LG HDTV with theater sound
"Golden ear" Mark Levinson is LG's new chief audio advisor.
For music lovers, Mark Levinson is a renowned American audiophile who established one of the most respected premium hi-fi brands in the industry. Founded in 1972, Mark Levinson Audio System is instrumental in the hi-fi scene with classics like the Mark Levinson JC-1 preamplifier. The "golden ear" guru has subsequently entered other ventures leading up to Red Rose Music that specializes in high-end stereos, as well as his latest role as chief audio advisor for LG Electronics.
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The most notable Mark Levinson's tweak to date is the invisible speakers featured in most, if not all, LG HDTVs. This supposedly delivers the best of both worlds: Unobtrusive speaker array and enhanced sound quality. In a nutshell, the system avoids speaker clutter by utilizing the entire TV cabinet as a vibration medium to produce front-projecting and clearer vocal as well as treble. Non-directional bass, on the other hand, is covered by two down-firing woofers well-concealed below the chassis.
LG80 home theater TV
To push the sound performance one step further, LG has developed the LG80 series. At the core of the TV's audio subsystem is a unique 3.1-channel speaker array driven by a powerful 50W amplifier. The former comprises auto-sliding stereo speakers that extend when the set powers up, dedicated center speaker for steering dialog and twin ported subwoofers to reproduce deep bass. Its beefy amplifier is also easily double the power found in mainstream flat panels for better dynamic and distortion-free sound.)
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Picture quality-wise, the LG80 is no slouch, either, outfitted with a highly sought-after Super-In Plane Switching (S-IPS) LCD panel. Favored by PC enthusiasts, S-IPS-based displays are famed for their superb viewing angle and strong color fidelity even from side-seating positions. Topping it off is a future-proofed 1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolution and high 50,000:1 dynamic contrast. The only slight blemish here is its rather modest spread of two HDMI 1.3 inputs, though there's a USB port that playbacks MP3, JPEG, DivX and Xvid files.
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Notable features: Availability: Singapore, India, Thailand, Malaysia (now) Price: S$1,999 (US$1,606.14), S$3,499 (US$2,811.35) |
LG60, LG70 and LG80 HDTVs
The Scarlet's cutout with soft glow.
All three models are shipped with many common features, too. These include the previously mentioned Mark Levinson-tuned invisible speaker and film-centric 1080p24 signal compatibility. They also come standard with full multimedia support covering DivX which is currently supported by selected TV vendors. Rounding it up are three Deep Color-ready (think richer hues) HDMI 1.3 inputs, though four is the new buzz among high-end entries.
| Model name | In a nutshell |
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Notable features: Availability: Asia (now) Price: S$1,999 (US$1,606.14), S$2,599 (US$2,088.22), S$3,299 (US$2,650.65), S$5,999 (US$4,820.02) | |
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Notable features: Availability: Asia (now) Price: S$4,499 (US$3,614.82), S$6,599 (US$5,302.11), S$9,999 (US$8,033.91) | |
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Notable features: Availability: Singapore (now) Price: S$5,999 (US$4,820.02), S$19,999 (US$16,068.62) |
Home-theater-in-a-box kits
Virtual Sound Matrix function illustrated.
For those who have smaller living rooms, there're the 700W Design Art-series HT762TZ and HT762PZ. These share many identical features of the HT953TZ including VSM as well as the American golden ear's performance-related tweaking. One of the key differentiators between the two models is their champagne glass-inspired tower speakers. The TZ is bundled with four of these unique boom boxes, while the PZ has only two. Other out-of-the-box capabilities for the three kits are 1080p DVD-upscaling, HDMI output and USB multimedia playback.
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Notable features: Availability: Asia (now) Price: S$1,599 (US$1,284.75) | |
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Notable features: Availability: Asia (now) Price: S$799 (US$641.97)/HTZ62TZ, S$899 (US$722.32) /HTZ62TZR | |
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Notable features: Availability: Asia (now) Price: S$699 (US$561.63) |
About the author
Philip Wong is an A/V, PC, photography and gaming enthusiast. Besides spending countless days and late nights fiddling with his home theater system and watercooled PC, he also hits the roads frequently on his iron horse to sweat it out. Now, who says geeks don't work out?
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