Home Cinema Choice December 2022

I was ready to declare Top Gun: Maverick (p90) as the movie event of the year, until I remembered that Avatar 2 is in cinemas December. Will this sequel to James Cameron's 2009 mega-hit win a box office dogfight with Tom Cruise's high-flying actioner? Time will tell. The original Avatar up-ended the film industry. Cameron proved exactly what could be accomplished with 3D technology, and it led to a deluge of big-budget stereoscopic titles. Even TV makers were inspired by its success to go big on 3D display tech. As our letters pages in this issue reveal, 3D still has its fans – despite the format being declared domestically dead years ago. I'm therefore interested to see what impact Avatar 2 might have. If anyone can convince TV manufacturers to…

➜News highlights BOWERS & WILKINS Revamp for 700 Series loudspeakers OPTOMA Projector specialist unveils CinemaX D2 UST duo MCINTOSH Is this the world's most bonkers centre speaker? FOCAL Premium Utopia headphones AT THE PLEX This month's cinema releases SILENT RUNNING 1972 sci-fi classic resurrected for 4K Blu-ray & MORE! The top dog in Denon's new home cinema lineup, the £5999 AVC-A1H's 15 power channels support expansive speaker systems, with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Auro-3D and IMAX Enhanced decoding on board. Emphasising its flagship status is the amp's use of Denon's 'most powerful transformer', plus a high-rigidity construction and premium components. The feature set includes HEOS multiroom and HDMI 2.1 connections, while Dirac Live room EQ will be available as a paid firmware upgrade next year. HCC ONLINE… For breaking AV…

A new angle from M&K Sound The highly regarded 150 Series from M&K Sound (see HCC #289) has been expanded with the IW150A in-ceiling/in-wall loudspeaker. This is again based on the S150 LCR model, but features a 15-degree angle to the tweeter baffle and 5.7-degree angle to the twin 5.25in woofers, to better function as an in-ceiling Atmos speaker, or positioned above or below a PJ screen. Rated freq. response is flat from 80Hz-20kHz, while sensitivity is a claimed 90dB. Price is £1,295 each. www.mksound.com Utopia revisited French manufacturer Focal has updated its premium Utopia headphones. Priced £4,699, the cans still use Beryllium for their 40mm dynamic drivers, but employ a new copper/ aluminium alloy voice coil and reshaped protective grille said to improve linearity. The overall design is also…

It is an often repeated trope that the centre speaker has the most important role of any in a multichannel setup, as it acts as the ‘anchor’ around which the other speakers perform. McIntosh has taken this idea and run with it – the XCS1.5K might be the most extraordinary centre channel model we’ve ever clapped eyes on. Ticketed at a cool £39,995, the unit replaces the outgoing XCS2K and XCS1K models and weighs a whopping 80kg. It has been designed to complement the American marque's high-end XRT2.1K and XRT1.1K floorstanders. Like those speakers – which sell for £159,000 and £69,000 respectively, in case you're wondering – the XCS1.5K adopts McIntosh’s unique take on configuration. There are no less than 43 separate drivers in this beast of a centre. Of…

Something in the Dirt November 4: After helming several episodes of Moon Knight, cult filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead return to feature films with a mind-bending sci-fi comedy about two neighbours investigating odd events in an LA apartment complex. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever November 11: Marvel’s Black Panther sequel follows Wakanda’s leaders as they deal with the fallout following the death of the nation’s protector, King T’Challa, and the arrival of the undersea mutant Namor (Tenoch Huerta). The Menu November 18: Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy headline this jet-black comedy horror about a celebrity chef serving up nasty gastronomic surprises to some wealthy guests...…

New from projector honcho Optoma are two new 4K ultra-short-throw models, the CinemaX D2 and CinemaX D2 Smart. Priced £1,999 and £2,149 respectively, and both available in black and white finishes, the units feature Texas Instruments 4K DLP optics and DuraCore laser light engines. Designed for use in a traditional living room environment, the PJs claim a brightness of 3,000 Lumens and introduce a new Enhanced Gaming Mode with suggested response times of 16ms (4K/60) and 4ms (1080p/240). HDR10 and HLG formats are supported. Connections include a trio of HDMIs (one with eARC for Dolby Atmos passthrough), plus optical and 3.5mm audio outs if you want to bypass the onboard integrated speaker system. There's also a powered USB port, ready to juice the bundled Android TV HDMI dongle of the…