Thomas J. Norton

If you haven't already taken a peek at the "Specifications" sidebar, you might want to read this review before checking out the price of the Mark Levinson No.40 surround preamplifier-processor. Drat—you looked. Now I have to find a way to hold your attention for this, the first US review of the production version of what may well be the most ambitious piece of home-theater electronics ever assembled.

I had a dream last night. I was wandering around lower Manhattan (New York). I think I was trying to find my way, but as dreams go I’m not exactly sure where to. I was apparently using a map on my tablet, but the tablet was an old CRT the size of the integrated CRT monitor/computer on the first iMac. I wandered into a bookstore, apparently in search of a more usable map, but all I recall seeing was a copy of Widescreen Review and a children’s version of the New York Times, the latter’s cover filled with full color comics (definitively proving, I suppose, that we do dream in color, though the hues were so odd that they must have been captured in two-strip Technicolor). I had left my “tablet” outside (perhaps the bookstore was a tablet-free zone) and when I went back outside it was still there but the screen had been smashed. In a New York minute. Then I woke up.

This was all likely inspired by my recent trip to New York to attend the Vizio launch of its new Reference series Ultra HDTVs...

W<I>e inadvertently left out the sidebar of the measurements TJN did of the Proceed BP3 amplifier, which was intended to accompany FM's review of the BP3 and BP2 amps in our May issue.</I>

The Samsung UBD-K8500 should be the first Ultra HD Blu-ray player when it hits the market sometime between now and March 30 at a projected price of $399.