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Sony VPL-VW1000ESk Projector

This morning we installed the long awaited SONY VPL-VW1000ESk projector in our theater room. This is considered by most video aficionados as the absolute State Of The Art in home theater picture reproduction. You know how good Blu-Ray looks right? Imagine 4 times the pixel count with eye popping  contrast and color. We watched a bit of “Planet Earth” and it actually feels as if you are looking through a window. 3D also looks better than anything any of us have ever seen. We are displaying it on our 133-inch Screen Innovations Fixed Screen and you can actually walk up to this screen, put your nose an inch away and not see a single pixel. The price is not for the faint of heart but when you see this, be careful… you are going to want it!

Bainbridge Island waterfront home installation

This week we are putting the finishing touches on a new Bainbridge Island waterfront home. The vision of the home owners and designers demanded an aesthetically minimalistic approach to all the audio/video components throughout the house. Fortunately for us we have the perfect products to accomplish this task.

Bainbridge Interior 1

In the main entertainment room, also serving as the living living room, the  transitional-style, custom cabinet houses the flat screen TV. While not in use it is concealed behind cabinet doors and when being viewed, an articulating bracket allows it to be easily pulled out of the cabinet and rotated to adjust for various seating locations.

We concealed the 3 main Focal front firing bookshelf style speakers and subwoofer, also located inside the cabinetry. The main speakers are slightly tilted inside the cabinet allowing for a natural presentation through the grilled cabinet doors. The matching Focal in-wall surround speakers  are located on the opposite wall and the grilles were painted to match.  All of the source and amplification components are located in a flush mounted cabinet inside the home owner’s office.  Matthew did a beautiful job of programming  the  URC TRC-1280 remote control allowing the simplest method to select TV, music or movies.

Deck Speakers

One of my favorite parts of this installation are the deck speakers. For this application we installed a pair of our Truaudio GG8 Ghost speakers. The deck speakers are controlled with the URC TPK 2000  in-wall touchscreen.

In-Wall Touchscreen

The home owners and I enjoyed a nice glass of wine, conversation and Tony Bennett while watching kayakers drift by. So beautiful.

Bainbridge Exterior

We would like to thank Don and Pamela and our good friend and Master Builder Mr. Jim Hobbs for allowing us to participate in this truly beautiful dream home.

Focal In-Wall Speaker

Foca l - In-Wall Speaker

If you are considering an in-wall speaker system the Focal IW 1002 is a great choice. Focal uses the exact same quality components found in their family of floor standing speakers.  The easily removable magnetic grille allows for custom painting to match your wall or ceiling.  The purpose-built enclosure serves two purposes. It controls the mid-woofer so your bass is smooth and also helps to inhibit sound transfer into other rooms.  We feel many in-wall speakers do not produce an acceptable level of sound quality and that these are definitely an exception to that rule.

Come in and audition these and we are sure you will agree.

Krell’s New Integrated Amplifier

Krell Integrated Amp

Krell’s New Integrated Amplifier has just arrived!

Krell is finally shipping, in limited quantities, their second batch of this beautiful piece of Audio jewelry –  the S550i, available for $5000.

This is truly a music lover’s product with more than enough juice to control any speaker system on the planet.

We started warming up  our display unit in our showroom yesterday and already can tell it performs well above it’s price range. Huge sound stage presentation, lots of detail and control as we have come expect from Krell.  It boasts 275 watts per channel into 8 ohms and a whopping 550 into 4 ohms. It weighs 64 pounds but don’t worry, we can help you with the installation. For those of you considering a serious musical upgrade but may not have the real estate for separates, come in and have a listen for yourself.

Here is a link to a recent review (PDF) from reviewer Ken Kessler of Hi-Fi News and Record Review.