LATEST ADDITIONS

Texas Instruments answers the challenge of new LDC and LCoS projectors with the new Dark Chip 4 1080p DLP digital micromirrror device. Claimed to produce a native contrast ratio of up to 15,000:1, it will soon appear in DLP projectors from Marantz, SIM2, BenQ, and, in 2008, likely others as well. An impressive TI demo utilized a new SIM2 DC4 1080p projector. The modified Samsung in the photo also sported a DV4 chip. I'm not sure where the 100,000:1 claim came from, though. A tad optimistic, perhaps?

If the price doesn't faze you, here are the details on Snell's new Flagship speaker.

At $3000, the new T785 is a new high in price for an NAD AV receiver. But it's loaded with features, including 7x120 conservatively rated watts, 4 HDMI 1.3 inputs, the Audyssey MultiEQ XT room correction system, and multichannel audio (PCM) over HDMI (but no on-board decoding for Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio.

I think Aviamo in Italian must mean "expensive," if it means anything at all. At $18,000 this 65" 1080p Fujitsu plasma looked great, but it faces stiff competition for a lot less money. And we thought that the new 60" Pioneer Elite was steep at $7500.