News Headlines
| 03/04/2008 | Mondials are World-Class | |
| Committed hi fi enthusiast journal Hi Fi World, has reserved its highest accolade for the diminutive leather-bound Audio Pro MI mini-monitor. Collecting a maximum five globes, the M1 charmed the World crew with its blend of novelty and performance. In his review, Editor David Price said ‘the best thing is that their tiny cabinets are utterly inaudible – giving one a sense of an electrostatic-like out of the box listening experience. The music simply hangs in the room… images are located quite accurately. Tonally, the Audio Pros are as warm as they can be…the mid-band sounds clean without being dry and analytical. Beautifully built and sweetly styled, with a pleasantly warm and clean sound – these are lovely little boxes.'
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| 20/03/2008 | Porto is a Top Dock! | |
| If proof of the re-priced Porto’s audio prowess were needed, it can be found within the lofty portals of audiophile hi fi magazine 'Hi Fi World'. Editor David Price, who's used to mixing with and judging the finest audio equipment on the planet, was full of praise for Porto's quality – ‘It was genuinely detailed, with a surprisingly airy treble... Bass was powerful and firm whilst avoiding the usual boom you get with portable audio devices that attempt to reproduce low frequencies...It offers superb build and finish and sounds surprisingly civilised – an average iPod boom box it is not... At under £175 it’s competitively priced, and a good deal cheaper than Harman Kardon’s superb £250 Go & Play portable which is the one to beat on sonic grounds. Overall then a charming little music maker offering fine value for money’. Verdict 5 Worlds (Maximum score) March 2008 issue Click For More Info... |
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| 25/02/2008 | 52” of Wow Factor! | |
| The latest in Planar’s new generation of LCD screens custom-built for the CI channel is the amazing PD520 LCD TFT True HD Monitor. Following the acclaimed 37”, 42” and 47” models, this vivid, 52” high definition display has a full 1080 HD panel, AM TFT-LCD technology, top-class video processing and a generous range of connections: dual HDMI with HDCP along with two HD compatible component video inputs and four further independent video inputs. Digital and analogue audio connectivity is also provided greatly simplifying video component integration.
The PD520’s meticulously crafted and diamond polished brushed aluminium bezel frame is finished with five coats of premium-grade black lacquer and a final automotive-grade clear coating. The bezel’s profile (similar to a picture frame) also reduces frame reflections, further enhancing the viewing experience. The PD520 incorporates all the facilities critical to system operation. These include discrete power commands and direct access to all inputs and image presets. IR and RS232 control inputs are standard, along with power LED deactivation.
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| 25/02/2008 | DarkChip4 under £5000! | |
| The new InFocus IN83 Full HD projector combines state-of-the-art technology and ease-of-use to deliver a breathtaking HD video experience. From its full HD 1080p DLP panel, Blu-ray™, HD DVD or Sky HD can all be viewed at their highest possible resolution. New at this price point, a Texas Instruments™ 1920 x 1080 DarkChip4 DLP® panel delivers stunningly deep, rich blacks, and bright, pure whites while preserving all of the subtle shades in between. Click For More Info... |
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| 25/02/2008 | Planar's new 1080p stars! | |
| Designed exclusively for the speciality home theatre market, Planar’s newest projection line fulfils the channel’s growing demand for top-quality, high-definition video displays for the residential installation market. Housed in stunningly curved and richly lacquered piano black cabinets with metal flake accents, the PD8150 and PD8130 offer the advanced performance and tuning versatility that custom integrators and their customers demand.
A super low noise and light pollution cabinet design leaves the potential of the PD8150 and PD8130’s advanced 1080p DLP® architecture, customized video processing and high performance optics undiminished on the screen. They offer state-of-the-art Dynamic Black™ and BrilliantColor™ image enhancement and advanced Gennum VPX video processing. DLP® Dynamic Black uses the full dynamic range of the DMD while dynamically controlling contrast with light aperture control. Bright scenes appear brighter while dark scenes are darker and maintain great depth of detail. Viewers no longer have to choose between brightness and contrast, they can have both. BrilliantColor™ processes up to 6 colours for nearly 50% brighter colours.
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| 24/02/2008 | Clean and scale any video to Full HD | |
| We’re delighted to welcome DVDO/Anchor Bay Technologies to the CSE family of products. As one of the world's most respected innovators in video processing, its outboard video processors will dovetail beautifully with our superior video lines to provide the ultimate in versatile video processing. The pinnacle of its achievement so far is its iScan™ VP50PRO, the world’s first THX Video Certified video scaler and processor. Blu-ray, PS3, HD-DVD, DVD, Sky HD, Games Consoles and PCs are all equally and powerfully enhanced. With multiple HDMI 1.3 connectivity and state of the art 10-bit precision processing, all sources, all formats and all video resolutions can be viewed on the latest Full HD displays at the highest achievable picture quality. You can even scale and enhance your old VCR tapes to experience them on the biggest of screens! Click For More Info... |
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| 24/02/2008 | InFocus PJs: the 'Ultimate' choice | |
| Both the IN82 and IN76 featured in an ‘Ultimate’ round-up of TV technology in the Sunday Mirror of the 24th February 2008. Selecting the best prospects for an audience of 1,366,922, reviewer Caramel Quin decided to award the projector category's 'Best Buy' to the multi-award winning IN76 and the ‘blow-out’ prize to the amazing IN82 full HD PJ. Congratulating the IN76 for its ‘impressive’ large picture and describing the IN82 as ‘the best Fully-HD projector you can buy’, she has ensured that InFocus rightfully qualifies as the 'Ultimate' projector brand.
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| 14/12/2007 | InFocus IN82 strikes T3 Gold! | |
| The IN82 has picked up a coveted T3 magazine Gold Award for its big picture performance and value. In its January 2008 issue out now the magazine says ‘invite pals round for a viewing and the detail levels will leave their minds boggling, while the natural, vibrant colour reproduction will rapidly foster in them a burning and – to you – highly gratifying feeling of jealous rage and general inadequacy.’ The review concludes that it is ‘a stunning next generation projector…still excellent value compared to pricier rivals.’
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| 02/12/2007 | Stonking Debut LCD! | |
| With the words ‘possibly the single most subtle and satisfying LCD TV picture performance that money can buy’, John Archer concludes an overwhelmingly positive first review of the Planar PD470 in What Video & HDTV magazine. Awarding a Best Buy badge, he proclaims the ‘sensational purity’ of its pictures: HD images ‘look utterly pristine, with no grain, no noise and no processing glitches.’ Even more remarkable is how the 470’s Cortez processing engine ‘rebuilds’ standard def images ‘to fit the screen’s full HD panel better than, quite possibly, any other processing engine we’ve seen to date.’ Motion handling is ‘spectacularly good’, colours ‘spectacularly vivid’, producing ‘arguably the most believable skin tones on LCD’, and the black level ‘puts the cinema into home cinema’. Test results show that a post-calibration CIE chart is as close to perfect as you could hope and RGB levels read an ideal 100/100/100%. Click For More Info... |
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| 02/12/2007 | Re-writing the HD rulebook | |
| What Video issue 328 sees the artful InFocus Play Big IN81 1080p projector follow up its success in What Hi Fi? S&V with another top scoring performance. Achieving a 5 star rating for features, ease-of-use, picture and value, the IN81 collects a Best Buy award for its ‘pretty much flawless’ pictures involving a ‘phenomenal’ black level response, ‘sensational’ fine detail, ‘really punchy’ brightness and ‘terrifically rich’ colour tones. Buoyed by a maximum score for each category in the lab report as well, the Magazine concludes that the IN81 is ‘a genuinely outstanding projector at a truly irresistible price.’ Click For More Info... |
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| 04/11/2007 | Planar takes What Video Title! | |
| What Video & High Definition TV, the UK’s biggest selling specialist video hardware title (abc 16,207), has awarded top honours for 2007 to Planar’s PD7060 PJ. According to the experts at the magazine it is ‘by far the best value big screen lightbox on the market’ which ‘defines its sub-£2000 price tag with luxurious colours and noise-free playback of HD material’. The magazine describes its discovery of a ‘breathtaking amount of fine detailing on show’ as a ‘genuine pleasure’ and praises the ‘vivid yet completely natural’ colours and the ‘crisp’ motion handling. By beating the cream of the projector market to the punch with only its second projector launch, Planar’s achievement is a ‘resounding triumph’ and the PD7060 ‘is the best movie machine you’ll find for the price anywhere on the planet right now’.
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| 29/10/2007 | Geneva's musical miracles! | |
| From Switzerland, Geneva Lab is revolutionising home stereo by making great sound easy. For too long, we’ve been told that good sound comes only from stacks of components and speakers cluttering up a room. But great sound doesn’t always require piles of boxes and coils of cable. All it takes is the Geneva Sound System: a perfectly balanced array of components in one piano-lacquered cabinet.
It’s an all-in-one hi-fi that fits in the home as simply as a table lamp. In a choice of three sizes and piano lacquered colours, it offers an optimal, easy-to-use sound experience anywhere in the home; from a table top location or from an optional heavy-gauge aluminium stand. Each Geneva Sound System has iPod connectivity, a built-in low distortion CD player and digital FM radio tuner with external antenna for superior signal capture.
With up to six high performance drivers, including two powerful subwoofers in the Model XL, and up to 600 watts of pure digital amplification in one solid piano-lacquered cabinet, a Geneva Sound System is carefully calibrated, tuned and optimised to deliver a truly wide frequency range: from deep bass sounds as low as 35 Hz to beautifully defined highs up to 22,000 Hz (+/–2dB). This amazing performance, coupled with an incredible dynamic range, is why Geneva Sound Systems are compared with multi-component systems costing many times more. Click For More Info... |
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| 26/10/2007 | What Hi Fi? Awards: InFocus triumphs once again! | |
| InFocus has roared once again by taking the home theatre projector honours at yet another What Hi Fi? awards ceremony. This year InFocus not only won the Product of the Year award for the IN82, it also dominated the budget category with the ever-green IN76. These 2007 awards top a stunning four-year reign of supremacy for InFocus at the UK’s most important and prestigious awards for home entertainment hardware.
Here's the list:
2004, Best projector under £1500: SP4805, Best projector under £1500-£3000: SP5700, Best projector under £3000-£5000: SP7205, Product of the Year: SP5700; 2005, Best projector under £1000: SP4805, Best projector under £2000-£4000: SP7210; 2006, Best projector under £1000: IN74, Best projector £1000-£2500: IN76, Product of the Year: IN76; 2007, Best projector under £1000: IN76, Best projector £2000-£4000: IN82. Product of the Year: IN82
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| 01/10/2007 | Sunday Telegraph Champ! | |
| The September 30th issue of the ‘Seven’ media supplement to the Sunday Telegraph (abc 641,385) featured a test of five subwoofers which pitted designs from leading woofer brands like REL, Velodyne and Monitor Audio against those from relative newcomers Audio Pro and Revel. The result was a decisive victory for the virtues of no-compromise engineering. Of all the subwoofers in the test, Revel’s amazingly compact but incredibly heavy B12 sub proves that when it comes to deep low frequency grunt, control and fidelity there’s no substitute for brute physicality. In awarding the B12 the ‘Choice’ of the test, reviewer Stephen Ferns says ‘…such ordinance gives the B12 supreme control when producing clean bass waves, which impart a sense of natural authenticity. It’s the kind of limb-pinning ballistic bass that evokes the sense of hysteria you get from a roller-coaster ride…’
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| 26/09/2007 | Planar 7060 is a Hi Def star! | |
| Following its 'Best Buy' success in What Video and What Home Cinema magazines, the PD7060 has received yet another top accolade in the form of a Home Cinema Choice Best Buy award. Reviewer John Archer says ‘The PD7060’s HD sharpness is even more pronounced than that of the InFocus IN78, which provides this Planar with its closest direct competition. Also extravagantly good for £1750 is the PD7060’s black level…I’ve seen projectors which are twice as expensive fail to deliver such depths of black. Colours are good too, combining impressive intensity with, for the most part, likeably natural tones….if you want an affordable PJ that really puts the definition in high definition then this is it.’
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| 26/09/2007 | Take a look at Projecta | |
| Projecta is a serious player in the projection screen industry offering a consistently high level of quality for professional applications and all levels of home cinema, from portable, pull-down screens to the most esoteric auto-aspect models. The Dutch screen specialist provides a wide range of convenience features and accessories for the film connoisseur as well as the occasional viewer. The home cinema range has the unique attribute of having a black border all around to increase the perceived clarity of the projected image; certain screens have an extra high black border at the top section of the projection screen to allow you to adjust for the optimum viewing height. To get the most from your PJ, take a look at Projecta... Click For More Info... |
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| 26/09/2007 | Real Leather Speakers | |
| Audio Pro’s new Mondial loudspeaker range is not painted or veneered, it’s upholstered! Around the compact, slim profile Mondial range, a choice of black or brown hide is beautifully stitched and finished to a standard reminiscent of high quality leather goods. Unlike the space-age synthetics of many speakers, which might look nice in a chemist’s shop, Mondial’s leather has a character more in keeping with softer furnishings and richer, more organic interiors.
Utilising high-performance drivers, including the latest super tweeters, the Mondial series comprises five speaker pairs, ranging from the ultra-compact M1 (which includes a wall bracket) to the slim floor-standing M5. With the M4 centre-channel speaker and two active AceBass subwoofers (also in leather) as multi-channel options, the Mondial range offers a novel, stylish and versatile choice of great sounding systems for the home.
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| 26/09/2007 | Multi-room iPod and more! | |
| Share your personal iPod® playlist with up to eight rooms in the house and swap playlists with as many as five other iPods with SpeakerCraft's innovative, easy-to -use and versatile MODE multi-room entertainment system. Uniquely intuitive, the MODE in-room Keypad provides full control of each iPod with all album information visible on a high resolution colour display. A dedicated base station allows each iPod to be conveniently located in any room while a single cable carries both audio and data back to a multi-room MZC controller. SpeakerCraft’s digital audio servers and other sources can also be fully controlled via the MODE keypad. Album, artist, song title, genre, and user defined play-lists can all be selected from its colour display in any room in your home. Share all your music, iPod content and more with the entire family via the MODE system and banish the space hungry, dust friendly, last century midi systems and radios forever. MODE multi-room is the 21st Century way to enjoy entertainment around the home! Click For More Info... |
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| 26/09/2007 | Please remember to breathe! | |
| If you're settling down to a night in front of the big screen, there's no replacing the heart-stopping speed and natural 3-D precision of the finest and most sophisticated digital audio processing on the Planet. The pioneers of multi-channel sound design are refining their original art to even greater levels as the new RV-5 receiver and MV-5 processor will prove. If you really want to suspend disbelief, Lexicon is where you begin and where you stay. Before you invest in the latest ordinary digital sound processing, you owe yourself a listen to the real deal. Just remember to breathe! Click For More Info... |
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| 25/09/2007 | 'ASTONISHING'! 1 box system | |
| Primare's CDI-10 has proved its true hi fi credentials by impressing the big-eared experts at Hi Fi Plus magazine - the UK's most esoteric hi fi publication. When compared with more traditional hi fi systems from big names like Rotel and Quad, the CDI10's sonic capabilities gave reviewer Chris Thomas a very pleasant surpise. Writing in issue 53 for an enthusiast audience equipped more often than not with whopper systems he says ‘this is a notable product that would satisfy many people’s ambitions. If you’re looking for a quality second system for the bedroom, study etc, this should be at the top of your list. But if you’re on a budget, then smile because the Gods are smiling too. In conclusion he implores his readers to 'take into consideration the fact that it is priced much lower than any of the other three, that it has an excellent FM section and a useful DAB ability, plus the fact that, as a single box design, it offers true convenience, only needs one shelf, one mains plug and requires no signal cabling and you have an astonishing package for the money.’ That's right, he did say 'ASTONISHING'!
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| 25/09/2007 | A Truely Portable Dock! | |
| Audio Pro’s battery/mains powered dock turns a personal player into a party animal! The iinnovative ‘Porto’ is a durable, leather-clad, uniquely equipped and genuinely portable music system custom-designed for any iPod or MP3 player. There are many lightweight battery-powered iPod systems available, but few are as well specified and carriage-friendly as the Porto. And unlike many mains-powered systems of similar sonic potential, the Porto can travel literally anywhere!
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| 24/09/2007 | Over 2 million see IN81 win! | |
| Readers of the Mail On Sunday's 'Live Night and Day' supplement will have seen a tasty choice of Full HD (1080p) projectors shining from its pages on 16th September 2007. Invited in their millions to weigh up the strengths of newcomers from Dreamvision, Sony, Projection Design and SIM2, their eyes would have been drawn to the projector carrying the two logos that invariably end up together: InFocus and Best Buy! For its 'sleek black lines and solid build', and 'a picture quality to challenge your local multiplex', the new InFocus IN81 emerged as the PJ of choice - the most affordable Full HD big screen performer! Click For More Info... |
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| 23/09/2007 | Stormin' 1080p PJs | |
| InFocus' native 'Full HD' resolution projectors have triumphed in the latest What Hi Fi? magazine. The UK's biggest selling home entertainment hardware magazine included the new InFocus IN81 and IN82 in a supertest of 1080p models between £2000 amd £3000, and they trounced the competition by coming first and second in the winners' list. The five star IN81 was praised for its 'beautifully bright, colourful picture with ample insight into dark areas on the screen...(which) clearly delineates the various shades of black that characterise 'Training Day'. The review concludes that the IN81 'is a must see' device. It comes second only to the 'stupendous' IN82. Of the IN82 the magazine says 'scintillating picture performance for a very fair price - a steal', and concludes 'it's a thrilling blend of flexibility, affordability and capability that makes the IN82 so special. Nothing else we've tested at this price gets close.' Click For More Info... |
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| 23/09/2007 | InFocus: Performance guaranteed! | |
| InFocus gives you the peace of mind that comes with owning a top brand. So assured is the Company of the enduring quality of its award-winning projectors that it’s offering an unbeatable guarantee on its new 1080p IN81 and IN82 PJs and its amazing IN78 and IN76 720p models. For the IN81/82, InFocus is offering an unparalleled three year doorstep swap-out against failure. This means that if the PJ stops working within three full years of purchase, InFocus will immediately swap it for one that does! And there’s more: celebrating the enduring performance of DLP® technologies against LCD, InFocus is offering a three year dead pixel guarantee on its new IN81/82 models. For the IN76/78 budget 720p designs, InFocus offers an unprecedented two year doorstep swap-out; and for IN76 through to IN82, InFocus gives a one year or 3000 hour lamp guarantee. This allows you to use the projector for eight hours per day for 365 days, and if it fails InFocus will replace it! With InFocus the best performance is guaranteed!
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