Scott Wilkinson: Sony Bravia LCD HDTV
After my recent unfortunate adventures with Internet video streaming on the HP MediaSmart TV and Media Vault (which you can read about in the upcoming TPV issue 76), I was thrilled to learn about Sony's Bravia Internet Video Link, a system that lets compatible Bravia LCD TVs equipped with an optional module to connect directly to the Internet and download video content without requiring a PC. In conjunction with partners AOL, Yahoo!, and Grouper (which provides user-generated content), this product points the way toward a future in which online video delivery is as seamless as broadcast, cable, and satellite are today. 

Back to the top

Chris Martens: LG BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD player
LG Electronics Multi Super Blue Player, which can play both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc material. As I see it, LG deserves our thanks for two reasons: first, for having the technical wherewithal to build a reasonably priced dual-format player that really works, and second, for grasping and then responding to the will of the people--which is to avoid format war altogether.

Arnie Williams: LG BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD player
While the industry is trying to sort out which high-def DVD format is going to win the format war, Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD, LG Corp. has shown that it has the consumer uppermost in mind with its Super Multi Blue Drive that hits the streets in February. Capable of playing either Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD, the player allows consumers to enjoy both formats and to decide for themselves which they prefer without having to outlay even more money once a decision is made. Although this iteration of the BH100 won't provide all the interactive capabilities of HD DVDs, future iterations most likely will. But what's significant about this move on LG Corp's part is that the company put its R&D muscle behind a move that gives the consumer a win-win choice--something that sets the company apart from other high-def player manufacturers.

Back to the top

Barry Willis: Neosonik's Wireless Systems
Neosonik generated plenty of buzz making good on its promise to deliver a fully-realized high-fidelity wireless audio system. Technical mishaps prevented the company from demonstrating wireless high-def video at the same time--within the system's capabilities--but the development was significant nonetheless.

Christopher Jones: Netgear Digital Entertainer HD wireless media server & Digeo Moxi HD media recorder
One of the biggest trends of the last year has been wireless audio-video streaming, and one company that took the concept and ran with it is Netgear. Its new Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) is a wireless media hub that automatically scans available drives on a home WiFi network for videos (even HD), music and photo files, and then organizes it all into a searchable library that is displayed on a TV. Using a PC with a TV tuner installed, you can also use the Digital Entertainer HD as a DVR for searching program listings, scheduling recordings, and pausing live broadcasts. Once these devices have the capability to effectively stream HD over WiFi networks, the game is on.

I should also give a nod here to Digeo's Moxi Home Cinema Edition HD DMR (digital media recorder) which is a Tivo box on steroids. It combines digital video recording, TV broadcasts, HDTV, video on demand, a DVD player (with upscaling), music jukebox, games, and other multimedia files in a unified, searchable screen. The interface is very slick and intuitive, and using the remote you can scroll through all of the video feeds on one screen, while you're still watching a video or TV. Digeo will have a retail launch of the Moxi Home Cinema Edition HD DMR this summer, so keep an eye out.

Back to the top

Stewart Wolpin: Verizon V Cast TV
MediaFLO, branded as V CAST TV by Verizon, which broadcasts live TV to compatible cell phones. The first two V CAST TV phones will be the LG-VX9400, a so-called T-bar phone with a 2.2-inch screen that swivels 90 degrees for widescreen viewing, and the Samsung SCH-u620, a slider phone with a two-inch screen that you turn horizontally to watch widescreen. Verizon is due to start rolling out the V CAST TV service and the two phones in the next two months. Given the popularity of TV watching on cell phones in Asia and the rapidity with which additional V CAST TV compatible phones are likely to become available in the U.S., cell phone TV watching could become as popular as taking pictures or listening to music with cell phone.

Neil Gader: Apple iPhone
The most significant new product wasn’t even at the show; it was a few hundred miles to the west at MacWorld in San Francisco. Naturally I’m speaking of the iPhone– a cell phone, an iPod, with Internet and  WiFi connectivity. Anyone who thinks this kind of convergence doesn’t have implications (and applications) for the broader world of A/V and the high end is living in a state of supreme denial.

Back to the top

Wayne Garcia: Apple iPhone & Magico Model 6 loudspeakers
Well, it sure wasn’t in Vegas—that would be Apple’s new iPhone, introduced at MacWorld in San Francisco.   

And though it was headache-inducing bright on Day One, by the end of the show MAGICO’s likewise new M6, a $120,000, four-way, 500 lbs. per side, beautiful beast of a thing, won my top honors for its extraordinary speed, transient authority, coherence, and ultimately for what is among the top few most convincing recreations of a symphony orchestra that I have ever heard.

Jim Hannon: Wilson Audio Watch Dog modular subwoofers
Most subs provide enhanced low end extension and impact at the cost of midrange clarity and transparency, but not Wilson Audio’s new subwoofer system. Switching two passive Wilson Audio WATCH Dog Modular subwoofers ($6,500 each) in and out of a fine-sounding system with Wilson Ducette speakers via the flexible WATCH Dog controller ($3,800), female voice sounded richer with better air and ambience, but (and here is the most significant point), without reducing midrange clarity at all. And, of course, the impact of music with the subs in the system was simply stunning.

Robert Harley: Spectral SDR-4000 Professional Reference CD Processor
The SDR-4000 Pro is the result of an all-out, five-year development effort by Keith Johnson whose goal was nothing less than state-of-the-art CD reproduction. In addition to incorporating Keith’s latest thinking on CD playback, the $17,500 SDR-4000 Pro features the “long filter,” a custom algorithm running on a DSP platform. According to Spectral, all digital filters extant are sonic bottlenecks that fundamentally damage the signal; the long filter reportedly avoids these distortions. Listening to the SDR-4000 Pro in an all-Spectral system (and Keith’s location recording monitors), I heard an unprecedented combination of resolution with ease, lack of digital artifacts, and immediate listener involvement.

Alan Taffel: Arcam MS-250 Music Server
Arcam MS-250 Music Server. Music servers are the future source for audio systems. They deliver convenient access to one's entire collection, the ability to add new material from various sources (Internet, PC, CDs, etc), and sound quality from high to low resolution at the user's discretion. There have been plenty of music server introductions at this and past CESes, but none as significant to audiophiles as Arcam's MS-250.

The Arcam stands out for several reasons. First, its user interface is the simplest and friendliest I've seen. Tell it to tune in to Internet Radio, for example, and the MS-250 presents the option of selecting stations by genre or by country, with every station clearly identified by an icon and brief description. Use an external display or the server's own generously-sized built-in screen. Couldn't be easier.

Another important advance is this server's huge 400G drive; plenty of space for a big music collection. But the MS-250's greatest significance is simply the fact that it is an Arcam, and all that that implies. This server is built with the company's typical attention to sound-affecting details. The DACs are superb. Noise is strictly controlled. Controls, components, and connectors are all first rate. And the MS-250 matches these sonic elements with unparalleled connectivity. The MS-250 supports up to four independent zones, and provides two sets of analog (yes, analog!) inputs.

Further, it has two USB ports that can be used for disc backup or for additional storage should 400G prove insufficient over time. All in all, Arcam's MS-250 appears to be a music server that will satisfy even the most finicky audiophile. Available in March, the MS-250 will sell for $5,500.

Jonathan Valin: Magico Model 6 loudspeaker
It was only last year that MAGICO's Alon Wolf was a boutique speaker-maker who specialized in one-ofs for very wealthy clients. His first mainstream commercial venture, the two-way MAGICO Mini changed that. Robert Harley, Harry Pearson, and I thought it was the best sound at 2005's CES. And now, a year later, Wolf has done it again - big time.

His $125k four-way MAGICO Model 6 wasn't just the best speaker at this year's CES; it was quite possibly the best speaker I've ever heard.

There is, however, a story behind this.

When Wayne Garcia and I first visited Alon's room - early on Monday morning - he was showing the Model 6, driven by some ultra-expensive Japanese unobtainia and an Esoteric CD player, and a new "udget"model, the three-way $22k V-3, driven by a VAC preamp, a Spectral CD player, and a Spectral amp. I have to admit that neither Wayne nor I were impressed with the sound, which was bright, aggressive, and analytical - on both speakers.

I figured I'd let both speakers break in for a couple of days and come back to hear if they'd improved. Well, by Thursday they had improved - to an extent that was mind-boggling. However, Wolf had also made a couple of ancillary changes that clearly added to their progress. In the case of the V-3s, he'd substituted a VAC amp for the Spectral, with an effect that turned a plethora of raw detail into sweet, sweet music.

With the Model 6, he'd switched sources - from CDs played back through the Esoteric unit to quarter-inch analog tapes played back on a custom Technics deck that will soon be marketed (along with tapes) commercially.

Folks, I've heard some mighty fine stereo systems over the years. I've reviewed truly great loudspeakers from Rockport, Kharma, Nearfield, MBL, Sound Labs, Magneplanar, Sonus-Faber, Ascendo, Avantgarde, and MAGICO itself, among many, many others. But fed by the Technics tape deck and those Japanese oddball electronics, the MAGICO Model 6s reached a level of realism from full orchestra to solo voice that I've simply never heard matched. Oh, some speakers may equal it on some kinds of music; some on others. But none, at this point, on all music.

What are the secret ingredients? Well, parts and manufacture, to start with. The Model 6's enclosures comprise 650 pounds (per side) of 6061-T6 aircraft-grade aluminum. These things go beyond inert to black-hole level; all a knuckle-rap test would result in would be a busted knuckle. Its two midrange drivers are the custom titanium-sandwich cones used to such marvelous effect in the Mini; its tweeter is a variant on the Heil Air Motion Transformer; its three acoustic suspension woofers are custom-designed carbon-fiber numbers. (Wolf is moving toward carbon-fiber drivers of his own design in all his products.)

But it isn't merely the highest-grade parts and manufacture that make the Model 6s what they are. After all, the Continuum Caliburn is just as well made. It is, in my opinion, a clearer sense of how engineering informs sound - of what each part buys you, sonically, when it is properly and precisely implemented in a system. Wolf has a genius for system design, and the Model 6 is proof.

I might've killed to review the Model 6's. Unfortunately, it probably would've killed me to get 1300 pounds of solid aluminum up six steep flights of stairs. Instead, they are slated to go to our Editor in Chief, Robert "Lucky Dog" Harley. All I can say is that from the moment they arrive Robert will very likely have the best stereo in the world.

Back to the top