Home Cinema Choice June 2021

As the sort of person who stumbles over the choice of 'salted or sweet?', I find my mind blown by the modern era of AV hardware. It's not that long ago that even a high-end movie room would be based around just a disc player, 5.1 surround setup and display – because that was the only option – but these days, the home cinema popcorn comes in all sorts of flavours. In this issue we take a look at a 3.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar from Samsung, a Hisense projector system that thinks it's a TV, and an SVS subwoofer that makes a virtue of its compact dimensions (the more 'traditional' side of our hobby is repped by Anthem's MRX 740 receiver and LG's 65in C1 OLED). We even check out a…

As the sort of person who stumbles over the choice of 'salted or sweet?', I find my mind blown by the modern era of AV hardware. It's not that long ago that even a high-end movie room would be based around just a disc player, 5.1 surround setup and display – because that was the only option – but these days, the home cinema popcorn comes in all sorts of flavours. In this issue we take a look at a 3.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar from Samsung, a Hisense projector system that thinks it's a TV, and an SVS subwoofer that makes a virtue of its compact dimensions (the more 'traditional' side of our hobby is repped by Anthem's MRX 740 receiver and LG's 65in C1 OLED). We even check out…

John Archer: The experienced TV tester cut his teeth as an early HCC staffer Jon Thompson: Film producer and post-production expert delves into Hollywood and AV Steve May: HCC’s former Ed. is one of the UK’s most respected AV journos Anton van Beek: Our avid movie watcher and disc collector cut his teeth on Total DVD Richard Stevenson: Former Editor of the UK CE trade journal ERT Ed Selley: Audiophile Ed mixes his home cinema passion with a love of vinyl Steve Withers: Movie fan, display calibrator and object-based audio obsessive…

John Archer: The experienced TV tester cut his teeth as an early HCC staffer Jon Thompson: Film producer and post-production expert delves into Hollywood and AV Steve May: HCC’s former Ed. is one of the UK’s most respected AV journos Anton van Beek: Our avid movie watcher and disc collector cut his teeth on Total DVD Richard Stevenson: Former Editor of the UK CE trade journal ERT Ed Selley: Audiophile Ed mixes his home cinema passion with a love of vinyl Steve Withers: Movie fan, display calibrator and object-based audio obsessive…

Previously, you had to buy a JBL Synthesis home cinema speaker package to get your hands on its electronics, but the US corp is making its new SDR-35 AV receiver (£6,000) available separately. Beneath its smart exterior with colour display, this seven-channel model is based on the same platform as the AVR30 from stablemate Arcam, but adds new features including an upgraded ESS Sabre DAC, Harman Logic 16 processing/upmixing, Dirac's ‘Multi Sub’ bass control and improved IP networking. ONLINE… For breaking AV news, blogs, features and reviews visit www.homecinemachoice.com Follow us on Twitter @hccmag Like us on Facebook facebook.com/homecinemachoice…

TCL C82 Series→www.tcl.com/uk Bowers & Wilkins zones out New to B&W's custom install-focused product range is the CDA-16, a slim-line 16-channel power amp suited to multizone audio. Priced £1,800, and intended for rack installations, this Class D power pusher delivers a claimed 50W per channel into 8 ohm loads (up to 200W in bridged mode). A bank of line-level stereo analogue inputs allows for independent sources to feed eight audio zones, but there's also the option for one input to be selected as a 'global' source. www.bowerswilkins.com Two-channel digital diva Cambridge Audio has launched a pair of networked stereo amplifiers based around Hypex's NCore Class D technology. Both the £1,800 Evo 75 and more powerful £2,250 Evo 150 are fully-featured, with a spec list including the brand’s StreamMagic platform and app control; Chromecast, AirPlay and…