Every audio reviewer thinks back on specific products and sometimes wishes that he or she bought them following the review. For me, one such product was the Polk RT3000p. The two-piece speaker featured a powered subwoofer, with the mid-tweeter section perched on top in a separate cabinet. The system had a gutsy, meaty quality to it that beautifully suited movie soundtracks.
Now You Don't. This fold out home theater seat, for that overflow movie night crowd, Salamander Designs' Jump Seat Ottoman is a footrest by day and a chair by night. $1000 and up, depending on finish.
Integra has upgraded its DTC-9.8 pre-pro to the DHC-9.9 ($2000). The latter now includes Imaging Science Foundation's Certified Calibration Controls (ISFccc), which here provide separate high and low adjustments for red, green, and blue--for each input. The DHC-9.9 also adds THX Loudness Plus, Audyssey Dynamic Eq, and Audyssey Dynamic Volume. In case you were wondering, however, the DTC-9.8 cannot be upgraded to DHC-9.9 specs.
All of these features will also be included in Integra's top two receivers, the DTR-8.9 and the DTR-9.9.
When Pioneer released its first KURO plasma sets last year, its eighth generation of plasmas overall, they met with nearly universal praise. Critics acclaimed the KURO series for the new standards it set with the depth of its blacks. Fittingly, the word “kuro” means deep, dark, and penetrating in Japanese.
Given the wide disparity of price points we're seeing at CEDIA, custom installers are hoping to maintain their steady stream of upscale customers while embracing a category relatively unknown just a few years ago: first-time projector owners with considerably lower budgets.
Some people's idea of a perfect speaker might not be a big ugly black box that delivers pristine performance. Obviously, these folks' priorities are way out of whack.
Remote control behemoth manufacturer Universal Remote Control is now offering control dimmers, lamp dimmers, and switches that work with a large number the company’s universal remote controls. The dimmers and such are made by lighting behemoth manufacturer Lutron specifically for URC. The system is ideal for single rooms (like home theaters) or small homes, and I’ve never seen a system in which it was so easy to program various lighting control scenes. It literally takes minutes and you’re done. Dimming switches are around $150 each, but there’s nothing extra that’s needed to make the remote controls work with the switches.