The home video projector W1070 from BenQ is (or was) one of the most popular projectors on the market, it’s almost a legend. What’s the secret behind this nice little projector? To cut it short: It delivers a terrific image at a very affordable price point!
Monthly Archives: February 2016
Synology DS415+ NAS
The DS415+ is a 4-bay network-attached storage (NAS), featuring a powerful 64-bit Intel Atom quad core processor (2.4GHz) and 2GB of RAM.
It’s the perfect device to centrally store all your data: Use it as a media server, a backup server, webserver or to build your own cloud.
Dimensions: 17 x 20 x 24cm, 2kg
Logitech K810 Keyboard
The Logitech K810 is a wireless, back-illuminated keyboard. You can use it with any bluetooth-enabled device. It even allows you to pair up to 3 devices and switch between them with just one keypress. Besides the excellent ergonomics, it looks fantastic and is easy to use in a dark environment due to the back-illumination. The keyboard automatically turns off the backlight when the keyboard is not in use. A proximity sensor magically reactivates the backlight when you approach the keyboard with your hand. To further save energy, the back-illumination can be dimmed or even turned off.
Home Cinema – Part III
The third and last part of this mini-series is all about audio. Surround sound is an essential part of every home cinema and enables an immersive viewing experience!
Home Cinema – Part II
When I think about home cinema, the first thing that comes to my mind is a big screen. It ultimately distinguishs a standard TV setup from a home cinema.
To get a really big image, a video projector + screen is the only way to go. There are some big TVs on the market, but those cost a multiple of a projector. Therefore, I’m only going to cover the ‘standard’ approach in this article.
Home Cinema – Part I
This is the first part of how to build your own home cinema. Well actually, I will not tell you how to ‘build’ it, but rather help you to choose the right components and give you some hints.
Before we start, I’d like to try to answer one of the most common questions that comes up when someone asks me about a home cinema: “How much do I need to invest?” I will discuss each component separately in the following article, but to give you an indicative value beforehand: If you start from the ground up (without any components), then you’re probably looking at 2500 to 4000€ for a descent setup – without major room optimizations, seating furniture or other extras! This is just my recommendation and does not mean you can’t realize a home cinema for 1000 bucks or less.
There will be 3 parts in total:
- Part I: Room
- Part II: Video
- Part III: Audio
These are the three essential parts of every home entertainment system. We start with the first and obviously most important part, the room which will accommodate your home cinema.
Silver Ticket 106″ Projector Screen
Silver Ticket offers stunning projector screen for the home cinema at a very affordable price. The STR-169106 is the version with 106 inch diagonal (16:9 aspect ratio) and a white surface material.
Canton Chrono SL 590.2 Speaker
The Chrono SL 590.2 is a very fine floorstanding loudspeakers from Canton. The 3-way design sports two 18cm woofers (ported), one 18cm midrange speaker and one 25mm tweeter. The modern and yet simple design immediately attracts attention and suggests to the observer high quality, but how does it perform?
Canton Vento 830.2 Speaker
The Vento 830.2 is the biggest bookshelf speaker in the Vento series from German loudspeaker manufacturer Canton. An 18cm woofer and a 25mm ceramic tweeter are combined in a ported 2-way construction. The RMS power rating is 80W and the sensitivity 87dB. Dimensions: 22 x 36 x 31 cm, 8.7kg
Teufel Ultima 40 MkII Speaker
Teufel is known for their surround sound systems and has only recently entered the HiFi market.
The Ultima 40 MkII is a 3-way ported floorstanding speaker with a 16.5cm woofer, a 16.5cm low-midrange driver and a 25mm tweeter. With a sensitivity of 87dB and a power rating of 120W, the Ultima 40 can generate up to 108dB of sound pressure. The -3dB point is at 45Hz. Dimensions: 32 x 22 x 106 cm, 21.5 kg