New Products

With Thanksgiving only two weeks away, the 2020 Holiday Season is well underway as pandemic-wary shoppers scramble to place online orders to ensure gifts are delivered before Christmas. Whether you plan to shop online, mask up and hit the stores, or opt for “contactless delivery” or curbside pickup, there are plenty of new A/V products to consider. From a newly ISF-certified projection screen to a hi-res music streamer that can be had for $129 to a unique speaker that finds a crazy new application for the tried-and-true acoustic diffuser, we take a look at some of the new gear A/V makers have introduced in recent weeks with high hopes of making your holiday list.

Canadian A/V electronics maker Anthem has announced a comprehensive refresh of its AVM processor, MRX receiver, and MCA amplifier lines. Estimated to ship in December, the new arrivals consist of a pair of preamp-processors, a trio of receivers, and power amps in 2-, 3-, and 5-channel configurations.

Do your existing HDMI cables support 8K? Maybe that’s not something you need to panic about right now, but if you are putting together a system and need cables, you may want to consider Ultra High Speed certified ones like those in AudioQuest’s new 48Gbps lineup.

Canada’s Bluesound, maker of multiroom wireless streamers, amps, speakers, and soundbars, has added a new subwoofer to its product lineup. With a larger 8-inch driver and 150-watt Smart DSP amplifier, The Pulse Sub+ ($749) appears to be a significant improvement over the company’s previous offering, the Pulse Sub. The new model can also be set up and adjusted via the company’s BluOS Controller app—a feature the earlier Pulse Sub lacked.

Britain’s Arcam has announced the ST60, the company’s first network audio player.

Back in 2019 at in-person (not virtual) CEDIA, we reported on Epson’s new LS500 Laser Projection TV. It’s taken a while, but that model is officially available as of today.

Rotel has announced the arrival of two new additions to its home theater product lineup: the RSP-1576MKII Surround Sound Processor and RAP-1580MKII Amplified Surround Processor. Both offer processing for up to 7.1.4 channels of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio and feature Dirac room correction technology. Each unit also supports integration with control systems via RS232 and IP Ethernet and provides three assignable independent 12V trigger outputs and wired IR input/output.