LATEST ADDITIONS

CEDIA 2011
PSB Shows First Headphones
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 09, 2011
Paul Barton, the speaker-designing eminence of PSB, has tried his hand at headphones. The M4U 2 ($400) can function in active or passive modes. Active gets you more gain but passive is handy when the battery runs out. Cushions are asymmetrical to follow the form of the human ear. Cord can be plugged in either side. A control cord will add numerous features including the ability to skip songs. The product may surface in time for the holiday season.
CEDIA 2011
Pioneer Quantifies Class D Power Savings
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 09, 2011
To dramatize the efficiency of its two Class D receiver models, Pioneer hooked up one of them to a meter that monitored power consumption in real time as compared to a Class AB model. At left is the Class D SC-57. At right is the Class AB VSX-1021-K. Though rated for more watts, the SC-57 sucks up less power. Pioneer also showed three new Blu-ray players ranging from $199-399 and made a point of saying they are built to last, unlike all too frequently disposable competitors.
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CEDIA 2011
Yamaha Does Android
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 09, 2011
The Android app for Yamaha Aventage receivers has just become available as of last week.
CEDIA 2011
Epson Gets Reflective
Tom Norton  |  Sep 08, 2011
Epson made quite a splash at last year's CEDIA with a demo of its first LCOS projectors. The company actually refers to their version of this technology as 3LCD Reflective—essentially the same thing as LCOS, though I recall that they noted in 2010 that they were liquid crystal on quartz rather than on silicon.

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CEDIA 2011
One More of the Many Ways to Control Control4
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 08, 2011
Control4 added a new 7-inch portable touch screen controller with a capacitive full-color LCD panel that you can carry with you tablet-style through your home or use as a tabletop touch screen with it resting in its docking station. While portable and tabletop touch screens are quite cool just because they’re touch screens, the new 7-inchers from Control4 ooze even more coolness because they can be used as intercom devices that will allow you to have a conversation with another person in your home via another Control4 intercom device without requiring either person to hold down a button. Since they’re wireless and portable, you can use these touch screens to bring temporary system control or intercom access to rooms or areas of your home that don’t need a dedicated touch screen. MSRP $999.
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CEDIA 2011
Sherbourn Again
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 08, 2011
It’s been a long year since CEDIA 2010 when Emotiva Pro first showed a high-performance pre/pro with a fully integrated Control4 controller built in. In the meantime, Emotiva Pro morphed/merged/acquired/became Sherbourn; and the new/old company says the PT-7020C4 media processor/controller should be ready to roll in just a few weeks. The PT-7020C4 is a full-blown pre/pro with 5 HDMI 1.4 ports that’s “fully 3D compatible” and “offers a true hardware bypass for direct, unprocessed 3D streams to the video monitor” in addition to having a Genesis/Torino scaling engine. The PT-7020C4 also features dual 32-bit DSPs, balanced XLR connections, and full Ethernet control.
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CEDIA 2011
Mitsubishi Booth
Tom Norton  |  Sep 08, 2011
Mitsubishi has been busy this year. First was its 92", DLP rear projection set shown at last January's CES. Now they've also re-launched their Laserview RPTV—the $6000, 75", 16" deep, L75A94. I don't think the latter was being shown to best advantage, located as seen in the photo (the set against the wall on the left is the 92" DLP, the Laserview is further to the right, in the upper center of the shot), but it will be interesting to see if MItsubish can make more of a go of it than the first time it was launched several years ago.
CEDIA 2011
Mitsubishi
Tom Norton  |  Sep 08, 2011
But for me, projectors were the main attractions in the Mitsubishi booth. The currently available HC9000D LCOS design (2D and 3D, $6000) looked fabulous in 2D (it was not being demonstrated in 3D when I was there). I was surprised, in fact, at how bright it looked on its 143-inch diagonal, 16:9, Stewart Studiotek 130 screen (gain 1.3).

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CEDIA 2011
DNP Denmark
Tom Norton  |  Sep 08, 2011
DNP Denmark may not be the most well known name in screens, but it makes some unique products. Hidden behind the bobble heads in the darkened area to the right of center here is the DNP Supernova Epic, a 132" diagonal, 2.35:1, 0.8 gain model with side masking. Made in Scandinavia, so you know it's expensive. All yours for $20,000.

DNP was using projectors from projectiondesign, and while that company has no booth at CEDIA this year, I was told to watch out for press releases. We will.

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CEDIA 2011
GoldenEar's Been Around for Aons
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 08, 2011
OK, maybe the company is new, but the GoldenEar team have loads of experience. The latest beneficiaries are a couple of monitor models. The Aon 3 ($499/each) has a seven-inch woofer and, on either side, two eight-inch passive radiators. The smaller Aon 3 ($399/each) is smaller, with six-inch woofer and 6.5-inch passive radiators. Both have the famous GoldenEar pleated diaphragm tweeter. In the demo, a male vocal had warmth and in-the-flesh realism. An orchestra was big-sounding but not rolled off at the top. In choral music, it felt as if surrounds were operating, even though we were hearing just two speakers. Five of these and a sub would make a killer home theater system.

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