Sunfire announced their upcoming Theater Grand Receiver 3 (TGR-3) as part of their premium XT series of components. While it isn't rated as powerful as their dedicated multi-channel amps, I don't know anyone who would complain about having 200 watts times seven channels in their receiver. In fact, Sunfire claims the TGR-3 is the world's most power receiver. Sunfire's trademarked Tracking Donwconverter technology allows you move power from the wheels that slip to the wheels that grip. Oh wait, that's my car. Actually, having used a Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature amplifier as a reference for over 3 years, I can attest to the fact that their technology works as advertised.
The most exciting product at the show with a nautical theme was debatably the "talking Pirate Skull" from Themeaddicts Inc. This patented product was developed for those poor souls who always wanted their own animatronic character (or any other character for that matter.) the skull "wakes up" and verbally provides real-time information about people walking up your driveway, entering your yard, standing at your front door, urinating on your daisies, or anything else your home automation/security system can monitor.
Gibson introduced a whole new line of accessories bearing the Gibson logo, including USB cards, blank CDR disks, cables, CDR burner, and portable hard drives. No prices, or availability date, or any other information was available at the show. Obviously Gibson thinks that we all need to have the Gibson brand on stuff we can already get from over a dozen sources already. Rock on, Dudes.
Would you believe that Polk's THX Ultra2-certified RTS-100 in-wall and RTS-105 in-ceiling models were among the best-sounding speakers of any kind at CEDIA? It's true. Polk also showed off a shrewd sub-concealment strategy that involves hiding the driver beneath a floor grate, shown here in cutaway.
And that's not the only thing this 78-pound, $3999 receiver has to offer. It comes with four cool brushed-aluminum keypads (supplied, no extra charge) and 140 watts times seven. It can play loud, as the people at the neighboring Verizon booth noted ruefully.
The B&W CM series falls between the higher-end 700 series and lower-end 600 series. New to the line are the floorstanding CM7 ($900/each) and stand-mount CM1 ($450/each). They'll be available in 30 days. Already out is the CMC center ($600). Inside the wood-veneer enclosure is B&W's famous tube-loaded tweeter, which gives the much higher-priced Nautilus line its extraordinarily clean and revealing high frequency extension.
In the base of each of these elegant table lamps is a bottom-firing 6.5-inch woofer. Located just beneath the shade is a silk-dome tweeter, firing into a diffuser. Both leak sound through grilles at top and bottom. The enclosure looks like granite but is an acrylic-like material. Nine years in the making, the Limelight lamp line made its debut at CEDIA but is not yet available. If you're interested, get in touch with inventor Scott Zwolski via limelightaudio.com.
The Meridian P200z in-wall subwoofer fits an eight-inch active driver and eight-inch passive radiator into a three-quarter-inch depth. In a conventional subwoofer, that's not nearly enough space, but the dedicated amp (bottom) uses DSP magic to compensate. The enclosure is a nonresonant wood-metal laminate. Price tentatively pegged between $4000-5000.
Frank Göbl of Canton and Steven Stone of our sister publication UltimateAV were the best-shod men on the floor. I think Steven (left) has the advantage here.
Next-generation audiophiles-in-the-making are plugging their iPods into tube amps. So building an iPod dock into a tube amp is a logical progression. Sonic Integrity's Tube Pod (shown by System Audio, $1000) includes 13-wpc amp, dock, and speakers. Long live the revolution. For more details: tube-pod.com.
"I love driving a cab. But you've got to be careful. Few nights ago I had a gun in my cab. Guy got in, and I said, either you give me that gun or you're gettin' out. He gave me the gun. When we got back from the crack house, he was so happy to have his drugs, he got out of the cab and forgot about the gun. I sold that gun to a cop."
Vogel's has an alternative to standard projection screens. It comes in a can, and it's called Mighty Brighty. Vogel's says the process is as easy as picking a wall and picking up a paintbrush. The screen paint comes in three different packages: the MPW 10 with enough pre-mixed paint and base coat to cover five square meters; the MPW 20 with enough material to cover up to six square meters plus ContrastBooster and BrightnessBooster paint components that can be used to customize the performance of the screen to match your projector; and the MPW 30 that contains enough paint to cover an entire wall so the screen is invisible when you're not watching TV.
CoolIT Systems is now offering a liquid cooling system for Home Theater PCs that will keep the CPU cool, improve performance and reliability, and significantly reduce fan noise. The Home Theater PC (HTPC) Cooler system will fit any media center PC case that has dual 8cm fans. It comes with all the necessary installation hardware and is pre-plumbed, factory-sealed, and maintenance free.
Perhaps even cooler than the $999 720p Optoma (see below), Mitsubishi revealed a $4,495 1080p projector, called the HC5000BL. It’s going to use the Reon VX chip from Silicon Optix and have a claimed 10,000:1 contrast ratio with a dynamic iris. No DLP here, it has 3 LCDs inside. They’re hoping to ship later this month.
Not that McIntosh ever really went anywhere, but it was still pretty cool to see the retro glass front panels and cool blue and green fluorescents lighting up an entire 7.1-channel home theater system.
CEDIA 2006
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