Nothing quite like a good old format war. Ten years ago this month we reported on Toshiba’s decision to postpone the U.S. launch of HD DVD from December 2005 to early 2006.
When Larry Hornbeck stepped up to the podium to accept an Oscar for inventing the digital micromirror device—the core technology behind DLP video projection—he held up a postage-stamp-sized DMD chip and said: “It’s hard to believe that there are more than 8 million digital micromirrors on this device. Who would ever have believed that [this invention] would change the way the world views cinema.” A couple decades later I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of 8 million microsopic mirrors tilting at precise angles and reflecting light to create stunning images at home and in movie theaters. So I reached out to Dr. Hornbeck, holder of 38 U.S. patents and winner of numerous awards and honors, to learn more about his crazy invention.
Hoping to bring Hi-Res Music to an audience beyond audiophiles, executives from Sony, Best Buy, and three major record labels gathered at Best Buy’s flagship Magnolia Design Center store on New York City’s Columbus Circle this evening to announce that Hi-Res listening stations have been installed in 79 Magnolia Design Center stores across the country.
Imagine if you could focus sound the same way you beam light from a flashlight. Think of the possibilities. You could direct sound to Bill, and Betty, who’s sitting right next to him, wouldn’t hear a thing. Sort of like headphones without…uh… the ’phones.
Andrew Jones has an impressive history in loudspeakers, having served as the chief speaker engineer at KEF, Infinity, Technical Audio Devices Laboratories (TAD), and Pioneer, where he established a reputation for designing budget speakers that sound shockingly good. In May, following the merger of Pioneer and Onkyo, Germany’s ELAC announced that Jones had not only joined the company as vice president of engineering but was already working on a new line of speakers.
It might take a minute to process what you’re looking at. Those squiggly figures are not pieces from a life-size puzzle, and you won’t find them in the gift shop at Muir Woods (or some other rustic destination). Nope. What you see is the brainchild of Sia Rezaei, who had been building speakers as a hobby until he took on the challenge of making “some awesome desktop speakers” back in 2010.
Indy Audio Labs (IAL), keeper of the iconic Acurus and Aragon brands, has announced production of the Acurus ACT 4, a state-of-the-art preamp/processor featuring Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround processing that fueled a number of riveting immersive surround demos at the recent CEDIA Expo.
Monitor Audio has applied knowhow from its flagship line of freestanding speakers to the new CP-IW260X and CP-IW460X speakers, which use the company’s latest drivers in a “super compact” three-way in-wall configuration only 4 inches deep.