As 2020 was a slower year for some manufacturers, Samsung took to market their vastly popular Ultra Short Throw Projector. The Premiere LSP7T (MSRP $3,499) and LSP9T (MSRP $6,499) are two new models that bring the BIG television experience to any home, bringing that next level projection technology into the living room.
For this review, I will be referring to the Premiere LSP9T for comments, pros and cons. At first glance, when unboxing you can quickly see Samsung’s design features that make this a piece that can be easily accepted into any accommodating space. It is a relatively slim, gloss white box.
Setting up any ultra short throw for the first time can be a daunting task, but Samsung’s directions are pretty simple. With their documentation, it gives you the precise measurements to fill whichever size screen you have (in millimeters). I would have liked to have seen some type of jig, to make it even more simpler. This Ultra Short Throw projector can project 130” from only 9” off the wall!
Powering up, you are greeted with the setup process that showcases Samsung’s Tizen UI and software that will feel very familiar to anyone that currently owns their products. It has Android built-in with Samsungs’ touch and navigation. Getting into the tech specs, The Premiere is powered by a triple laser system, capable of performing over 20,000 hours of home theater experience at 2,800 ANSI lumens. It is the first projector capable of HDR10+, and has Acoustic Beam technology firing out of the front of the projector, which sounds great! More on that in a second.
Picture Quality – 8/10
Initially the Premiere is heavily weighted red which slightly sides more to the magenta side of things. The “Youtube” logo on the app inside of the builtin menu software looks hideous, but watching actual content the reds are more accurate especially in Filmmaker Mode (The Premiere can do 4K, HDR, HDR10+ and HLG) Filmmaker Mode turns off any enhancing features, and allows them to achieve full BT.2020 and DCI-P3 color gamuts for SDR and HDR viewing. When paired with an external player such as a dedicated 4K Bluray Player or the Zappiti Pro 4K HDR, it really comes to life. Be warned at close distances, you may notice some slight laser sparkle in bright scenes. But this can be avoided by sitting at proper seating distances. I never noticed any banding, or rainbow effect that some others have experienced.
Sound 9/10
As you do not often rate audio from a projector, the technology built-in to the Premiere is easily noticed and sounds incredible. Far better than most TV speakers you find in homes today. Their Acoustic Beam technology can throw sound to create a convincing immersive effect and is why I had to give this a high rating. With that being said, to any home theater enthusiast, you will look to pair this with a dedicated Dolby Atmos setup. But for the average living room, this is a solid all-in-one option that will give you a good experience and get the wifes’ approval in the living room without having to have multiple speakers scattered throughout the room.
In closing, the Samsung Premiere is the best all-in-one solution we have seen to date. There are certainly cheaper options but Samsung has done a fantastic job with this piece.
The good:
Vibrant accurate colors
Great dark room performance
Fully integrated Smart TV feel with Android and Tizen
Amazing and convincing sound
Not so good:
Can be a bit pricey, although any TV with similar performance at 130” will still cost tens of thousands more
Could be brighter
Better dedicated projectors out there
So is it worth your money?
In short, if you are looking for a big TV feel from an ultra short throw projector, this is it. If you’re wanting to dip your toes into the UST world this is a phenomenal option. It is certainly a little pricey but packs the performance and quality that you would expect from Samsung.
This is it. This is the Native 4K starting point for most people. Traditional 2-piece projection systems with a screen and a projector are a great way to really bring the theater experience home. JVC is a leader in the field and their D-ILA projectors have taken over since they were introduced. Today I will review the JVC RS1000, also known as the NX5 and the N5 internationally.
Lets start by clearing the air. You have probably seen the NX5 available at your favorite box store and you have heard of the RS1000 available only through custom integration companies like home theater installers. These are the same projector and the differences you may be able to pick out side by side are just normal variances that come out in production. In a blind test there is no way to discern one over the other. Neither is better than the other in performance. Now that we have that sorted lets talk about the RS1000
This is a monster of a projector. It weights 44 pounds and requires a sturdy mount to suspend this from the ceiling. You get the full 4K resolution supporting all 8.8 million pixels. This translates into an ultra-sharp image. You get 40,000:1 native contrast and 400,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio with gives you the blackest blacks and a stark transition from light and dark. What this projector can do does not match just whats on the spec sheet. You get crisp 4K resolution, vibrant colors that jump off the screen and an ultra-realistic HDR recreation. It does all of this with just 1800 ANSI lumens too. This is all made possible by using the D-ILA engine utilizing 3 of the 0.69 reflective devices paired with a 65mm all glass lens. This projector is a convertible too. I mean to say you can use this in different aspect ratios with a click of a button. This is known as lens memory. You can have one setting saved as 16×9 format and the next as 2.35/2.40. You set these manually and have the ability to choose the zoom and lens shift to make this possible. This can be a little confusing so I will dive deeper into this a little later. The RS1000 has 2 full bandwidth 18gb HDMI ports, an ethernet port for control, a USB port for updates and a power port to make it all work. This does have the ability to 3d, but you need to purchase the JVC 3d emitter sold separately.
The biggest claim to fame that sets this projector above other native 4K variants is the Dynamic Tone Mapping or DTM. Dynamic tone mapping helps optimize your image no matter what the source or what the content is. That means your copy of Avengers will look as good on your 4K UHD player as well as on your 4K Apple TV. The magic that goes into recreating a perfect image every time is very technical, but the ease at which it does this is amazing. This dynamic tone mapping is available in the JVC firmware starting at 3.10. If you have the newest firmware (3.50) this enhances the projector even more. This update includes the theater optimizer feature that allows you to really pair the projector to your system perfectly. There are considerations for the screen size and screen material used as well as compensations for picture based on the projectors lamp life. All of this leads to an image that anyone would be proud to enjoy.
There are a few things you want your projector to do and the D-ILA series does them very well. You want a projector that recreates a stunning image without any of the drawbacks. Im referring to heat and noise. I have noticed the JVC to be very tame in terms of heat and noise. You will notice some fan noise on lamp high mode, but that is to be expected. The heat this projector gives off is very minimal in comparison to Sony projectors. This could be a consideration for hotter climates or rooms with cooling issues.
The JVC RS1000 is an incredible projector and the amount of performance you get with this unit is even more impressive. I have said a lot of nice things about this projector so far and I would venture to say the only downside is the initial price and the lower lumen output of the projector. Price is highly subjective, but a lot of times with electronics, the performance you want usually comes with a price tag. Knowing what I know now, I would save for the items I want versus compromising with products and have to rebuy later on. The brightness issue isn’t much of a concern when used in a proper light-controlled room. With the lights off and projected onto a well paired screen, this will rival some TVs in terms of performance.
To sum it all up I would recommend this JVC RS1000 to anyone that has a medium sized to smaller sized screen. To make this even better, I would say pair this with a higher gain white screen to maximize the picture quality. This projector should be used in light-controlled rooms only unless you have a really good ambient light rejecting (ALR) screen. The picture quality is incredible with its wonderful color recreation as well as the well-known JVC inky black levels. It is more expensive than the 4K e-shift peers, but the performance is noticeably better than the lesser expensive models. This unit kicks out low noise and heat and very livable whether you use this daily or solely for the purpose of movie or game night. The RS1000 is the starting point for native 4K. Sony makes a projector similar to this on in price but not in performance. Not to mention the similar Sony model does not have the Dynamic tone mapping feature. You would be hard pressed to find a better projector for the price. So like I said in the beginning, for native 4K projection, this is it.
At first glance the AudioControl lineup of amplifiers is too good to be true. It’s 230 watts per channel at 8ohms and 300 at 4 ohms. All this without any of the heat and made here in the USA!? Even from a quick unboxing you can realize the fantastic build quality and attention to detail that went into this unit. I’mgoing to give you guys the quick and dirty on the AudioControlSavoy G4 Power amplifier.
Let’s start with the unboxing experience. First, even getting this into your house, you’ll notice the raw weight of this amp. As in old school electronics, usually the heavier the unit is translatesinto better-quality components. Once you start cutting the tape and getting into the box, you’ll notice little quirky sayings or jokes on the box. This is refreshing because usually you do notsee anything like this from other companies. I think AudioControls made in Washington, USA spirit shines through. The unit is double boxed to protect your investment. In the box you get a thick power cable, a tank of an amplifier, two empty boxes for your kids to make racecars out of and the owner’s manual. The jokes and spirit of AudioControl don’t stop at the box. The owner’s manual has little jokes, references and dance moves tutorials that brightens up your amplifier experience. Now that its unboxed let’s talk about this unit.
The AudioControl Savoy is a 7 channel beast of an amplifier. This is a 3U sized amplifier that weighs in at 43 pounds. You get 7 channels by 230 at 8 ohms and 300 by 7 at 4 ohms. You can bridge this amp Mono into a 600 watts at 8 ohms too. Do it, I dare you. All of this power and accomplished at a very low total Harmonic distortion (THD). It has all that horsepower without the unwanted heat. This is a Class H amplifier and unlike the class A A/B amps this is a much cooler operating solution if you have limited ventilation to the amp. The amp also has anti-clipping technology built in. If you are not familiar with clipping, its bad news for speakers and amplifiers. Your signal is a sine wave. Once the signal starts flattening the peaks of that sine wave you are into clipping. This causes audible distortion in your speakers and can cause irreversible damage to the tweeters first and then to the drivers with time. Clipping isn’t ideal for amps either, so It stands to reason to have a safety measures in place when you want to blast the tunes through your system. The AudioControl amplifiers have LightDrive anti-clipping circuitry. This makes sure your Speakers and amplifier are protected and will perform perfectly and distortion free every time you fire it up. You have triggers ins and outs to turn the amp on when your processor or AVR comes on. Another cool feature is that you have a ground isolation switch. This helps if you have pesky ground loop problems like a hum coming from your speakers. This Switch has 3 positions that will help get rid of unwanted hum or grounding noises. The only other thing that is specifically unique to this amp are the 7 individual level controls to boost or cut your speaker gain. Unless you are advanced in-home audio calibration, I would leave these in the standard 3 to 9 position or east and west. Things can get dicey quick if you don’t know what you are doing. All of these quick points round how the AudioControl power amplifiers are different from the rest.
Build quality is amplifier is top notch. The tolerances on the chassis are tight and fit as they should. All faces are coated in a nice black finish. The rear is the opposite with a white panel and black print. All of the lighting on the amplifier are a stunning blue LEDs from the indicator lights to the thin blue line on the front panel. The unbalanced connections are sturdy and have no wiggle room like I have seen from other amplifiers. You also have passthrough on each channel on the unbalanced connection allowing flexibility on how you connect your system. The balanced connections fit my Amphenol connectors nice and tight with a positive stopping point and solid connection. The 5-way binding posts are very satisfying visually as well as its strong seat to banana plugs. These binding posts don’t have the usual wiggle you see in other amplifiers too.
The amp performs flawlessly. I have heard Class A, Class A/B,Class D, Class G, and Class H amplifiers. I am a big fan of a neutral tone instead of inherent voicing that certain class amplifiers induce on the sounds amplified. The AudioControlSavoy is no different. Its very close to neutral in its sound recreation allowing the music and sound effects to be heard as the audio engineer intended. Personally, I am using this in my home theater for a heights amplifier. As you know a 6 channelamplifier with a decent amount of umpf is a tall order. There are not many choices out here in the 6-7 channel arena. This AudioControl Savoy G4 fits the position perfectly. You would be just as well using this for your 7.0 non atmos speakers and it can do so without the strained effort. Going “separates” as most people call it, is an easy way to boost the performance of your home theater system. I went to separates for the front stage when I had a polular AVR for the front stage. This takes the heavy lifting off your AVR and gives the bulk of the dialogue and effects delivering a clearer and more detailed sound stage. If you haven’t tried this yet, then I highly recommend it. If you are a madman, you can repurpose the Savoy G4 for monoblock use.You can grab two for a serious critical listening Hifi system. If 7 channels are too much then I would look into the 5 Channel Pantages or even the 4/3/2 channel Avalon from AudioControl. These amps serve to give you all the benefits of the savoy like I discussed today but in smaller amplification packages that will help best fit your system.
I was introduced to AudioControl about a year ago at CEDIA and as I get my hands on these, the more I have a respect and admiration for the brand. The made in America vibe is strong with this amplifier from the quirks in the owner’s manual to the “Yes, Mr. Wayne, it does comes in black” chassis. I’m excited to start reviewing the Pantages and Avalon like I previously mentioned. I’m sure you will see all of AudioControls lineup reviewed here in print sooner than later. Buy with confidence guys. These are the real deal.
