LATEST ADDITIONS

I Spy with My Little iSky
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 08, 2007
Although it's hard to see from the picture above, Fiberoptic Studio's iSky Panels are acoustical panels that include built-in LED star fields. The pre-built panels (24", 30", and 48" square) hook together in a grid using daisy-chain wiring, so it's supposed to be extremely easy for an installer to turn a home theater's ceiling into a night sky for significantly less than it used to cost. In addition to making your home theater look very cool, it'll help with the acoustics, too. The installed system in the StJohn Group's booth was definitely a "highlight" of the Show so far.
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Audio Video News
Apple Announcement #3: Steve Jobs Says, iSorry!
SV Staff  |  Sep 07, 2007
"I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of the iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale," writes Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs in an open letter "To all iPhone...
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Biggie Size That HTiB
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 07, 2007
Epson and Atlantic Technology are teaming up to bring out the world's largest HTiB. There are two versions. Each one includes a drop-down screen with built-in Atlantic Technology speakers (LCR), a DVD-based media center (with HDMI inputs and upscaling capability), and rear speakers (also from Atlantic Technology) that can either hang on each side of the projector or be mounted on the wall. For $4,999, you get a 720p Epson LCD projector with the system. For $6,999, you get an Epson 1080p model. Both systems come with racetracks to help hide the wires for installations even I could do.
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Marantz SR8002 Receiver
Fred Manteghian  |  Sep 07, 2007

Oh Marantz, why do you put so much goodness in your receivers? 125 watt discrete amplifiers – seven of 'em, 4 HDMI inputs and <i>2</i> HDMI outputs (take that "ed"), 3 coaxial and 3 optical digital inputs, Dolby Digital True HD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding, DTS Master Audio decoding, AM/FM/HD radio, XM HD radio. Featuring HDMI 1.3 inputs and outputs, the receiver will repeat out 1080p source signals to the display with no signal loss, as well upconvert composite, s-video and component video to HDMI. Also, the receiver has a case of the massive Toroidal Transformers, which will only hurt your neighbors when you crank things up. I guess with all this goodness, they forgot the phono stage.

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Audio Video News
CEDIA: Dual-Format Finds
SV Staff  |  Sep 07, 2007
Having to buy separate Blu-ray and HD DVD players to watch high-def discs is a hassle. Which is why I was glad to see a pair of dual-format players on display at CEDIA amidst the new HD DVD models from Toshiba and Blu-ray models from Sony, Sharp,...
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The Darker Side
Tom Norton  |  Sep 07, 2007

Texas Instruments answers the challenge of new LDC and LCoS projectors with the new Dark Chip 4 1080p DLP digital micromirrror device. Claimed to produce a native contrast ratio of up to 15,000:1, it will soon appear in DLP projectors from Marantz, SIM2, BenQ, and, in 2008, likely others as well. An impressive TI demo utilized a new SIM2 DC4 1080p projector. The modified Samsung in the photo also sported a DV4 chip. I'm not sure where the 100,000:1 claim came from, though. A tad optimistic, perhaps?

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Grand Illusion
Tom Norton  |  Sep 07, 2007

Snell's new Illusion A7 speaker is definitely not for the iPod crowd. But at $35,000/pair, it's currently ready for its closeup in the highest-end 2-channel systems. A center channel and smaller bookshelf models are said to be in development.

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Grand Illusions II
Tom Norton  |  Sep 07, 2007

If the price doesn't faze you, here are the details on Snell's new Flagship speaker.

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B&K
Tom Norton  |  Sep 07, 2007

B&K showed its new Reference 70 Series 2 AV pre-pro. It will accept multichannel PCM audio over HDMI, but does not decode Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio internally. It does offer full video transcoding, as well as video processing via the HQV REON chip from Silicon Optix.

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NAD Flagship
Tom Norton  |  Sep 07, 2007

At $3000, the new T785 is a new high in price for an NAD AV receiver. But it's loaded with features, including 7x120 conservatively rated watts, 4 HDMI 1.3 inputs, the Audyssey MultiEQ XT room correction system, and multichannel audio (PCM) over HDMI (but no on-board decoding for Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio.

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