CHRISTIE LWU530-APS PROJECTOR REVIEW – Performance: Brightness, Image Noise, Audible Noise
While Christie advertises the LWU530-APS brightness as 5,300 ISO lumens, the industry standard for measuring brightness is ANSI lumens. The LWU530 brightness is rated at 5,000 ANSI Lumens. Regardless, the fact that a mid-size laser projector that retails for less than $2,500 can deliver nearly 5,000 ANSI lumens is amazing especially when you consider that only a decade ago, 2,000 lumen projectors were the favorite rental and staging projector options for auditoriums and hotel ballrooms.
Brightness at mid-zoom
| Color Mode | Lumens |
| Standard | 4470 |
| Natural | 2437 |
| Cinema | 3693 |
| Dynamic | 4708 |
| Whiteboard | 2751 |
| DICOMM | 4265 |
| User 1-3 | 4468 |
Just how close did the LWU530 come to hitting its target of 5,000 ANSI lumens? I measured its brightest mode, Dynamic, at full wide angle – this is with the iris wide open, so the most amount of light gets through. I took 3-4 readings about 15-20% out from the center of the lens. That should give a pretty good approximation of ANSI lumens unless a projector brightness rolls off excessively at the edges which this projector does not do.
Christie LWU530-APS Brightness (Dynamic mode, Normal Light Output): 4862 Lumens
At wide zoom, Dynamic mode.
The LWU530 measured 4862 lumens which is very close to Christie’s brightness claim. For the rest of the modes, I measured them at mid-zoom, so the iris is closed halfway. This is because it is more common for a projector to be zoomed in a bit rather than installed at full wide angle.
The LWU530 was a little louder than a typical home theater projector which is to be expected considering it is a 5,000 Lumen business projector. Even in my small room, no one had to raise their voice to talk over it.
Christie quotes the LWU530’s noise level at 37db at full power and 28db in ECO mode. Relative to the amount of brightness the LWU530 can output, it is a quiet projector. Anyone looking for a laser projector for a museum display or conference room would love this Christie in ECO mode due to the minimal audible noise, if nothing else.
The LWU530 has a single, 16-watt built-in speaker that can play loud enough for use in a small sized conference room. While the sound is OK for voice narrations, it is less than ideal for playback of video tracks where music is important.
Overall the sound quality is comparable with other competitive business/installation projectors with build-in speaker(s). If higher quality audio is desired, the projector has variable level 3.5mm output jack that can be used to connect it to an external powered speaker system.
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