It's Home Cinema Week here at What Hi-Fi?, and to celebrate we've had a bevvy of themed reviews on speaker packages, AV receivers and more.
One of the most notable of those, however, might be the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max projector, now reduced to £3199 at Amazon.
It may not be cheap by UST standards, but considering the specifications involved and the overall performance, it really is a bit of a bargain.
And given how overall impressive it is, from its design to its features to the all-important picture and sound quality, it's sneaked right to the top of our list of UST favourites.
If you had any doubts about the abilities of the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max, here's a snippet from our recent review.
"The Aetherion Max’s picture quality isn’t just a big improvement over the already more than decent LTV-3500 that marks our only previous interaction with an AWOL Vision projector; it’s actually arguably the best picture quality we’ve ever seen from any UST projector. Or, at least, a UST projector selling for anything like as little as the Aetherion Max does," our AWOL Vision Aetherion Max review reads.
The projector is fantastically bright and contrast-rich even in ambient light, but it's in dark rooms that the Aetherion Max really shows how outstanding it is. Colours look even more vibrant, but crucially remain natural, balanced and full of subtle nuances and blends.
Its HDR Standard mode also somehow manages to deliver some of the deepest, most convincing blacks we’ve seen from any 3000-nit or brighter projector, all of which adds up to an endlessly watchable and immersive experience.
The Aetherion Max’s front-mounted speakers, too, are far better than you get built into most projectors, getting loud enough to create a cinematic presence even in large rooms but still retaining detail at high volumes. More bass than most projectors achieve is also on offer, though this does result in some straining under pressure.
Not to be outdone, the feature set is just as impressive. Its DLP optics are illuminated by a triple laser lighting system, for starters, with a claimed 3300 lumens of brightness and an image size of up to 200 inches.
Gamers are extremely well supported, with three HDMI ports that support VRR and reach 240Hz with Full HD (but not 4K) sources.
There's also support for all four current HDR standards, including the premium HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats, a rarity in the projector world.
Given just how much is packed into the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max and how well it performs, its £3499 launch price was a bit of a miracle. And now our favourite UST is even cheaper, with a £300 discount at Amazon.
MORE:
Read our review of the Leica Cine 1
Also consider the BenQ W4100i
Read our Hisense PX3-Pro review
