Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Home Cinema Choice

Sometimes it can feel as if technology is moving ahead rather quickly. An example: remember when TVs were advertised as 'HD Ready', in anticipation of things to come? They were strange times. I got to thinking about this when considering TCL’s new 98in LCD TV (p64). Listen to some TV manufacturers and they appear convinced that such monster screens are the way ahead. Then you look at the figures showing average TV screen sizes in the UK, and it turns out most of us still use sets under 50in (and 43in-49in was the most popular size sold as recently as 2022). However, history shows us that what initially looks like a strange idea often ends up sticking. So maybe we are all just an upgrade or two away from a…

Coming to UK dealers via distributor Renaissance Audio is the QR SE series from Danish speaker manufacturer Audiovector. The new line, which ranges below the brand’s high-end R Series, includes floorstander, standmount, centre channel, on-wall and subwoofer models, so suits both home cinema and hi-fi shoppers. For this 'Special Edition' revamp, Audiovector has made improvements across the board, including to the crossover networks, bass reflex optimisation, power handling and driver damping, while a tweaked aesthetic now includes gold-brass badging on grilles and baffles. All models are dressed in real wood veneers and offered in White Silk, Dark Walnut and Black Piano colourways. Golden highs The biggest of Audiovector’s new bunch is the QR 7 SE floorstander (£5,300), a three-way design with two 8in 'Pure Piston Technology' bass drivers, dedicated 6in…

Time to break out those 'just like buses' gags. Denon and Marantz, brethren brands under the Masimo Audio umbrella, have both unveiled new AV receivers aimed at well-heeled enthusiasts. Priced £3,000, Denon’s AVC-X6800H fills a gap in the company’s lineup. An 11-channel design with 13.4-channel processing, it slots in below the long-running 13-channel AVC-X8500H (HCC #285) and 15-channel AVC-A1H (HCC #340), and replaces the X6700H, first released in 2021. The specifications list will hold no surprises for Denon watchers. This new AV amp integrates a HEOS streaming module, runs Audyssey’s MultEQ XT calibration platform with the (paid-for) option of Dirac Live and Dirac Bass Control, and supports Dolby Vision/HDR10+ passthrough over its seven-input/three-output HDMI stage. As well as upping the channel count over the step-down, nine-channel X4800H (HCC #349), Denon’s…

1 Nice to see you Ferguson Hill has launched the latest iteration of its eyecatching transparent speaker. Described by company founder Tim Hill as incorporating 'all the changes I have wanted to do since the launch of the FH001 20 years ago,' the £105,200 Jetstream Loudspeaker System comprises a pair of giant horn speakers, two subwoofers and a (non-transparent, unfortunately), bass amp. 2 TV titans Smart TV start-up Titan has entered into a deal with TP Vision that will see its Titan OS platform debut on some Philips-branded 2024 flatscreens, kicking off with the upcoming PML9009 and PUS8909 models (see p9). Tech retailer Currys, meanwhile, will feature the Titan OS on its own-brand JVC tellies. 3 Blu-ray with bite Mario Bava’s influential 1965 sci-fi-horror classic Planet of the Vampires is finally getting a…

WandaVision Disney, 4K Blu-ray The first (and, so far, the best) of Marvel’s Disney+ shows, 2021’s nine-part WandaVision miniseries finds newlyweds Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) starting an idyllic suburban life together in Westview, New Jersey. But wait a moment… Since when was it the 1950s, why is everything black-and-white, and what’s going on with that laugh track? Part magical mystery, part homage to the evolution of the TV sitcom, all wrapped up in an affecting exploration of grief, motherhood and loss, WandaVision showed that there really was scope for experimentation and new modes of storytelling in the MCU. It’s also pretty essential viewing for any franchise fan who wants to fully appreciate bigscreen outings Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) and The Marvels (2023,…

➜Hardware MARANTZ Flagship AV 10 & AMP 10 processor/power amp combi PHILIPS OLED+908 TV with high-brightness MLA panel PERLISTEN Mid-range R212s dual-driver subwoofer HISENSE 4K Dolby Vision ultra-short-throw projector SENNHEISER Ambeo Mini Atmos soundbar TCL 98in 4K LED TV WIIM Compact streaming amp with HDMI ARC & MORE! Bowers & Wilkins' new 600 S3 series leverages technology from the speaker brand’s higher-end designs – making it more than just an 'entry-level' proposition. We audition a 5.1 array, with floorstanders up front, on p48. All prices quoted are approximate and may have changed HCC RATINGS KEY……

IN MY EXPERIENCE, it’s far more challenging to make digital look and sound right than analogue, which is why the price of digital test equipment can start at around £6,000 and goes up to around half-a-million quid. For us AV plebs, that leaves us looking at test material instead. In the days of DVD, a disc called Digital Video Essentials, by Joe Kane, was the standard. He'd had success with a LaserDisc to optimise an AV setup, and his upgraded digital version soon became famous in the DVD world. Then along came Blu-ray, and an HD version of Video Essentials. This time, though, it had competition. So many test discs arrived that there were too many to name, but one did stand out: Stacey Spears and Don Munsil’s 'The High…

INTENDED FOR EVERYDAY living rooms and multimedia spaces, Sennheiser’s Ambeo Mini wouldn't look out of place beneath a 42in or 48in screen. At less than half the cubic volume of its Soundbar Plus stablemate (HCC #342), and a fraction of the gigantic original Ambeo Max (HCC #302), you might even describe it as meek. That would be a mistake. This third addition to the Ambeo clan might be cute and compact, but there’s no compromise on power. Its Class D amplification, claimed at 250W, provides copious, distortion-free sound, while Ambeo processing still creates the illusion of multiple speakers. Sennheiser hasn't skimped on build either. This looks like a premium piece of kit, with a wraparound cloth grille concealing its four full-range drivers, which fire forward and to each side, and…

MY LAST FEW months of hi-fi have been a comforting blur of heavyweight casework, relentless overengineering and excellent sound. I've looked at things from £200 to £23,000 and delighted in most of them. Most? Well, one otherwise superb product exhibited a feature that had me deeply uneasy. You know that moment in films where the hero thinks that the villain/monster/alien/cult is defeated only for a fleeting scene just before the credits shows they're wrong (and that the director would really like a sequel greenlit, thank you very much)? Well, this is like that but with more oxygen-free copper. The actual item doesn't deserve to be vilified here because it’s otherwise very good. It’s a network streamer that does all sorts of things, brilliantly. However, where you might expect to find…

Possessor & Green Room: Limited Editions A punk band battles neo-Nazis, and a body-swapping assassin struggles with her sense of self, in two slick thrillers given 4K upgrades by Second Sight Films. The label’s new feature-packed editions of Green Room (2015) and Possessor (2020) are coming to Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and dual-format Limited Edition (the latter with exclusive collector’s books and art cards) on March 25. To mark the release we have one pair of Green Room and Possessor dual-format Limited Editions up for grabs! Question: Two of Green Room’s leads are linked by starring roles in which sci-fi franchise? Answer: A) Star Trek  B) Star Wars  C) Babylon 5 Freaks vs The Reich Four super-powered circus performers do battle with a squad of brutal Nazis in this wild fantasy adventure. Freaks vs…

➜ EXORCIST: THE BELIEVER The various follow-ups to The Exorcist (1973) hew closely to the narrative beats and tropes established by William Friedkin’s smash hit, the only real difference being the quality of the finished product. And when it comes to quality, this franchise has suffered more than most. Whether it’s John Boorman’s unintentionally goofy Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Renny Harlin’s idiotic Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), or Paul Schrader’s flawed-but-interesting Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist (2005), Friedkin’s film has been beset by disappointing sequels. Only William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist III (1990) really holds up, and then only in its frustratingly incomplete 'Legion' Director’s Cut. Where does 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer fit in? With David Gordon Green in the director’s chair, the studio will have hoped he could to reinvigorate…

Philips has kicked off 2024 by outlining a full range of models – OLED, Mini LED and LED – that will land throughout the year ahead. And top of the pile is the OLED+959, a new flagship coming to retailers in the autumn. The set will resurrect a premium strand of Philips TVs that’s absent in its still-current 2023 range – headlined by the OLED+908, reviewed p44 – but previously represented by models with external soundbars attached to their stands, including the OLED+937 (HCC #335). This time, however, the immersive Dolby Atmos speaker array, designed by regular collaborator Bowers & Wilkins, is more conventionally integrated, with drivers hidden by grey 'Audiomix' fabric from Kvadrat. The OLED+959 will come in just one screen size – 65in – with pricing not yet…

A stablemate to the 2021-launched M20 HD powered bookshelf system, Q Acoustics' new M40 HD features floorstanders – aka 'micro-towers' – that come in at a room-friendly 71cm tall. Each cabinet employs two 5in Continuous Curved Cone bass/mid drivers – as seen on Q Acoustics' 5000 series (HCC #344) – and a 22mm tweeter, all hidden behind a fixed, full-length grille. Onboard power is rated at 2 x 100W, delivered by a DSP/amp stage offering three EQ presets. Built-in Bluetooth, supporting aptX HD and aptX Lossless, handles streaming from smart devices and compatible TVs, while USB-B and optical inputs cater to hi-res music. Rounding off connections on Q Acoustics' £749 system are analogue audio ins and a subwoofer pre-out. www.qacoustics.co.uk…

There can be only one! John Wick director Chad Stahelski has signed a deal with Lionsgate giving him creative oversight on both that franchise and the Highlander series across film and TV. Stahelski has also confirmed that a Highlander remake, starring Henry Cavill, will be his next movie. Alcock takes flight Milly Alcock has landed the title role of Kara Zor-El in the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie being developed as part of James Gunn’s rebooted DC universe. Alcock is probably best known for playing Rhaenyra Targaryen in HBO’s GOT prequel House of the Dragon. Future war Moon helmer Duncan Jones is directing an animated adaptation of the 2000 AD comic strip Rogue Trooper. The film will be produced using the Unreal Engine 5 gaming engine, with Hayley Atwell, Jack…

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A relative newcomer to the home cinema scene, having only arrived in 2021, Perlisten hails from Wisconsin in the US, a big country where some people genuinely consider a subwoofer with a 50in driver to be a 'viable option'. But assuming your room isn't the size of Wembley Stadium, can you mine the sonic depths without going to these extremes? The answer, thankfully, is yes. That brings us to Perlisten’s range of subwoofers, most of which employ dual drivers mounted in a sealed push-pull configuration to help generate that all-important deep bass from a relatively compact cabinet. What’s a push-pull subwoofer? While it might sound like something out of Doctor Dolittle, in reality it’s an approach to sub design based on two drivers that are mechanically opposed. One pushes creating…

WHEN IT COMES to home cinema, bigger is always better. This idea has traditionally fed a thriving home cinema projector market, reinforced by the way king-sized TVs with screens of 90in and above have tended to be remortgage-requiringly expensive. Suddenly, though, projectors are finding themselves looking over their shoulders as a new breed of ultra-large TV – that you don't need to be an oil magnate to afford – bursts onto the scene. TCL is right at the forefront of this mammoth TV surge, with no less than four 98in models in its current range. One of these, the 98P745K we're scrutinising here, costs just £2,299. That undercuts the prices of many of the latest laser and ultra-short-throw projectors, even though it’s better placed (on paper, anyway) as a TV…

THE TRIO OF affordable streamers from WiiM were one of my highlights of last year. The Mini (see HCC #346), Pro and Pro Plus, which retail at £90, £149 and £210 respectively, offer enormous value for money and seem to have sold by the van-load. Buoyed by this success, WiiM has turned its attention to amplifiers and launched the imaginatively named WiiM Amp, yours in either 'space grey' or silver for £300. First things first, this is not really designed as a partner to the company’s existing streamers as it has a complete streaming front-end built in. This offers the same functionality as the Pro Plus model, so you get hi-res audio decoding along with an MQA renderer. You can also attach a USB hard drive to the Amp for playback…

Player upgrade Hi. I always buy your magazine and have done for years. I have a Sony 77in A95L QD OLED TV and a Pioneer UDP-LX800 4K Blu-ray player. I've reviewed the Pioneer against Panasonic’s DP-UB9000 and think the video on the Pioneer machine is better. Can you ask the team for thoughts on this, and would the Magnetar UDP900 beat the Pioneer deck when it comes to video? Your help with this would be much appreciated. Gary Butcher Jon Thompson replies: Hi Gary. The simple answer is yes – I consider the Magnetar UDP900 (HCC #346) to be the only referencequality 4K Blu-ray player available today. Pioneer’s UDP-LX800 (HCC #293) was/is an excellent 4K spinner, and a welcome return from a brand that hadn't done much with disc players…

Welcome to the AV-Holics Hall of Fame – introduce yourself! Hi, my name is Carl Hughes, making my second appearance in HCC. I run my own bespoke carpentry, joinery, cabinet making and fitted furniture business and I'm 51 years old. How long have you been into home cinema? For around 16 years now, but have been into audio since I was about 10 years old. The first AV set up I had was a budget (£100) projector and a DVD player. Why did you decide to set up your cinema room? I thought that it would be a great hobby to get involved with and I absolutely love television, Blu-rays and audio. The great thing about home cinema is that there are always new products being released – you can…

➜ MASTERS OF THE AIR Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, the team behind Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), Masters of the Air follows the exploits of the US 100th Bomb Group, dubbed the 'Bloody Hundredth', stationed in the UK during WW2. Like its predecessors, this is landmark TV; home cinema in the truest sense. With the likes of Cary Fukunaga (No Time to Die) and co-directing team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel) at the helm, every episode lands like a movie. The long shots, the close-ups, the masterful editing – the show is nothing if not filmic. The sequences of Flying Fortresses in formation are particularly spectacular. It says much for the production values that you actually believe the crew…

All prices quoted are approximate and may have changed TOP 15 Televisions 01 Panasonic TX-55MZ2000 ➜ £2,699 The most striking Panasonic OLED to date, the MZ2000’s sensational colour depth, excellent multi-format HDR support and superior Atmos sound system make for a formidable flatscreen that offers a real upgrade over its 2022 predecessor. HCC #345 02 Sony XR-55A95L ➜ £2,499 Sony’s latest Quantum Dot OLED TV – with Google TV smarts – carries a premium price, but the panel and processing upgrades make it worthy of its top-flight status. Make no mistake: this is a very fine 4K flatscreen. HCC #347 03 Philips 55OLED808 ➜ £1,799 Mid-range 4K OLED TV has no problem holding its own against newer screen technologies with its Ambilight illumination, multi-HDR support and Philips' customary processing expertise.…

➜NEWS HIGHLIGHTSAUDIOVECTOR QR SE loudspeaker range breaks cover MCINTOSH Triple-chassis 2kW power amplifier DENON & MARANTZ New AV receivers on the way AT THE PLEX This month’s cinema releases NEWS X10 Hot stories in bite-sized chunks AQUAMAN Sequel flick The Lost Kingdom readied for 4K Blu-ray & MORE! Baby brother to JBL’s earlier L75ms (see HCC #330), the £999 L42ms continues the wood veneer styling and feature-rich approach of what the company calls its 'integrated music system'. Rivalling a conventional soundbar thanks to HDMI ARC connectivity and Sound-Field Expansion processing, this beefy 2.1 unit combines front-facing tweeter and 4in woofer pairs with a DSP amp stage claiming 200W of grunt. Wi-Fi/Ethernet, Chromecast, Bluetooth, AirPlay, Roon Ready certification and app control are among its list of talents. HCC ONLINE… For breaking AV…

Predator The recent passing of actor Carl Weathers had us reaching for this classic 1980s sci-fi/actioner on 4K Blu-ray. Dazed and Confused Better late than never, Criterion’s 4K upgrade of Richard Linklater’s sublimely funny party movie touches down in the UK. The Artful Dodger Nobody ever asked for a sequel to Oliver Twist, but this darkly comic Disney+ series is a cracking addition to the Dickens fave. City of the Living Dead Lucio Fulci’s teleporting zombies get an Ultra HD Blu-ray upgrade on a ridiculously stuffed Limited Edition release from Arrow. The Tourist: Series 2 Twistier, funnier and even nuttier than ever, this riotously entertaining thriller also looks pretty damn great in 4K on iPlayer.…

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire March 22: The Spengler clan heads to Manhattan to help the original Ghostbusters battle an ancient evil in this sequel to the 2021 nostalgia-fest. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire March 29: If Godzilla: Minus One was too serious for your tastes, maybe you'll get a kick out of this fifth MonsterVerse film. This time out the giant lizard and overgrown ape team up to tackle a titanic threat tied to Kong’s past. The First Omen April 5: Not long after a new Exorcist sequel (see p91) comes a prequel to Richard Donner’s 1976 horror hit The Omen. Expect a heady mix of devilish conspiracies and spectacular death scenes, accompanied by lots of Gregorian chanting.…

March 11 The Beauty of Beauties Fallen Leaves The Inspector Wears Skirts II One Percenter Padre Pio Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain The Roaring Twenties 4K Room at the Top March 18 True Lies: Ultimate Col. Ed. 4K Anatomy of a Fall Aquaman & the Lost Kingdom 4K Beautiful Thing Bodyguard Kiba 1 + 2 The Comedy Man Dark Water: Limited Edition 4K Doctor Who: The Collection - S18 Green Room: Limited Edition 4K Monica [2022] Possessor: Limited Edition 4K The Swordsman of All Swordsmen Trigger Point: Series Two What Happens Later March 25 A Blade in the Dark 4K The Blood on Satan’s Claw 4K The Bounty Hunter Trilogy City of the Living Dead: Ltd. Ed. 4K Count Dracula 4K [1970] Dazed and Confused 4K Flesh…

MARTINS HI-FI, BASED in Norwich, is a family-run business with roots going back to its foundation in 1968, when it was opened by Mike and Ted Martin. In the early days, the shop sold electronic components and government surplus, but it wasn't long before hi-fi became its core focus. Martins then recognised the trend for home cinema in the 1990s and created its own installation arm. Since then it’s combined AV/hi-fi retailing with custom installation, and had a full home cinema demonstration space. It was to experience the latest incarnation of this part of the business – described by Martins' director Elizabeth Gould as 'the Snug' – that had me making the trip to Norfolk. 'More than just a cinema' 'Our previous cinema was based on a 19th century French music…

WHAT WAS ONCE a triple garage now houses a stunning projector-toting cinema room, courtesy of Leeds-based installers Bespoke Home Cinemas. And for the lucky owner, this was his second trip down the custom install path – Bespoke had designed a 'stealth cinema' for the lounge of his previous home, but now he was upping his AV ambition! Although carved from a triple garage, the cinema occupies what is essentially a double garage space. A structural dividing wall that couldn't be removed meant the plan saw the building split into two, one third turned into a home office. Bespoke’s managing director, Gifford Malcolm, reveals that the project involved considerable renovation. 'The whole area was stripped back, and the sloping floor built up with a screed and floating insulated floor. We then…

Ultra-short-throw (UST) projectors have been around for a good while now, but it’s only relatively recently that they've been deliberately pitched as flatscreen TV alternatives, rather than simply easier-to-install projectors. Some, including from Hisense, even come bundled with a screen, for an all-in-one solution, but the PX2-PRO tested here ships standalone, for use with either a spare wall or an optional screen. Naturally, this brings the price down a bit – £2,299 versus the £2,499 of Hisense’s 100L5HTUKD (with 100in screen) and the £3,999 120in 120L9HTUKA. An evolution of the Chinese company’s earlier PX1-PRO, this new beamer counts a few headline upgrades, including an increase in claimed brightness (delivered by its triple laser engine) to 2,400 ANSI Lumens, a switch from Android TV to the company’s own VIDAA platform for…

GERMAN TV GIANT Metz is the latest company to release a line of low-cost 4K HDR screens built around the Roku smart platform. Forever nipping at the heels of Amazon’s Fire TV OS, Roku is distinguished by its ease of use. It doesn't bamboozle or befuddle, but does offer a huge variety of streaming service apps. Metz is an unfamiliar name to UK buyers, but it has an illustrious history that dates back to the 1930s. A regular face at the Berlin IFA show for decades, in 2015 its TV business was acquired by Chinese TV giant Skyworth. Making a virtue of its generic design, the 50MRD6000 has a wafer-thin bezel and a pair of edge-placed plastic boots. Direct-lit, it isn't the slimmest of LED TVs, but viewed square-on looks…

I LOVE MY home cinema. I really do. It’s not the most lavish system by any stretch, because a dedicated movie den with a whopping great projector screen et al remains beyond my means, but it’s certainly no slouch either. This is handy, too, as there are few things I enjoy more than firing up my hardware and spending a few hours lost in a good movie (or even, depending on how much beer is within reach, a not-so-good one). In fact, I love my home cinema so much I've been guilty of neglecting another major love of my life. I'm referring, of course, to going to the cinema. As much as I enjoy watching films at home in 4K/Dolby Atmos, it can't compare to the way that seeing them…

➜ THE MARVELS Riding a wave of negative publicity following its disastrous box office performance, The Marvels is far more enjoyable than its reputation suggests. Boosted by the chemistry of its three leads (Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel), it’s an engaging, enjoyable and – at just 105 minutes – refreshingly brisk sci-fi romp. Admittedly, it helps if you've been keeping up to date with Marvel’s streaming shows (the film works best as a feature-length season finale to 2022’s Ms. Marvel series), and it suffers from another underdeveloped MCU villain, but it entertains far more than, say, The Eternals. Picture: According to the IMDb, The Marvels was shot at 4.5K but finished as a 2K Digital Intermediate. If correct, this is…

LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega ➜ Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Xbox One, PS4 ➜ £60 Development studio Ryu Ga Gotoku, while not as widely known as the likes of Rockstar and Naughty Dog, is the custodian of the Yakuza action-adventures – a series of games as important to lovers of Japanese culture and off-beat storytelling as Grand Theft Auto and The Last of Us are to Western audiences. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the ninth main entry in the series and the second turn-based RPG, after 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It follows directly on from that excellent chapter, yet betters it in almost every way. It has a huge array of side games and quests, and there’s even a resort management sim wrapped…

Bram Stoker’s Dracula ➜ Ultra HD Blu-ray, Sony Pictures BRAM STOKER’S 1897 novel Dracula wasn't the first piece of literature to deal with vampires, but its immortal Transylvanian Count has defined modern conceptions of the undead bloodsucker ever since – particularly in film. Indeed, according to the Guinness World Records, by 2015 Count Dracula had been portrayed in a whopping 538 movies, counting both cinema releases and TV productions (far outstripping his nearest rival, Sherlock Holmes, who could only muster 299 at the time). These range from acknowledged classics like F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931) and Hammer’s Christopher Lee movies (1958-1973), to more esoteric fare including Billy the Kid vs Dracula (1966), Deafula (1975), and the inevitable erotica/horror mash-up Dracula Sucks (1978). Stake through the Hart Very few…

IS THE END in sight for the humble TV aerial? The people behind Freeview and Freesat are planning for just that, as they plot the roll-out of Freely, the IP iteration of their free-to-air TV platform. Freely is built squarely around the concept of free live channels. It uses HbbTV (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV), an open standard that supports both terrestrial and IP channels. Freely is to Freeview what Sky Stream and Sky Glass are to Sky Q. There’s no requirement for an aerial or dish connection, although it recognises when one is connected. Instead your Freely TV is designed to receive its channel bouquet via broadband, be it over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Everything everywhere all at once Freely made its bow at the UK broadcast industry’s annual Out of the…