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Sim2 Grand Cinema C3X 1080 Turn over for more‌
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64 Sim2 Grand Cinema C3X 1080 ➜ £23,000 Approx ➜ www.sim2.co.uk
Per square inch, this is probably one of the world’s most expensive objects right now
Home Cinema Choice june 2009
Reviews 65
Pinnacle of HD projection? This super high-end three-chip DLP projector is the only status symbol that John Archer wants to own
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here’s no doubt that most of us would think twice before throwing £23,000 down on SIM2’s Grand Cinema C3X 1080 projector. After all, a similar amount of cash could buy you a pretty flash sports car, or a nippy little motorboat to swank around the UK’s coastal resorts. While these traditional statussymbol buys promise undeniable fun, after the week or so I’ve just spent with the C3X 1080, it’s fair to say that my car- and boat-buying plans are now well and truly on hold. This is a very spectacular projector indeed. My love affair with the C3X 1080 was initially purely physical. Its stunning high-gloss finish and flirtatiously curvy lines are the viewing-room equivalent of a Porsche, or maybe even a Ferrari. You can choose from any of four colours, ranging from the gun-metal grey standard through to a blazing red that again conjures up saucy images of esoteric automobiles. Another remarkable thing about the C3X 1080’s design is how small it is. In fact, it’s
the smallest Full HD three-chip DLP projector in the world. We’ve seen three-chip DLP models before, but they offered only 720p resolution. 1920 x 1080
resolution is still rare in the world of three-chip DLP, even though it’s common on single-chip models. Having a trio of chips is significant because it removes the need for a colour wheel, as the three primary colours are routed to their own chip. And not having a colour wheel means you eliminate DLP’s rainbow effect (where stripes of red, green, and blue flit around your peripheral vision and/or over bright parts of the picture) and reduce ‘fizzing’ noise over horizontal motion, a lesser problem to be sure. Not having to suffer such artefacts means that you’re free to focus instead on DLP’s traditional strengths, such as deeper, more stable black levels, more vibrant and expressive colours, and cleaner, sharper, motion-handling. But there’s more than just extra micromirrors
AV/CV Product: A Full HD three-chip projector with state-ofthe-art colour management Position: Scarily, the C3X 1080 isn’t the highest-end model in SIM2’s range; that honour goes to the £29K C3X 1080 Lumis Host Peers: Vidikron Vision Model 110; SIM2 HT5000
Playing hooky: All the regular connections are present and correct
at play. This PJ also has the single most extraordinary colour management system I’ve ever clapped eyes on. The unit has five sophisticated presets, some based on key video standards, joined by multiple white point presets, again based around well-known video standards – with D65 offering the best movie starting point.
The colour store One interesting feature is a slot for storing your own colour presets. The projector’s internal architecture configuration lets it be directly controlled and manipulated by a sophisticated and exhaustive PC colour-calibration application – which in turn is designed to work with a high-spec colour meter. Your specialised custom installer will thus be ready, willing and able to calibrate the hues of the C3X 1080 to within a hair’s breadth of measurable perfection. Which is precisely what happened during my audition. Obviously, the C3X 1080 ships with a high level of colour accuracy. But hues can be affected by the reflecting and lighting characteristics of the viewing room and screen. So the C3X 1080’s sophisticated system lets installers correct any colour changes introduced by the environment more completely than any other PJ I’ve encountered. Is that £23K price tag making sense yet? Maybe not. But there’s more. The DLP chipsets at the C3X 1080’s heart are the latest DarkChip 4 Texas Instruments specification, june 2009 Home Cinema Choice
66 Reviews ➜ Specifications
HD Ready: yes up to 1080p24 Progressive scan: yes PAL and NTSC Component video: yes one set of inputs HDMI: yes two v1.3 PC input: yes one D-Sub PC Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Brightness (claimed): N/A Contrast ratio (claimed): 10,000:1 Dimensions (on stand): 435(w) x 190(h) x 430(d)mm Weight: 11kg Other features: AlphaPath light engine; extreme colour management via PC and with colour meter support; threechip DarkChip 4 DLP system; short, mid and long-throw lens options; multiple colour standard presets; PixelWorks DNX processing; composite and S-video inputs
➜ Tech Labs
Film star looks: The C3X 1080 has gorgeous looks, as well as impressive brains
delivering a terrific level of contrast (claimed at 10,000:1). It’s also astonishingly bright, courtesy of SIM2’s AlphaPath Light Engine technology, and carries 10bit video processing for enhanced de-interlacing and a wider, subtler colour range. Finally, the SIM2 C3X 1080 can be bought with any of three different throw-ratio lens options, offers an extremely handy vertical-image shifting knob, supports multiple lamp output options, and even provides a selection of built-in test signals. Groovy.
Impressive out of its box Even in its ‘from the box’ state the SIM2’s picture quality is absolutely stunning. But with every little
tweak made through the colour management system, the picture becomes better.
Not surprisingly, the single most mesmerising thing about its postcalibration pictures is colour fidelity. I’ve never seen such a wide, vibrant and expressive, colour palette. It’s a real joy to use a projector that delivers the ‘true’ colour design of whatever film you care to watch. For instance, the tough combination of tricky lighting conditions, low-lit skin tones and rich table and card colours during the poker sequences in Casino Royale on Blu-ray is rendered so perfectly that I thought I was siting at the table alongside Bond. The subtlety of its palette – together with the blistering resolution – also helps SIM2’s Home Cinema Choice june 2009
high-end PJ deliver immaculate, stripe-free blends that reinforce the unit’s prowess. Visually, the model is a premium player. The C3X 1080 can deliver fabulous levels of fine detail and texture. During the 007 card game sequences, tell-tale signs of HD quality like facial pores, and the weave in suits, are all present and correct. Subtle shadow details, that lesser projectors will hide behind overbearing blackness, tease with detail – causing 2K images to ping like those in a commercial cinema. Wrapping up the C3X’s peerless performance is the complete stability and noiselessness of its HD pictures. As mentioned earlier, the three-chip system precludes the possibility of any of DLP’s usual ‘distractions’. On top of that, there were no processing artefacts I could see, no grain beyond what might exist in a source, and no forced edging. If forced to pick a fault with the C3X 1080, I might argue that standard-definition pictures could perhaps be slightly better. The projector’s PixelWorks DNX video processing does a good job, but for £23K it would have been nice to talk about a more innovative solution. But if a machine was ever built for higher definition, it’s SIM2’s C3X 1080. And the best way to sum up its majestic performance is to say that the only thing that stands between you and complete immersion in the movie is the screen the image is projected on. Which is pretty much the Holy Grail of any cinema
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The SIM2’s pre-calibration colour temperature measured 7,813K (Point A), not surprising as the default colour temperature seems to be 7,500K. The extraordinary range of colour temperature adjustment settings includes a D65 preset, but this still measured a little hot; user adjustment quickly delivered a perfect 6.500K Before calibration Colour temperature: 7,813K RGB: 60/112/96 Luminance: 14245fL Contrast ratio: 5668:1 After calibration Colour temperature: 6,500K (user) RGB: 100/100/100 Luminance: 26039fL Contrast ratio: 6306:1
Verdict SIM2 Grand Cinema C3X 1080 £23,000 Approx Price check: www.techradar.com/591731 Highs: Reference standard pictures with a capital R; gorgeous design; small; unbelievably flexible colour management Lows: Standard-def might have benefited from slightly more ‘highbrow’ video processing Performance: Design: Features:
Overall: