Now that Blu-ray Disc has vanquished HD DVD after a nearly 2-year battle in the marketplace, the dust has finally settled - right into the eyes of everyone who put off buying a high-def disc player. Understandably, many of these dawdlers will be squinting first at the more affordable Blu-ray prospects in the entry-level $400-to-$500 range.
There is a quiet epidemic lurking among us - a disease so awful and destructive that it can kill the thrill and excitement that define home theater. It's the consumer electronics industry's dirty little secret: an ugly mold that festers behind closed media-room doors, eating away at the power and majesty of the best movie soundtracks.
Mention the word "headphones" to the average audiophile geek, and the name Ultimate Ears is hardly the first to come to mind. In fact, it probably won't come to mind at all.
Three years ago, Sound & Vision staged the first of its HDTV technology face-offs when we put a 37-inch Samsung plasma alongside a like-sized Sharp LCD, tuned them to the hilt, then fed them the same programs to see which was king of the HDTV hill ("Plasma vs. LCD," February/March 2005).
It's no secret to regular readers that watching an HDTV on its default factory settings is like buying a high-performance car and never taking it out on the highway to let 'er rip.
Although I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, I was a high-school A/V geek. Some kids go out for track or baseball, others for student theater. But I, along with my (still) best friend Burt, found my haven in a small interior office full of rolling TV carts and overhead projectors.
As the prices of flat-panels keep dropping, the key to survival for rear-projection HDTVs has been their value at screen sizes bigger than 50 inches. So I found it a little strange, not long ago, to be reviewing this 52-inch DLP set at $4,399 - easily $2,000 more than other like-sized 1080p models. Could the NuVision 52LEDLP 52-inch 1080p DLP HDTV possibly be worth it?
