Randy Tomlinson

Texas Instruments is promoting their DLP technology with a prototype rear-projection set having a claimed 100,000:1 contrast ratio. While no such product is yet available from any of their licensed manufacturers, just proof that it can be done with DLP should be enough to make Sony and JVC very nervous. The RPTV shown was only 12 inches deep and was clearly able to go right on down to coal black. Imagine a state-of-the-art 3-chip front projector with that capability. It’s coming.

And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. How about an electric fan subwoofer? Sound far-fetched? Well, here it is from Eminent Technology’s Bruce Thigpen. How does it work? The motor spins the fan at 1000 rpm. The blades are flat with no signal and do nothing. Fast rotation causes them to couple to the air far more efficiently than a cone. The angle of the blades themselves is changed according to the signal by a 15” woofer magnet and voice coil causing them to quickly blow one direction then the other as the voice coil, attached with a mechanical linkage, directs. With a DC input, it makes an excellent $12,900 fan. The result is a transducer capable of response flat from 25 Hz down to 1 Hz at earthquake levels (over 110 db) even with a 200-watt amplifier and with decreasing distortion as frequency drops. After hearing this invention with several film soundtracks I think I can safely say that it has truly gone where no speaker has ever gone before, and with plaster cracking force!

The Thiel room was a full home theater setup using their new CS 3.7 speakers with Sim2’s C3X DLP projector and a 110”-wide screen. The three chip C3X is quite a good 720p projector when it comes to filling large screens and the newest model, the HT3000, is a 1080p single chip DLP at about the same price. Though the picture was good, it was the sound that blew me away. Never have I heard Thiel speakers sound like this. Then came the shocker: They turned off the active shielding on the Synergistic Research Tesla Series cables (interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords) and much of the magic just disappeared. Either these cords sound real bad with the power off or real good with it on or maybe both, because the difference was far from subtle and was easily the most impressive cable demo I’ve ever heard. These newest cables, much smaller than before, are expensive but not out of reach and certainly deserve investigation for any high-end home theater sound system.