Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at
3:42 am
New from Epos is the Mi (i for ‘improved’) speaker series, the replacement for the M range.
The company says the new models have been a year in development, although the changes may be hard to spot at first glance.
Gone are the metal grilles, to be replaced with a softer, more stylish silk cloth. The Mi tweeter dome has been changed from gold to silver, and the plastic faceplate has been replaced with machined aluminium which acts as a heatsink.
There’s also been a switch from a neodymium magnet to ferrite with a reversing magnet. Its greater mass is said to absorb higher temperatures, leading to improved performance.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at
2:58 am
Jamo’s A400 series of lightweight flat panel friendly speakers are part of their aesthetic range of “designer speakers”, and will be available in the USA starting in February. Like the top of the range A70 series, the A400 series speakers were designed by Smedegaard and Weis, using extruded polymer cabinets rather than aluminum for more affordable price points. The A400 series consists of the A407 floorstander, the A405 and A402 satellites, the A400 center channel speaker and the A400 subwoofer.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at
2:21 am
Morel designed their new Fat Lady speaker with one goal in mind, to create a reference floor-standing speaker that can be the “anchor” of their future home audio developments. The Fat Lady enclosures are individually hand made using carbon fiber layered on top of an inner fiberglass shell. Morel did their homework in deciding what materials to use through years of materials testing and found the optimum combination of composites, mixing carbon, fiberglass, resin and other materials for use in these speakers. The curved shape even serves a purpose as Morel wanted to take advantage of the sound dispersion characteristics that so many companies do not utilize in this day and age.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at
2:08 am
A lot of networking companies are busy branching out into home entertainment devices, particularly of the type designed to bridge the gap between your home PC and your TV. The latest model is this LinkTheater from Buffalo, which uses Wi-Fi or Ethernet to stream videos, photos and music directly to your television screen.
Features
The first step is to plug the device into your TV, using either SCART, Composite or S-Video connections, although if you’re the proud owner of a bumper-sized HD-ready TV, you may mourn the absence of a more heavy-duty connector that could make the most of your equipment.
For incoming streams, the device will handle 802.11a or 802.11g Wi-Fi, and can accept an Ethernet cableif your network is wired. It also has a USB port on the front, should you prefer to keep your media files on a storage device or want to offer guests the chance to bring their own, and a decent range of file types for audio (MP3, WMA, AAC), images (JPEG, BMP, PNG) and video (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, XviD) are supported.
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at
3:28 am
Ever get the feeling that, in the world of tellies, 2008 will all be about how thin they are?
JVC has been showing off its latest series of LCD TVs — the V Series — which measure just 39mm at their narrowest point and 74mm at their widest.
The 42DV9 (42-inch) and 46DV9 (46-inch) will be full 1080p sets boasting an 12-bit colour processing, 100Hz Clear Motion Drive II, and three HDMI connectors.
The sets are expected later in the year, more details to follow as we get them.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at
3:21 am
Though it is mostly known for speakers, Jamo also has a small presence in electronics. One of their new products in this category is the DMR 45 digital media receiver. The DMR 45 includes support for a wide variety of sources, including DVDs, CDs, MP3, WMA/MPEG-4, DivX Ultra, Xvid, and portable audio devices via a USB port on the front panel. Designed for those who would prefer to use two speakers rather than five, the DMR 45 includes only a 75 watt per channel stereo amplifier, with a preamp output for a subwoofer.
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at
2:50 am
Sony has announced the imminent launch of its range-leading Bravia VPL-VW40 1080p projector in the UK and Europe. The projector, which has a dynamic contrast ratio of 15,000:1, launched in the US several weeks ago and is now ready to make its debut on British shores.
The Sony Bravia VPL-VW40 is a heavyweight projector in every sense, capable of 1080p Full HD and benefiting from Sony’s enduring SXRD technology.
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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at
2:43 am
TEAC recently unveiled the inCore Audio ZE-1000 headphones that use high-definition drivers to provide rich and lifelike sound. TEAC claims the headphones provide a full range of audio, and provide superior sound isolation due to a five-layer cushion around the driver. The speakers use a balanced armature, which reportedly gives natural dynamics to sound, and layers of textures and subtleties. TEAC did not mention pricing or availability for the inCore Audio ZE-1000 headphones.
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Monday, January 28th, 2008 at
3:10 am
The Aurea is like nothing else on the market. You may have seen Philips’ Ambilight backlighting system before, but this, the firm’s latest flagship model, takes things to a new level. As well as emitting light out of its (ahem) backside, Aurea has an illuminated frame shining a kaleidoscope of colours outwards.
These colours change depending on the dominant colours on screen, so if you’re watching a football match, the left, right and lower portions of the frame will most likely be glowing green while the top will reflect the colours in the crowd.
And with 126 individual LED lamps in 42 clusters of three, Spectra can actually display multiple colours on every side of the screen. Called Active Frame, this new tech means you’re no longer limited to one colour per side.
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