Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Home Cinema Choice

I was ready to declare Top Gun: Maverick (p90) as the movie event of the year, until I remembered that Avatar 2 is in cinemas December. Will this sequel to James Cameron's 2009 mega-hit win a box office dogfight with Tom Cruise's high-flying actioner? Time will tell. The original Avatar up-ended the film industry. Cameron proved exactly what could be accomplished with 3D technology, and it led to a deluge of big-budget stereoscopic titles. Even TV makers were inspired by its success to go big on 3D display tech. As our letters pages in this issue reveal, 3D still has its fans – despite the format being declared domestically dead years ago. I'm therefore interested to see what impact Avatar 2 might have. If anyone can convince TV manufacturers to…

It is an often repeated trope that the centre speaker has the most important role of any in a multichannel setup, as it acts as the ‘anchor’ around which the other speakers perform. McIntosh has taken this idea and run with it – the XCS1.5K might be the most extraordinary centre channel model we’ve ever clapped eyes on. Ticketed at a cool £39,995, the unit replaces the outgoing XCS2K and XCS1K models and weighs a whopping 80kg. It has been designed to complement the American marque's high-end XRT2.1K and XRT1.1K floorstanders. Like those speakers – which sell for £159,000 and £69,000 respectively, in case you're wondering – the XCS1.5K adopts McIntosh’s unique take on configuration. There are no less than 43 separate drivers in this beast of a centre. Of…

Sound United has announced new, extensive home cinema ranges for its sibling brands Denon and Marantz. Notably, the former gets its first 15-channel AV receiver (see p7), while the latter acquires a flagship pre/power combo, and borrows a new design style from its stereo hardware. However, the most interesting news is arguably that Sound United has teamed up with Swedish sound processing corp Dirac, a favoured sound solution of rival companies Arcam and NAD. From next year, some of the new Denon and Marantz units will be firmware updated to support Dirac Live – the end user will then need to pay a license to run the software. Models from Denon that will work with Dirac Live are the AVC-A1H 15-channel flagship, and the AVC-X4800H (£1,999) and AVC-X3800H (£1,499). On…

With many AVRs and processors coming with Audyssey room EQ as standard over the last couple of decades, it is sufficient to say the American brand knows a thing or two about equalising room acoustics. And this year it's out to prove it. Back in 2017, in an endeavour to bring new features and more powerful software to the enthusiast end of home cinema, the company released the paid-for ($20) Audyssey Editor app, which could be used in conjunction with the in-hardware MultEQ system. This app bolted on some new tools and a nice interface with pretty graphs, but it wasn't quite what Audyssey users were hoping for, particularly as by this time the rival Dirac platform had begun to make waves. Now Audyssey is taking the fight to the…

THE BBC BEGAN life a century ago, on October 18th 1922, and its arrival was partly down to an Australian opera singer called Dame Nellie Melba. The Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company had in 1920 broadcast Dame Nellie warbling from a station at its Chelmsford New Street Works. This was condemned as a waste of precious wavelengths by The General Post Office, which oversaw telegraphy at the time and considered it useful only for things like commercial shipping and military communications. But the genie had been let out... Pressure from industry and radio enthusiasts (including 63 'wireless societies' representing more than 3,000 listeners) resulted in Marconi being allowed to resume entertainment broadcasts in 1922. Meanwhile, the GPO, mindful of the unregulated chaos that marked the nascent radio industry in the US,…

US brand GoldenEar was the third loudspeaker company founded by famed designer Sandy Gross, following in the footsteps of Polk Audio and Definitive Technology. Gross has now left, but his parting gift is the £1,499-per-pair Bookshelf Reference X. This moderately sized bookshelf (or standmount, although GoldenEar doesn't sell any matching stands) is the last design to bear Gross's input, and joins two other pre-existing smallscale models in the Bookshelf lineup – the Aon 2 (£899) and Aon 3 (£1,100). However, it doesn't share much in common with those, instead being designed more as a baby brother to the brand's high-end Triton Series floorstanders. In other words, it's GoldenEar's premium smallscale model, and ripe for deployment on both front and surround duty in a multichannel system where larger loudspeakers aren't desired…

AV INFO PRODUCT: 4K OLED TV with Dolby Atmos audio POSITION: Second-tier OLED from Hisense, below the A9H models PEERS: LG OLED55C2; Panasonic TX-55LZ980 SOME OLED TVS are designed for The Batman, predisposed for darkness and shadow. The Hisense A85H is more of a Strictly Come Dancing kinda screen. Pictures pop like candy, and dynamics have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer blow. If you want wow, you’ll find it here. It’s not stingy on features either. There’s Dolby Vision onboard (with Dolby Vision IQ), support for high-framerate gaming, HDR10+ compatibility, a content-rich smart platform, and even IMAX Enhanced certification. Also available in 48in and 65in screen sizes, the 55in A85H is pitched directly against LG’s C2 model. So is this surprisingly bullish Hisense the dark horse in the…

A RELATIVELY LOW-COST 4K flatscreen with mainstream appeal, Xiaomi's F2 is built around Amazon’s popular Fire TV platform. This makes it a tempting buy if you’re after a second telly, or cheapie living room panel. Priced £440 in its 50in guise, the F2 looks presentable enough, with a micro bezel finish and two widely spaced slim feet, but build quality is undeniably budget. The set weighs a mere 11.06kg. There are four HDMIs to plug into, one supporting basic ARC. Additional hookups are USB, Ethernet, a digital optical audio output and a minijack AV input. Wireless connectivity comes via Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi. The F2 works with Amazon Alexa (natch) and Apple AirPlay. Tuner inputs support satellite and terrestrial, the latter with Freeview Play. Operationally, the F2 behaves just like…

I READ MY colleague Mark Craven's piece on 'retro revivalism' (HCC #334) with one or two nods of the head. Gently nudging people to remember a time when things were a little less awful is sound business right now, and as someone who generally chooses 'tried and tested' design themes, I like – for once – to be considered fashionable. The thing is, though, I feel the specific period Mark thinks we should look to emulate isn't quite right. Allow me to elaborate. As he notes, two-channel hi-fi has gone all in on the retro idea. I am writing this sat in front of a pair of PSB Passif 50 loudspeakers. These are absolutely brand-new and inside is a fair bit of PSB's up-to-date engineering and acoustic knowhow. Outside is…

➜ Bullet Train Dogged by bad luck, professional assassin Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is looking for an easy job that doesn't involve killing anybody. To that end his latest mission is a simple snatch and grab: board the bullet train in Tokyo, snaffle a briefcase with a train sticker on its handle, and get off. But fate has other ideas, and Ladybug is soon battling other assassins, each with conflicting, but somehow connected, jobs. The latest film from Atomic Blonde and Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch, Bullet Train is an overstuffed action-thriller that leaves reality at the station as it embarks on a cartoonish trail of destruction. Its structure is a little too selfconsciously tricksy (although kudos for committing to the water bottle flashback), yet it eventually pulls all its…

➜News highlights BOWERS & WILKINS Revamp for 700 Series loudspeakers OPTOMA Projector specialist unveils CinemaX D2 UST duo MCINTOSH Is this the world's most bonkers centre speaker? FOCAL Premium Utopia headphones AT THE PLEX This month's cinema releases SILENT RUNNING 1972 sci-fi classic resurrected for 4K Blu-ray & MORE! The top dog in Denon's new home cinema lineup, the £5999 AVC-A1H's 15 power channels support expansive speaker systems, with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Auro-3D and IMAX Enhanced decoding on board. Emphasising its flagship status is the amp's use of Denon's 'most powerful transformer', plus a high-rigidity construction and premium components. The feature set includes HEOS multiroom and HDMI 2.1 connections, while Dirac Live room EQ will be available as a paid firmware upgrade next year. HCC ONLINE… For breaking AV…

Celebrating the very best in home cinema and smart home design, the 2022 CEDIA Awards, for the EMEA region and 'global' categories, were announced in early October. And, as usual, UK installation firms had reason to cheer. In particular, Intuitive Homes and Ultamation were winners across four categories for one project, their 'Cooper House' whole-home installation being celebrated for 'Excellence in Lighting', 'Technology Meets Design' and 'Life Lived Best at Home,' while also earning the prize for Integrated Home Level II. Another UK winner was Cinema Lusso, for a custom cinema room (pictured bottom left) that won in both the EMEA Home Cinema Level II category and picked up the prestigious Global Home Cinema trophy. Londonbased installer HomePlay also snaffled both EMEA and Global Media Room awards, while an extensive…

KIT CHECKLIST SIM2: Domino 4 UHD HDR projector CINEMA BUILD SYSTEMS: Slim Series 100in acoustically transparent projector screen ANTHEM: MRX 740 AV receiver PARADIGM: 3 xP80-IW in-wall speakers (LCR), 4 xH65-A in-ceiling speakers (surrounds/back), 1 xRVC-12SQ in-wall subwoofer; 1 xX300 amp KALEIDESCAPE: Strato S movie player APPLE: Apple TV 4K RTI: T4x remote control and XP-6s processor LUTRON: RA2 Select lighting GIK ACOUSTICS: Acoustic treatments A 'GROUND UP' design by UK firm Seymour AV Design, albeit in a below-ground basement space, this relatively compact movie room is something of a departure from the custom install norm, complete with angled walls, U-shaped seating arrangement and vintage style wall-lights. And, according to Seymour AV's managing director Tom Banks, it was a project with two main challenges. 'One: due to Covid we couldn’t…

AV INFO PRODUCT: 55in 4K HDR OLED with EX panel POSITION: A rung below Panasonic's LZ2000 series PEERS: Samsung QE55S95B; LG OLED55C2 RIVAL OLED MANUFACTURERS are really getting started with new types of high-brightness panel designs, but Panasonic has been at it for years – with consistently great results. A catch has been that the brand's hardware-enhanced OLED TVs have tended to pile on the (Great British) pounds. The previously reviewed (and adored) LZ2000 model (55in reviewed in HCC #334), remains near the top of the price ladder, yet there's a more affordable option for AV fans who want the same cutting-edge picture quality for way less money. To be clear, the LZ1500 series – again represented here by a 55in model – carries exactly the same picture bells and…

SPECIFICATIONS 3D: Yes. Active shutter 4K: No. 1,920 x 1,080 HDR: Yes. HDR10 CONNECTIONS: 2 xHDMI inputs; USB service port; 3.5mm audio in/ out; RS-232; optical digital audio output BRIGHTNESS (CLAIMED): 2,300 Lumens CONTRAST (CLAIMED): 500,000:1 ZOOM: 1.2x DIMENSIONS: 366(w) x 118(h) x 244(d)mm WEIGHT: 3.6kg FEATURES: DLP projector; 4LED lighting engine; 2 x5W built-in audio system; Room Light and Room Dark presets; multiple gaming features including HD/120Hz playback; 30,000-hour claimed maximum lamp life AV INFO PRODUCT: Full HD DLP projector with a focus on gaming POSITION: Around the middle of BenQ’s home ent. projector range PEERS: BenQ X3000i; Optoma UHD35 gaming projector as likely to be working in a study or bedroom as a main living room. A 1.2x optical zoom adds a degree of setup flexibility. The PJ's…

FIFA 2023 Electronic Arts ➜ PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch ➜ £69.99 (PS5) After a 25-year run, Electronic Arts and FIFA are set to part ways. FIFA 23 will be the last to sport the football federation’s name (from EA, at least) and we’ll enter a new era next year. In the meantime, we have a FIFA outing that doesn’t bring a whole lot of new bells and whistles to the party, but at least closes the relationship on a high. The on-field action has been improved enough for seasoned fans to feel the differences, while some of the modes have been tweaked for the better. FIFA Ultimate Team, whereby gamers build squads from the thousands of player cards and take each other on…

➜ Thor: Love and Thunder After time spent hanging out post-Avengers Endgame with the Guardians of the Galaxy and getting back into shape (‘from dad-bod to Godbod’), Chris Hemsworth’s Thor comes to aid the citizens of New Asgard when Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) starts to live up to his name, rampaging through the MCU’s omnipotent inhabitants. Then Thor learns that New Asgard has its own protector: The Mighty Thor, the Mjolnirwielding super-powered alter-ego of his ex, Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Wackier and more comedic than any other MCU outing this side of Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the fourth Thor film will not be for everyone. Despite the presence of Bale’s sinister Gore (one of the MCU’s most interesting and complex villains), and a plot-line involving Jane’s…

BY THE EARLY 1980s Canadian writer-director David Cronenberg found his career at a crossroads. The filmmaker's formative low-budget features, including Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977) and The Brood (1979), had managed to bridge the gap between exploitation and art house cinema with their mix of transgressive body-horror and philosophical underpinnings, but he hadn't yet graduated to the 'big league'. Then came the success of his headbursting sci-fi thriller Scanners (1981), which made Hollywood sit up and pay attention. Among the offers that came the director's way in the wake of Scanners were opportunities to helm Flashdance (1983) and Return of the Jedi (1983), which he turned down. It's interesting to imagine what Cronenberg might have brought to such big-budget projects (Top Gun was another that would land on his desk) but…

New from projector honcho Optoma are two new 4K ultra-short-throw models, the CinemaX D2 and CinemaX D2 Smart. Priced £1,999 and £2,149 respectively, and both available in black and white finishes, the units feature Texas Instruments 4K DLP optics and DuraCore laser light engines. Designed for use in a traditional living room environment, the PJs claim a brightness of 3,000 Lumens and introduce a new Enhanced Gaming Mode with suggested response times of 16ms (4K/60) and 4ms (1080p/240). HDR10 and HLG formats are supported. Connections include a trio of HDMIs (one with eARC for Dolby Atmos passthrough), plus optical and 3.5mm audio outs if you want to bypass the onboard integrated speaker system. There's also a powered USB port, ready to juice the bundled Android TV HDMI dongle of the…

FOLLOWING A TEAR-DOWN and re-build process that had not been without hiccups (see HCC #334/ #335), I'd arrived at a room with a 7.2.4 audio system, 4K HDR projector, recliner seats and smart lighting. It even looked like a proper home cinema in its various shades of noir paint. So, time to fire up a movie? Not quite. Before that were other considerations, mostly concerning sound treatment. At this stage I appeared to have created something with all the acoustic grace of a squash court. It would have been even worse had I not already covered the old parquet floor with commercial carpet tiles. Why these? Because they are easier to lay than roll carpet, have a nice solid backing to protect the old floor and they make it…

AV INFO PRODUCT: Premium 11.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar POSITION: Samsung's flagship, replacing the Q950A PEERS: LG S95QR; Devialet Dione; Sennheiser Ambeo THE FIRST THING to point out about Samsung’s HW-Q990B soundbar is actually something it doesn’t do, which is add any new sound channels. It sticks with the 11.1.4 configuration introduced by last year's Q950A (HCC #324), bringing to an end a proud Samsung tradition of steadily increasing channel counts in its sound systems. However, the number of channels the Q990B has stuck on is still a lot. In fact, no other soundbar system I can think of offers more. And the point of all these drivers is to get as much immersive power and surround sound joy from Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks as possible. You're surrounded! It comprises…

Here's something I wasn't expecting. Musical Fidelity, the audio brand known for its high-end hi-fi products, and association with turntable maker Pro-Ject, which acquired the company in 2018, has launched a seven-channel power amplifier. And it's a big old beast of an amp too. Available now via UK distributor Henley Audio, the M6x 250.7 is the first of three multichannel amplifiers incoming from Musical Fidelity – apparently there are five-channel and 11-channel models, based around the same technology, due to launch. This begs the question of whether the manufacturer will also unleash a multichannel processor, but there's no word on such a thing yet. Still, as I wrote in my recent review of the seven-channel Emotiva BasX A5 (HCC #335), multichannel power amps aren't exactly common, so even if Musical…

WHAT DO THE 1961 Elvis Presley flick Blue Hawaii, the Saturday Night Live spin-off comedy movie Wayne's World, and the 1920 German silent horror film Das Cabinet Des Dr Caligari all have in common? The answer is: they're all being released between now and Christmas on Ultra HD Blu-ray. On p12 of this magazine, our 'Press Play' sidebar hopes to keep you generally abreast of upcoming releases. What happens each issue is that an initial list has to be trimmed, simply to fit the space. The titles that are excised are ones that we imagine many people won't be particularly interested in. This means that when 4K Blu-ray surfaced in the summer of 2016, UHD titles were guaranteed to make the cut. Not any more. There are now so many…

Welcome to the AV-Holic Hall of Fame – introduce yourself! Hi, I'm Robert Llewellyn, 52, and live in Cardiff. How long have you been into home cinema, and what was the first setup you had? I've been into hi-fi since I was a child and then interested in home cinema since the early days of Dolby Pro-logic, before arrival of widescreen TV! Over the years I've had several projector systems but now that large TVs are available at a reasonable cost I have ditched the projector and the need for a dark room. When did you set up your current cinema system? My cinema has evolved since around 1994, although nothing remains from that time! I've owned a Canon processor (which shows how long ago that was, as Canon hasn't…

➜ The Old Man (Disney+) Until now, you might not have considered actor Jeff Bridges to be typical action hero material. But as Dan Chase, an ex-CIA agent who went rogue during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he positively bristles with rage and menace. Chase's medicated body is slowly seizing up, but he is definitely not the kind of OAP you’d want to mess with. Think Last of the Summer Wine meets John Wick. FBI veteran Harold Harper, played by John Lithgow, knows this all too well. The pair share a convoluted history. We’re not told exactly how their lives entwine, but it involves a ruthless Afghan warlord and some classic espionage. Episode one of The Old Man opens with Chase reappearing on the FBI’s radar. Agents are sent to…

WHAT A DIFFERENCE new firmware makes. Sky Glass, Sky’s first foray into IPTV, is getting a major upgrade for its first birthday. New firmware which significantly improves image quality is expected to land on all Sky Glass models before Christmas. By the time you read this, it may even have arrived, deposited into your TV by the AV Santa. I got to see the image upgrade before it was unleashed, during a visit to Sky TV’s sprawling campus in West London. I was there primarily for the launch of the Sky Stream puck, aka Sky Glass without the TV, so this came as quite a surprise. Ushered into a top-secret lab, I was presented with two Sky Glass screens, side-by-side. One model was the Sky Glass we know well, the…