Mark Levinson products sit at the top of the Harman Kardon Luxury Group’s totem pole. The new No.585 integrated amp $12,000, available summer 2014) offers 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 350 into 4, D/A conversion up 32 bits/192kHz, and a full complement of analog and digital inputs (including USBbut no HDMI, an unfortunate but almost universal omission in 2-channel integrated amps).
There is also a built-in subwoofer crossover and output for those wanting to set up a 2.1-channel system to accommodate both music and movies.
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.
Another potential best-of-show system has to include the Heritage Series Getz, a new model from Sweden's Marten loudspeakers. With their all ceramic drivers from Acuton (apart from a passive radiator, one of the large cones visible in the photo) they were very different in balance from the Sony speakers, above. Faster on their feet and even more sparklingly detailed, but less weighty and majestic sounding. And at $20,000, cheaper, though not exactly a blue-light special.
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...
Comedian Robert Klein once did a routine about those ubiquitous old K-Tel TV ads for huge collections of music on a cassette or CD box set. "Every Elvis Presley song for just $9.99 plus shipping and handling," he began. Riffing on the increasing grandiosity of those ads, he ended with a flourish, "A trailer truck will pull up to your house loaded with CDs filled with every piece of music ever recorded!"
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.
If Ethernet conversion isn’t your thing, nor are fiber optics (another work-around on the traditional weaknesses of HDMI over long lengths), a few companies are now offering either passive or a combination of passive/active HDMI cables that can extend far enough for the needs of most consumers.
The MicroliteScreen is unlike most other examples breed. It’s composed of several layers that together are said to offer high light rejection when used in ambient lighting. Four versions are available, up to a gain of 3.3, with a half gain viewing angle said too be up to +/- 80 degreespreviously unheard of in a screen with a gain that high.