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BenQ W7500 Single-Chip DLP Projector

Chris Eberle

Looking over Secrets' last few years of projector reviews, it quickly becomes evident that the pricing sweet spot has settled around the $3000 mark. This makes sense since it's only a little more or less than you'd pay for a top-quality 65-inch flat panel. A few years ago, any TV over 50 inches carried a big price premium. When I bought my Pioneer Kuro in 2009 for example, I paid $2,900 for a 50-inch screen. I really wanted the 60-inch model but it was almost double the price at $5,600!

The REALLY BIG screen experience is still only available from front projection. Last year, I got to check out Mitsubishi's DLP, the HC8000D. This time, BenQ sent me their new W7500. For $2,799, it offers some great features and very high performance coupled with tremendous light output. Let's take a look.

Projectors

SIM2 SUPER LUMIS Three-Chip DLP Projector

Chris Heinonen

Projectors are often described as having a "film-like" image. We are all trying to replicate that movie theater experience at home and so it seems that achieving that look is what we would strive for. The SIM2 SUPER LUMIS has shown me that in a modern projector; film-like is no longer what we want. All our sources now are pixel-perfect digital sources. Ideal projectors are razor-sharp and incredibly bright. We can focus down to a single pixel on the screen. Very little we see in the theater today is film sourced or projected from film, and nothing we watch at home is stored on film. So "film-like" is not what I'm after in a projector. What I'm after is something that shows me every last detail and imperfection in what I'm watching. A projector as true to the source as possible. With that in mind, the SIM2 SUPER LUMIS projector is a machine that is capable of doing just that. Powerful, precise, and utter revealing of everything it projects onto the screen.

Projectors

Mitsubishi HC8000D-BL 3D DLP Projector

Chris Eberle

Whenever I attend the CEDIA Expo, I visit all the projector manufacturers, both large and small. While Mitsubishi is a large company, their projectors are not as well-known as other brands. At the 2012 Expo, I had a chance to check out their all-new DLP models. In this review, we test the Mitsubishi HC8000D-BL single-chip DLP 3D projector.

Projectors

BenQ W1070 Projector

Chris Heinonen

I'll be blunt: I don't like 3D. I've never been able to justify paying extra to see it in the theater, and at home it has always left me cold. Most implementations give me a headache almost instantly with their crosstalk-filled images and ghosting the drives me crazy... Fast forward to CES 2013 and BenQ is in the South Hall showing off a pair of projectors that are very similar to the W7000, but scaled down: the W1070 and W1080ST.

Projectors

Paiste 18″ Formula 602 Thin Crash Cymbal

John E. Johnson, Jr.

In the late 1950's, Paiste introduced their 602 series of cymbals. Everyone loved them. The big names played them. So, one might wonder, why did Paiste stop offering them, and instead, moved on to new models? Well, the answer is right there in the question: new. It's in our nature to always be looking for something different, even when what we have is just about perfect. New model is something the marketing guys love, and we, as consumers, have learned to love it too. But there is another word: Retro, and it means we like going back in time to rediscover the pleasures of things we loved in the past. And, that is the 602. The irony is that the 602 has been out of the inventory for so long, today's drummers probably never heard of it, let alone play one. Well, here's your chance, and the 602 is, . . . now what is that word I am looking for?

Cymbals