EISA - Awards 2004/2005 - Home Theater Panel


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» EISA is the largest editorial multimedia organization in Europe, with a membership of 50 Audio, Mobile Electronics, Video and Photo magazines drawn from 20 European countries. At the end of June all EISA member magazines come together in an European city for the most important meeting in the year - the elections of the European Awards. From all products introduced during the preceding twelve months, each panel must choose the best equipment in each category. One strength of EISA's European Awards is their flexible approach. The Awards categories, for example, are not recreated automatically every year. If the jury decides that, during the previous 12 months, and within a certain category, there have been introduced no new products that really deserve an Award, which category can be cancelled temporarily. On the other hand our juries are aware of the need to follow market conditions, so every year there is the opportunity to introduce new categories.

EISA Awards 2004/2005 - Home Theater Panel

EUROPEAN HOME THEATER RECEIVER OF THE YEAR Denon AVR-3805 With the AVR-3805, Denon sets a landmark in AV receivers. Equipped with every feature for modern home theater, it has an amazing number of audio and video inputs and seven powerful channels, Dolby Pro Logic IIx and signal conversion to S-Video or component for any video input. But the key point of the AVR-3805 is its helpful automatic setup. Via a microphone, surround-parameters are calibrated by the 3805 itself; an 8-band parametric equalizer matches the room acoustics. Together with the clever luminescent remote control, the AVR-3805 offers more sound quality, features and ease of use than expected in this price class.

EUROPEAN HOME THEATER LOUDSPEAKER OF THE YEAR Jamo E 7 Series Four small satellites, a competent center speaker and a subwoofer from Jamo’s E 7 Series create a home theater speaker system many consumers will enjoy – without upsetting their budget or domestic peace. The little E 700 satellite delivers a remarkably full-bodied sound and a new decoupled tweeter improves the subjective impression further in terms of speed and ultra-low coloration. The matching E 7 SUB subwoofer not only adds drama and suspense to movies - its non-vented design, 10 inch drive unit and powerful 675 watts peak amplification delivers the lows in music with a convincing control and fast, authoritative fidelity.

EUROPEAN HOME THEATER SUBWOOFER OF THE YEAR Velodyne DD10 Extremely compact, but weighty and highly dynamic in character, the DD-10 is the smallest model in Velodyne’s new Digital Drive line. Although it measures just 30cm high, the Velodyne DD-10’s performance confirms the special expertise of the Californian firm, which since the 1980s has represented a reference-point for other subwoofer designers. Thanks to the drive unit’s ‘push-pull’ voice coil and external suspension, with feedback control of the cone, the generous 1250 watt built-in amplifier, plus the on-board digital equalizer and digital analyzer, the DD-10 allows any home cinema enthusiast to reach new levels of excitement.

EUROPEAN HOME THEATER SYSTEM OF THE YEAR Samsung HT-DS460 Samsung’s HT-DS460 is a home cinema system at an affordable price, with radio tuner, DVD player and multichannel amplifier. It supports a wide variety of usable disc formats, including the increasingly important DiVX video format, along with the playback of JPEG pictures and MP3 music. The package includes a subwoofer and gives surround sound from a ‘rear reflecting sound system’ which reflects the sound from separate transducers in the front speakers towards the back of the room. So there is no need for rear speakers and installation is made be easy in any living room.

EUROPEAN HOME THEATER HIGH END COMPONENT OF THE YEAR Yamaha DSP-Z9 An obvious choice for a high-end home theatre experience. THX Ultra 2 certified, it has an impressive output of 7x300 watts plus 2x90 watts for the extra front effect channels. A Faroudja scaler provides the best picture from all video sources. The smart Room Acoustics Optimizer makes it very user friendly. A microphone and a 15-band equalizer gets the best result in any home conditions with a push of one button. The sound is at the level you would expect at this price - a powerful and controlled bottom end, detailed midrange with excellent dialogue and a clear and well-balanced top. In short, a very exciting product.

EUROPEAN HOME THEATER INNOVATION OF THE YEAR KEF KIT 100 KEF’s Instant Theater system meets the needs of all consumers who want a good looking, good sounding 5.1 DVD system, but don’t like to hook up five speakers. With only two clever Uni-Q speakers, each including a NXT panel, the system produces realistic surround sound. No pseudo-surround ‘tricks’ are involved: the KIT 100 has a powerful subwoofer, while the two main speakers produce front left, right, phantom centre and - relying on wall reflections - the rear channels. Setup takes only five minutes. This well-crafted, good sounding system is much more than a serious alternative to conventional home theater systems.

EUROPEAN DVD PLAYER OF THE YEAR Pioneer DV-668AV To drive your home cinema display or video projector you need to have a top video source. The task of the DVD player is to produce fine image quality in match the capabilities of your display device. This is also a universal player that accepts high-resolution SACD and DVD-Audio discs. Dolby Digital and DTS decoding is built in. Image quality is high thanks to a progressive output and a digital (HDMI) interface. For analogue video there is a 216MHz/12-bit converter. Overall, a very well-specified player which has everything necessary to succeed in the market.

EUROPEAN VIDEO PROJECTOR OF THE YEAR Panasonic PT-AE500E With the PT-AE500E, Panasonic has created a dedicated video projector, which, at an affordable price, fulfils any home cinema demands concerning picture resolution, contrast ratio and color fidelity. A complete range of analogue inputs is accompanied by a digital DVI-D/HDCP connection, accepting high-definition signals. The projector includes all of the functions you would usually expect, including low noise mode, but gives first priority to picture quality.

EUROPEAN HIGH END VIDEO PROJECTOR OF THE YEAR InFocus ScreenPlay 777 With its three-chip DLP technology, based on HD2-DMD, the InFocus Screenplay 777 offers big-screen performance at its best. HDTV-capable resolution of 1280x720 pixels and a sophisticated custom Minolta lens, with a choice of seven focal lengths to suit most projection distances, makes the ScreenPlay 777 a perfect beamer for home theater enthusiast. Its beautiful case incorporates DVI, YUV and RGB Progressive inputs and fully equipped Faroudja video processing. Although easy to use, the InFocus offers a huge range of expert video-setups and both horizontal and vertical lens-shift, so it can be easily tuned to maximum picture quality.

EUROPEAN NEW MEDIA PLAYER OF THE YEAR Samsung ‘Yepp’ YH-999 Paving the way to a totally new concept of products, the Samsung Portable Media Centre ‘Yepp’ YH-999 uses the resources of the Microsoft Portable Media Center platform. You can access digital media files anywhere, anytime, since the 20 GB, 1.8 inch Hard Disk can store MP3, WMA, WMV and JPEG files and the 3.5 inch TFT-LCD display allows you to view your favorite pictures and movies with QVGA resolution. Compliance with the Windows Media Player DRM platform means that the YH-999 will be increasingly used to manage the authorized reproduction of all types of media files.