Sensible Screen

VApex PRO Fixed Frame Screen.

- Al Griffin

PRICE $219 as reviewed

RECENT ADVANCES IN PROJECTION screen technology have created a shift in home A/V from cave-like theaters that block out every last drop of light to open spaces that integrate with the rest of the living environment. For screen manufacturers, a main mission over the past few years has been to design models capable of withstanding some degree of ambient light while delivering good image quality over a wide viewing angle. Known as ambient-light-rejecting (ALR) screens, these do exactly what their name suggests: cancel out the impact of lamps, overhead lighting, and undraped windows so that the light you see reflected off the screen is primarily what’s beamed at it by the projector. However, ALR screens remain pricey. Case in point: The Elite Prime Vision DarkStar 9 (November 2015 issue, also available at sound and vision.com) costs upwards of $3,000 for a 110-inch-diagonal model. At that price, there’s a good chance that the projector you’d buy would cost less than the screen itself.