YAMAHA DVX-1000

The Yamaha DVX-1000 promises to be the last word in 2.1-channel home cinema, delivering a level of surround sound not heard before from a three-speaker system. Or so Yamaha would have us believe.

It claims the DVX will deliver a 7.1-channel experience from just three speakers, a technique Yamaha’s marketing droids have dubbed Air Surround Xtreme. Let’s see if it manages it.

The first clue to the genuine power under the DVX’s hood comes when you unpack the sub-woofer, an absolute brute – do not drop it on your foot – with a top vent, large heat sink and 16cm driver. Also housing the 2 x 90W amplification unit, the sub boasts a decent sized transformer, custom-made capacitors, separate analogue/digital sub-systems and shielded digital circuitry, all designed to prevent signal interference. Continue Reading…

Panasonic have recently come with an exceptional piece of news for all those in search for the newest and niftiest trends in multimedia: the SC-BT100 home theater system, a full and rich package boasting a Blu-ray drive and wireless, surround sound architecture and a heap of other great features to integrate your multimedia needs. And if you think that such a contraption will burn a hole into your budget, you’d better think again, as the Panasonic SC-BT100 is one truly affordable thing to go for.

If you’re looking for a high-complexity multimedia system to offer you a great sound experience while at the same time bring the basic essentials of modern man, the Panasonic SC-BT100 might be one of the best choices available.

We’re talking about a 5.1 home theater in a box, ready to play from the moment you’ve finished installing it: with the wireless speakers, installing has never been easier, especially as the SC-BT100 comes with dedicated signal transmitters, making connecting everything almost a child’s play. And if you’re demanding something extra, upgrading to 7.1 has never been easier, with optional side-speakers widely available. Continue Reading…

LG continues to expand its range of HD-ready home cinema equipment with the attractively styled Champagne Flute 5.1 surround setup. Impressively you’ll find a supplied amplifier/DVD player that upscales to 1080p and includes a built in FM radio and support for playback of encoded media formats such as DivX and MP3, either when burnt to DVD or attached using a USB flashdrive.

As you might have guessed from the name, the headline feature of this system is surely the design. You’ll find that each of the two front and two rear 100W speakers are styled in the shape of champagne flute glasses.

The end result, especially when combined with the heavy-set bases and solid stainless steel supports, is a fantastic looking system that would add a dramatic yet extremely classy finish to any home cinema system. The 100W centre speaker and 200W sub don’t have quite the same appeal, but co-ordinate well nonetheless.

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LG recently addressed the growing market for upscaling surround sound solutions with its HT902TB. This 5.1 arrangement also improves standard definition picture quality up to 1080i with the supplied DVD/amplifier unit and offers a total of 1000W of power. The LG adopts a similar tower speaker design to the impressive Panasonic SC-PT50 we reviewed recently, but unfortunately doesn’t offer the same degree of flexibility.

While the majority of these setups give you the option to either wall-mount the speakers or arrange them on the floor by mounting them in the supplied bases, LG forces you to choose the latter. This won’t be a problem for some but considering all it would have taken is a couple of mounting holes and a more versatile wiring design we’d have liked to be able to choose.

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LG recently addressed the growing market for upscaling surround sound solutions with its HT902TB. This 5.1 arrangement also improves standard definition picture quality up to 1080i with the supplied DVD/amplifier unit and offers a total of 1000W of power. The LG adopts a similar tower speaker design to the impressive Panasonic SC-PT50 we reviewed recently, but unfortunately doesn’t offer the same degree of flexibility.

While the majority of these setups give you the option to either wall-mount the speakers or arrange them on the floor by mounting them in the supplied bases, LG forces you to choose the latter. This won’t be a problem for some but considering all it would have taken is a couple of mounting holes and a more versatile wiring design we’d have liked to be able to choose.

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We have always liked the ebox series of media centre PCs from Evesham because they perform as good as they look and don’t cost the earth.

Even the fact that Evesham Technology went into administration a couple of months back does not dampen our enthusiasm.

After all, the company has bounced back under new ownership with all existing warranties honoured and, from the looks of this effort, no drop in the product quality that we have become used to.

So what about the new ebox HD then, can it compete with the crowd as well as its previous incarnations? The answer appears to be a resounding yes: a 320Gb hard drive, 2Gb of RAM, R690 chipset, dual DVB TV tuners and that all important HDMI output all wrapped up in the sexiest of matt black boxes for the living room. Even the pricing, at £700 including the VAT and a three year warranty, are spot on.

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It's hard to get too excited about most inexpensive HTiBs. That's not to say a system has to cost a lot to be a great value. In fact, there are plenty of one-box-fits-all systems that pack a lot of punch for what you pay. But there's usually so much emphasis on quantity of features that the quality often suffers. In some cases, the system is a hodgepodge of gear thrown together by a manufacturer that sees how popular HTiBs are with the general public and doesn't want to miss out on grabbing its share of the pie.

So when an HTiB system comes along that's both reasonably priced and spanking good in terms of sound quality and loaded with useful features, I jump up from my perch on the couch and scream, "Praise the Lord and pass the remote!" (This is followed rather quickly by other members of my family yelling at me to sit down and be quiet.)

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With flat panel TV displays dominating the marketplace, NHT has decided to jump into the game with a compact system designed to be wall mounted around such a display. The system is called Verve and I recently received a Verve IV to evaluate.

There are several flavors of NHT's Verve including the Verve I, Verve II, Verve IV, and Verve V. (Don't ask me what happened to III…) Verve I & II include a processor/controller and amp, as well as a 5.1 speaker system. Verve V includes a 5.1 system that has in-ceiling surrounds. The Verve IV is a 5.1 channel home theater speaker system, but I would not call it traditional.

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I drink green tea the way some people drink water. I make it in large
batches, keep it in the fridge, and guzzle it all day. Such are the
dimensions of this innocuous drug habit that I blend
teas, often adding a pinch of Butterfly Sencha (with peach and
sunflower petals) to a standard Sencha, creating something more subtle
than the former and more interesting than the latter. (The Tea Squad
may burst through the door to arrest me at any moment.) I do the same
with surround equipment. This month, I've deliberately brought together
a receiver brand that prides itself on neutrality with a speaker brand
that obsesses about the purity and phase coherence of high frequencies.
Marantz, meet Tannoy. Tannoy, meet Marantz. What will happen next?

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