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Victor and Kenwood said Monday that they plan to become one company by October 1 this year.

The two Japanese audio equipment makers will combine to form JVC Kenwood Holdings, which will be based in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Victor, a subsidiary of electronics giant Matsushita, is best known for its JVC brand. Under the agreement, Kenwood Chairman Haruho Kawahara will become the holding company's chairman, while Victor President Kunihiko Sato will become the new company's president.

It came in fits and starts, but the two have finally settled on a merger agreement. It was first discussed last year, and since then the two have agreed to develop future car and home audio systems together.

The new business will focus on car electronics, home electronics, and professional wireless systems, and will also explore new product segments. The two companies are combining in hopes of reducing costs and scaling their distribution in the already-crowded Japanese consumer electronics market. For the same reason, Victor said last month it would no longer make flat-panel TVs for the Japanese market.

The HA-SX500 will carry a list price of $79.99.

(Credit: JVC)

You remember those fold-up Sony headphones that you used to take with you to the gym? Well, JVC's added a new "high-end" version of that type of headphone to its Bi-Metal line of in-ear canal headphones. JVC's HA-SX500 will be out this month with a list price of $79.99. Oh, and it's iPhone-compatible.

Here's the news release if you want the details:

"The new JVC HA-SX500 achieves high quality sound by employing JVC's original Bi-Metal structure and a new large 16mm neodymium driver unit, offering greater power handling and sensitivity.

JVC's Bi-Metal structure is designed to enhance performance across the frequency range by housing the drive unit in a steel base wrapped in a high-specific-gravity brass ring to eliminate vibration and energy loss. The HA-SX500 also offers a vast reduction in friction noise. The headphones feature flexible rubber joints, reducing friction noise while increasing comfort, and use OFC (oxygen-free copper) to minimize transmission loss in the 0.8 meter friction noise reduction cord.

The lightweight HA-SX500 headphones are designed to provide a comfortable and secure fit while delivering superior isolation from external sounds and minimizing sound leakage. The ergonomic silicon rubber earpieces come in three sizes to provide snug, customized sizing, supported by a cushioned metallic foldable headband for a secure fit and hours of comfort.

CHIBA, Japan--TV maker JVC says it will crank up the refresh rate on LCD TVs to 180Hz, which should lead to clearer images with less fringing.

Older and cheaper LCD TVs refresh images at a rate of 60 times a second, or 60Hz. Last year, Samsung and others announced plans to crank that number up to 120Hz and followed up the announcement with products.

At the Ceatec show here, JVC showed off a TV humming at 180Hz--a 50 percent speedup of the refresh rate. That doesn't mean a 50 percent improvement in quality, but it should result in more fluid imagery on the screen. Viewers would sense less visual stuttering and noise, particularly during action-packed scenes. Other companies are likely working on 180Hz TVs, but I haven't heard about it. JVC's making a push on a lot of fronts in LCD TV.

Refreshing the screen at a faster rate also requires that the TV show off more images. Where does it get the extra frames? Some TVs insert blanks. Others insert modulated images that approximate what was shown in one screen and what comes in the succeeding frame.

JVC hasn't committed to when you might see this on store shelves, but a representative at the show told me it could come out "sooner, rather than later."

CHIBA, Japan--Sharp, Hitachi and JVC are taking the bulk out of large LCD televisions.

All three manufacturers are showing off LCD TVs here at Ceatec this week with panels that are less than an inch thick. The TV stand and the electronics add bulk, but the electronics can be put in the base of the stand or in a unit that connects to the TV wirelessly.

Hitachi's groovy slim TVs--a red one and a side view of a white one.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

Hitachi had the thinnest. It showed off a 32-inch TV with a panel that measured only 19 millimeters thick. Sharp showed off a 52-inch TV with a 20-millimeter thick panel. There are 25 millimeters to an inch. A typical thin LCD panel on the market today is a couple of inches thick, according to Hitachi.

JVC's was the thickest of the three at 22 millimeters, but the company also likes to point out that it will be selling its thin LCD TVs this spring. The sets will start at 42 inches and get larger from there. Hitachi won't come out with its TV until 2009. Sharp has been vague about when it might release its thin LCD.

All three manufacturers are fairly vague about how they accomplished their respective feats. Hitachi says it's the light source it's putting in the TV. However, the company won't say what the light source is. JVC is using a fluorescent light source, not LEDs, but it won't get more specific than that.

Everyone is also tweaking the performance of their TVs in other ways. JVC, for instance, showed off a technology for reducing image noise in LCD TVs. Software in the TV creates a 3D simulation of images coming across the TV. It then tweaks the 2D image that will come across the TV to you by data it obtains in the 3D simulation to make a more accurate image.

Hitachi, meanwhile, said it will try to make a lot of news at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The company wants to move upmarket in TVs by emphasizing, among other factors, industrial design.

CHIBA, Japan--Who said work and drinking don't mix?

A number of years ago, during an economic downturn, JVC had to lay off an engineer who had worked for the company for around 20 years. Sometime later, the engineer was in a tavern with a friend when he contemplated the squid snacks.

Why, he thought, are the squid so flexible? The bartender told him they soak in sake first.

Evidence that eating snacks and drinking sake can lead to major breakthroughs.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

The engineer had an insight into how to tackle a problem that had vexed acoustic engineers for years: how to make loudspeaker cones out of wood. Making speaker cabinets from wood is easy, but crafting a wooden cylinder--that curved thing at the center of a speaker that's shaped like a cone--isn't.

He began to soak wood in sake and the result is what you see in the picture: speakers where most of the significant parts are made out of wood.

"You get a very smooth sound out of wood," David Gifford, manager of the advertising group at JVC, said during a booth tour at Ceatec Japan 2007, the large trade show taking place here this week. JVC sells both complete wood speakers and speaker kits. They are priced at the high end of the speaker market. A kit can sell for 30,000 yen, or around $290.

JVC, a unit of Victor Company of Japan, actually uses sake to cure its speaker wood, added spokesman Akiko Sakakibara, not a chemical substitute or some other substance. "We've tried scotch, wine--but Japanese sake works the best," Sakakibara said.

The engineer, naturally, was rehired and audiophiles rejoiced.

The HA-FX66's come in four colors, including red.

(Credit: JVC)

Just got the press release on JVC's new in-ear HA-FX66 headphones. For a second I thought I was looking at a Nike press release after I read the headline "JVC Introduces In-ear Air Cushion headphones" and that they "use a soft cushion of air to provide a secure, comfortable fit."

The release goes on to note that JVC's research shows that "consumers' biggest problem with in-ear headphones is their tendency to fall out." (Wow, guys, you needed to conduct a study to come to that conclusion?) "The HA-FX66 headphones tackle that problem by using a soft silicon rubber air cushion for the earpiece body. In addition, the headphones come with three different size silicon rubber and memory foam cushion earpieces for the best possible fit. The result is an in-ear headphone that stays securely in place while remaining comfortable. What's more, the design also provides superior isolation from background noise, allowing the user to get the most out of the headphone's 8.5mm neodymium driver. Noise caused by cord movement is also minimized because of the headphone's Friction Noise Reduction Cord vibration-proof structure."

The JVC HA-FX66 Air Cushion headphones are currently available at a suggested retail price of $29.99 in blue, black, red, and white. We'll let you know just how snug they fit--and how they sound--when we get a review sample.