Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

If you’re into music or at least musical instruments Marshall should be a brand you all recognise with its lovely black and gold colouring and Spinal Tap admired amplifiers that went “up to 11”.

Pure, the DAB radio experts teamed up with them a couple of years back (Evoke Marshall 1-XT) and made a DAB radio branded with Marshall and adopted it’s unique designs but this was at a time when DAB was still quite expensive and not as popular. Well Pure have decided to resurrect it again only this time it’s called the Pure Evoke 1S Marshall. It’s pretty much the same, now packing portability in the form of being able to be battery powered as well as mains, an FM tuner and an input for you to plug your iPod in too. There’s also an option to pick up an extra Marshall stack shaped speaker to add that extra volume to your digital music fest.

Not only that but this time it’s heading to the masses. Firstly though one will only be able to pick it up at HMV stores or at HMV.com in the coming weeks as an exclusive thing until the rest of the world picks it up some time in September. The Evoke 1S will be priced at £120, still a bit pricey for a DAB but it certainly looks great and the first incarnation became quite the collectors item, and the extra speaker will set you back £34.99.

Home Cinema is a big market now, I guess mainly due to the fact it’s so expensive to go to the cinema and with the development of HD video and sound it’s just as good to watch at home that it is to go out and spend a fortune on tickets and sweets. Panasonic have just revealed two new models of Blu-Ray home cinema kit, neither top end or indeed bottom end they certainly are pleasing to the eye and have a couple of nifty features.

Firstly what’s interesting is they are both 2.1 setups (incorporating 2 front speakers and a subwoofer) yet Panasonic say the sound output from them will sound pretty much like a 7.1 setup. How? Apparently it’s all due to the technology inside the speakers and their construction. Even the small subwoofer, which is on the small side in comparison to most Panasonic claims gives “powerful, reverberating bass”.

What’s great aesthetically pleasing is the design and use. The front of the unit has a sliding door which when opened allows the user to insert a disc or dock an iPod. When an iPod is docked, you can play any content from it onto your telly. Other features of both models are “High Precision 4:4:4 and PHL Chroma Processor Plus technology”. In English that basically means it boosts picture quality of your content. The only difference between the two models is the SC-BTX77 model has Pure Direct Sound speakers, in other words they’re better . Another feature is the Panasonic Viera cast. This allows YouTube video access and playback and there’s also a USB port and SD card access for even more content playback.

Available now the RRP for the kit starts from £450.

The BRAVIA Theatre BDV-IT1000 is an all-in-one home cinema system with an integrated Blu-ray Disc drive. It features super-slim speakers with full-range drive units just 16mm wide, wireless rear speakers, as well as DVD upscaling to 1080p.

BDV-IT1000 at a glance

• Super-slim speakers made possible by finger-sized full-range drive units
• All-in-one home cinema system with integrated Blu-ray Disc drive
• Full HD 1080/24p picture quality with Deep Color and x.v.Colour
• Wireless rear speakers for great surround effects without cables
• BD-Live Ready: upgradable to Profile 2.0 for extra content and downloads via Ethernet port
• DVD upscaling to 1080p
• Two HDMI input terminals for connection of games consoles, HD TV decoder boxes or other sources, and one HDMI output
• Optical digital and analogue stereo inputs. Also composite/component video in
• Upconversion to HDMI for analogue sources
• Fast, perfect 'one-touch' set-up with Digital Cinema Auto Calibration
• BRAVIA Sync for integrated operation with other Sony components
• XrossMediaBar onscreen display for simple, logical operation of all functions
• Connectivity with Network WALKMAN® and iPod® players, Bluetooth devices and home Wi-Fi networks via DIGITAL MEDIA PORT, plus Portable Audio Enhancer
• 700W total power: 5x100W plus 2x100W for subwoofer, using efficient, high-quality 32-bit S-Master digital amplification