Soundwave Scorpion
4th February 2008, Monday
Since the breakdown of my home theater system just days before the New Year, we had been sorely missing some DVD watching luxury as highlighted by the missus who tries to catch some Japanese dorama whenever she is free at home.
We had tried using the PC as a replacement but that means I cannot have access to it whenever she is watching it, and I felt the resolution when transferred to the LCD TV is not as sharp with constant flickering which kind of irritates me.
A lot of options was thrown in the air since I am sure the laser of my system had announced it;s early pension plan.
One of which was getting a Playstation 3 which had been verified to play DVD despite myth that the 40GB version is incapable of doing so. However the region code issue (most probably Code 3 for South East Asian market) is still a major doubt which even PS3 owner like Chan is ignorant of.
However despite not being an audiophile, I felt if I made an effort to buy pretty expensive dolby digital enabled movie DVD with perhaps 5 .1 or 6.1 channel configuration; just depending on the bare speakers of the TV is insufficient to attain the maximum listening pleasure, so a home theater system with it's packaged speakers and woofer will have the upperhand to dish out the great sounds that give the full satisfaction of watching an authentic DVD.
I had contemplated on getting a new system set after my performance bonus a good 3 months away, while seeking prospective candidates that I would be interested in...
It just happened that there was an household appliances, IT and furniture megastore which finally opened over the weekend at the ground floor of Kallang Leisure Park.
Prior to their opening, they rented a small space to display some of the items they had on sale, which predominantly featuring Akira (despite the savvy Japanese name, is a local brand which offer affordable electrical appliances).
I led the missus to have a look at the home theater systems they had to offer, on our way out of the mall after my weekly La Tendo trip.
Then our attention was instantly grabbed by this sleek black mini compo system which features a heavy bass blasted by the efficient woofer at the bottom. There were only 2 speakers which has a design the like of Bang of Olufsen or harman/kardon would be proud of.
It was perhaps the most stylish product Akira had produced thus far, and it perked our interests further when it is supposed to be a DVD theater system with radio tuning capability and the one thing that I had been seeking for in my ideal system..One that can play MPEG4/Divx files, i.e. general video files we downloaded online.
The sound was good as this system with the flashy name Soundwave Scorpion (sounds like some Decepticons) bangs on the high quality sound due to their 10,000 Watts speaker/woofer capability (does that mean they consume more electricity?)
It was no surprise the price was also a bit to the higher end, yet still measly compared to other well-known brands I supposed.
I was rather skeptical on whether with the 2 speakers, the Dolby Digital (let's say 5.1 channel) can be projected nicely.
So I got the friendly sales assistant to test on some DVD with DTS capability.
After some problem adjusting the audio format (as this player lacks the "surround" capability, they have to change the mode to mere dolby digital), we began to hear the sweet sound the speakers were able to churn out and we were bought.
My missus pointed out that we couldn't spread the wires of the speakers of a system with 5.1 channel capability around our bedroom, so the twin speakers should be suffice to be housed on the TV console, so it was the deal we had been looking for.
We didn't take long to make the decision and made the payment as we figured a way on how we were going to carry the hefty packaging box back home.
A cab seems the only logical option and we did just that...
Back home it took us a good hour to dis-assemble my previous system, now serve merely as a radio; clearing the dust that gathered over the year (nice timing for the spring cleaning as well) & rigging up the Scorpion, and soon we have the fitting home theater solution we had been in sought of...
Some interesting features is that the audio synthesizer & power unit is actually inside the woofer, thus allowing the main console to be that slim, and it is connected to the woofer by some cable resembling that commonly used for a computer.
There is a HDMI cable slot, so I wonder what usage I could with that, perhaps linking with Playstation 3 for sound? That sounds tempting with the sound this baby can produce.
There is also a USB slot, which allows on to simply plug in a thumbdrive to play a video, listen to mp3 or looking at pictures..A nifty feature which I used to watch the premiere of the 4th season of "Lost" with...way cool.
As of all other DVD players that allow one to play digital video file, codec remains a hindering factor...so only pure divx/avi can be played, for the likes of h.264 format (most of my Japanese variety programs), i still require the PC to watch...if only we can patch the system to read all codecs....
Anyway we really enjoy the new system which combined aesthetic pleasures with high performance; we even rented some DVDs on Sunday to just utilize our new toy...
Since the breakdown of my home theater system just days before the New Year, we had been sorely missing some DVD watching luxury as highlighted by the missus who tries to catch some Japanese dorama whenever she is free at home.
We had tried using the PC as a replacement but that means I cannot have access to it whenever she is watching it, and I felt the resolution when transferred to the LCD TV is not as sharp with constant flickering which kind of irritates me.
A lot of options was thrown in the air since I am sure the laser of my system had announced it;s early pension plan.
One of which was getting a Playstation 3 which had been verified to play DVD despite myth that the 40GB version is incapable of doing so. However the region code issue (most probably Code 3 for South East Asian market) is still a major doubt which even PS3 owner like Chan is ignorant of.
However despite not being an audiophile, I felt if I made an effort to buy pretty expensive dolby digital enabled movie DVD with perhaps 5 .1 or 6.1 channel configuration; just depending on the bare speakers of the TV is insufficient to attain the maximum listening pleasure, so a home theater system with it's packaged speakers and woofer will have the upperhand to dish out the great sounds that give the full satisfaction of watching an authentic DVD.
I had contemplated on getting a new system set after my performance bonus a good 3 months away, while seeking prospective candidates that I would be interested in...
It just happened that there was an household appliances, IT and furniture megastore which finally opened over the weekend at the ground floor of Kallang Leisure Park.
Prior to their opening, they rented a small space to display some of the items they had on sale, which predominantly featuring Akira (despite the savvy Japanese name, is a local brand which offer affordable electrical appliances).
I led the missus to have a look at the home theater systems they had to offer, on our way out of the mall after my weekly La Tendo trip.
Then our attention was instantly grabbed by this sleek black mini compo system which features a heavy bass blasted by the efficient woofer at the bottom. There were only 2 speakers which has a design the like of Bang of Olufsen or harman/kardon would be proud of.
It was perhaps the most stylish product Akira had produced thus far, and it perked our interests further when it is supposed to be a DVD theater system with radio tuning capability and the one thing that I had been seeking for in my ideal system..One that can play MPEG4/Divx files, i.e. general video files we downloaded online.
The sound was good as this system with the flashy name Soundwave Scorpion (sounds like some Decepticons) bangs on the high quality sound due to their 10,000 Watts speaker/woofer capability (does that mean they consume more electricity?)
It was no surprise the price was also a bit to the higher end, yet still measly compared to other well-known brands I supposed.
I was rather skeptical on whether with the 2 speakers, the Dolby Digital (let's say 5.1 channel) can be projected nicely.
So I got the friendly sales assistant to test on some DVD with DTS capability.
After some problem adjusting the audio format (as this player lacks the "surround" capability, they have to change the mode to mere dolby digital), we began to hear the sweet sound the speakers were able to churn out and we were bought.
My missus pointed out that we couldn't spread the wires of the speakers of a system with 5.1 channel capability around our bedroom, so the twin speakers should be suffice to be housed on the TV console, so it was the deal we had been looking for.
We didn't take long to make the decision and made the payment as we figured a way on how we were going to carry the hefty packaging box back home.
A cab seems the only logical option and we did just that...
Back home it took us a good hour to dis-assemble my previous system, now serve merely as a radio; clearing the dust that gathered over the year (nice timing for the spring cleaning as well) & rigging up the Scorpion, and soon we have the fitting home theater solution we had been in sought of...
Some interesting features is that the audio synthesizer & power unit is actually inside the woofer, thus allowing the main console to be that slim, and it is connected to the woofer by some cable resembling that commonly used for a computer.
There is a HDMI cable slot, so I wonder what usage I could with that, perhaps linking with Playstation 3 for sound? That sounds tempting with the sound this baby can produce.
There is also a USB slot, which allows on to simply plug in a thumbdrive to play a video, listen to mp3 or looking at pictures..A nifty feature which I used to watch the premiere of the 4th season of "Lost" with...way cool.
As of all other DVD players that allow one to play digital video file, codec remains a hindering factor...so only pure divx/avi can be played, for the likes of h.264 format (most of my Japanese variety programs), i still require the PC to watch...if only we can patch the system to read all codecs....
Anyway we really enjoy the new system which combined aesthetic pleasures with high performance; we even rented some DVDs on Sunday to just utilize our new toy...
Japanese word of the day: 蠍 (Scorpion) Perhaps I was made for it since my zodiac sign is scorpio...
Labels: IT
posted by Kei at
3:06 PM
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