This blog has now been updated; you can view this updated post here.

If you were of age in the 1980s, you might remember some of the advertising of the era. It was the last decade before the Internet age; a time where the primary media was print and TV, and a time that Facebook, YouTube, and online banner ads that tracked your every online move didn’t exist. Who could forget the famous Orwellian TV spot in the 1984 Super Bowl that introduced the Apple Macintosh?

There was another memorable ad that captured the imagination then. It was an ad for Maxell cassette tapes. Maxell made some of the highest quality tape at the time, and it was prized by audio enthusiasts as a quality way to make the vinyl music of the day portable. The ad captured the excitement of music listening, with a period-hip fellow getting “blown away” by the high-fidelity sound of Maxell tape.

If you’ve read this far, you may be wondering why we are talking about cassette tape; something replaced long ago by everything digital. You see, the speaker pictured in that ad was the JBL L100. A hugely popular speaker in the 1970s and 1980s, to this day it remains the best-selling speaker in JBL’s long history. Its unique foam square design grill made it instantly recognizable, and it was known as a great speaker for rocking out. Maybe one of your friends had a pair, and if that was the case, it likely evokes fond musical memories of your youth.

But you don’t have to live on memories, and if you are too young to remember the original L100, you’re still in luck.

JBL has decided to bring the L100 back, aptly naming it the L100 Classic. The new model hews true to the original iconic design both in form and function, but it has been resurrected as a product of JBL Synthesis, which is the high end of JBL and part of parent company’s Harman Luxury Audio group. That means it’s not just the great party and rock and roll speaker which may have blown you away in the 1980s – it is a serious speaker worthy of the HiFi stereo system in your favorite Alpharetta or Metro Atlanta listening room.

Best of all, Georgia Home Theater’s Marietta experience center is currently the only showroom in the Atlanta area where you can see and hear the new JBL L100 Classic. Do you need any more reasons to visit us? Learn more about the JBL L100 Classic below.

At Georgia Home Theater, we like to associate ourselves with quality brands. When it comes to audio, we have a preference for companies, products, and brands that have been synonymous with quality for a long time. Those brands include Bowers & Wilkins, McIntosh, Klipsch, Rotel and Paradigm, to name a few. Each of those companies has a commitment to offering the best audio performance possible for each of the products they offer, whether that product is aimed at the high or low end of the market.

Recently, we have been proud to add another well-known name with a reputation for quality to our offerings: Martin Logan. Martin Logan is yet another American Hi-Fi company (like McIntosh and Klipsch), founded in the unlikely location of Lawrence, Kansas, by Gayle Martin Sanders and Ron Logan Sutherland. Sutherland was an electrical engineer, and they both had a fascination with electrostatic speakers. What are electrostatic speakers? They are quite different from conventional speaker drivers that use electromagnets and current to move air. Electrostatic speakers vibrate air using thin conducive panels suspended between stationary panels. They are also known as dipole speakers, as they radiate sound all around from these panels as opposed to more directional sound from conventional speaker drivers.

When Martin Logan began, most electrostatic designs were relative failures. They were hard to drive with most amplifiers, and they were weak in bass reproduction. They did, however, offer an airy, enveloping sound that could reproduce genres like classical music in a more natural way than conventional speakers.

To make a long story short, suffice it to say that Martin Logan has applied years of engineering work in electronics and material science to perfect the electrostatic speaker. Today they are the foremost purveyor of electrostatic speakers, to the delight of audio enthusiasts who know that their sound is like no other, offering the kind of soundstage you hear at a live performance.

Georgia Home Theater is pleased to bring the transparent high fidelity sound of Martin Logan to your HiFi stereo system at your home in the Roswell area. Read on to learn more about three Martin Logan speaker models that can transform your listening room.

This blog has now been updated; you can view this updated post here.

Klipsch is one of America’s oldest names in HiFi audio. Started in 1946 in a tin shed in Hope, Arkansas, by Paul Klipsch, the company has been finely honing its patented horn-based designs for decades. Paul Klipsch’s goal was to recreate the sound of live music in the home, and it remains the guiding principle of the company to this day.

Klipsch speakers have always had a forward, lively sound, one that holds true to the company's goal of audio that sounds like you are really in the room listening to the artist record music. It tends to be a sound that you feel, with deep bass and high frequencies that remind you of a live performance and not something that has been filtered in some way.

Today, Klipsch is still headquartered in the U.S., and the Hope, Arkansas, shed is the site of the factory that produces classic speakers like the Klipschorn or the Klipsch Heritage Series. Klipsch Audio Technologies now manufactures speakers at a variety of price points and also owns the brands Jamo, Athena, Mirage, and Energy. The company understands how to build both high-end and lower-end speakers that outperform their price points – and usually people's expectations as well.

Klipsch’s newly redesigned Reference Premiere RP-600M bookshelf speaker is a case in point. Its performance has surprised and astounded professional reviewers considering its amazingly affordable price of $550 a pair.

If you are looking to upgrade your HiFi stereo system in the Vinings area or are looking to build one in your home without spending next month’s mortgage payment, let’s take a closer look at the RP-600M.

This blog has now been updated; you can view this updated post here.

Some pieces of HiFi gear are simply classics that stand the test of time. And when it comes to speakers, one of the great things about them is that while speaker technology has advanced, it also hasn’t. What do we mean by that?

While digital technology has revolutionized audio electronics, including components that were once purely analog like amplifiers, its effect on traditional speakers is less so. DSP (digital signal processing) has made small speakers sound like big ones, but when it comes to traditional hi-fi speakers, the technology behind the woofers, tweeters, crossovers, and cabinet design hasn't changed as much. Of course, there have been advances, but a great speaker from 20 or even 30 years ago is still a great speaker – it is not obsolete, unlike other audio components.

When it comes to classic speaker designs, Klipsch is a company true to its heritage. Their horn designs have been around since Paul Klipsch designed all the speakers himself. Georgia Home Theater recently partnered with Klipsch, which is also one of the world’s largest speaker manufacturers, to bring their classic Heritage Series to the Atlanta area.

In this blog, we’d like to introduce you to the most classic of Klipsch speakers – the Klipschorn. This is the only speaker in continuous production for over 70 years, which says volumes about the durability of its design.

What makes the Klipschorn a fantastic centerpiece for your classic Atlanta HiFi stereo system? Read on to learn more.