CES 2012

Barb Gonzalez | Jan 16, 2012 |

To offer an alternative to cable, Boxee offers hundreds of channels of online content, a web browser and now live TV. Better than connecting an antenna directly to your TV where you simply surf through channels, connect an HD antenna to the Boxee Live TV USB dongle and browse cover art for TV shows on broadcast TV channels you receive.

Boxee believes that by adding live TV, more people will be able to “cut the cord,” that is quit their cable service. Premium content from Netflix and a variety of other online streaming sources along with your local ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox channels are combined in the Boxee experience.

CES 2012

Locking HDMI Cables

Barb Gonzalez | Jan 13, 2012 |

If you have any TVs or monitors with a vertical HDMI connection where the HDMI cable comes loose and wriggles itself out, you’ll appreciate the locking HDMI cables being shown by Perfect Path. The cable locks into place because its end cover slides back and forth to lock or release the cable.

CES 2012

Make Mine a Double

Darryl Wilkinson | Jan 13, 2012 |

How do you know when you've had too much?

CES 2012

Mark Levinson Turns 40

Tom Norton | Jan 12, 2012 |

Funny, it looks a lot younger with the introduction of a new integrated amp, a CD/SACD player, DAC, and preamp. All of them are 2-channel only, of course. The first three are expected to come in at $10,000 or under when they appear in mid-2012. The preamp, however, will set you back $25,000. All four offer a full complement of digital inputs (including asynchronous USB). The preamp and integrated amp also have analog inputs. The player has external digital inputs, and both it and the DAC have volume controls and may be used as digital preamps for direct connection to your power amps.

CES 2012

McIntosh Pre-Pro Does AirPlay at Half the Price

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 11, 2012 |

The new McIntosh MX121 pre-pro is, at $6000, half the price of its predecessor. And it's got AirPlay!—along with the updated HDMI connectivity and video versatility you'd expect. McIntosh also did a very impressive two-channel demo featuring its XR100 floorstanding speaker, a four-way design featuring a super-tweeter, two mid-tweeters, eight midranges, and four woofers for a mere $10,000/pair. Build quality is over the top: the tweeters have the kind of voice coils you'd expect to see mated with a 10-inch woofer. Surging strings were detailed in an almost three-dimensional sense. If you think McIntosh is just another pretty fascia, you should hear these speakers. Also shown was the Anniversary 275 stereo tube amp, so called because only 275 will be made.

CES 2012

Meridian HD621 3D Upgrade

Scott Wilkinson | Jan 13, 2012 |

Among various high-end audio products, Meridian also announced an upgrade to its HD621 HDMI switch/audio upsampler (sitting atop a G68 pre/pro in this photo) that adds 3D passthrough. This upgrade is free to existing owners from Meridian dealers.

CES 2012

Meridian M6 Travels Undercover

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 11, 2012 |

One definition of high end is a product that caters to a high end clientele. That sent Meridian in search of "a speaker that doesn't look like a speaker." The result is the charmingly cone-shaped M6. In the tradition of a company that pioneered powered speakers before they became fashionable, it juices each woofer with 350 watts and each full-range driver (not tweeter) with another 125. Yet its wide off-axis response demonstrates good social skills. Shipping in late February for $9000/pair. Also at the Meridian booth was the second Sooloos iPad app, which takes a slicker and more graphic (that is, less text-based) approach than the original.

CES 2012

Merrill-Williams Disc Spinner

Tom Norton | Jan 13, 2012 |

Vinyl is big lately in high-end audio so I had to include at least one turntable or risk appearing hopelessly out of date. It's the Merrill-Williams Audio table that worked so well in the Wharfedale system above. If $7200 sounds steep, you don't get out much; you can spend a lot more for a turntable. And oh, by the way, that price does not include either the Dynavector tonearm ($5000) or the Ortofon Anna cartridge that was used with it here ($8500). That's right, the cartridge costs more than the turntable—and more than a good high end surround preamp processor (I had to throw that in!). But if you want to get into vinyl and this is your first exposure to its potential prices, you can do so for a lot less than this.

CES 2012

Mitsubishi HC-7800D 3D DLP Projector

Scott Wilkinson | Jan 12, 2012 |

Although it was first introduced at CEDIA last September, I missed seeing the Mitsubishi HC-7800D DLP projector at that show. This 3D-capable single-chip model uses IR-sync'd active glasses that boast a much shorter inter-eye blackout time (when both lenses are closed) than most active glasses—0.2 milliseconds compared with about 3ms—which means they let more light through for a brighter 3D image. The HC-7800D provides 2D-to-3D conversion and vertical lens shift with manual zoom and focus. It is available now for $3000, including the IR emitter but no glasses (except now through the end of February, when you get one pair in a special promotion—which is a good deal, since the glasses cost $200 each!).

I saw a demo on a 110-inch (diagonal) Vutec Silver Star screen using a clip from Yogi Bear, an awful movie that nonetheless has great 3D, and it looked quite good with no discernable crosstalk. But even with the reduced inter-eye blackout time, the image was still pretty dim.

CES 2012

MK Celebrates a THX First

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 11, 2012 |

MK's M7 speaker is the first—anyone's, not just MK's—to receive THX Compact Speaker certification. That means it produces sound pressure levels of up to 105dB in rooms up to 1000 feet and at distances of up to eight feet. Price $1000/pair. MK also showed a few prototypes including the MP9 three-channel soundbar, available in white or black gloss for $1000, and an in-wall sub with dual eight-inch drivers in an aluminum-steel enclosure with 400-watt hybrid amp. Look for both in June or July.

CES 2012

Monitor Sees Shadow on Your Wall

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 12, 2012 |

Monitor Audio's Shadow on-walls come in four sizes, all with four-inch flat mid-woofers and the famous C-CAM tweeter used in company's other speakers, built into tough extruded aluminum enclosures. Prices range from $849 to $1649 per pair. They sounded mellower than is typical for Monitor and were home theater worthily dynamic.

CES 2012

Monster Wants to be "More than Just a Headphone Company"

Lauren Dragan | Jan 05, 2015 |

2015 is the year of Monster collaborations. Pushing slogans of "the Internet of everything" and "more than just a headphone company", Monster focused on its desire to expand into projects that extend beyond their ubiquitous cans.

CES 2012

More Revel

Tom Norton | Jan 13, 2012 |

Shown here is the current top-of-the-range Revel F308 floorstander ($4500/pair). A bigger, somewhat higher-priced model that's otherwise similar but has three 8-inch woofers rather than the F308's two) is expected in the fall. All of the Performa models use similar aluminum-coned woofers and identical, aluminum dome, waveguide-loaded tweeters. While the listening environment in the Revel rooms was not ideal, brief auditions of both the largest bookshelf and the F308 sounded very promising.

CES 2012

Morel Sports Lotus-Patterned Grille

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 12, 2012 |

This metal grille has a lotus pattern that is said to be acoustically transparent. You'll find it in Morel's new Sopran tower ($12,000/pair) and Octave 6 ($6500/pair for the tower, $3500/pair for the monitor).

CES 2012

Music Panel at DTS Party

Scott Wilkinson | Jan 09, 2012 |

Photo by Barb Gonzalez
I was honored and privileged that DTS asked me to moderate a panel discussion during its Sunday evening party at Lavo at the Palazzo. The luminaries included (left to right after me on the far left) sound designer Diego Stocco, producer/engineer/musician Alan Parsons, producers Iz and Bobby Avila, engineer/producer Elliot Scheiner, and producers Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam. A lively discussion focused on the importance of audio quality and included fascinating comments on data and dynamic-range compression, digital versus analog recording, the use—and misuse—of autotune processing, multichannel music, and the importance of experiencing high-quality audio, especially for youngsters who might not know anything other than highly compressed sound through crappy earbuds.

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CES 2012

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