Thomas J. Norton

Price: $7,000 Highlights: Superb sound for both movies and music • 10 channels of powerful Class D amplification • Sets a steep learning curve but rewards with immense flexibility • Video processing has limitations, including no upconversion of HDMI sources

And the Kitchen Sink

Sometimes I get nostalgic for the early days of home theater. For example, I fondly remember the Proceed AVP processor I reviewed for Stereophile Guide to Home Theater in 1997. Conventional Dolby Digital and DTS were its most exotic operating modes, the remote had fewer than a dozen buttons, and it didn’t provide room equalization, extra surround modes, or onboard video processing. In fact, it didn’t have any video switching beyond S-video. We didn’t need no stinkin’ component, and no one had even heard of HDMI. Laserdisc was the most established source, DVD was brand new, and consumer high definition was still a mote in the FCC’s eye.

Pioneer announced the BDP-88FD Blu-ray player, at $2000. Not only is it a universal player, but offers advanced audio and video circuitry--the most advanced Blu-ray player yet from the company. It can also play back DSD, though multichannel DSD is limited to its HDMI outputs, as the analog outs are 2-channel only. It will be available by the end of this year.

Shane Buettner posted a Blog late last night about Pioneer's new technology, designed for richer colors, good performance in various lighting environments, deeper blacks, improved video processing, and smooth handling of motion. At the press conference, they announced that new Pioneer plasma designs (42", 50" and 60") incorporating these improvements will appear in stores in Summer 2007. Photos were not available (the photo printed here is of the current model, and odds are it will look similar). And since no specific mention was made of the Elite line, presumably the technology will be made available in all Pioneer models.

Pioneer has long been a leader in plasma display technology. Over the past few generations its sets have arguably produced some of the best images in the flat panel business. Whether or not the potential competition from the (apparently) now stillborn SED technology, which promised astonishingly deep blacks, gave Pioneer an added incentive to achieve new and previously unattainable depths in that important aspect of display design we can't know for certain. But what we can know for certain is that Pioneer has set a new standard its new KURO sets.