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CES 2013
Audio Design Associates Does Receivers
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 08, 2013
ADA is best known for its world-class surround separates so it's a pleasant surprise to see it getting into receivers, or as the company calls them, integrated controller/amps. The Cinema Rapture ($5000, shipping this week) musters 150 watts into eight ohms and 300 into four ohms while the Cinema Rapture Jr. (price and shipping to be determined) offers 80 watts into eight ohms and 150 into four ohms. Both use Class D amp modules of ADA's own design. They are not licensed from someone else. We can't wait to hear how they sound in our own listening room.
CES 2013
Morel Makes It Hip to Be Round
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 08, 2013
Morel's high-performing SoundSpot satellites have a new iteration in the SP3. It has a larger orb with a new 4.5-inch woofer that enables it to perform better at the low end, lowering the formerly 120-150Hz sub crossover to 90dB, so the sub won't have to do so much work (and call so much attention to itself). The Lotus grille pattern makes it acoustically transparent.
CES 2013
LG Moves You
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2013
The major HDTV manufacturers fell all over themselves, as usual, trying to produce the most spectacular, eye-catching booth theme. But the grand prize goes to LG, which built on the 3D video wall first shown last year with some of the most eye-catching imagery seen at the show. The wall appeared to be made up of 140 sets, if my count is right (I counted them on site; a few sets re cropped off here) and each set appeared to be 55-inches. That's about 90 feet wide.

The images had to be viewed through passive 3D glasses provided to the attendees (the glasses were also needed inside the booth, where many displays were 3D). How, you may wonder, did I capture these images in 2D to show here without the double image effect? Simple: I held one lens of the 3D glasses in front of the camera lens, so only one eye-image came through to the camera's imager.

CES 2013
LG Moves You
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2013
This is just one of the images that the LG video wall morphed into. The moving 3D images ranged from the surreal to the fantastic. It was the standout booth entrance at the show. LG provided the passive polarized lens of the 3D glasses over the camera lens.
CES 2013
Samsung Throws its New OLED TV a Curve
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2013
Samsung claims to be showing the world's first curved OLED, but there seems to be some dispute about that (see below). Nevertheless, you'll see flat OLEDs in Vin's Video Barn before you see curved ones. Exactly when we'll see the flat versions remains a question mark. LG has starting to sell them in Korea either now or claims it will do so shortly, but the US availability date will be later. Samsung claims in June of this year or later. Expect prices between $10,000 and $12,000 for the only size anticipated for now: 55-inches (the 56-inch Sony shown below does not have a delivery date). How that will stand up in the market against the increasingly cheaper big-screen designs remains to be seen.

One thing is certain: OLED can trump any current display technology in a wide range of important performance parameters. The off-axis performance and black level quality comes through in this photo, even on a your computer screen, which itself will certainly have a far poorer black level.

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CES 2013
LG Throws a Mean Curve Too
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2013
I guess it's a toss-up as to who thought of a curved OLED first, but LG's 3D-capable EA9800 (no word on price or availability) looks appropriately cinematic as well. OLEDs are uniquely suited to curved designs, as they're so thin they can be twisted or rolled into forms impossible up to now with other display technologies.

LG's OLED employ 4-color pixels--sort of. The fourth color is white, along with the usual red, green,and blue.

CES 2013
Color R Us-LG's OLEDs
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2013
There's no question that OLEDs can produce eye-grabbing color as well as great blacks and off-axis performance. Like most displays at shows such as this, color is stretched and enhanced all out proportion. But it shur r purdy.
CES 2013
Sony's OLED is Bigger and Better than Your OLED
Tom Norton  |  Jan 08, 2013
In a stunning display of one-upsmanship, Sony not only showed a 4K OLED display, but one that's a full 56-inches diagonal. The other OLEDs on show were all a paltry 55-inches.
CES 2013
Bang and Olufsen Announces First Smart TV
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jan 08, 2013
Bang and Olufsen announced its new flagship TV, the Beovision 11 with SmartTV features. Users can customize their SmartTV hub from a number of available apps.The first Smart TV for the upscale company, the TV includes access to not only the typical U.S. streaming services but services from all around the globe
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CES 2013
Let’s Get Small: TI’s Pico Projector Party
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 08, 2013
Texas Instruments, developer of the DLP imaging chips used in many of today’s video projectors, is demonstrating at CES 2013 a new architecture that makes the already minuscule pixels in Pico projectors even smaller. Dubbed Tilt & Roll Pixel, or TRP, the technology is said to double resolution to 1280 x 800 and increase brightness by as much as 30 percent, making it possible to project larger images from ever-smaller projectors (like the one built into Samsung’s Galaxy Beam phone). At the same time, power consumption is reduced by up to 50 percent.

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