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Carada Brilliant White Projection Screen

Manufacturer: Carada, Inc.

By Floyd Pierce
SPot Senior Editor

Model number: 

2003-08-18 - " Occasionally a company with a great idea comes along that tweaks our interest here in the home theater world. "

Review:

I came in contact with David Giles, founder of Carada, Inc. (www.carada.com), via the SPot. He is a home theater enthusiast like the rest of us here, and during his search for the right components to build his own home theater; he attempted to find a great screen for a really good price. There are many quality screens out there but they usually have a pretty hefty price attached. David felt that there was a market out there to provide that sort of product via Internet sales to the home theater hobbyist.

Carada has just opened up in the last month or so, and I got the chance to have one of their screens in my home for a week. Before I get to the details, I’d like to cover some of the policies they have in place to entice the HT hobbyist into their virtual door. Since it is sometimes difficult to dive into a long-term relationship with a product sight unseen, Carada is backing up their product with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. How it works is if you return the screen (after calling to get a return authorization of course) within 30 days of receiving the screen, they will accept the screen and refund your purchase cost. The customer would be responsible for the freight both ways, but this seems to be a very equitable approach.

The product is sold in a number of standard sizes but if you wish to have a custom size, they will make it up for you and will price it at the same cost as the next larger screen size. This again seems like a great opportunity for those that have a special requirement for screen size. In my case, I’ve placed surrounding drapes to fit my 92” 16:9 screen, so it’s difficult to fit a screen that’s smaller or larger in the space. Carada made up a 92”, even though that isn’t a standard size for them, to provide a screen for me to review.

Three screen materials are currently provided (High Contrast Gray .8 gain, Classic Cinema White 1.0 gain, and Brilliant White 1.4 gain). The High Contrast and Brilliant White are avialable at an upcharge over the Classic Cinema White. I viewed samples of the HC Gray and 1.0 Gain White and my comments regarding the screen material should hold up for those materials as well.

The Details

The packaging of the screen was very well done. I find that many of the items that I get in are poorly packaged. I know that with my 30-year background in the packaging industry, I probably obsess a bit more than others about the packaging. However, if you receive a something that is poorly packaged it has an effect on your perception of the product. The Carada came through with flying colors.

The Carada frame is made from 1” X 2” rectangular tubing. This compares to some competing products that use 1.5” X 1.5” tubing. This provides a sleeker form factor on the wall but nothing is lost in strength as the tubing is thicker than many of the other frames. In my case this provides a bit of an advantage since my projector mounts a couple of feet above the top of the screen. The 1x2 tubing casts less of a shadow at the top of the image than the 1.5x1.5 does.

The frame is covered with Carada’s “Black Hole” trim. This is a standard feature of their screens, while it is an extra cost option with many other screens. The flocking is beautifully done (by hand!). This really sets off the frame and almost completely eliminates any reflections from the overscan from the projector. The frame members are individually plastic wrapped, and this allowed the frame to arrive without any blemishes. The frame was a piece of cake to assemble and provided a very square and stable support for the screen material.

The screen material appears to deliver the 1.4 gain advertised. I found the material to be everything you’d expect. Since this is not a high gain material you won’t find any hotspotting. The material was consistent across the screen with no perceptible flaws. The packaging does get some credit here as well for allowing the screen to arrive with out any marks. The snaps to attach the screen material to the frame were perfectly placed to avoid any wrinkles. The border material appeared very sturdy and I don’t expect that you’d ever have a problem with any tearing or distortion around the snaps.

Conclusions

I must say that, for selfish reasons, I would have liked to find some factors here that would justify the extra that I paid for my screen. I didn’t. In fact the Carada screen would have provided a better value than my screen did even at the same price. The $200+ that I would have saved would just have been gravy.

Carada does have plans to fill out their product line over time with other materials, motorized mounts and the like. The limited product offering is really the only negative that I can see. Carada has shown me a great product and they provide it at a great price, what could be better than that?



Features:
  • Screen Materials:
    Classic Cinema White (1.0 gain) Brilliant White (1.4 gain) High Contrast Grey (.8 gain).

  • 2"x1"x.09375" 6063 T-5 Aluminum Frame
  • Steel Corner Braces
  • Metal Snaps
  • Black Hole™ Trim
  • 3M adhesive-reinforced screen border
Rating:

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