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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CPAMarty who wrote (27959)	1/11/1998 7:48:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

DENON -- AND DAVID -- DO DVD And THX and a/v receivers by David J. Elrich LAS VEGAS, January 10, 1998 -- There are legends in the a/v business and Denon's David Birch-Jones ranks up there as an evangelist extraordinaire. When he starts talking about a new product or technology, even penurious press types start to reach for their credit cards. David just moved from Marantz to Denon and I fastened my seatbelt for a tour of the booth with him. We first moved to the new DVD players, the DVD-3000 and DVD-5000. The 3000 ($899, due March) has component video outs, a DD decoder, a 10-bit video DAC, 24-bit 96 kHz audio and Virtual surround sound for a five-channel feel from two speakers. Other features include three picture settings (Fine for best detail, Soft to smooth video noise and Normal) and full bass management with time delays so you can properly adjust bass settings. David was pretty calm talking about this was but he really revved up over the DVD-5000, the company's THX approved DVD player. He told us version 0.9 of the THX specs were in his hands and the final version was due soon. Then the Denon engineerscould finish building the player. We asked what THX could do for DVD and he launched into a speech that would put Henry II to shame. Let it suffice to say that the approvals cover audio and video performance as well as the interface. According to THX, its engineers have "identified several areas of current DVD player performance that need improvement including picture distortion, color clarity, motion artifacts and issues relating to functionality." Along with Denon, a Pioneer Elite player, the Meridian 800 Reference DVD player and the Runco SAR-200 will be the first THX approved players. Will they cost $399 at Wal-Mart? Two guesses. These will be $2000-plus players. We can't wait to see how they stack up against the Sony DVP-S7000. Once we got that spiel, things calmed down as we learned about a new Dolby digital receiver (AVR-2700, $799, due March) that's rated 80 times 5 and has Cinema Re-EQ, and a new DD-ready receiver for $399 (AVR-1100, due February). Since David is much in demand by dealers who need their questions answered, a crowd grew around us hungry for info. I left them in David's good hands. Other Denon announcements include a new audiophile CD player (DCD-1650, $999), a $599 MiniDisc recorder, a couple of bookshelf stereos and a trunkload full of car stereo components. # # #