Photo illustration by John Wilkes
This year’s Sound & Vision Reviewer’s Choice Awards feature a number of home- entertainment firsts, including JVC’s GR-HD1 high-definition camcorder, Sony’s RDR-GX7 DVD recorder, which supports both the DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW formats, and Yamaha’s MusicCAST, the first Wi-Fi music system from a major consumer-electronics manufacturer. Also on the Wi-Fi front is the Omnifi DMS1, the first system to send music wirelessly to both your home and car systems.
Not surprisingly, the Awards also offer a snapshot of some promising trends, including lower prices for plasma TVs and high-definition front and rear projectors. You’ll even find a universal DVD player that sells for less than $250 and a home networked DVD player that goes for under $300.
There’s no shortage of traditional gear, however, with speaker systems from Athena, Mirage, and Snell all winning awards. Especially intriguing are Bang & Olufsen’s groundbreaking BeoLab 5 speakers, a successful wedding of technology and style.
This year’s roundup of winners shows that, in home entertainment at least, flair follows function.
Sony RDR-GX7
DVD Recorder
Photo by Tony Cordoza
(original review, October, “Super Recorders”) Just as the DVD recorder market — and the DVD format “war” — seems to be escalating, Sony has decided to call a truce. The RDR-GX7 ($800) is the first DVD recorder we’ve tested that records on both the DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW format families, which were formerly arch-rivals. We hope it’s a sign of things to come. The recorder does treat some formats more equally than others, however. Surprisingly, it’s the non-Sony-promulgated rewritable format, DVD-RW, that gets the lion’s share of the recorder’s considerable editing capabilities — including the ability, during editing of DV camcorder footage for a DVD, to store the editing commands within the recorder. When you’re ready to burn a disc, the Sony takes control of the camcorder, cueing and shuttling the tape around automatically. That way you can easily make multiple first-generation copies of an edited production — something you could previously do only with a computer editing system or a DVD recorder that also has a hard-disk drive.
Sony www.sonystyle.com, 800-222-7669
— David Ranada
Panasonic PT-42PD3-P
42-inch Plasma TV
Photo by Tony Cordoza
(original review, April, “Plasma Action”) The arrival of HDTV has made video something of a numbers game, with high resolution topping the list of desirable traits for a new TV. But there’s more to a TV than resolution — as is made very clear by Panasonic’s PT-42PD3-P plasma set. An enhanced-definition TV, it has a resolution of 852 x 480 pixels. But this widescreen flat-panel TV does so many other things right — especially in its rendition of dark images, which many plasma TVs have problems displaying — that its inability to display high-def programs at full resolution quickly becomes a nonissue. In addition to its superb handling of shadow detail, the Panasonic delivers clear images with punchy contrast and natural-looking colors. Its Spartan design and stripped-down feature set may take some getting used to, but for $5,000 (actually, I’ve seen it selling for $3,000 online), there’s very little here to complain about.
Panasonic www.panasonic.com, 800-211-7262
— Al Griffin
Harmony SST-768
Programmable System Remote Control
(original review, July/August) Nearly every piece of gear you add to your system increases the remote-control population on your coffee table. Instead of playing remote-control Russian roulette, get one remote that controls everything. Three things make the Harmony SST-768 ($300) the one to get. First, it’s incredibly simple to program via a computer connected to the Internet. The intuitive online interface walks you through every step, and in most cases you’ll have it controlling your system in less than an hour. Second, it’s extremely user-friendly. The Harmony organizes everything into activities like “Watch a DVD,” “Watch Television,” and “Listen to a CD.” Through your programming, the remote “knows” what components should be turned on or off, what inputs your TV and receiver should be set to, and so on for each activity. Finally, the company’s support is topnotch — and free! If you’re looking for a great single-remote solution easy enough for the whole family to use, seriously consider the Harmony.
Harmony www.harmonyremote.com, 866-291-1505
— John Sciacca
Photos by Tony Cordoza
Athena Audition Series
Home Theater Speaker System
(original review, November) This no-nonsense Canadian speaker setup sounded “right” on most everything I fed it, delivering surprisingly wide dynamics at a price not much higher than those of many one-carton minisystems. Athena’s Audition Series suite is perfectly pleasant to look at, if plain, but looks aren’t what you listen to. The two-way AS-F2 towers struck me with their natural tonal balance, fine detail, impressive extension, and huge quantities of sound — especially for just $600 a pair. The AS-C1 center speaker ($180) is good if not perfect, and the very compact AS-R1 surrounds ($250 a pair) are practically invisible. Finally, the 10-inch AS-P400 subwoofer ($400) is as small as the towers are large, yet it delivered solid support all the way down to 25 Hz or so, an honest half-octave deeper than the towers could manage on their own. All this for $1,430 makes the Athena Audition Series system one hell of a bargain.
Athena Technologies www.athenaspeakers.com, 416-321-1800
— Daniel Kumin
InFocus ScreenPlay 7200
DLP Front Projector
(original review, November, “Bringing the Theater Home”) InFocus is huge in the corporate/industrial world but has only recently started to sell projectors aimed at the home theater enthusiast. The company’s first foray into HDTV-grade front projection is the ScreenPlay 7200, and it’s obvious the engineers did their homework. In addition to a 1,280 x 720-pixel Mustang HD2 DLP (Digital Light Processing) chip, the ScreenPlay is equipped with Faroudja DCDi processing, a wide range of connection options, and enough tweaky setup features to keep video perfectionists busy for hours. But the best thing about this projector is its bright, eye-popping image — the 7200’s light output measured better, by a long shot, than any other front projector we’ve tested. And brightness doesn’t come at the expense of other factors, like shadow detail and color fidelity. Everything from HDTV to sports programs on standard cable looked fantastic. Eight grand might seem like a lot, but it’s a decent price for a projector of this caliber.
InFocus www.infocushome.com, 800-294-6400
— Al Griffin
Toshiba 57HLX82
57-inch HDTV Monitor
(original review, June) As the first TV ever with 1080p (progressive-scan) resolution, Toshiba’s flagship rear-projection set brings home the bits like nobody’s business. Despite a steep list price ($9,000), it’s actually the least-expensive HDTV that can display every tiny element of a high-definition 1080i (interlaced) picture. All that detail comes courtesy of another first: a three-chip LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) light engine that makes traditional cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays seem like dinosaurs. LCoS requires no maintenance and won’t burn in, but its chief shortcoming, at least in first-generation models like this one, is an inability to reproduce true inky blacks. Still, I was extremely impressed by its artifact-busting video processing, solid colors, and breathtaking detail, especially with HDTV programs. Toshiba also wrapped the set in a high-tech cabinet that stands a mere 18 inches from the back wall. Best of all, the 57HLX82’s replacement, the 57HL83, sells for $3,500 less than its predecessor. Now that’s the kind of progress I like to see in a new technology.
Toshiba www.tacp.toshiba.com, 800-631-3811
— David Katzmaier
Photos by Tony Cordoza
Panasonic SC-ST1
Home Theater System
(original review, June, “Home Theater in a Box”) Until recently, people equated Panasonic with solid electronics but modest pizzazz. The SC-ST1 home theater system ($1,000), which combines gorgeous styling, amazing versatility, and a very attractive price, should dramatically change that perception. Since comparisons are inevitable, think of the SC-ST1 as a Bang & Olufsen system without the high price tag. Slender, silvery plastic speaker columns mate with matching floor stands, but they can also hang on the wall or stand on a shelf. The system unit, about as big as two reams of paper end to end, mounts on its own supplied floor stand. While blissfully free of buttons, it does require a well-designed 54-key remote control to access its myriad functions and onscreen menus. The SC-ST1 plays virtually any optical disc except SACDs, including DVD-RAM and CDs with MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) music files. It offers fine video and audio performance, but what makes it special is how stunning it looks even with the power turned off.
Panasonic www.panasonic.com, 800-211-7262
— Rich Warren
JVC GR-HD1
High-Definition Camcorder
(original review, July/August) JVC’s destined-to-be-classic $3,500 GR-HD1 is the world’s first consumer camcorder capable of recording in high-definition (1,280 x 720 pixels, progressive-scan). It manages to do so on standard DV tape and with standard DV recording times by performing “live” MPEG-2 video compression, a difficult feat. For these accomplishments alone it would deserve an award. But given the proper shooting and lighting conditions (fairly bright illumination, tripod mounting), the images you get can also be gorgeous — seductively rich in texture and depth. It even comes with a suite of editing programs capable of transforming your productions into finished DVDs and a generous variety of connector cables for different types of outputs: composite/S-video, progressive-scan or interlaced component video, DV or HD i.Link (FireWire). The GR-HD1 is the perfect high-end accessory for an HDTV. Having your own high-definition footage to view, you can now fill in the seemingly enormous gaps of time between high-def programs that are worth watching.
JVC www.jvc.com, 800-526-5308
David Ranada
Sony Cineza VPL-HS10
LCD Front Projector
(original review, July/August, “LCD for Less”) Over the past three years, DLP has received lots of attention as a breakthrough front-projection TV technology. But I’ll let you in on a secret: LCD has been steadily improving during that time. And while many HDTV-resolution DLP projectors cost upwards of $10,000, you can get a comparable LCD model like Sony’s VPL-HS10 for as little as three grand — list! That leaves you plenty of cash for other stuff, like a motorized projection screen and comfy theater-style seating. The HS10’s feature set includes a copy-protected DVI (Digital Visual Interface) input, a Memory Stick slot for viewing digital photos, and a Side Shot adjustment that lets you install the projector off-center. But the most intriguing thing about Sony’s projector is its picture quality. HDTV looked great on the HS10, but so did standard programs from DVD and cable TV, which get processed and upconverted to high-def resolution. And when you’re blowing pictures up to life-size proportions, good video processing makes all the difference.
Sony www.sonystyle.com, 800-222-7669
— Al Griffin
Photos by Tony Cordoza
Go-Video D2730
Networked DVD Player
(original review, September) Someday all DVD players might be able to play video, music, and photos from a home network as readily as from a disc, but the Go-Video D2730 was the first. For $299, it has all the trappings you’d expect, including component-video outputs and built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoding. Uncommon features include a volume control, 12 levels of zoom, and screen wipes when you jump between scenes. What morphs the D2730 into a digital jukebox are its Ethernet card (which you can swap out for a Wi-Fi version) and the Digital 5 software you install on one or more PCs. Using the same remote you’d use for playing a movie, you can play home videos or MP3 and WMA music files, or show digital photos, stored on networked PCs anywhere in your home. But unlike a dedicated digital media receiver, the D2730 doesn’t take up extra set-top space or another set of A/V inputs. While most DVD players can only read whatever’s on the discs you load into their trays, the D2730 puts a whole network of digital entertainment at your command.
Go-Video www.govideo.com, 800-736-7679
— Michael Antonoff
Yamaha MusicCAST
Wi-Fi Multiroom Audio System
(original review, September) Most products are evolutionary. This one is revolutionary. With its one-two punch of hard-disk storage and Wi-Fi distribution, the MusicCAST system might change the way you listen to music. The MCX-1000 server (not shown) has an 80-gigabyte hard-disk drive; you rip your CD collection to it in MP3 or uncompressed PCM format. The server can assign title and track information using its internal CDDB database or the larger one online, so you can catalog and search your collection. But the coolest part is the MCX-A10 “client,” which looks like a stylish minisystem when paired with the matching optional MCX-SP10 speakers as shown. From any place in your house, using either a wired or wireless connection (Wi-Fi is built in), you can browse the collection in the server and then stream music independently to different clients. The server costs $2,800 and comes with one MCX-A10; extra clients are $600 each, the speakers $120 a pair. Why should music be confined to your home theater? With Yamaha’s MusicCAST, you can listen in the kitchen, bedroom, patio, or wherever you want.
Yamaha www.yamaha.com, 800-492-6242
—Ken C. Pohlmann
Snell XA
Home Theater Speaker System
(original review, September, “Sonic Signatures”) Like a highly trained butler, the suite of speakers I auditioned from Snell Acoustics’ high-end XA family is so impeccably capable, there’s not a lot to say about its performance. Each XA60 tower ($2,800 a pair) combines Snell’s trademark eXpanding Array of dual midrange drivers and a tweeter with a dual-woofer section that reaches way down into the bass depths. A noble compromise between the tightly controlled directivity of a THX-style speaker, optimized for playback of movie soundtracks, and the more expansive spread of speakers that are designed mainly for music, it sounds exceedingly natural (if relentlessly revealing) on movies and music alike. The XA55cr center ($1,300) has the same midrange/treble array as the XA60 along with extensive controls for shaping its response according to how you place it. Together these allow it to mate perfectly with the towers. The PS.10mk2 10-inch subwoofer ($1,350) adds little to the towers’ already impressive bass, but the SR30thx surround ($1,800 a pair) is special: switchable between dipole and bipole operation, it can even be wired to play both side and back surround channels. It’s the most effective, versatile, and transparent surround speaker I know.
Snell Acoustics www.snellacoustics.com, 978-538-6262
— Daniel Kumin
Photos by Tony Cordoza
Mitsubishi WL-82913
82-inch HDTV
(original review, November) Anybody who walks into your living room and sees this Mitsubishi will say something like, “Wow, that’s one big TV.” The first model in Mitsubishi’s new Alpha line lives up to that name with the biggest screen available in a self-contained TV. Mitsubishi ensured its pack-leader status by also making the WL-82913 the most expensive ($21,000) and feature-laden rear-projection TV in the land. Its LCoS light engine delivers 1080p resolution for incredible detail and, yes, the same not-quite-black blacks that all first-generation LCoS TVs suffer from. The huge Mitsubishi performed just as impressively in other critical areas, with theater-level brightness and extremely accurate color. An abundance of inputs and integrated FireWire-compatible home theater control abilities give the WL-82913 the most up-to-date connectivity around and let it command a whole roomful of A/V gear. It can also receive HDTV over the air, connect directly to some high-definition cable systems, and show computer images, including split-screen action on the equivalent of two regular 44-inch TVs side by side. Wow.
Mitsubishi www.mitsubishi-tv.com, 800-332-2119
—David Katzmaier
Omnifi DMS1
Digital Media Streamer
(original review, November) Neatly combining traditional music playback with computer technology, the Omnifi DMS1 ($299) is an unassuming black box that acts as an interface between your computer and your music playback system. Using its software, you can rip CDs to your PC’s hard-disk drive, storing them as either MP3 or WMA files, and also tune into the tasty treats of Internet radio. Then, after you transport your stored or streamed files to the DMS1, it in turn sends the music to your audio system via a wired Ethernet or an optional Wi-Fi connection. You can even transmit stored files wirelessly to the optional DMP1 car playback unit ($599, not shown). Moreover, the software supports multiple Omnifi players in different locations, streaming different music to each one simultaneously. Pets.com and its sock puppet are no more, but the Omnifi is proof that convergence is alive and well.
Omnifi www.omnifimedia.com, 480-967-3565
— Ken C. Pohlmann
Mirage Omnisat 6
Home Theater Speaker System
(original review, May, “Thinking Outside the Box II”) The Mirage Omnisat 6 system ($1,700) tosses tradition to the winds while reproducing a gale of great sound and value. Viewed head-on, the satellite looks like a miniature football, but peer through the grille and you’ll see what looks like a flying saucer hovering over the cone driver. The relative angles of the driver and reflector (the saucer) causes the sound to radiate equally in all directions. (The subwoofer is a more conventional, solid workhorse.) This innovative design and technology create a wide and deep sound field with high accuracy and minimal distortion. Dialogue stays centered on the screen, while offscreen effects fill your room with an eerie realism. You feel immersed in the movie thanks to the ample ambience, but the system never calls attention to itself. It works equally well for music, with spot-on stereo imaging and a near-holographic sound field.
Mirage www.miragespeakers.com, 416-321-1800
— Rich Warren
Photos by Tony Cordoza
Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 5
Speaker System
(original review, September) No recent speaker I know of is more striking on first acquaintance than Bang & Olufsen’s BeoLab 5. First there’s the sticker shock — $8,000 apiece! Then there’s its appearance — like something from a Danish-designed Jetsons. And then there’s its sound quality — superb. It can play loud and clean, it can reach way down into the deep bass, and — thanks to the specially shaped reflecting surfaces around the higher-frequency drivers — it can deliver this superb sound quality to an unusually large prime seating area. You can sit almost directly in front of one of these speakers and still hear a stereo “spread” all the way to the other. But the BeoLab 5’s most significant contribution to audio technology is its extraordinarily clever Adaptive Bass Control automatic bass-equalization system. This optimizes the speaker’s low-frequency output depending on its location in the room, literally at a touch. If you think eight grand apiece is a bit much, just remember that the speakers are self-powered — with 2,500 watts of built-in amplification per speaker — and accept digital input signals directly.
Bang & Olufsen www.bang-olufsen.com, 847-590-4900
— David Ranada
Pioneer DV-563A
Universal DVD/SACD Player
(original review, November) I love both Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, our two high-rez multichannel audio formats. And they’d be even better if the millions of DVD players already out there could play them. But how many folks are going to buy another component just for these dueling formats? Not very many — but with Pioneer’s DV-563A costing just $249 (and probably less “on the street”), a lot more might take the plunge. The DV-563A is an omni-player that handles both DVD-Audio discs and SACDs in their multichannel and stereo guises as well as regular DVDs and CDs, MP3 and photo CDs, and various write-once and rewritable CDs and DVDs. The DV-563A sounded fine in all its modes, especially given its price, and DVD movies looked nearly as good as they do on my much more expensive reference player. Pioneer’s clean, no-nonsense ergonomics don’t hurt, either. If you’re going to buy a $250 DVD player, why not one that lets you sample multichannel DVD-A and SACD as well?
Pioneer www.pioneerelectronics.com, 800-421-1404
— Daniel Kumin
Sony KV-34XBR910
34-inch HDTV Monitor
(original review, October) There are plenty of new TV technologies vying for your HDTV dollar, but for the ultimate in picture quality, I’ll still stake my money on a traditional cathode-ray tube (CRT). Sony’s 34-inch KV-34XBR910 not only delivers great video performance at a very reasonable price ($2,500), but its new Super Fine Pitch CRT features an aperture grille said to have 65% more slits than previous tubes, and that translates to higher-resolution images. Finally, a high-definition TV worthy of the name! The widescreen set has a copy-protected DVI input that’s compatible with the latest DVD players and HDTV tuners, and its Memory Stick slot lets you view still pictures shot with a Sony or Konica digital camera. There’s no denying that this Sony TV takes more living-room space than a flat-panel plasma TV, but as a swan song for CRT technology, it sure looks sweet.
Sony www.sonystyle.com, 800-222-7669
— Al Griffin
V Inc. Bravo D1
DVD Player
Photo by Tony Cordoza
(original review, May) Sometimes something as seemingly insignificant as a connector can signify a substantial change in the way things are done. Right on the front panel of V Inc.’s Bravo D1 DVD player is printed, in tiny letters, “DVI enabled.” The D1 was the first player we tested with a DVI connector, and that breakthrough earns it a Reviewer’s Choice award. A DVI output is to video what the optical and coaxial digital outputs on a CD player are to audio — a way to get digital information, in this case digital video, out of a player without interim conversion to analog form. This is becoming important with the surge in popularity of fixed-pixel displays (plasma, LCD, LCoS, and DLP), which actually “prefer” a digital video signal, since otherwise they’d have to perform an analog-to-digital conversion to process the picture for display. With the Bravo D1 connected to an HDTV monitor using a DVI link, the picture quality was as good as I’ve seen out of a DVD player, combining excellent resolution and color fidelity with an absence of progressive-scan conversion artifacts. Not bad for $199.
V, Inc. www.vinc.us, 714-962-4848
— David Ranada
Kenwood VR-7080
Digital Surround Receiver
Photo by Tony Cordoza
(original review, November) Kenwood’s trim, affordable 6.1-channel A/V receiver ($600) caught my eye and ear alike. I like its simple, retro silver front panel and logical layout of controls and knobs, and I love its blue-glowing, touch-membrane remote control. This is one of the best solutions to the problem of how to get enough controls onto a single system remote without overwhelming the user with a forest of buttons, displays, “pages,” and “soft” keys. Better yet, it requires little practice or study to use. The receiver provides plenty of power and very good performance in Dolby Digital EX or DTS-ES 6.1-channel playback and other core home theater audio tasks. It includes THX Surround EX processing, which can be used on top of the other modes. Also worth a listen is SRS Circle Surround II, an entertaining (and usually more aggressively enveloping) alternative to Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6 for 5.1- or 6.1-channel playback of stereo and other program sources. All the surround modes are adjustable, and it’s this flexibility together with its very reasonable price — and that great remote! — that make the VR-7080 a winner.
Kenwood www.kenwoodusa.com, 800-536-9663
— Daniel Kumin
Hitachi 57T500
57-inch HDTV Monitor
(original review, December) Although its exterior fits the old-school mold of “boxy big-screen,” Hitachi’s 57T500 rear-projection set ($3,499) has some New Age options under the hood. An extensive array of adjustments allows tech-inclined users to achieve extremely accurate color and other picture settings without having to hire a professional, though its default settings are accurate enough that you won’t be shortchanged if you use it as is right out of the box. Because ambient light in your home theater has a huge impact on image quality, each of the 57T500’s inputs is automatically associated with two custom picture presets, one designated for nighttime viewing and the other for watching during the day. Hitachi also threw in a system to control other home theater components via the set’s remote and a simple onscreen interface. All this powerful customization is nonetheless quite easy to set up and use, which helps justify the 57T500’s slightly higher than average list price. If you don’t mind living with CRT technology for a little while longer, this big-screen TV will deliver a topnotch picture.
Hitachi www.hitachi.com/tv, 800-448-2244
— David Katzmaier