july 2007 MAXIMUMPC 103
IN
LETTERS POLICY: MAXIMUM PC invites your thoughts and comments. Send them to
[email protected]. Please include your full name, town, and telephone number, and limit
your letter to 300 words. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. Due to the vast amount of
e-mail we receive, we cannot personally respond to each letter.COMING
NEXT
MONTH
used for a second channel, and the sleeve
is used for ground. But there are also mono-
aural TRS connectors that are used for bal-
anced lines. In this case, the tip is used for
an in-phase signal, the ring is used for an
inverted copy of the same signal (i.e., out-of-
phase), and the sleeve is used for ground.
When the signal carried on a balanced
connection reaches its destination, the
out-of-phase signal is flipped and added to
the in-phase signal. Any noise that made
its way into the signal is also inverted and
therefore cancelled. Balanced lines are
much less susceptible to hum, so they’re
typically used to carry audio signals over
long distances.
TURNTABLE TURNABOUT
The information in your turntable reviews
(May 2007) was good as far as it went, but you
should have consulted with someone who has
actually used an original turntable on some
original records. It is important to know what
speeds those turntables support because unlike
CDs, records come in several different speeds:
16, 33 1/3, 45, and 78 revolutions per minute.
Leaving this information out makes the rest of
the report meaningless. If one of the turntables
supports all those speeds and the other does
not, then all other specifications quickly lose
their relevance.
—Bill Stadelman
EXECUTIVE EDITOR MICHAEL BROWN
RESPONDS: Thanks for your feedback on the
turntable reviews. Due to space constraints,
we have to prioritize the facts we include
in our reviews. As I said in the opening,
anyone who’s truly serious about vinyl
records will dismiss these products as toys.
But you’re right, I should have been more
explicit in stating that both these tables
are limited to 33 1/3 and 45rpm instead of
mentioning LPs, EPs, and 45s and assum-
ing that the reader would then deduce that
neither product is capable of running at 16
or 78rpm.
CONSOLE AGNOSTICISM
I was dismayed (to put it mildly) when I pulled
back the cover of June’s issue to find an ad for
an Xbox 360 game on page one! I am STILL
disgusted that COD3 is available for every
platform, except the PC! Stalker was a welcome
breath, but I’m seriously starting to wonder
where this is leading! I know it’s difficult (if not
impossible) to pick and choose your advertisers,
but you seem to be ignoring your own philoso-
phy! The PC hardware manufacturers who are
catering to the “horsepower for gaming” crowd
are simply going to die off if the games don’t
materialize. We have no reason to upgrade
unless there are games and apps that make the
newer equipment necessary or desirable, and
that would render your magazine irrelevant!
—Steve BachmanEDITOR IN CHIEF WILL SMITH RESPONDS:
There are actually two things for me to talk
about here, Steve. The first is that the edito-
rial staff of the magazine has absolutely no
control over the products that are adver-
tised within these pages. We assiduously
guard the boundary between editorial and
advertising so that we can deliver an edito-
rial product that’s completely untainted by
advertising. We don’t know what products
are being advertised until we get the issue,
just like you. This is as it should be, and it’s
what allows us to continue delivering a top-
notch editorial product to you every month.
The other part of your letter is about
the larger (and almost completely use-
less) battle between console and PC gam-
ing. PC gaming is bigger now than it ever
has been before. There are housewives
in the Midwest playing World of Warcraft,
Microsoft’s spending a ton of money pro-
moting the PC as the fourth main gaming
platform, and most of the really interesting
innovations right now are happening in PC
gaming. As always, there are games that
play well on the PC and games that play
well on consoles. And increasingly there are
games that play well on both. Shadowrun
is one such game—and it will launch with
cross-platform multiplay between Xbox 360
and PC players.
What’s the practical upshot? When
Shadowrun comes out, you’ll finally have a
healthy outlet for all your anti-console rage.
All you’ll have to do is fire up the game and
frag the console weenies (you can recog-
nize them by the sloooow way they turn and
their pathetic aiming skillz).MEDIA CENTER
ROUNDUP
Is the time right for a living-room
PC? We’ll look at several new pre-
built media center machines to see
how the category has evolved and
whether your TiVo will soon be out
of work.PUT YOUR PC
TO SLEEP
No, we’re not suggesting that you
euthanize your computer. We will show
you how your PC’s S3 Standby mode
can cut your energy costs without
hampering performance.VISTA GRIPES
FIXED
By now, everyone can agree that
Vista has some issues. We’ll look
at some of the common complaints
about the OS and tell you how you
can fix your problems with Vista.MAXIMUM
PC
’sDOUBLE-
STUFFED
CRUST
AUGUST
ISSUE