Audio Physic displayed the latest version of the well-known Virgo, the Virgo V...
The brand-new Magico M3.5 loudspeaker made its first appearance. This
three-way floorstander looks like a much larger V3, but
is a much more ambitious design. The price has not been set, but it should come in
somewhere in the $70,000-per-pair range when the speaker is released later in the year.
NAD’s new VISO DVD receivers
are an upgrade to the popular L series of all-in-one receivers that will remain in
NAD’s product lineup. With the VISO units, NAD has improved the sonics, added more
features, and updated the cosmetics with cues taken from the well-received Master series.
The new models feature DVD-A, DVD-V and CD playback as well as XM support. They can
upscale video to 720p or 1080i for output through HDMI and have Dolby Virtual Speaker and
Dolby Headphone processing. There is also a data port to accept NAD’s new IPD-1 iPod
dock. The $1799 five-channel VISO Five (shown above) and $1299 stereo VISO Two
will be available starting in February.
Pioneer continues to produce
universal players, and the company's latest is the DV-58A priced at $499. As expected, it
supports SACD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video and CD, and it scales video up to 1080p. What was
unexpected is that it supports the transmission of the native DSD bitstream from SACD via
its HDMI 1.2a output.
The Panasonic BD50 Blu-ray Disc
player won’t be available until the spring, and the price has yet to be determined.
However, according to a company representative, it should fully support Dolby TrueHD and
DTS-HD Master both in their native bitstreams or by converting them to PCM. It will also
features BD Live, which allows the player to connect to and download content from the
Internet.
This 150" Panasonic plasma is a
no-brainer ShowStopper. It's by far the largest in the world, and it was impossible to
walk by it and not say "Look at that." There was no price given,
though.
