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SIM2 MICO50 LED Has Arrived

98K views 711 replies 104 participants last post by  Technology3456 
#1 ·
Today I just took delivery of a brand new MICO50 that I've had on order for quite a while. Unfortunately I won't be able to put it through its paces until tomorrow as I have to attend a town meeting tonight. Word has it that the production units are even better than what was shown at CEDIA, so I can't wait to see how it compares to the C3X 1080 I had briefly and which now belongs to another. I'll report back over the weekend.
 
#677 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikenificent1 /forum/post/18810512


The Mico 40 is supposed to be released in July, yet there isn't any real info available. This guy supposedly already has one:

http://twitter.com/Glasgowaudio


Does anyone at least know the MSRP?

I believe it will be around $15k
 
#679 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephan /forum/post/18826426


Do you have any details yet on the differences between the Mico 40 and Mico 50?

I dont, sorry.
 
#680 ·
A double first. WOW! He doesn't know something about a Sim2 product. AND he said he was sorry. Just kidding about the sorry. He has said before he misunderstood what people have said in posts and modified his response. Just spoofing with CM. A very valuable contributor to our knowledge, its just that he is so shy.
 
#681 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mark haflich /forum/post/18694042


My last CRT was a 9500 Ultra with new tubes and the then latest MP mods. 110 inch D 1.78 1.3 gain. No way, and I mean no wa,y any 9 inch CRT is going to put out anywhere near your claim. What drugs are you taking? I have been involved with blends for large screens say 10 ft wide or so and double and tripple Sony 9 inch stacks and no way anywhere near those numbers. You my friend are sadly mistaken. Start a thread in the CRT forum and I will go there. Lets see who can back you up. try cliffy, william K, Ken W. Noone is going to be able to validate those claims.

Like I said a nice 8"-er could do 20 fL, no special Boeing tubes, or tricks like that required. Actually their small spotsize would hurt the light output.

http://www.htforum.nl/yabbse/index.p...085#msg1569085


Reinier got 21 fL on his BD808S with DMB180 tubes. Straight greyscale, correct primaries and gamma, and lots a light. This does require some additional defocussing on the blue tube.


Must be luck combined with great skill (Reinier was the one to introduce the late thread starter of the old 'how much fL' thread over at the CRT subforum to calibration).


If this thread hadn't resurfaced I wouldn't have remembered your rebuttal Mark. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post18814697


And indeed his 1209 sporting LUGs does put out less light.
 
#684 ·
It sounds to me as if this Sim2 LED machine is perfect. Perfect that is for normal mainstream Home Theater. Another way to put it is that it's a mature technology.


Front projectors have had a number of faults. At first they projected dim gray images which degraded over time. Then many people saw rainbows on other models. Some were noisy and some were hot. Some had fuzzy images from misconvergence. And all were subject to failing bulbs.


The Sim2 machine has none of these problems. By the any reasonable assessment it is just what everyone was after when they first tried to bring a movie theater experience into the home. It's perfect (for standard Home Theater movie viewing). Its only flaw is price.
 
#685 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by PLB /forum/post/18852280


It sounds to me as if this Sim2 LED machine is perfect.

It's far from perfect. There are no perfect projectors, but leaving that fact aside...


- there are still rainbows. Not like the ones we know from color wheel based projectors, but still color seperation artifacts. Manufacturers are still working on it on all LED based machines, including Sim2.


- the Sim2 is "silent" because it's water cooled. There still is a fan in the machine. The much bigger problem is the PSU, which has a high frequency noise in bright scenes. This can be more annoying than a projector which is fan cooled.


- While there's no problem with misconvergence, depending on the production run, the Mico 50 (as well as other LED based machines) can still show a serious amount of CA. I've seen this happen more than 1 pixel wide. However Sim2 has agreed to exchange that particular projector for a new one, as they considered it damaged. A certain amount of CA is normal however.



So, this is not a perfect machine. But it sure is one of the best for the "small" screen. If you want to light up a really big screen, there are better choices.
 
#689 ·
The so called rainbow effect is a flicker-fusion threshold phenomenon. I was first involved in flicker-fusion in 1962.


Basically there is human variability in the speed at which a flickering light appears to fuse into a continuous light. There is also variability in colors fusing and movie frames fusing.


All these phenomena have thresholds such that above the threshold the image seems continuous and no faster cycling is needed. You can easily adjust your threshold - with booze.


If you see rainbows - drink a Martini. If you still see them - repeat.


Sobriety is the enemy of Home Theater. Get in the fight!
 
#691 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephan /forum/post/18852433


If you want to light up a really big screen, there are better choices.

If I may weigh-in... educate me. I'm looking at this unit rather closely for a new dedicated HT room. (26'w x 31'd x 12'h) The screen will be approx 196" diagonal. Thus far the Sim2 MICO 50 has my attention. I looked at the Anthem 500 (which I really like, btw), and another LED proj.- the latter two weren't exactly suggested for screens this large. BTW- there will be total light control in our theater. I might start another thread on this for overall input regarding my gear selections, in another section of this forum.


But please tell me what you'd suggest as a better choice for my needs. Thanks.
 
#692 ·
I am attaching a copy of the calibration report for the ISF calibration I did on a MICO 50. The screen was a 100" Stewart StudioTek 130.

 

MICO 50 ISF.pdf 147.9365234375k . file
 

Attachments

#693 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crunchyriff /forum/post/19086225


If I may weigh-in... educate me. I'm looking at this unit rather closely for a new dedicated HT room. (26'w x 31'd x 12'h) The screen will be approx 196" diagonal. Thus far the Sim2 MICO 50 has my attention. I looked at the Anthem 500 (which I really like, btw), and another LED proj.- the latter two weren't exactly suggested for screens this large. BTW- there will be total light control in our theater. I might start another thread on this for overall input regarding my gear selections, in another section of this forum.


But please tell me what you'd suggest as a better choice for my needs. Thanks.


What type of screen? Scope or 16:9? What gain? This will have a major impact on the performance of the Mico.


Let's say you're talking 16:9, 1.0 gain which will give you a screen around 8' x 14.2' or an area of about 113 sqft. Lets say the Mico will have 700 lumens at best, then you'd be looking at 6ftL. For most, this is not acceptable. I'm not a 20ftL+ guy myself, but given that the Mico light output depends on throw distance and lens selection in addition to variations throughout the series, you'll most likely end up with less than that. In my opinion, not enough.


Numbers for a scope screen with anamorphic lens will look better and you can always compensate with a higher gain screen. I'm personally not a fan of high gain screens and would recommend looking at the Sim2 Uno. It's a 3-chip DLP with alot more light output. If you're not sensitive to rainbows, have a look at the Digital Projection dVision 30 series. Those are dual lamp machines with dual color wheels and provide more than enough light output for your application.


That said, the Anthem is a JVC machine. Lamp based machines are dropping in brightness and because of that, the Mico 50 is brighter over time. Unless you want to change lamps every month or so on the Anthem.
 
#694 ·
Stephan-


Thanks for your response. Our HT is being spec'd completely from the ground-up. This is going into a home we're building (that is still in the design stages- right now I'm working on finalizing the floorplans).


What I'm looking for screen-wise is something like the Stewart "Director's Choice" line (variable masking) to accommodate varying aspect ratios. At this point I'm still sitting on the fence with behind the screen speakers, or not. Since I have a good sized area, exposed speakers (ie.: towers, center) won't be a problem per se', but I must say I'm leaning slightly towards them being hidden for the sake of streamlining the room. So there is still the question of perforated screen or not. But I digress. As far as lenses, etc, I'm still learning this stuff. I'm used to dealing with 16:9 and black bars in the past, on all my prior displays.


As far as screen gain, I haven't worked that out yet. Like I said, the room will have total light-control. The screen will be 8' (96") high as per your example. But again, I'm looking at the Variable Masking feature, and am pretty convinced we are going this direction. I do have much to learn though in this tier of equipment. I do want to see, say, at least 12ftL minimum; 6ftL is so weak, imho, I don't think I've experienced 20ftL so I can't speak to that with any credibiity. So anyway, I did have some concerns that the MICO 50 would be maxed-out at their recommended 200" maximum size. That did concern me.


FWIW, I come from the DLP side of the fence (inFocus Proj, and Samsung HL-S6767W HD RPTV) from a few years ago (though I have had plasma, too), so DLP doesn't affect me negatively as it does for others. Admittedly, this new theater we're spec'ing is a huge leap UP the scale for us, so I'm trying to learn as much as possible and make prudent choices. We're blessed with pretty much an open budget for this project; nevertheless, for me its "performance first"; no matter what the price-point, and still look at performance very closely in each category more than how many zeros are in the price of a given piece of gear to qualify its consideration. This system will be at a whole new level than anything I've had before.


Yes, I'm aware of the Anthem Proj being a tarted-up JVC (har!). Great looking display... unfortunately, not enough power for the size screen we're specing, or I'd snap one up. I'm really wanting to go 'cutting-edge' wherever it's warranted- which is kind of an oxymoron in this economy with fewer new high-ticket pieces being created & developed vs 5-10 yrs ago; on the flip side, I do like tried and true solutions as well. The key is finding the balance here.


I still might end up with a proj w/9" CRT's... and yes, the lamps do weaken over time (such a plus for the LED's) as do the DLP's, but wanting to go a more modern direction if possible. I was hoping to seize the moment with the DLP/LED technology now that the issue of grayscale & black levels seem to have finally been addressed and made acceptable, if not totally conquered. Knowing that CRT's still seem to be the bar for inky blacks & grayscale, but today's newer technologies are getting very very close, so we're looking fwd in tech, if possible. Will also be using an external scaler (Lumigen XE+ is the plan so far) 95+% probability on this issue.


I should start another thread on my HT subject, no thread hijack here intended, folks. Just not sure where to put it as it involves every aspect of it, but mainly the gear itself. Thus far the Sim2 MICO 50 had my complete attention, but I may have to look elsewhere. Hopefully it will be a DLP/LED based solution.


Thanks!
 
#695 ·
Crunchy,

I would suggest attending Cedia in a couple of weeks. I would think you might be impressed with Peter's booth. If you want to go LED, then you would probably have to stack or blend or both. VDC had an interesting set up with four LED pjs blended that looked really good.
 
#696 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ericglo /forum/post/19096854


Crunchy,

I would suggest attending Cedia in a couple of weeks. I would think you might be impressed with Peter's booth. If you want to go LED, then you would probably have to stack or blend or both. VDC had an interesting set up with four LED pjs blended that looked really good.

Ericglo- see, that right there shows how much I have to learn about the high-end tier and implementation. First I've heard of that (stack &/or blend pj's).


That said, I do wish to if possible, utilize a single proj solution. Perhaps I need to expand my thinking. As far as Cedia, I don't think I'll be making that show this year as I will not be in that area as far as I can tell, during those days. Now if they were having it at the MOSCONE Center in SF, that I possibly could attend. I can't wait to hear what is the outcome of this event... what is officially hitting the mkt.

Please tell me 'Peter who'? (forgive my ignorance, Peter) What company does he represent? VDC?
 
#698 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ericglo /forum/post/19099506


Crunchy,

Peter is Cineramax. You can find him on this forum.


As for your pj, no CRT or LED is going to light up that size screen. You are going to have to stay with bulb pjs (not counting the ancient light valves
).

I was suspecting that might indeed be the case. Already looking at DPI, etc..

C'est la vie!


The hunt continues. I'm always open to suggestions. Stacking/blending I have not entirely ruled out yet.
 
#699 ·
Let me add a few things in addition to what's been said already.


There's no way you'll get 12ftL on the size of screen you're looking at from any LED projector on the market. Runco has a new LED machine in the pipeline which uses a dual led engine. Hopefully this will have 1000+ lumens. Should be at Cedia... hopefully.


Now, since money isn't so much of an issue and you require the light output, I wouldn't look at a 1-chip dual lamp solution. 3-chip is where you'd want to go.

If you have to step up all the way to a Barco machine + Peters mods is up to you of course. It doesn't hurt to look at one of course. I don't have the Barco or Peters price list at hand, but going from a sub $10k LCoS or $22k LED machine to a >$85k Barco solution seems to be a big step. I would not pull the trigger right away. Take your time, read up on things, get some demos - then decide carefully what's the right thing to do for you.


With your budget you could do anything from a Sim2 UNO, over the Lumis to the HT5k, or a 3-chip from DPI, Barco and so on.


I personally would not go with a stacked or blended solution. Convergence will never be perfect. Most DMDs in the lower price range (UNO, Lumis and so on) are glued and will slightly drift over the years. Convergence will get worse and even more so with a stack/blend. Once you enter the range of adjustable DMDs (by a professional) on a HT5k, Barco, Christie, ... you're looking at a price range where you can easily buy a single projector with enough light output for your needs.


Based on your screen size, your target of 12ftL on a 1.0 gain and possible a perforated screen. I'd say, have a look at a projector between 2000 and 2500 lumens. That should give you enough calibrated lumens for what you want to do.
 
#700 ·
Those 1200s may list at 85K, but go for much less. Still a very large difference with a JVC 990 at 10K list. But Barco has a 6K lumens 3 chipper, that's from the fixed installation/auditorium line-up, but at under 20K it may be an option. It is very silent, so that helps in reducing the isolation requirements.
 
#701 ·
Stephan-

My assumption was that convergence WOULD BE a real bear with a stacked or blended solution (unless there was some magic trickery out there I didn't know about); thank you for confirming that. The truth is I pretty much figured I'd have to go with a single, 3-chip machine, ultimately; but I wasn't sure where the say, $15-30k tier was at today in capability for this size screen. I've pretty much been unplugged from the A/V-HT tech for 5 yrs or so, and not to mention this rather sizable step-up in gear for us which there is a whole new learning curve.


Yep, been looking at the DPI, Barco, etc... along those lines since I first piped-in here and got some valuable comments to educate me a bit in the last 24 hrs or so. The new Runco LED? Hmm we'll see... I guess. I'm not counting on it being correct for us. Furthermore, we might be inclined to go 20ftL but we're using 12ftL simply as a starting point... which is already changing as I'm learning more. I really want to see it with my own eyes to judge it, and I won't be surprised if that's where I end up. Isn't THX and SMPTE both spec at what, 16ftL, as I read today? That being the case, certainly I'd want no less. There really is so much to consider to do it right; and I want to do it right, period. No rush, no regrets.


After some more research, the non-perf screen is starting to gain ground, and seeing the "Torus" shaped screen that I believe Cineramax did on their site is getting my attention for a number of valid (I believe) reasons. I also have plenty of room for external speakers in the room, and, having added a few more ft to the room dimensions (now 28'x33'x12' which is at the maximum allowable size for this ceiling) I can well deal with floorstanding speakers and not have them physically dominate the room- I could before, actually, this is just a bit better.. Still haven't made the final decision on behind the screen vs exposed speakers yet.


The whole big step in going from the $22k tier to the Barco Modded, DPI, was simply for proper performance for the size screen (& room) it is going in. The Sim2 MICO50 was where I figured I might, MIGHT get into this 'properly', but not so it appears. Like I said, I'm learning this tier which is a new world for me (like going from toyota, to a porsche turboS or a ferrari), and am not afraid to ask questions. Thx for your help and patience. I'm going to go ahead and start a new thread on this and get off this one now so the Sim2 MICO 50 gets proper attention here...


Ericglo, DonaldK- thank you too for your input.
 
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