Denon has introduced a new series of DVD players that ought to be taken seriously by all home theater fans. The model 9000, due in March at $3500 retail, is certain to cause a stir.
Ontario's Totem Acoustic is a company known throughout the audiophile world for its excellent, musical two-channel designs. Less well known is the fact that the company also makes multichannel home theater products that sound very good.
One of the most respected names in video is pushing the performance envelope again. Faroudja, a division of Sage, Inc., has introduced the Digital Cinema Source (DCS), an innovative new Native Rate Series video processor.
British audio technology company Meridian Audio, Ltd. has announced important upgrades to Version 3 of its 800 optical disc player and 861 reference surround controller, including proprietary encryption and signaling technology.
Last year, Plus Corporation of America rocked the home theater world with the introduction of the Plus "Piano" HE-3100, a compact DLP video projector with great specifications. Home Theater's Mike Wood gave the little projector two thumbs up, saying all the right compromises were made to get it to market at a ground-breaking price of $3000 retail.
One of the biggest names in video projection technology has a hot new DLP projector on the market. (DLP, or "Digital Light Processing," originated at Texas Instruments and has been licensed to projector makers worldwide.) Runco's VX-1000c uses a new TI digital micromirror device (DMD) with a 1280 x 720 pixel array, ideal for 16:9 screens.
In typical British understatement, product literature for B&W's new subwoofers mentions that "movies in particular can be very demanding of subwoofers and some special effects can test them to the limit."
Looking for a elegant way to mount your plasma display? Draper Inc. has announced a new series of stands and mounts for flat screen monitors that offer a solution for almost every conceivable installation.
The recent Consumer Electronics Show was a good one for Zenith Electronics Corporation. The company appears to have strong faith in the future of the flatscreen market, having debuted four new plasma display panels (PDPs) in Las Vegas, ranging from 40" to 60" diagonally. The flat, thin monitors can be hung on the wall for an elegant installation solution.