Though strictly speaking, it was a Friday when we saw the Polk OWM5, a $179 speaker that will tolerate any of nine mounting methods if you speak to it nicely. Let us count the ways: vertical wall mount, horizontal wall mount, vertical shelf mount, horizontal shelf mount, corner mount, horizontal ceiling mount, vertical 45-degree wall mount, vertical corner wall mount, and standard articulating wall mount bracket. There's also an OWM3 which is less versatile, with a mere seven mounting methods.
Sound Bars are all the rage and with good reason. Not everyone wants to fill their room up with large speakers and run all the necessary cabling for surround sound. However, it would be a shame for new flat panel owner's to miss out on the important element of sound with their high def images. So SoundBar's are sure better than relying on the internal speakers of the TV. Plus they are faster and easier to set up so I can definitely see the attraction for the average consumer.
Not many people can casually tote their projector around without pulling a muscle. SANYO’s PLC-XW60 projector ($899) aims to make your projector both portable and convenient. Its size and weight are unusually small; it measures in at about 10-inches wide and 2-inches tall and weighs a mere 3.6 pounds. Also, with an easy on/off function (you simply unplug it to turn it off), you’ll want to carry this one wherever you go.
If you want to hide your flat panel, Premier Mounts makes this riser that will conceal it within a custom cabinet, and elevate it when needed. Premier makes the automated riser in various sizes; the custom cabinet work is up to you.
President-elect Obama has been turned into a fuzzy iPod dock with bobbing head. This is what he gets for delaying the DTV transition. If he delays it long enough, we'll turn him into a power strip.
Always ready to keep the home theater industry on its toes, Anthem has introduced a new and improved version of its popular AVM 50, the AVM 50v. The full-featured surround processor stands out in the crowd with added HDMI inputs and improved audio and video processing. Its processing abilities are increased through Sigma Designs VXP digital video processing and two dual-core Digital Signal Processing (DSP) engines for audio processing.
Designer Kevin Voecks accepts the Ultimate AV magazine's 2007 Speaker System of the Year award for Revel's Ultima2 Studio2 system. This $36,000 system <a href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/1207poty/" target="new"> (click here to see a full list of this year's award recipients) </a> earned high praise indeed from Tom Norton in his review when he referred to it as the best sound he has ever heard in his home theater.
PSB's SubSeries 500 subwoofer ($2149) propels a 12-inch woven fiber driver into action with a Class H tracking power supply amp rated at 500 watts continuous power, 750 dynamic, and 1500 peak. The combination extruded aluminum and MDF enclosure should be tough enough to stand up to that onslaught of low-frequency vibration. Stop drooling, that's not polite.
PSB Speakers showcased the Synchrony, the latest in their statement products. As with all PSB speakers they combine exceptional musicality with technical excellence. The new design is a departure from past models using a compact footprint that takes up less space and exhibits a modern sculptured finish. There are seven models in the series including two full-range towers, two compact bookshelf-style models, two center-channel speakers od different sizes, plus a “tri-mode” surround speaker.
Wireless speaker connection is coming, as an option, to (nearly?) every speaker model in the Pure Acoustics Line -- now that's going wireless. It consists of a receiver mounted in the top of the speaker plus a dome-shaped transmitter. Note that we're not talking about self-powered speakers or room-to-room tranmission, just in-room.
The RBH 8300 tower ($8300/pair) is second from top of the line. It has three eight-inch woofers, two 6.5-inch mids, and a 1.1-inch silk dome tweeter. Except for the tweeter, sourced from ScanSpeak, all drivers are proprietary. Thirty finishes are available. Matching center and other models will spring from the loins of RBH's designers in due time.
This company, once known for beautifully simple and relatively affordable British-made turntables, has branched out into other territories, including the Screen 2 on-wall speaker ($4399/pair). It's roughly four feet tall, and weighs 44 pounds, but is just four inches deep. The driver array includes an eight-inch woofer, two five-inch mids, and one-inch tweeter. The wall bracket is a simple two-piece affair. One part attaches to the wall and the other part to the speaker, so it's easy to remove the speaker from the wall. Revolver has an even bigger on-wall in the planning stage.
No, not a classical rhapsody, or even a Rhapsody in Blue, but RealNetworks Rhapsody music service. With over 4-1/2 million songs in their burgeoning library, Rhapsody will be integrated to Philips' GoGear line of portable MP3 players and also with Philips' Streamium home audio products. The Streamium™ NP1100 is the first in the Philips' home product line to incorporate the Rhapsody touch. Price was not announced.
Music Hall is distributing the Bellari VP530 ($399), a tube phono preamp (moving magnet only) that offers both conventional L/R analog outputs and a USB output for sending the contents of your vinyl to a computer for processing and storage. There's also a rumble filter, and the RIAA phono equalization may be switched off if you are equipped (and wish) to perform the equalization in the digital domain.