Audio Video News

The day began after four hours of blissful sleep, as I rolled out of bed and stumbled over to the early-morning Denon-Marantz-Escient-McIntosh-Mordaunt-Short reception. (All of these companies now march under the corporate banner D&M Holdings Inc.

Apart from products we've reported on in previous stories, the most interesting new introduction out of that group was a prototype of a new Marantz single-chip DLP projector. The VP8600 widens the current Marantz projector line to a new, low price point. At $5995, it offers 1280x720 resolution, an HD2+ DC2 DMD Chip, a claimed brightness of 650 ANSI lumens, a DVI, HDCP-compatible input, and a 4000-hour lamp life. It's expected to ship later this fall. It wasn't set up for demonstration, but the current VP-12S4 was, and looked superb on an 87-inch wide, Stewart Studiotek 130 screen.

Focal featured their new Profile speaker line, with five different, strikingly styled models ranging from $5500/pair for the Profile 928 floor-standers to the $1695 CC908 center channel ($1695). The latter offers a "proper" 3-way design, with a vertically oriented 3-inch midrange and 1-inch dome tweeter.

Even more interesting is the new Focal Electra Be line, which makes Focal's superb beryllium tweeter available at slightly lower price points than the Grande Utopia series. Those price points have not, however, been determined. The full Electra range, including a (3-way) center, will be available by the end of the year. The Profiles are available now.

When I walked into the Dreamvision demo room I assumed I was watching their 3-chip DLP projector on a 120-inch Elite Perfectview screen. But I wasn't; it was the Dream Weaver 3, a $10,000, 1-chip 1280x720 DarkChip3 design. The picture was certainly impressive.

When I ran into Mark Knox, Toshiba's go-to person for up-to-date information on the HD-DVD format, he told me that the reports of the format's delay are greatly exaggerated. While he offered no dates, he did suggest that a 2005 launch is still very much a possibility. So don't put that checkbook away just yet.

Toshiba did have a very low-key demo of their prototype HD XA1 HD-DVD player in a corner of their booth. Mixed in among the demo material was an extended trailer for the upcoming King Kong remake. Awesome.

I did finally get to see the new Sony VPL-VW100 SXRD front projector I reported on in my Day 1 report. The image, projected on a 120-inch, diagonal screen, was smooth and bright. But the setup appeared to be off. The whites were crushed, and the maximum available seating distance in the small booth was too close for such a large image. But this was most certainly a pre-production prototype, and I hope to avoid such show-setup issues when I get my hands on a review sample.

Theta had a first showing of its new Valis Music and Cinema Controller, the replacement for the CasaNova and one step down in the Theta lineup from the flagship Casablanca. It features a full range of control, but uses a fixed architecture rather than the card-based, easily upgradeable Casablanca. Its most unique feature is its available digital outputs. The Valis may be used on its own with conventional analog amplifiers, but it also has digital outputs designed to feed directly into Theta's new Virtu PowerDAC. The latter is a 7-channel, Digital Pulse Width Modulation amplifier rated at 150Wpc into 8 ohms. Both products are expected to be available by the end of the year, at a price yet to be announced.

BenQ's 8720 single-chip DLP ($10,000) is now shipping. Its signature feature, still rare in DLP front projection designs, is an automatic iris that produces a claimed contrast ratio of 6000:1. It was on demo at an off-site hotel, and I could not get over to see it during the show. But no matter: We've been promised a sample for review.

I also got a good look at the Projection Design Model 3 first mentioned in my Day 2 report. This single-chip, 1080p design looked very good, though clearly was still under development. There were also some artifacts which PJ said came from the HD server that was providing the source material.

Wilson Audio has a new, small speaker. The Duette ($10,000/pair) is designed to be used either on a bookshelf, cabinet, or mounted in free-space on a stand. The adjustments are made via the crossover, which is, unconventionally, mounted in an external box rather than built into the cabinet.

The new NAD Master Series is expected to ship in December. It consists of The M15 preamp-processor ($2999), the M25 7-channel amp ($2999) and the M55 Universal player ($1799). The pre-pro and amp are THX-certified. There are also additional, 2-channel components in the Master Series.

Mirage has a new flagship speaker package. The OMD-28 ($3750/each) is a floor-standing design using the hemispheric omni-directional reflector designed for the compact Omni-STAT speakers. There is also a center channel (the OMD-CC, $2000) and an OM surround ($1000/each). It should be available in limited quantities starting in November, but will not be widely available until January.