The Meridian P200z in-wall subwoofer fits an eight-inch active driver and eight-inch passive radiator into a three-quarter-inch depth. In a conventional subwoofer, that's not nearly enough space, but the dedicated amp (bottom) uses DSP magic to compensate. The enclosure is a nonresonant wood-metal laminate. Price tentatively pegged between $4000-5000.
Frank Göbl of Canton and Steven Stone of our sister publication UltimateAV were the best-shod men on the floor. I think Steven (left) has the advantage here.
Next-generation audiophiles-in-the-making are plugging their iPods into tube amps. So building an iPod dock into a tube amp is a logical progression. Sonic Integrity's Tube Pod (shown by System Audio, $1000) includes 13-wpc amp, dock, and speakers. Long live the revolution. For more details: tube-pod.com.
"I love driving a cab. But you've got to be careful. Few nights ago I had a gun in my cab. Guy got in, and I said, either you give me that gun or you're gettin' out. He gave me the gun. When we got back from the crack house, he was so happy to have his drugs, he got out of the cab and forgot about the gun. I sold that gun to a cop."
Vogel's has an alternative to standard projection screens. It comes in a can, and it's called Mighty Brighty. Vogel's says the process is as easy as picking a wall and picking up a paintbrush. The screen paint comes in three different packages: the MPW 10 with enough pre-mixed paint and base coat to cover five square meters; the MPW 20 with enough material to cover up to six square meters plus ContrastBooster and BrightnessBooster paint components that can be used to customize the performance of the screen to match your projector; and the MPW 30 that contains enough paint to cover an entire wall so the screen is invisible when you're not watching TV.
CoolIT Systems is now offering a liquid cooling system for Home Theater PCs that will keep the CPU cool, improve performance and reliability, and significantly reduce fan noise. The Home Theater PC (HTPC) Cooler system will fit any media center PC case that has dual 8cm fans. It comes with all the necessary installation hardware and is pre-plumbed, factory-sealed, and maintenance free.
Perhaps even cooler than the $999 720p Optoma (see below), Mitsubishi revealed a $4,495 1080p projector, called the HC5000BL. It’s going to use the Reon VX chip from Silicon Optix and have a claimed 10,000:1 contrast ratio with a dynamic iris. No DLP here, it has 3 LCDs inside. They’re hoping to ship later this month.
Not that McIntosh ever really went anywhere, but it was still pretty cool to see the retro glass front panels and cool blue and green fluorescents lighting up an entire 7.1-channel home theater system.
SIM2 announced late Friday that it is previewing the Grand Cinema HT5000 three-chip 1080p DLP projector, and will soon have a broad line of 1080p DLPs starting at just $10K.
Anyone familiar with whole house music servers knows that they're not inexpensive. But Escient's FireBall FP-1 Music Manager can give you a taste of the good life for a pittance (well, at least compared to their full blown servers.) The FP-1 does this by using your iPod as the storage device, instead of a rack of servers. Best of all, all your favorite music is already on it. I think they're tapping a huge, uh, untapped market for their products.