The best sound GoldenEar’s Triton Five produce is terrified competitors running (eng)

   My infatuation with the Triton Five began at CES this past January, when GoldenEar co-founder and speaker-design legend, Sandy Gross, sat me down for what will go down in my memory as one of the most poignant demonstrations I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting through. Many factors were at play: Sandy’s choice of recordings, the monumentally expensive equipment driving the speakers, and the speaker’s impeccable placement no doubt all played a significant roll. But what knocked me back hardest was being forced to reconcile the amazing sound I’d just heard with the price point Sandy shared with me after the demo: $2,000 a pair!
For many, $2,000 is a steep price for a pair of speakers. But for most audiophiles, it’s chump change. I know some folks who spend more than $2,000 on a 3 meter-long piece of speaker wire, and those same enthusiasts won’t bat an eyelash when they drop $10,000 or more on a pair of monolithic, room-dominating pillars of sound. So, to get the amazing sound quality out of the Triton Five that the team at GoldenEar Technology has achieved for $2,000 is nothing short of a coups in the world of high-end audio. Ever heard of the law of diminishing returns? The Triton Five redefine it.

One listen and you might think that there’s some sort of sorcery at play — I know I had my concerns that the mountain of electronics no doubt totaling well over $20,000 had more to do with what I was hearing than the speakers did. But as I have learned by placing the Triton Five in my own testing lab, connected to my own modest electronics, there’s no wizardry involved here … just brilliant engineering.

Each Triton Five speaker flaunts two custom-designed 6-inch midrange/upper bass drivers sandwiching GoldenEar’s High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter in what is known as a D’Appolito Configuration. Those 6-inch drivers are a step up in size for the Triton line, as most of its members sport either 5.25- or 4.5-inch drivers. They serve several purposes in the Five’s design, but perhaps most notably, they couple with four 8-inch passive bass radiators located at the bottom of each speaker’s cabinet.

As such, the design bridges a performance gap between the diminutive Triton Seven and the much larger Triton One, Two, and Three, all three of which sport built-in subwoofer amplifiers. You get big midrange and surprisingly deep bass, but without the heft and footprint of a much larger tower speaker. It’s basically the Goldilocks of the Triton lineup.

I’m going to save the juiciest commentary for my full review, but what I will tell you now — after just a few short hours of listening — is that the Triton Five hit the sweet spot of the high-performance speaker market. They deliver immense detail, expansive and translucent midrange, and bass far deeper and better-integrated than any speaker under $5,000 has a right to boast. They really are that good. Get a closer look at the Triton Five and what makes them sing in our video above, then great ready to break out your wallets, because I think you’re going to want a pair, too.

sursa: digitaltrends.com

Everything we know about Ultra HD Blu-ray, the sharpest way to watch at home (eng)

In the year 2000, we began ditching our VHS tapes for DVDs. In 2006, Blu-ray brought high-definition video to flat-screen TVs everywhere. Now we’re about to take another step forward with the arrival of Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players.  That’s right: Come holiday time, there’s going to be a whole new format to embrace – and it’s going to be awesome.
Though there will be no format war to stunt its growth (remember the whole Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debacle?), Ultra HD Blu-ray adoption will still be slow. Even was more people buy TVs that support the higher resolution, Ultra HD Blu-ray will appeal to a relatively small audience – at least at first. But for anyone who wants the best possible picture and sound quality they can get, the arrival of this new format is exciting. And the best news is: It’s a pretty significant leap forward from 1080p HD.

Of course, with new technology like this comes a whole bunch of conditions and caveats. Will you need a new disc player? Will they be backward compatible? Will you need new cables, a new receiver, or any other new equipment? We grilled the Blu-ray disc association and have all the information you’ll need below, in plain English.

What’s so great about Ultra HD Blu-ray?

It’s true that streaming movies and TV shows from services like Netflix, Amazon, and Vudu is the future of TV, but until the Internet gets a serious bandwidth upgrade (don’t worry, Google’s working on it!) discs will always kill streaming when it comes to picture quality. Ever notice 1080p Blu-rays still look better than Netflix’s fancy Ultra HD streaming video? The reason they do comes down to one very simple, but important factor: bitrate.

Simply put, the more data you can deliver, the better the picture and sound quality is going to be, and Ultra HD Blu-ray is poised to deliver some seriously big-time data. So much, in fact, that not only will Ultra HD Blu-ray discs offer four times the resolution of 1080p HD, they’ll be able to deliver two new features only recently introduced to TVs: High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Wide Color Gamut (WCG). The result will be an at-home experience that matches or beats what you get at the cinema, with more colors than ever, incredible contrast, and uncompromised sound quality.

To be fair, Netflix, Amazon are both planning on delivering streaming 4K content with HDR in the near future, and this will improve the look of those videos, but because of current Internet bandwidth restrictions, these streams will be heavily compressed, and that means more artifacts – or, noise —  in the picture. You can see it especially well in dimly lit scenes, usually as big blocky anomalies.

If you want to enjoy Ultra-HD Blu-ray discs, you’ll need to buy a new Blu-ray disc player.

In addition, Ultra HD Blu-ray has the capability of delivering video at up to 60 frames per second (fps). Such a quick framerate is ideal for content that requires fast-moving cameras, like sports. Of course, as most movies are produced at 24fps, it remains to be seen how meaningful higher framerates will be in the near term.

Simply put: Ultra HD Blu-ray is going to offer significantly better picture and sound quality than any other format available, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Will I need a new Blu-ray player for Ultra HD Blu-ray discs?

If you want to enjoy Ultra-HD Blu-ray discs, you’ll need to buy a new Blu-ray disc player. We expect major manufacturers like Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony to announce new players later this year, possibly at the IFA electronics show this September in Berlin. The players are then expected to be available for purchase by the holidays at the end of the year.

These new players will be expensive when first introduced. For reference, the first Blu-ray players ran about $1,000 when they arrived in 2006, but now you can get a decent Blu-ray player with built-in Wi-Fi and streaming apps for about $100.

What kind of 4K UHD TV will work with Ultra HD Blu-ray?

Any and all 4K UHD TV will work with Ultra HD Blu-ray, including older models with HDMI 1.4 inputs. When connected to a TV via HDMI, an Ultra HD Blu-ray player is able to determine what that TV is capable of and act accordingly.

The catch is, the benefits to owners of older (even as recent as some of last year’s models) 4K UHD TVs will be limited to UHD resolution and that noise-free picture we talked about earlier.  In order to get the HDR and WCG features we mentioned earlier, the TV has to be capable of producing the added colors and processing and producing High Dynamic Range content. With the exception of some Sony and Panasonic models from 2014, only the newest premium 2015 TVs are capable of this.

Samsung JS9500 UHD TV

Adding complexity to this issue is the fact that many HDR systems require HDMI version 2.0a (there are exceptions – Dolby’s version of HDR doesn’t require HDMI 2.0a) and, at the time of this writing, there isn’t a single TV on the market that supports HDMI 2.0a … yet. That will change by the time Ultra HD Blu-ray makes its way to consumers, as manufacturers offer firmware updates or other update solutions to an extremely limited number of TVs. Really, it won’t be until spring of 2016 that a wider array of 4K UHD TVs with both HDR and WCG support will be made available.

Will Ultra HD Blu-ray players be backward compatible?

Yes. Ultra HD-Blu-ray players will play Blu-ray discs, DVDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, and Redbook CDs. Both standard 1080p Blu-ray discs and DVDs will be up-converted to UHD resolution for playback on 4K UHD TVs.

In addition, Ultra HD Blu-ray players will downscale Ultra HD Blu-ray discs to work on 1080p HD TVs, so if you want to get a little ahead of the curve and purchase a new player and the latest discs, even before you get a 4K UHD TV, that’s just fine.

Will I need any other new equipment?

The more data, the better the picture and sound quality, and Ultra HD Blu-ray is poised to deliver big-time data.

That depends on your system. The good news is you won’t need any new HDMI cables. As for your A/V receiver? Think of it along the same lines as a 4K UHD TV. Older receivers with HDMI 1.4 will be able to support the higher resolution, but not HDR or WCG. If  your receiver supports HDMI 2.0, there’s a chance it could be updated to support HDMI 2.0a later on when it’s needed. However, depending on how HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection) 2.2 gets implemented by movie studios, you may need to consider a brand new A/V receiver if you want one to remain the hub of your home theater for the long term.

Will Ultra HD Blu-ray support digital transfers?

Yes. Just as UltraViolet has done for standard Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray discs will support digital copies, allowing users to access content  “across the range of in-home mobile devices,”  according to the Blu-ray Disc Association.

Tech specs

For you tech heads, here’s some interesting data:

Ultra HD Blu-ray will use primarily double-layer 66GB discs (though 100GB triple-layer discs are part of the spec) and will be capable of delivering up to 108Mbps of data. To put this in perspective, consider that Netflix’s 4K Ultra HD streams are delivered at about 16Mbps and represent an average of 14GB of total data for two hours of entertainment.

Ultra HD Blu-ray discs will be encoded using the relatively new HEVC (also known as H.265) codec. The Blu-ray disc association says encoding and disc authoring tools are currently being used experimentally by technicians in Hollywood.

Ultra HD Blu-ray will support several different types of HDR metadata, including those proposed by Dolby, Philips, and Technicolor. However, only the open HDR standard supported by the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) is a requirement for Ultra HD Blu-ray authoring. The rest will be up to individual content creators, and require TV compatibility with a specific type of HDR Metadata. Vizio’s Reference Series TVs, for instance, will support Dolby’s vision of HDR in addition to the SMPTE standard.

So there you have it: Everything we know about Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players so far. As we learn more from manufacturers and movie studios, we’ll be sure to update this article. In the meantime, you might want to start saving your pennies if you want a slice of the next biggest thing to hit home theater.

sursa: digitaltrends.com

Focal Debuts New Sopra Series (eng)

Focal has introduced the new Sopra speaker series, which consists of the Sopra N°1 two-way bass-reflex bookshelf speaker and the Sopra N°2 three-way bass-reflex floorstanding speaker. Focal describes these speakers as "offspring of the Grande Utopia" in a more compact form. The Sopra line features several new innovations for Focal, described below, and the speakers are available in a variety of gorgeous finishes--from carrara white (shown here) to imperial red to electric orange to dogato walnut. Pricing has not yet been provided, but the Sopra line will fall between the Utopia and Electra lines.

From Focal
Conceiving, innovating, pushing the boundaries while improving its expertise and staying faithful to its roots: Focal has taken up the new challenge. This new range of loudspeakers proves that even today it is possible to go further in the quest for audio perfection and excellence of the sound reproduction.

Sopra is the unique proof that in this age of digital technologies, docking stations and wireless sound, it is now more possible than ever before to give high-fidelity loudspeakers their importance once again. Inherently desirable but reasonable in terms of design, Sopra is destined for all those who, through space constraints or concern for modernism, would have thought that at some point the loudspeaker would go out of fashion. Modern in its approach and bringing obvious faithful musicality to your room, Sopra is about to seduce all music lovers who are enthusiasts of performance and equipment which reflect their true identity and which is not only intended for audiophiles.

A visual signature and technical ingenuity
Sopra's origins are immediately visible. Besides having Focal's DNA, it is also the offspring of the Grande Utopia, the prestigious loudspeaker developed in 1995 and whose third version was launched in 2008. Sopra has the same sleek silhouette conceived by designer Alain Pineau. This evokes, as Alain says, "the passionate quest reconciling complex constraints, experience and innovative and sophisticated solutions" which led the engineers at Focal to forge Sopra N°1 and Sopra N°2.

Through their so unique and inimitable visual signature, Sopra N°1 and Sopra N°2 bring unprecedented technical ingenuity. There are three main major innovations which make this line so unique.

• The tweeter's rear horn
Thanks to Focal's patented IHL technology (Infinite Horn Loading), the 21 milligram dome of the Beryllium tweeter no longer requires large cabinet volumes to prevent the rear sound waves from the dome being reflected back. Sopra needed to be compact, so the tweeter was given a graduated rear horn to avoid any return energy effect which can cause distortion.

• Midrange suspension
The surround connecting the W cone to the chassis can cause anomalies at certain frequencies where its movement isn't in perfect phase with the cone. When applied to Sopra's 6'' (15cm) woofer, Focal's patented TMD technology (Tuned Mass Damper) counterbalances the resonance of this oscillating system and gives the sound incomparable transparency. Made possible thanks to the power of numerical analysis carried out by Focal, TMD ensures that the sound stays pure and that very high definition is maintained.

• A stabilised magnetic field
In all loudspeaker drive units the magnetic field surrounding the voice coil is unstable. Variations in current from the amplifier in the voice coil and the voice coil's varying position blur the sound which can be more or less significant and which changes the sound reproduction. Focal's new innovation NIC (Neutral Inductance Circuit) was made possible thanks to the development of powerful dynamic simulation software, which finally enables the magnetic field to be stabilised. This paves the way for very high definition sound.

Equipped with transducers which are "Made in France" for the bass, midrange and treble which are probably recognised as being the best in the world, and benefitting from major technological innovations which weren't possible three years ago, Sopra N°1 and Sopra N°2 are premium loudspeakers capable of unprecedented performance in such a compact design. Emblematic of Focal's sound signature, the new Sopra line has now paved the way for a new era for the world of high-fidelity.

sursa: hometheaterreview.com