Nowadays, when practically all new TVs are HD Ready, supermodel-skinny and packed with connections and features, it takes something special to stand out. Short of coming up with new technologies like Freesat, there’s not much for most manufacturers to offer, other than a ‘designer’ look which will fit into our hi-tech lifestyles – because as we all know, everyone now lives in converted warehouses full of minimalist Scandinavian furniture with Damien Hirst artwork on the wall.  read more »

Quadral’s German engineers know how to have fun with extruded aluminium shapes and flattened drive units. But at least their strange predilections mean that we’re getting to see some extraordinary all-metal home cinema speakers. The latest is the Signo series, which boasts some of the slimmest and most rigid cabinets on the market.

And, with all the brushed aluminium, wooden panels and glass pedestals, they’re some of the funkiest-looking speakers on the scene too. To make sure the Signos don’t clash with your décor, each speaker has interchangeable side cheeks. You can buy these wooden columns separately, choosing from beach, cherry, silver or black finishes. The base plates come in metal and glass options, too.  read more »

Unboxing Samsung’s HT-BD2 is much like making love to an Eskimo; there’s an awful lot of unwrapping to be done before you get to the tasty bits. It’s 7.1, you see, equating to eight speakers in total, with one being a meaty subwoofer. Plus, the main unit is a combination Blu-ray player and receiver. And its massive! You’ll certainly need to reserve some considerable real estate under your TV, round the back of your sofa and, er, everywhere else really.

But that’s not to say the deck’s a beast without a dash of beauty. Footprint aside, Samsung has exhibited its trademark design expertise. Clean and curvy, the player/amp owes more, aesthetically, to a fancy sports car than a conventional BD box (especially those from the Samsung stable).  read more »

That surround sound adds another dimension to your enjoyment of movies is indisputable. Problem is, it also injects a helluva lot of speaker boxes into your living space. That’s not always domestically acceptable, which is why Yamaha has been pre-eminent in pushing the soundbar concept – a one-box solution, with a large front-facing array of small speakers firing off sound beams in different directions, under the jurisdiction of complex digital signal processing.  read more »

While the idea of see-through speakers has been done before (usually bespoke for trade shows), only Velodyne has had the audacity to make a complete production item – an Acrylic version of the smallest (10in) of its Digital Drive (DD) subs. The result is probably the coolest AV product I have ever seen. I fired up my current set of review speakers – a stupendous set of B&Ws – sans their subwoofer, feeling a bit guilty that Velodyne’s DD-10 might be outclassed.  read more »