Founded in 1998 and quickly making a name for themselves in the subwoofer market, SVS is now a global maker and distributor of complete speaker systems. They are a unique organization, with a design ...
Italian speaker maker Opera has been making headlines recently with their great-sounding demos at various audio shows, earning them positive print and online reviews. I reviewed their floor-standing Seconda model, which I found ...
Active speakers have had a tough road in the audiophile world. They are fairly commonplace in recording studios and other pro sound environments. I have heard several theories for this, including the fact ...
Rein Audio impressed me when I had the opportunity to review their very fine sounding X-DAC last year. The German based company, just a few years old, has since developed a few more ...
The very aptly named HiFiMan has been around since 2007, and I first became aware of the company from the ads for their high performance portable file players. They have developed into a one-stop ...
With the move to computer and hard drive based digital sources, one would think a format tied to a physical medium would be odd in 2013. But SACD has proved to be remarkably resilient ...
I’ve enjoyed reviewing several Rogue products over the last few years. The Brodheadsville, PA based company makes beautifully built, excellent sounding tube preamps, power amps, and integrated amps. They have products ...
Audience, out of San Marcos, CA, is one of the most respected companies in the power conditioning arena, with their line of adeptReponse series consistently getting rave reviews from the audio press and ...
PS Audio, out of Boulder, CO, has been a major player in high end audio for decades. Their power distribution/conditioning units and digital source components have been go to products for droves ...
MartinLogan enjoys a place at the mantle occupied by a relatively small group of state of the art speaker companies enduring the test of time. Nearing its third decade, the Lawrence, Kansas company ...
Boston Acoustics was founded in 1979 and quickly made a name among budget audiophiles, and later home theater enthusiasts. They became a big player in car audio as well. In 2005, D&M Holdings ...
Sometimes good things appear in big packages. So it was when Federal Express arrived at my door with two huge boxes that happen to house one Opera Seconda loudspeaker each. Opera manufactures its ...
Sherbourn has announced a pair of new home theater components, both designed to help drive audio through your system. The PA-7350 is an amplifier that Sherbourn describes as "reference quality." It's capable of driving seven channels at 350 watts per channel and offers, in addition to the usual ins and outs, balanced XLR outputs. It offers a Class H power supply with Sherbourn's Soft Switch tech. The release date and price are yet to be announced.
The latest amp from Marantz is an upgrade to their well received PM6003. Along with minor improvements and tweaks, the 6004 features one big change. Unlike former amps from the company, the PM6004 doesn't have a single amplifier integration circuit. Both the pre-amplification and power amplification sections use their own discrete components. Marantz says that this is not only a performance increase, but a way for the company to refine the sound even more on an individual basis.
JVC isn't messing around - they've announced five new 3D projectors that range from the easily affordable to the expensive. The two most high-end of this new set of projectors is capable of displaying resolutions up to 4K. The DLA-X30 is the most basic model in the bunch, offering support for 3D content, a 1080p resolution and a 50,000:1 contrast ratio for $3,499. Stepping up to $4,995 gets you the ISF certified DLA-RS4800 that adds, among other things, 2D to 3D conversion. JVC's DLA-F110E is designed for custom installations and high-end conference rooms alike. It offers 1,700 lumens brightness and a contrast ratio of 30,000:1. It gives you the option of IP control and the ability to be installed horizontally or vertically for setups where space is tight. You can pick it up this month for $7,495.
The folks at Vivitek like to go multi-purpose with their projectors and the new D963 is no exception. It's made to work nicely in home theaters and office settings alike and offers a 3000:1 contrast, 4500 lumens brightness and a 1080p resolution. The H1086-3D, on the other hand, is made for home theaters exclusively. It's a 3D projector that can take your DVD and Blu-ray content - anything that comes in through HDMI - and turn it from 2D to 3D. It's also compatible with 3D Blu-ray players and 3D television as you might imagine.
If you've been waiting for some new tech before you jump into a new projector, Sony has something that may interest you. It packs all the good stuff you've been waiting for and then some. The most interesting feature of the VPL-VW1000ES projector is, of course, the 4K capability. Don't have a 4K source? Sony's new projector will upscale anything you feed it, even SD sources. That company says that you'll even experience dramatic improvements in the look of HD content.
At CEDIA today, Epson announced a full line of new home theatre projectors, the 3LCD PowerLite Pro Cinema 6010, and Home Cinema 5010/5010e and 3010/3010e. Each of the new PowerLite projectors feature full 1080p HD resolution, active shutter 3D, and Epson's Bright 3D Drive technology, which drives the LCD panels at 480Hz and has been designed to counterattack the darkness associated with 3D imagery. Other nifty features found on every model are split screen capabilities (in 2D mode only) where users can watch two sources at once (such as TV and surfing the web), five 2D color modes, two 3D color modes, an exclusive 230W E-TORL (Epson Twin Optics Reflection Lamp) with 6,000 hours of lamp life, and a host of inputs (2 HDMI, component video, composite video, VGA, RCA audio, and USB).
When MartinLogan announces new products, they don't mess around. They've got two new speakers available this month and an in-wall set that's going to be coming in early 2012. The company's new floorstanding speakers are known as the Montis and they borrow heavily from the flagship ESL series. It uses a 24-bit DSP and a 200 watt Class D amplifier that helps to deliver audio down to 29Hz. You'll even get built-in low frequency EQ to adjust for your room. It's available this month at $9,995 for a pair.
