The beautiful Totem Tribe 5 is 48 inches high with four Montreal-made woofers and a tweeter with no crossover circuitry to pollute the sound. It is ported at both the top and bottom of the enclosure and can produce SPLs of up to 110dB into eight ohms. The speaker can function as an LCR, so you can use five or more of them in a surround system, though Totem also offers smaller complementary models. Price is $3000 with custom finish or $2200 if you're not as fussy. Want sub with that? The Tribe Sub sells for $1795 with outboard amp. It can sit on a pedestal, hide under the sofa, or be built into a wall.
Why is a handle protruding from this cutaway mockup of JL Audio's Fathom IWS in-wall sub? It's to demonstrate how the enclosure floats in a padded chamber, thus reducing bass-ruining resonance. Fathom IWS is available in two versions, one with a single amp and cabinet ($2500) and one with dual amps and cabinets ($4500). Both 2x4 and 2x6 construction are accommodated. This product was first demonstrated at CEDIA two years ago but is finally shipping this year.
At the Integra booth were a half-dozen new receivers: two THX Ultra2 Plus certified, two THX Select2 Plus certified, and two non-THX certified. There was also an Ultra2 Plus pre-pro. But what got our attention was the top receiver, the DTR-80.2. For a mere $2800 it offers a massive toroidal power supply which accounts for much of the $600 difference between it and the next model down. Power is rated at 145 watts per channel. Also on board is Audyssey MultEQ XT 32, the newest version with the highest-resolution EQ filters, and DSX height/width enhancement. Video prowess includes Reon processing and ISF calibration modes. The product is Made for iPod/iPhone, certified for Windows 7, and boasts various internet radio portals and subscription music services including Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius, Napster, Mediafly, Slacker, and vTune. Sorry about the flash-marred picture, but it does show the navigation controls just to the left of the volume knob, which is kind of cool for us old-fashioned front-panel-oriented folk. Please also note that Integra stuff is sold exclusively by people qualified to install it.
I've seen plenty of integrated amps with iPod docks, but the Vital 250 from SpeakerCraft is the first I've seen with an iPad dock. It provides 50Wpc and a Cirrus Logic upconversion chip intended to improve the sound of compressed MP3 files for $700.
Famous for in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, SpeakerCraft decided to go back to its founders' roots with the new Roots standalone speakers, which include three 2-way satellites and two subwoofers (one of which is shown in red here). A similar design aesthetic was applied to the FloBox, which combines the Vital 250 integrated amp with a speaker system that includes a 5.25-inch woofer, two 3-inch midrange drivers, and two 0.75-inch tweeters.
Sharp has finally introduced a 3D LCD TV in its Quattron line, which adds a yellow color filter to the conventional red, green, and blue filters. The LE925 will be available in two sizes—52 and 60 inches—for $4200 and $5300, respectively. Several technologies, including the separate yellow color, are said to almost double the brightness of 3D content compared with 3-color LCDs. The demo did look relatively bright, but Sharp's use of Despicable Me as demo material was unfortunate, since the 3D in that particular movie is very unimpressive. A different disc of custom content looked much better.
A 3D-capable, single-chip DLP projector was on static display at Sharp's press conference. The XV-X17000 boasts a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 and 1600 ANSI lumens of light output. It will ship in the first quarter of 2011 with two pairs of active glasses.
Sharp might be late to the 3D game, but it's going all in with TVs, a projector, and two Blu-ray players, the BD-HP90U ($500) and HP80U ($430). Both models can be used in a horizontal or vertical orientation.
The CEDIA nightlife got off to a grand start at the Georgia Aquarium Wednesday evening, where Meridian hosted a delightful party. A scuba diver greeted guests while gigantic whale sharks and other denizens of the deep slowly cruised by. The acrylic window that separated us from the fish measures 63 feet long by 27 feet high, and it's two feet thick to hold back 6.3 million gallons of artificial sea water.
On hand at the Meridian party was the latest and smallest member of the company's well-regarded DSP speaker line, the DSP3200. This self-powered, bi-amped gem accepts a digital signal and sports a 6.5-inch woofer and 3-inch full-range driver that's the same as the one used in the McLaren supercar audio system. By Meridian standards, it's a bargain at $6500/pair.
Another new product on static display at the Meridian party was the Audio Core 200 2-channel analog/digital preamp with a chassis designed by Alan Boothroyd. It provides a SpeakerLink digital input to accommodate a Sooloos media server and SpeakerLink outputs for any of the company's DSP speakers. The price? $2500.
When chip giant IDT bought the HQV technology form Silicon Optix almost two years ago, I was a bit concerned for its future. But I needn't have worried—IDT has continued to develop the algorithms with spectacular results. At a breakfast demo today, we saw a prototype of IDT's latest algorithms, which provide motion estimation and motion compensation (MEMC) frame interpolation for 120Hz ad 240Hz LCD TVs.
JVC's press conference was full of 3D projectors—six in all, though in typical JVC fashion, the company's pro and consumer divisions each offer the same projector with different model numbers, which means there are really three new 3D models, all of which use active-shutter glasses. Click the link for prices.
Among Sony's new offerings at CEDIA is the super-slim NX810, a 3D-capable, LED-edgelit LCD TV that will be available in 46-, 55-, and 60-inch screen sizes. No pricing was available at the press conference.
The big story at Sony's press conference was the VPL-VW90ES SXRD projector with 3D capabilities. This is the first projector to carry the company's ES (Elevated Standard) designation, which includes a 5-year warranty among other things.
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