Tom Norton

CES 2013
T+A Goes ElectroAcoustik
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2013
Amid enough high-end audio components at the Venetian Hotel (the CES venue for specialty audio) to wear down the sternest poker face when confronted with the price tag, the CWT 1000 from T+A Electroakustik (based in Germany, doncha know) produced a sound that almost might justify a per pair price sufficient to buy a nicely equipped Mercedes or BMW. It has six 120mm midranges and a 920mm long electrostatic tweeter, both in side-by-side line arrays, and four 8-inch woofers. There's also a larger CWT 2000 weighing 263 lbs.
CES 2013
Polk Woodbourne Redux
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2013
When I asked if the Polk Woodbourne one-piece audio system, discussed earlier here, can be used as a soundbar, the answer was yes,since it includes at least one digital input and can decode Dolby Digital. At it's $599 price, that's a bonus likely to be useful to the right customers. The white grille cloth, however, might be better in black in that application.
CES 2013
More on Theta Supernova
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2013
Here's a front shot of the Theta Supernova preamp-processor covered in an earlier blog. It should sell for around $10K, just a bit more than half the cost of a fully configured Theta Casablanca. The only open question appears to be if the Supernova will offer the same advanced room correction that will grace the Casablanca. My vote is yes, it should.
CES 2013
REL's Wireless Sub
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2013
The Habitat1 powered subwoofer from REL is not only wireless (meaning that no wired connection is needed to your AVR, though of course you must plug it into the wall!) but is designed to fit inconspicuously against the wall. There are two active 6.5-inch drivers, a 10-inch passive radiator, and 200W of amplification. More than one may be daisy chained together if desired. The passive radiator sits in the back and given space to breathe by spacers that separate the enclosure from the wall by an inch or so. A stand will also be available to those who don't wish to drill holes in their walls. $2000, available in April.
CES 2013
Samsung OLED Does Two 3D PIX in One
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2013
The upcoming Samsung OLED was discussed earlier in this report (scroll further down) but the flat version, at least (a Samsung curved OLED is shown here) may sport a unique feature. It can display two totally different 3D programs on the screen simultaneously. These images are then separated out by using 3D-like active glasses that pass only the program the individual wants to watch. But how can it do this and still maintain full 1920 x 1080 resolution? Because the glasses alternate twice as fast as they normally would. That means that the images must flash on the screen twice as fast as on an ordinary 3D set. They can only do this because OLEDs can switch blindingly fast. The demo we saw worked flawlessly,though the issue of isolating the sound effectively is still open. This means that in addition to brilliant color, inky blacks (the light from the OLEDs can switch off instantaneously at the pixel level when required), and off-axis performance equal to plasma, there should be no more motion blur on an OLED HDTV than is present in the source.
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CES 2013
Samsung's Improved Plasmas
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2013
Samsung's new F8500 plasma sets have been redesigned to provide not only darker blacks but brighter whites as well. In a darkened room demo (not the room in the photo!), a comparison with last year's Samsung plasma was convincing, and we hope to get our hands on one to confirm it when the sets become available about mid year.
CES 2013
Samsung's Plain Old HD-2
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2013
Also on display was the full range of Samsung's new LED-LCD sets. Shown is the F8000, available in a range of sizes up to 75-inches, it's said to offer much improved black levels with Samsung's Precision Black and Micro Dimming Ultimate (zone edge dimming). In a press demo in the same private, darkened room in which we saw the F8500 plasma, it did seem to have admirably rich blacks.
CES 2013
Sony's 4K in Print
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2013
Sony was the only Ultra HD 4K exhibitor that showed a still of a newspaper page in both standard HD and 4K Ultra HD. The photo shown here (standard HD) and below (4K) only show a very small area of the screen.
CES 2013
Sony's 4K in Print - 2
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2013
The color shift you may see here and above, plus moire, are the likely result of my camera's pixels strobing with the pixels on your screen. But other than cropping and identical downscaling, no other processing was performed on the photos here and above. The improved clarity of 4K version here is impossible to miss even after the photos were reduced so they could be used in our blog format. The differences were even more obvious in person.
CES 2013
Klipsch, Jamo, Energy
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2013
Times change. The once illustrious speaker brands Klipsch, Jamo, and Energy now belong to conglomerate VOXX (along with RCA, AR, and others). This lonely kiosk on the main convention center floor didn't look too encouraging, given the vitality of those brands at past shows. At the Venetian, where most of the audio exhibits are held, things looked slightly better. I'd expect the Klipsch name to be kept relatively sacrosanct, and there were some nice looking Jamo floor-standers on static display. But the Energy Demo was relegated to a modest-looking sound bar.

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