filters it uses in its Monster Power centers from a scale of Stage 1 through Stage 5. Stage 1 is at the bottom of the scale meaning the quality of the filtering will be the lowest and Stage 5 is at the top of the scale meaning the filtering quality will be the HIGHEST. If you decide to purchase a Stage 5 unit, you will also be getting balanced power in addition to the highest quality filters which is the ONLY way you will be able to fully remove interference for the best possible picture and sound from your home theater system.  A Stage 5 unit such as the Monster Power MP HTS7000 SSMKII represents the best technology Monster has to currently offer. Add the Monster Power Voltage Stabilizer MP AVS 2000 SS and in addition to fully protecting your home theater system against power surges and dirty power, you will protect your home theater system from the wear and tear of brownouts.

So now that you are a lot smarter about power, what is wrong with my Monster power system in my home theater?

Glad you asked I have several problems actually. Because my system is so sensitive, due to the ultra high quality of the home theater itself, the Monster Power center I am using is not adequate to handle all of the power challenges I am faces with. Currently, I am using the Monster Power MPHTS5000MKII. From the quality of the audio video filtering (Stage 4) and the level of surge protection is provides (2775 Joules), it is clearly the best value out of all of the Monster Power Centers. That being said, my system is sensitive enough that it warrants the use of the better Stage 5 audio video filtering and also really needs to have balanced power which the Monster Power MPHTS5000MKII does not have. The other problem I have, is because my system requires so much power; 300 watts X 7 of Adcom Power, 400 watts of power combined from my 2 Monster Cable THX SL200-PSM powered sub woofers and 800 watts of power from my Pinnacle Baby Boomer sub woofer, I need to have an electrician upgrade my outlets that are being used from 15 amps to 20 amps. Since purchasing both the Adcom GFA5802 and the GFA7805, Adcom has made a running change and now require these units to be plugged in to a 20 amp outlet. Another problem I have of course is that I have not been using a voltage stabilizer. The reason for this is that I have known that I really needed a 20 amp version which up until now Monster Cable has not produced. This is also why I have not yet upgraded my Monster Power center, in the past they have only produced 15 amp versions of these and I need 20 amps.  The good news is that this is about to change with the upcoming release of several new 20 amp power centers and voltage stabilizers made by Monster.

New Home Theater Room

WOW! I can't believe it is Monday already! What a weekend it was. I finally got my new home theater room up and running and got to watch some really cool movies. Even though I have been in this business for nearly 15 years, it seems I had forgotten how much fun having a dedicated home theater room can be.  The video was crisp and clear and the audio was great.

Is the room perfect? No way! I still have a lot to do to really maximize all of the horse power I have, more on that in another post.

Here is the setup I have so far. For the audio, I am using the new Adcom GFR700 receiver as a preamp to my Adcom GFA5802 amplifier running 300 watts of high-current power. I use the Monster Cable M2.4 Bi wire  speaker cable (15ft. Pair) to connect the Adcom GFA5802 to the Monster Monitor 200  Thx speakers. In a bi wire configuration, you have one positive and one negative connection on the amplifier side and on the speaker side you have two positives and two negative connections. Because a bi wire speaker cable uses 4 individual conductors of wire, this increases your usable speaker wire gauge which translates in to much better sound quality.

Now my Adcom GFA5802 power amplifier actually has two separate sets of stereo outputs.  You can also bi wire speaker cable using 4 conductors on both the power amplifier side and the speaker side. In my situation, my conductors are fused together so I am using only two conductors on the amplifier side and 4 conductors on the speaker side.  This leaves me with 2 unused speaker posts on the GFA5802. For these connections, I am using the Monster Cable M2.2 speaker wire (15ft. Pair) to connect the Adcom GFA5802 to my two Monster THX Sub woofer bass modules which feeds left and right stereo bass information.  The Monster THX Subwoofer bass modules are actually powered by there own amplifiers. I am only using the Adcom GFA5802 to supply the basic signal. The reason why I have it hooked up this way is that I want my home theater to sound great for both stereo music and the movies. So primarily, these sub woofers are in heavy use when I am listening to stereo.  For movies, I rely on my Pinancle Baby Boomer Plus powered sub woofer to handle my movie bass. This is a tiny sub woofer that packs incredible punch and is dedicated to my sub woofer output on the GFR700 . I use the Monster M1000 sub woofer cable to connect my Adcom receiver to the Pinnacle Sub Woofer.

For my surrounds, I am using the Monster THX Dipole speakers, model THX SL100-DSR BK. I have two pairs which I connect to my other Adcom amplifier, the Adcom GFA7805. This amplifier also has 300 watts but has 5 channels of outputs. Four channels of power I use for my surround speakers and I use one channel for my center channel. I also use the THX SL100-DSR BK as my center channel speaker. It is designed so it can be used for any channel if desired in a home theater system.

For my video, I use the Marantz DV9500 DVD Player which is connected to the Marantz VP12S3 DLP Projector. For the main video output, I use the Monster Cable M1000 DVI to HDMI cable. The cable I use is 50ft. long and is more than enough for my particular application. Since my DV9500 is also an SACD and DVD Audio Player, I used analog audio cables to connect 5.1 channels of audio outputs to the SACD/DVD audio inputs on my Adcom receiver.  The cables I use here are the Monster Interlink Reference 2 . I use these because they are in my opinion one of the best values for the money, and with so many connections to make, a good value was what I was looking for here.  These connections only work when I am using SACD and DVD audio discs. When I use DVD's for movies, I need to use my optical cable so that Dolby Digital/DTS work. For this, I use the MLS1000 Monster Cable 1000 optical audio cable. It is the best optical cable that Monster Cable makes. For my screen, I am using a motorized Draper that is 106" diagonal, in the 16:9 format.  When selecting a screen, the material is very important. A lot of folks like to use what they call the high def grey, also referred to as grey hawke with some manufacturers. I prefer using a bright white material so that way sports will look very bright and brilliant as opposed to using a grey material in which the uniforms will have more of a grey tone to them.

Next time I will discuss the proper Monster power setup for my rig!

New ADCOM GFR700 Receiver

Wild West Electronics is proud to offer and have in-stock the new Adcom GFR-700 receiver. This is the 1st ever receiver from Adcom. With this exciting new product, fans of Adcom who might not have been able to pony up for separates, don't have the room for them or as in my case, have the separates but need Adcom power in a less dedicated room; The Adcom GFR700 receiver is a perfect fit.

The GFR-700 features ADCOM S.A.F.E. Amplification stable into 4 ohms, 7.1 channel DSP processing, decodes Dolby Digital-EX, DTS-ES, Pro Logic IIx, DTS Neo:6, 7.1 Analog In/Out and video transcoding to component and a Digital AM/FM Tuner. Additional features include 6 assignable digital inputs, RS-232 Bi-Directional Com Port, discrete remote codes, programmable Main 12V trigger, Independent Room 2 12V trigger, Independent Main/Room 2 IR inputs, Variable and fixed Rooms 2 analog out, Room 2 tone control, Triple Bass Management and a Ground Lift switch.

Five channels of 'real' ADCOM power at 125 watts per channel! If you are doing 7.1, you can definitely do this with the Adcom, but you will have to add a separate 2-channel Adcom amplifier. We would suggest pairing the GFR700 with the Adcom GFA5400 2-channel amplifier. At 125 watts, this is a perfect match.

The back panel has 7.1 analog inputs and 7.1 outputs, 6 assignable digital inputs along with a full suite of video inputs including 4 component IN, 4 S-Video IN, 4 Composite video IN and 2 input HDMI switching.  There are 12v triggers for both

Main

and Room 2 as well as IR inputs.  The receiver includes a 57-key backlit remote. AC power requirements are 120V/230V.

Adcom tells us that there will be a optional video card available later in the year that will allow users to upscale there video to 1080p through the HDMI output. So this means, you can take a VCR for example, plug it into the GFR 700, and the GFR700 will output this signal through the HDMI monitor out port to your television up to 1080p. We are told the card will retail around $500 bucks or so but immediate pricing is not yet available.

Bottom line, the Adcom GFR700 receiver will most likely go down in history as one of the very best ever made. Certainly it is among the best sounding!

Don't forget to buy your Monster Cable with the receiver!

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