The most startling piece of kit this century?
Joe Cox Wed, Jun 25 2008, 11:34AM
Yesterday we got our hands, eyes and ears around something very, very special. A piece of kit so good, we're almost struggling to comprehend it. All roads led downstairs to one of our listening rooms as slowly but surely the entire staff on the magazine were left open-mouthed in awe. At what? Well, you'll just have to wait and see - our September issue will reveal all.
Suffice to say, it was one of those occasions when for just a few moments you can't quite get your head around what's happening. We've had the odd review like this before, but it's been a long, long while since anyone here can remember a product that seems so bafflingly brilliant at what it sets out to do, and looks set to hit its supposed opposition for the most effortless six imaginable.
While we love what we do, we're a pretty level-headed bunch here at What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, which is why today's events are so striking. Said piece of kit is of course still being put through its paces but barring some kind of collective loss of perspective, we're pretty sure that come the end of July - when you get your hands on our September issue - therein will lie a piece of kit that, quite frankly, will blow your mind...
In the words of our favourite antipodean artist, can you guess what it is yet?
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Comments
Make Bose Lover's day and just pretend that it's the latest Bose Lifestyle system!!
Give us a clue? Is it just Sound? Or Sound and Vision?
Have the Denon HD pre, power Home Cinema amps been tested yet??
OK it must be a BlueRay 1Tb Hard disk Recorder with built in 2x2 Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners, ethernet connection for online HD download and all for 900 quid....
its a mains cable...........i'll get me coat...
sony reciever?
Damn, Tim just beat me to it. Has to be Sony STR-DG820. There's no need for the analogue inputs of the Onkyo 606 in low-end kit. As long as you use it with a decent screen, upscaling is redundant too. Do I get a free one if I'm right?
how about a 3D holographic projector?
You reckon these bods are going to be aghast over a £200 odd AV receiver?? This will be a heavy piece of kit. Either the Denons I mentioned earlier or some huge speakers.....
Anyone got a new TV screen technology on the go? Something like Pioneer's zero-emission-on-black prototype would fit the bill. But that particular item's not due for some time - if ever - and wouldn't we have heard rumours if someone else had something similar in the works?
It's probably a speaker, maybe an electrostatic.
Keep guessing....
Anyone getting warm?
It's a "bargain" £500/m HDMI cable.
on a more serious note, could it be the new Panasonic Blu-ray system?
Denon's new micro system or one of their Blu-ray players?
Is it one of the new Pioneer plasma's ?
Gerrard, I guess I read it wrongly "so bafflingly brilliant AT WHAT IT SETS OUT TO DO" sent me off on the wrong tangent. Had just thought the mag got very excited over the 605 at £400 and its potential impact on the masses. This doing similar (on paper) for about half the price adds to the appeal of home cinema as a whole.
The new Lg Vision and sound
Some fantastic bit of upsampling kit from Cambridge, or the Naim HDX? Personally, I would love to hear that someone has made a micro system which is not only real hi-fi, but can record to USB at varying bitrates for time-shifting quality radio broadcasts, and cleans up the sound of my old cds so that I don't keep getting suckered into buying the 'remastered' versions a few years down the line.
Fascinating to see some of the responses - an insight in to the hopes and dreams of the AV community! But nobody's guessed the product... which is probably a good thing. Lest we forget - the AUGUST issue is out today.
It'll surely be a budget product that outperforms far more expensive kit. Hopefully it'll be a low-cost receiver as I'm in the market for one at the moment.
It's not that Sony robot thing that rolls around and plays music is it?
Where's Lady Isobel Barnet when you need her?
Actually, I'm on hols this week, so I haven't got a clue what they're all getting so worked up about, either...
Could it be the Mitsubishi-developed laser display mentioned a few months ago?
I'm guessing it's not Sky Gnome II.
i reckon the first audio only blu-ray player to replace CDs
oh if you could just confirm for me that its def not the Sony strda 2400es as i ve just cancelled my preorder to buy an 875 at a discounted price that would be great
Mmmmmm......Is it the
Panasonic DMRE-Z28?
Mitsubishi rear projection laser tv ?
A Linn Sneaky DS or some other high bit-rate MP3 player that provides studio-quality sound?
No right answers as yet! We might give you a little clue when the mag release date gets closer...
Is it one of the new Cyrus 'SE' players?
It's the new Avi adm9.1 connected to a apple tv, making all future reviews on budget and mid-priced hifi equipment redundant.
Sorry, couldn't resist!
Are we talking epoch making stuff here?
Only thing I could think of which could achieve that would be something like one of the Nintendo Megaton - a lightweight single user system which combines sound/vision. 360 degree sound and bi-ocular OLED HD panels.
Which is IMAX compatible, and has a sorta IMAX-style emulation layer built in.
Special dual channel disks, which do something clever with a 1080P signal to produce two 720P images in each eye.
That could be awesome.
If that ain't it, then I hope it's a convergence device which combines the input side of media, with storage (RAID) and streaming (SlingBox + MediaCenter) support. The "one box to rule them all".
Or, finally, someone has their hands on the Xbox 720.
..or something like the Ovei Home Cinema pod, but for normal people?
Onkyo TX-SR876 with Silicon Optix Realta.
Would be funny if the new Sony ES Line has a Faroudja Sequoia and beats the Onkyo 876.
Mindblow XL!!!
I see Harman Kardon AVR never reviewed here.
I am not a HK fan, but why is that?
Or are they not in the same league as the Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony Amps?
Was it a guitar, and you'd all forgotten how good live music is?
Ok, at a slight tangent, how about Real Time Racing? Looks really interesting...
Or maybe the OV/E home entertainment pod?
A 3-D TV
SONY OLED 52" Full HD Tv with built in Freesat reciever??
It's got to be the Garmin Nuviphone!
give us a price bracket to guess in??
£100-15,000
that narrows it down a bit...although my guess is for some sort of media streamer or all in one box.
New 9th gen Pioneer Kuro?
Is it the Cyrus CD 8 SE....hey psst thats what I heard....purple monkey dishwasher
Could it be an all-in-one surround sound amp that can configure multiple rooms with differing speaker setups, whilst supporting every kind of input, with built in Freeview/Freesat that supports 10 simultaneous viewing channels and can record simultaneous to it's 1TB hard disk.
To top it off, it has built in blu-ray and can multi-stream video/tv to 10 destinations internally and if you add more memory and addition processing it can do even more.
Better still you can watch streamed DVD, video recordings or live TV direct from it's built-in hosting service via a web page which also happens to be supported by mobile phone browsers.
The hi-resolution camera support video conferening over the web and you can record video messages for anyone with appropriate access rights.
Guess what, you're only paying £4500 for the privilege.
I wonder if they're using this to get our ideas and make the next big thing in home entertainment?
I so wish I knew what "purple monkey dishwasher" meant...
It just HAS to be either the new Pioneer PDP-LX5090 / PDP-LX6090 plasma OOOOR How the new KRL range of Pioneer LCDs. Something tells me it might have something to do with the plasmas though.....possibly even the new 64mm thick KRP-500A with seperate media server???