We've heard of new subscriber deals before, but this week DISH announced that it's offering new subscribers the choice of an Apple iPad 2 instead of first year programming discounts. This is for customers who sign up for the Hopper with Sling Whole-Home HD DVR and a qualified programming package. New customers can then use the iPad to get DISH Anywhere service. Combined with the Hopper entertainment platform, customers can use their iPad (or an iPhone for that natter) to watch live TV, DVR recordings and/or On Demand shows. The Hopper with Sling and iPad offer begins on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 and runs until September 18, 2013.

Do you want a theater modeled on the one used by Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, and JJ Abrams to view their movies? IMAX will build you your own Private Theater - in your own home. While the price hasn't been announced, if you have to ask, we're pretty sure you can't afford it. With custom speakers, a system that does daily speaker calibrations, a floor to ceiling, wall to wall curved screen, and dual 4k projectors, this is the theater of your dreams. Right now, IMAX is waiting to start designing your Private Theater. Will we see an IMAX certification program like THX does? Time will tell.

Sorry if you had your brains explode all over your monitor, but it happened to us too. As revealed in this week's Emotiva Podcast, Emotiva has acquired Bob Carver LLC. Emotiva, long known to the Audioholics of the world as the go-to manufacturer for Internet Direct amplifiers, has a history of providing solid-state amplifiers at a fraction of the price of the brick and mortar competition. Bob Carver, a literal giant in the field of amplifiers, has a long history in the world of high-end audio through his companies which include the well-respected Sunfire. To top it all off, Bob Carver will now be working with Emotiva on R&D. The implications are mind-boggling.

Allow us all to introduce to you to: audiogurus.com! Audioholics and Audioholics Store have always been two separate companies, and we feel that it's now safe to end the confusion. The easiest way to do that is to rename the store and re-brand it on its very own top level domain. So after much thought, we've all decided to do just that. It's ready to fly on its own. Its wings have matured and the folks associated with the Store are ready to succeed in the world of audio and video electronics without the confusion of sharing a name with an impartial online A/V review magazine. Audiogurus will continue to provide the same great service, product selection, 30-day return and warranty policies as the original Audioholics E-Store, and Audioholics will still have a great relationship with the folks who run it. You will soon see the Store transition in name and URL from store.audioholics.com to audiogurus.com. It?s a great new direction for all parties involved and we're very excited to see the store get to this level!

Polk Audio and Definitive Technologies ('Def Tech' to its fans) are brands that most audiophiles and audioholics alike are familiar with. So when parent company DEI Holdings formed a new division, that united the brands under a more visible roof, we thought, "That's some pretty significant news." And it is. Sound United is the new division and it will oversee Polk Audio, Definitive Technology and also BOOM. While the three brands will stay separate and maintain their own identities and development teams, Sound United allows the diversity of the brands to be brought together so that each can serve the same consumer in different ways. It's not that DEI wasn't already doing this, but now they have a name by which to supply solutions for all of the various areas.

That's right, SVS and Audioholics are teaming up once again to allow YOU to enter and win a pair of SVS Ultra Tower Speakers. All you have to do is answer a few questions telling us why YOU should be one of three people to review the new tower speakers and, if selected, SVS will ship you and two other lucky contestants a pair of the new Ultra Tower speakers. Then, you'll review them and post your review online in our forums. Our forum members will vote on the best written, most useful, and most comprehensive review. The winner gets to keep their speakers!

Sony quietly announced the release of the last stereo system that will ever feature its MiniDisc format, effectively killing the format. Frankly, we were surprised to hear the 20-plus year old disc format was still alive at all. MiniDisc never caught on with the mainstream and outside of a few professions that regularly use digitally recorded audio, it was living as quietly as it has thus passed. Hearing of the end of MiniDisc, Audioholics presents a eulogy for a format that most of you may have ignored but one that long ago etched a magneto-optical pitted groove into the hearts of many music fans through the 1990s.

This is insanely cool. SVS is partnering with Audioholics to allow 10 lucky people to review a 1000 Series subwoofer and tell the world what you think about it. All you have to do is enter your name and some basic information (tell them about your home theater and how connected you are in the A/V "community") and then select whether you're interested in the PB-1000 or SB-1000. Those who are selected get to try out the sub for 2 weeks and then post their thoughts on the Audioholics Forums for all to see. Then the fun part begins?the community votes on the top two reviews and the winners get to keep their subs! Note: This isn't a vote for the two most favorable reviews, it's a vote for the most thorough, enjoyable, readable, or otherwise engaging reviews. If you've wanted to try your hand at reviewing a home theater product, this is your big chance!

One of the most legendary voices of Progressive Music and a master at writing and singing emotional ballads, Greg Lake is continuing his ?Songs of a Lifetime? tour in 2013 and is about to release a book about his life in music. One cannot deny his influence during the 70s with bands that included King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Yet, four decades later, ELP, King Crimson and other amazing 70s Prog-Music Bands continue to be shunned by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We asked Mr. Lake how he felt about this during our exclusive Audioholics one-on-one interview with the father of Progressive Music. Read our interview and find out what's new with Father Christmas.

We walked into the first room which was the EMP room and the first thing we saw was that they were playing Battleship - which if you have or haven't seen it, well, it's like a long series of explosions that lasts about 2 hours. It's the perfect movie to show off what a 5.1 system can do with respect to directionality, soundstage, bass response and overall system coherence. We also enjoyed hearing the clear dialogue which we could credit to the excellent EMP Impression E56Ci Center Channel. Let me back up and tell you a little bit about this system that we demoed. First of all we had the E55Ti Tower speakers, which we are very familiar with and have reviewed. The surrounds were the E55Wi surrounds. Bass was powered by the new ES1010i powered subwoofer, which uses a dual 10-inch poly-matrix cone driver and goes down to 35Hz.

Aperion Audio made an appearance at the 2012 Audioholics Get Together Event in Tarpon Springs, FL with its Aris Wireless Speaker for Windows. The speaker uses four active and two passive internal drivers, including a pair of 1" neodymium soft dome silk tweeters, two powered 4" fiberglass woofers and two 4" passive radiators. The frequency response is 65Hz - 20kHz. We got a chance to listen to this speaker and it was really immersive and loud - in fact, the way it filled up the room we were in was quite impressive given its relatively small size. The Aperion Audio Aris has three different listening modes including Natural, Bass Boost and Enhanced Stereo. The mode we listened to the most is Natural - and the one you want if you want to get the best (most accurate) sound. If you absolutely want more bass you can certainly play with Bass Boost, but we'd leave it in the default.

Angel City Audio showed off their new Trinity LR speakers at the 2012 Audioholics Get Together event. This is a left/right bookshelf model which has a frequency response of 30Hz - 35kHz and a sensitivity of 90dB @ 1w/m. They are about 16" deep but there is also a Trinity Center model that has a slightly reduced frequency response. It plays down to around 55Hz, but it's also reduced in depth (to just 12") so you can better place it on its side as a center channel. Now the great thing about these speakers is that you can combine them in a 2-channel, 3-point, 5-point or whatever type of system you want. The LR can disperse evenly enough to be used as a center, or you can grab the Center model for that. Or you could use a whole system of the Center model if you want something a bit smaller in depth all-around and you plan to use a subwoofer to fill in the missing low end.