Elite Traveler January-February 2015

DISCOVER

Soundwall combines a hi-fi speaker and one-off or limited

Technology

edition artwork soundwall.com

Light entertainer Until now the pinnacle of home cinema hardware has been the digital light processing (DLP) projector, a device capable of recreating the super-screen awe of the multiplex in the comfort of your living room. But this approach is not without drawbacks: the units are frequently cumbersome, noisy and tricky to install inconspicuously, even in dedicated screening rooms. Sony’s alternative is the epitome of discretion. Resembling a low-rise storage solution Dieter Rams might have conceived, the 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector fits against the wall and uses a laser light source to project ultra-high-definition content directly onto it, with a display size of up to 147 inches. A gesture-control interface has already been live-tested to showcase its broader potential, such as the ability to scroll through virtual, life-sized facsimiles of the Louvre Museum’s canvasses, simply by swiping a finger through the air. $50,000, sony.net

COME MCFLY WITH ME

Did you see Back to the Future II and long for the use of hoverboards by 2015? Well, the time has arrived. The first prototype hoverboards from US firm Arx Pax have shipped (each one costing a $10,000 contribution to the firm’s Kickstarter fund). Magnetic field architecture (that’s powerful magnets to you and me) allows the board to levitate, as long as it’s over a suitable non-ferrous metal surface. Although all the boards have now gone, you can still buy a developer’s kit to build your own. hendohover.com

ABSOLUTE POWER London-based Musical Fidelity has long proven an exemplary manufacturer of audiophile hardware and its latest integrated amplifier, the Nu-Vista 800, is the culmination of 33 years’ development. A dual mono configuration punching 300 Watts per channel, its power amp circuitry is based on the company’s (sadly discontinued) Titan flagship. $12,500, musicalfidelity.com

Words: Henry Farrar-Hockley, Richard Cree