theaters

It's not hard to imagine that Vic Wertz and Lisa Stevens were the former heads of the Official Star Wars Fan Club--all you need to do is take one look at their home theater.

This is no cheap DIY job, to be sure. The couple hired the lead designer on The Phantom Menace to work on the uber-Star Wars theater, which has three levels of seating and measures 22 feet from the back wall to the screen and its custom stage, according to Electronic House. It puts the recently featured Star Trek version to shame.

The theater is adorned … Read more

Not taken with Yamaha's one-piece 5.1 surround-sound system for $2,000? Still want a cinema sound setup? We've been given an exclusive preview of Logic3's SoundStage speaker system, which incorporates a true 5.1 setup within a single meter-wide enclosure for a more than acceptable $500.

More interesting still is that this 150W beast works its magic with a full 15 speakers--13 mid- and high-range drivers, plus twin subwoofers.

Like Yamaha's YSP-1100, the technology works by bouncing sound around the walls of your living room, eliminating the need for individual speakers that can be problematic … Read more

Nearly a year after its first sightings, the $130,000 "Yalos Diamond" TV may finally have some competition--at least in the Department of Gaudy (otherwise known as DOG).

Speaking of abbreviations, we didn't know that LG stood for "Luxury Gold," as it does in the case of this 24-carat monstrosity. True to its moniker, the home theater system includes a 71-inch LCD in full 1080p high definition, as well as receivers, media players and a 500-watt sound all trimmed and plated in real gold, according to Aving. It's truly obscene.

The price of the … Read more

We're slated to attend a Denon press event on July 24, where we'll almost certainly get the details on its new line of receivers, but it looks like the good guys over at Audioholics got on early look at a couple of the new models--the AVR-3808CI and AVR-4308CI. You can check out the full details at Audioholics, but here's the short story:

The AVR-3808CI comes loaded with four HDMI 1.3 inputs and a single HDMI output. It also features a new graphical user interface (GUI), and we're betting it probably looks like the leaked photos we blogged before. Like the new Onkyo receivers, the 3808 has built-in decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, although prospective buyers should be aware that currently no Blu-ray or HD DVD player is capable of outputting these soundtracks' formats to the receiver in bitstream format. The 3808 can also upconvert analog signals to HDMI, along with scaling them to 1080p. Some enthusiasts have lamented that Denon decided to use Faroudja video processing on these models instead of HQV (seen on Onkyo's receivers, like the TX-SR875 and TX-NR905), but we'll withhold our judgment until we actually get our hands on it. There's also an Ethernet jack, and you'll be able to stream digital music files and Internet radio to the receiver. The Ethernet jack also enables custom installers to log into your receiver and make adjustments offsite.… Read more

There are Trekkies, and then there are Trekkies. Gary Sekulow falls into whatever category he wants.

Many others have tried to replicate various parts of the seminal show's sets, but Sekulow wasn't satisfied with reproductions--so he went after the real thing in building the ultimate Star Trek home theater. He bought two original bridge consoles at a Christie's auction last year, just a sample of the appointments that complement the centerpiece captain's chair from the first three seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise, according to Electronic House. Various other pieces come from the sets of the movies … Read more

Is your home theater in dire need of an upgrade? Well, Denon Electronics and Boston Acoustics have teamed up to give you a chance at a $17,000 home theater makeover.

'The Makeshifters' contest will allow consumers to upload videos and pictures explaining to the world why they need a new home theater. All user-submitted content is then voted upon (beginning June 8), then one grand prize winner will get to enjoy the following:

For every person who loves the idea of 6-foot tower speakers at each corner of the room, there are 20 others who prefer their home theater to be heard but not seen. It's for that latter group that the Sony DAV-IS10 Micro Home Theater System was designed. The system crams an entire 5.1 home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) down to Mini-Me proportions: the 2-way 100-watt subwoofer barely outsizes a couple of phone books, the DVD/CD player head unit is a bit larger than a Mac Mini, and the five satellite speakers are--as Sony's press kit helpfully points out--"about the size of a golf ball." Despite the minuscule size, the DAV-IS10 will include the much of the same impressive features found on Sony's trio of Bravia HTIBs: DVD upscaling to 720p and 1080i via the HDMI output, automated speaker setup (which Sony calls "Digital Cinema Auto Calibration," or DCAC), and HDMI-CEC capability (the ability to control compatible TVs via the IS10's remote when connected via HDMI--"Bravia Theater Sync," in Sony speak). The system also features a Digital Media Port, so it can interface with Sony's quartet of proprietary digital audio accessories--though that's less of an enticement, now that we've been underwhelmed by the first two we've reviewed, the TDM-IP1 iPod dock and the TDM-BT1 Bluetooth interface. … Read more

One of my favorite pieces on the show floor at ICFF, which is headquartered at NYC's Jacob Javits Convention Center through Tuesday (and on Tuesday it's open to the public) was this piece, which is actually a project made by Philadelphia University sophomore Gary Bugno as part of the school's industrial design program. It holds three remote controls. That's what it does. And it tells you what it does, too. It might not be quite as ingenious as Sheriff John "Wayne" Falcone's holster-like display of five remotes at once, but it's quite … Read more