Magnepan also introduced a new freestanding woofer for their smallest home theater/ plasma wall mounted speakers (the MGMC1). Left and right MGMC1s cost only $750/pr and the woofer adds only $800 unless you want a special finish. The MGMC1s can also be mounted flush with the wall and made to swing out automatically into playing position with the touch of a button. Note the nice table in the picture under the wall mounted MGMC1. That’s the new woofer. The MGMC1s have been criticized for an overly thin sound, but not anymore.
Boston Acoustics is back in the computer speaker business again with two tabletop systems. The $99.99 version includes a pair of slender speakers with a ” tweeter and two 2” mid-bass drivers. The $179.99 package adds a subwoofer. The sub/sat system kicked some serious butt, and it was sitting out in the open on a little round table in a large demo room. And just like many of the new Boston speakers, these are part of the POP program which allows you to buy different colored grilles.
Let’s say you have a nice home theater system in one end of the room and a powered subwoofer in the other. Everything sounds nice until you plug the subwoofer into the AC outlet next to it, and, viola, your system is now humming a new tune. Unfortunately, it’s not humming the tune you wanted it to.
Can't we all just get along? If you live in one of the 20 million U.S. households that own two or more iPods (a JVC stat), there will inevitably be battles over whose player belongs in the tabletop music system. Surely my Ben Harper trumps your OK Go. JVC makes it easier for your iPods to cohabitate with the new dual-dock NX-PN7 tabletop audio system. The NX-PN7 will charge both iPods when docked, it sports a video output and an analog audio input, and it throws in an AM/FM tuner, clock, and timer for good measure. It will be available in April for $149.95.
Hitachi is very excited about their new statement product, the Ultra Thin LCD. "1.5" is both the brand and the depth (in inches) of these new LCDs, available in screen sizes of 32, 37, and 42 inches. The 37- and 42-inch models have a 1920 x 1080 resolution, while the 32-inch model has a 1366 x 768 resolution. In traditional Hitachi form, the line is divided into three series: The Director's Series and V Series are HD monitors only, with HDMI 1.3 and RGB inputs but no internal tuners. The S Series comes with an outboard Audio Video Center that includes ATSC/NTSC tuners, three HDMI 1.3 inputs, and two component video inputs. The Audio Video Center can be purchased separately, as well. All of the models use Hitachi's In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel to improve viewing angle and Reel120 120-Hz technology to reduce judder.
I couldn't help myself with this one. As mentioned previously, Samsung amazed us by parking these "No Photos" signs all over its booth at CES. For all appearances, someone didn't want us taking pictures and talking up Samsung's new gear. Why show the stuff then?
Spruce up your desktop with the energy-efficient Icon-1 chip amp and S-1 speaker with full-range driver. The prototype system we heard was pleasingly though insistently warm--it's still being voiced. But it's already got a feel-good quality and you need that when you're at your desk. The package will ship at the end of March for $399.
NXT doesn’t make products directly. They license the technology and help other companies bring their products to market. One of the companies using NXT’s flat speaker technology is Shinhint. They demonstrated several products, including monitors, TV sound bar speakers, and tabletop speaker phones as part of NXT’s press presentation this morning.
Toshiba announced a major expansion of its REGZA LCD flat panel line for 2007, and a number of new performance enhancing features to be employed throughout the broad line. Why, you ask? While projection TV overall is in decline, LCD sales were boasted as being up 132% and anticipated to climb in 2007.
Ah, there they are. A much better view of the XEL-1. The new OLED TV offers more than just a sleek form factor. The picture quality was impressive. We can’t wait to get our hands on one.
Olevia will be adding 120 Hz technology to many of the models in this year's line of 1080p LCDs, so their booth is filled with demonstrations of the technology's potential benefits. There aren't a lot of specifics available about the new line just yet, but the first 120 Hz models are expected to be released around April, with more models coming later in the year. Olevia also announced that they've teamed up with Universal Electronics to offer the Taurus RC-LRN learning universal remote with some of this year's new models.
Although no products were officially announced, Olevia demonstrated prototype LCDs with a 120Hz refresh rate that produced noticeably smoother motion compared to the 60Hz model next to it.
Since every post must include at least a passing reference to HD DVD's plight, here's mine: Toshiba's morning press conference began about 15 minutes late; and, as the press waited eagerly to see how the company would respond to the big Warner Brothers/Blu-ray news, I couldn't help but imagine the poor presenters huddled backstage, chanting "We're not going to cry. We're not going to cry." To their credit, they addressed the issue candidly and immediately, as Shane recapped in an earlier post.
Samsung's new Super Clear technology, one of several new technologies developed by Samsung for better LCD performance, will appear soon in the company's new 65 Series flat panel LCDs. It definitely produced a more vibrant image (which can't really be seen in a photograph, so I'm showing you a brief tech explanation card that appeared in the demo instead). Is it more natural? When we get our hands on one, we'll let you know.
CES 2008
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