Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at
12:32 am
It seems like only yesterday that we first encountered the 840A, but in fact it was a year and a half ago, and that’s evidently been time enough for the designers at Cambridge Audio to develop a few tweaks and circuit improvements for it, resulting in the new ‘V2′.
Just to recap, the most exciting thing about the 840A was its employment of a new class of output stage, ‘Class XD’, which is claimed to offer Class A performance without the daunting power and heat implications of pure Class A. With the V2, Cambridge has revised the details of XD’s implementation, at the same time refining the balanced input for lower noise and distortion.
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Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at
11:46 pm
The LE46F86BD is particularly significant because it features Samsung’s debut take on the 100Hz trend now sweeping the LCD world.
Dubbed ‘100Hz Motion Plus’, its name suggests that, as well as doubling the PAL scanning rate of the picture, there’s an element of Samsung’s Motion Plus frame interpolation system – found with sets further down the brand’s current LCD range – included. This isn’t necessarily good news actually, as I’ve frankly had my doubts about Motion Plus so far. So here’s hoping the 100Hz element makes a real difference.
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Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at
11:28 pm
Panasonic is set to become the first technology company to release products that consumers can actually buy and take home that contain 45nm chips, its parent, Matsushita, claimed today.
The Diga-brand DVD and Blu-ray Disc recorders containing the 45nm chip, a video processing part called UniPhier – short for UNIversal Platform for High-quality Image Enhancing Revolution, believe it or not – will go on sale on 1 November, albeit only in Japan. Even so, that’s still more than a week ahead of Intel’s first 45nm processors, assuming they’re available to buy at launch.
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Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at
11:23 pm
Samsung has thrown its weight entirely behind its dual-format Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD player and will de-emphasis its BD-only offerings, online reports suggest. However, the two-format machine, the BD-U5000, may have been delayed.
Separate reports point to a December release in the US, with the European debut taking place early in 2008.
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Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at
12:11 am
Despite what fans of either format may be telling you, don’t expect a winner in the next-generation DVD battle for at least a year if not more, say analysts.
The battle itself seems to be doing the most damage, with a majority of customers opting to wait it out for a clear leader. Price of the players is also a major deterrent, research firm Forrester said in a report last week.
Forrester believes that Blu-ray would eventually win out, however it warned at the same time that prices of the format’s players need to drop. Blu-ray’s content advantage is beginning to vanish, and HD DVD players are much closer to what consumers are willing to pay.
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Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at
12:02 am
Microsoft will hold a event on Tuesday in Redmond to herald the second generation of Zune music players, BetaNews has learned.
According to sources close to the situation, both Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Design and Development chief J Allard will be on hand for the event. The main part of the announcement will center around the players, which will include the first flash memory based Zunes.
Entering the flash-based device market is very important for Microsoft, as the category is by far the most popular. While the Zune has managed to grab a 10 percent share of the HDD player segment, overall that has amounted to about a 3 percent share of the market in general.
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Monday, October 1st, 2007 at
11:51 pm
A couple of new amplifiers have made their way onto the Parts Express online store.
The first is a revision of the wildly popular Sonic Impact T-Amp. The second generation T-Amp has been completely redesigned from the ground up and even has the ability to run off of batteries now (x8 AA). The 2nd Gen T-Amp features a regulated 12 VDC switching power supply rated at 3 amps output and a 3.5mm stereo input for MP3 players. Price: $59.99
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Monday, October 1st, 2007 at
11:34 pm
KnuKonceptz has just released their new KL3 Kable designed for use as in-wall speaker wire. The KL3 Kable is a CL3/UL listed speaker wire and uses fine strand (36 Gauge) copper, with up to 462 strands per side (in the 10 gauge). The outer jacket is Ultra-Fleks PVC for durability and easy installation.
All three sizes are sold by the foot with very reasonable prices ranging from $0.55 per foot for the 14 gauge to $1.15 for the 10 gauge. Up to 1000′ in continuous length is available for the 12 and 14 gauge, while 800′ is available in the 10 gauge.
On a side note this may very well be the only 10 gauge CL3 rated speaker wire available.
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Monday, October 1st, 2007 at
11:22 pm
Here’s a real teaser for you… The very first look at the new speaker range from Mission, the 79 series. We’re reliably informed this is the first look that anyone, anywhere – outside of Mission HQ – has had of them. And the first place to see them in the flesh? The What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision Show, of course!
Yes, Mission will be announcing the new 79 series to the world at its stand at the Show, and we suggest you’re there to see and hear it. The 79 series will be teamed with ‘a new Audiolab home theatre concept’ and a new 7.1-processor. So, that should sound pretty interesting. Read on for details on how to get your hands on a hot ticket for the Show…
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