Angelis Labor turntable: Four arms are better than one

The Angelis Labor Gabriel turntable is a sight to behold with its impeccable blend of bronze, aluminum and stainless steel finish. But its most striking feature is its tonearms flanking the vinyl table; you can attach up to four! These are supposedly decoupled from the rest of the kit via elaborate magnetic levitation suspension systems and are manufactured in Italy from the same factory that produces precision components for Ferrari.

According to Coolest Gadgets, the Gabriel comes with a whopping sticker price ranging from US$27,000 to US$64,000, depending on the number of tonearms attached. And if you are not satisfied with your purchase, the Italian company will happily refund you. Information on its worldwide distributorship was not available, but you can contact Angelis Labor directly via email for more details.

Via Coolest Gadgets

CES 2009 home audio wrap-up

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show is history. As far as the home audio world is concerned, the product lineup and trends were pretty much right in line with our predictions.

Wireless speakers

Panasonic showcased the SC-ZT1, a unique "4.4" speaker system with wireless speakers (except for that pesky power cord, of course). But the bigger trend was wireless subwoofers: Samsung, Philips, and Polk Audio (among others) all showed surround systems with wireless subs, enabling more flexibility when placing them in the room.

Network audio

Whether it was more affordable tabletop Internet radios from the likes of Sanyo and Acoustic Research or impressive streaming audio systems from Linksys or Philips, network audio was on the rise in 2009. If you don't want a dedicated network audio product, that's OK; products like Samsung's Blu-ray home theater systems have Pandora streaming built-in, obviating the need for other hardware. And the pre-CES announcement that Apple's iTunes Store is going DRM-free means that all major music download purchases are now basically free of copy protection, making streaming between multiple devices easier than ever.

iPod- and iPhone-ready

Compatibility for Apple's iPod is essentially ubiquitous, but manufacturers are offering some incremental improvements. LG and Panasonic are including slide-out iPod docks (rather than add-on cabled cradles) on many of their home theater systems, while Pioneer's A/V receivers offer improved on-TV screen navigation for attached iPods and iPhones.

Blu-ray compatibility

Samsung and Panasonic offered the first home theater systems with built-in Blu-ray players in 2008, but they were expensive systems that were full of compromises (namely, the older Blu-ray spec). The picture is much improved for 2009: systems from JVC, Panasonic, LG, and Samsung are all Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) compliant, and many offer additional content from the Internet (Netflix and Pandora on Samsung; Netflix, YouTube, and CinemaNow on LG; Amazon and YouTube on Panasonic). Samsung upped the ante with Wi-Fi options available via an add-on dongle.

Single-speaker audio and virtual surround

Another trend that's showing no sign of abating in 2009 is single-speaker and virtual surround systems. Polk Audio, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, LG, and Sharp were among the manufacturers showing either speakerbars, 2.1, or other configurations that aim to deliver a 5.1- or 7.1-channel experience from one, two, or four speakers. A related trend: More audio systems are being touted as wall-mountable, presumably to sit underneath a wall-mounted flat-panel TV.

The high-end

While we mostly stuck with mainstream brands and products, rest assured that there were plenty of high- and superhigh-end audio products on display at this year's show--everything from US$1,400 headphones to stereo systems that cost US$300k.

Via CNET.com

CES 2009 HDTV wrap-up

The television category is a perennial CES staple and this year was no different. For some reason nobody showed a TV bigger than Panasonic's 150-inch plasma from last year (have we maxed out in flat-panel screen size?), but most of the other trends I discussed in the preview were borne out in the show's extensive announcements. Here's my take on what CES 2009 bodes for HDTV this year.

Plasma ain't dead yet

I get more than my share of emails, and have seen plenty of blog comments and forum posts that are quick to claim the demise of plasma at the hands of LCD. Judging from CES announcements by companies that comprise the "big three" of plasma--Panasonic, LG and Samsung--those big glass flat panels have a brighter future than Detroit, at least.

Panasonic, by far the biggest and, unlike GM, the most-committed of the group, bragged about its newest plasma factory (No. 5) coming online, and showed its largest plasma lineup ever, with five new series and a new 54-inch screen size. I'm really excited to review the company's new "NEO PDP" panels, the first of which, members of the S1 series, will ship in the US in March. They boast significantly improved black-level performance and contrast ratios, according to the company, yet manage to cut power consumption in half. If the latter claim proves true, LCD will lose perhaps its biggest arrow in the antiplasma quiver (at least among consumers who care about the planet and are savvy enough to ignore the nonissues).


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CES 2009 home video wrap-up

CES 2009 is officially over, so we can take stock of the major home video trends we saw at the show. The most obvious difference from CES 2008 is that now that HD-DVD is dead, Blu-ray dominated the show like never before.

If you've been confused by all the different Blu-ray profiles, you'll be happy to know that nearly all (tsk, tsk Philips) the players we saw at the show were Profile 2.0 compatible. That means you won't have to worry about buying a Blu-ray player that won't play Internet-enabled BD-Live features. We were also happy to see Blu-ray players with Wi-Fi from both LG and Samsung (via a bundled USB dongle), which also goes a long way toward making it easy for consumers to actually watch BD-Live features without dragging a long Ethernet cable to the living room. Our big miss in terms of predictions was that lack of a US$150 Blu-ray player, but don't be surprised if the US$200 Vizio VBR100 or Memorex MVBD-2520 hit that price point a few months after they're released.

We also saw Blu-ray break out of the strictly standalone form factor. Panasonic showed off the first portable Blu-ray player, the DMP-B15, although its 3-hour battery life seems pretty constricting. Panasonic had another first with its DMP-BD70V VHS-Blu-ray combination player, and overall we were surprised to learn that VHS still lives. The notable missing product was a US-bound Blu-ray recorder, and we're starting to be skeptical that we'll see one in the first half of 2009. It's also worth noting that we saw Blu-ray built into HDTVs and HTIBs, further signaling that Blu-ray is going mainstream.

Via CNET.com

Ask the Editors: Should I wait 'till the '09 HDTVs come out?

Just saw your report on the new plasmas from Panasonic at CES. I was all set to get an TH-50PZ800U, your current Editors' Choice, but these look better. Should I wait or buy the 800U now?

--Anonymous, New York City

Howdy Anonymous,

If I was in your situation I would wait for the new models, but if you're a bargain hunter, then there's no better time to buy than now.

Every year around this time, the flood of new gadgets announced at the January Consumer Electronics Show washes the diligently researched product picks from the wish lists of thousands of careful shoppers. The product you had your heart set on suddenly looks obsolete in the face of the latest and greatest, and the CES hype machine (guilty as charged) somehow makes even the lowliest entry-level gear seem shinier and more desirable than the cobweb-encrusted former flagships rotting away on store shelves today.
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