Panasonic's heart may be in plasma displays, but the company also launched a new line of LCD rear projection TVs at CES. There will be six models, three of them 1080p and three 720p. Each series will be available in 61-56-and 50-inch sizes. But the big news is that they all will use a new form of projection lamp, called LiFi, from LUXIM. This lamp is said to provide a much longer life than current UHP lamps, with a faster startup time and a wider color gamut that challenges the color available from the LED lamp-replacement that is just starting to show up in other RPTVs.
[Editor's note: The technical quality of this video, captured with a keyring camcorder, is not up to our usual standard, but we thought it was kind of amusing, and short. Enjoy.] The guy working the Vutec booth may have the most monotonous job at CES.
January 11, 2007 - Imagine that you've wandered into a Best Buy or Circuit City - one that covers 35 football fields, with 65 miles of carpeted aisles, jammed with 140,000 customers and 4,500 news reporters. Every conceivable, and often inconceivable, new product is there, ranging from 108-inch LCD TVs to tiny microchips to implant in your dog.
Magnepan also introduced a new freestanding woofer for their smallest home theater/ plasma wall mounted speakers (the MGMC1). Left and right MGMC1s cost only $750/pr and the woofer adds only $800 unless you want a special finish. The MGMC1s can also be mounted flush with the wall and made to swing out automatically into playing position with the touch of a button. Note the nice table in the picture under the wall mounted MGMC1. That’s the new woofer. The MGMC1s have been criticized for an overly thin sound, but not anymore.
Magnepan introduced a new center channel speaker with ribbon tweeter, quasi-ribbon mid-range, and planar magnetic woofer. The CCR costs $2700 and blends perfectly with existing left and right Maggies. The demo I heard was a 5 channel choral SACD using 3.6s for left and right front and rear and was probably the most transparent and inspiring sound I heard at the show. Of course, that’s only one kind of music, but it did show the perfect blending of the new center channel and the incredible sound and value of a full Magnepan 5 channel setup.
JBL is showing their new cost-no-object Everest speaker system. This system has a virtually unmatched combination of high-end transparency and extreme dynamic range. The horn midrange covers from 700 Hz to 40KHz with less coloration and better transparency than I’ve ever heard from a horn transducer, thanks to newly developed Beryllium diaphragms. A horn super-tweeter increases dispersion in the extreme highs. With an efficiency of 118 db/1w/1m, the main horn operates at such a low power that distortion and dynamic compression never increase, even in high level listening. Touted as the finest speaker JBL has ever built, these $60,000 beauties, with their slightly retro look, are a fitting tribute to JBL’s 60th anniversary. Hopefully the technology will trickle down to more affordable home theater models.
The newer and smaller of Bang & Olufsen's two powered floorstanding speakers powers its woofer with 500 watts of Class D ICE power (the smart green kind) and saves sweeter-sounding Class AB for the midrange and tweeter. At $9900/pair, you might find it sinfully expensive, but when you see some of B&O's slick moves for integration with swiveling video displays and its brand-new multimedia interface, you just might change your mind.
