Innehållsförteckning för February/March 2017 från Sound & Vision

Our Top Picks of the Year roundup is our annual opportunity to look back on the work we accomplished through the year and ruminate on which products really stood out. We start by querying individual reviewers for their nominees, asking them to pick strictly from among those products they tested themselves and which were already granted Top Pick status. There are usually a few among the list that jump out. If you’ve been lucky as an enthusiast, you may recall components in your system that you connected with emotionally and which just gave you, well, satisfaction. These are the hardest ones to part with when you find they no longer serve your needs or have become outdated. For our reviewers, a look at that list of completed reviews might even…

AT&T’s AirGig would deliver highspeed wireless Internet service using a modulated radio signal around power lines for last-mile distribution. It would complement the fiber-based GigaPower platform... “4K Is Our Destiny,” says Jeff Joseph of the Consumer Technology Association. Research shows that 62 percent of consumers plan to buy an Ultra HD viewing device in the next year, and 29 percent plan to buy a UHD TV, with screen size and picture quality high on their priority list... Virtual Reality Headsets in the wild will number 81 million by 2020, says IHS Technology. Sony’s Play-Station VR platform for PS4 is expected to outpace PC-based Oculus Rift and HTC Vive this year, though Google’s new Daydream View may make inroads... Universal’s VRTGO virtual reality app boasts 3D 360-degree live streaming and is…

Beyerdynamic iDX 200 iE In-Ear Headphones PRICE $199 WHEN YOU LISTEN TO AS MANY headphones as I do, you start to notice trends. The first and most obvious one is bass, and there’s usually too much of it. Next, headphones look and feel so similar, you start to think most of them, but especially in-ear headphones, are all made in the same factory in China. That may or may not be true, and yes, the Beyerdynamic iDX 200 iE is Chinese made, but it was designed by Beyerdynamic’s engineers in Germany. One thing’s for sure: The beautifully machined titanium alloy earpieces lend an elegance to the design. I like that Beyerdynamic supplies seven pair of silicone tips, and three pair of Comply tips, so chances are a lot better than…

BLU-RAY Prince Movie Collection This Is What It Sounds LIke When Prince passed away from an accidental overdose of fentanyl this past April, multiple generations bonded over their mutual appreciation of his one-man empire of sonic creativity, quirky yet influential style, and overall mystique. In the wake of all this new and renewed interest in the Purple One, Warner has remastered his only three starring roles for high-def Blu-ray release via the simply titled Prince Movie Collection. Like Madonna, his counterpart in ’80s cultural impact, Prince had a gnawing hunger to translate his creative chops onto the big screen, and he came away with one big hit—1984’s mostly autobiographical Purple Rain—and two major flops, 1986’s Under the Cherry Moon and 1990’s Graffiti Bridge. Purple Rain’s overall story holes and somewhat…

E-mail them to HTLetters@sorc.com. Please note: Questions about the features and functions of a particular product are best directed to the manufacturer. Questions about what product you should buy are best directed to a dealer who knows all the details of your system, your preferences, and your personal habits. All submissions are considered the exclusive property of Sound & Vision magazine and TEN: The Enthusiast Network. We reserve the right to edit letters for brevity. Due to the volume of mail that we receive, we regret that we cannot respond to every letter. Just Like Clockwork It’s been amusing to read the letters from the opposite sides of the audiocultural-generational debate over the last few issues. It all reminds me of A Clockwork Orange. Our dear brother Alex from that…

Sony MDR-1000X Bluetooth Headphones PRICE $399 FOR SEVERAL YEARS, BOSE HAS reigned supreme in the world of active noise cancellation. Sony is hoping to change that with the MDR-1000X, their most advanced active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones to date. If the quality of noise cancelling is all that matters to you, I’ll save you time skimming: The ANC on these is rather impressive. Looking to cancel frequencies above the low rumble of an airplane, say, office voices and traffic noise? The 1000X are one of your best bets. However, if you’re also concerned with audio performance and features that extend beyond the ability to block out the world around you, read on. Sony has clearly spent a lot of time designing the MDR-1000X. Clean, simple lines wrapped in protein leather,…

Rik Emmett is an artist who’s always reveled in the creative benefits of teamwork and collaboration. The former guitarist/vocalist of Canadian power trio Triumph has forged quite the formidable and far-reaching solo career since he left the band in 1988, but he’s quite adamant about the all-for-one, band-centric, and exhilaratingly electrifying flavor of RES 9 (Provogue Records), the album from his new four-man collective that’s been appropriately dubbed Rik Emmett & RESolution9. A fair amount of RES 9 was recorded and mixed at Mississauga, Ontario’s Metalworks Studios, a location where Emmett, bassist Mike Levine, and drummer/vocalist Gil Moore (who owns the studio) recorded many of Triumph’s greatest works. The broad scope of the 11 deeply heartfelt songs on RES 9 covers a lot of exciting aural ground, starting with the…

OK. First we need to talk about the picture. His name is Graham. Don’t get too creeped out. He’s not a real guy. He’s just a rendering. You’ve probably already seen Graham. His picture has been floating around the web-o-sphere for a while. He is what a guy might look like if he’s evolved to survive car crashes. But I’m pretty sure it’s also what you would look like, after Alexa has her way with you. Car crashes have caused Graham to evolve accordingly. His thick head is appropriately helmet-like for mitigating brain injuries; he doesn’t have a neck to snap; his flat face doesn’t have much of a nose to get broken; and his chest has airbag-like padding. And after enjoying Alexa for a period of time, I think…

PRICE $1,000 IT’S BEEN 21 YEARS SINCE THE MP3 audio file format made its debut, 17 years since Napster revolutionized the distribution of digital music, 15 years since the iPod brought that music to a pocketable device, and 13 years since Apple made downloads legit with the iTunes music store. Computerized audio is now enjoying a vigorous middle age—old enough to support lots of audio products and system configurations, young enough for some of those products to be innovative. Outfitting your desktop with an audio system can cost as little as $13.99 for a pair of Amazon-Basics powered speakers or as much as several thousand dollars for the highest-end speakers and integrated amps recommended by our sister site AudioStream.com. The Sony CAS-1 system falls somewhere in the middle. At $1,000,…

NEW GEAR, TOP NEWS, HOW TO, AND MORE... The daggers (OK, beans) were flying around the room, whizzing by my head as they traversed the room. I flinched. More than once. It was a convincing demo of fast-moving sound placement, courtesy of the “Echo Game” drum/dance scene in House of Flying Daggers. The 7.1-channel reference system, still in prototype form, did a remarkable job of putting me in the middle of the action. Even more impressive, all of the speakers were wireless. I’ve never forgotten that demo, but I haven’t heard much lately about the Wireless Speaker & Audio (WiSA) technology behind it, so I reached out to Tony Ostrom, who took over as president of the WiSA Association last August, for an update.—Bob Ankosko S&V: You joined WiSA last…

It’s hard to believe that we once drove to big-box stores unarmed: no smartphone in hand; no Wi-Fi for the taking. A recent trip to The Home Depot reminded me how power in the powertool kingdom has shifted from merchant to shopper. At home I downloaded the chain’s free 5.0 app, then used it to find the closest store. As I entered the physical store and switched my phone over to Wi-Fi, the app stalled because it couldn’t find the server. I realized that I needed to go through my browser first to accept the store’s terms and conditions, then touch the Connect Now button. Then it was back to the app where I was able to search for products by speaking, scanning, taking a picture, or typing in text.…

PRICE $2,199 ONKYO MUST NOT HAVE GOTTEN the memo about Class D–powered audio gear being smaller, svelter, lighter. The company’s new topmodel-but-one TX-RZ1100 is an imposing object 8 inches tall, and while the receiver’s 43-pound weight poses no challenge to the seemingly 100-pounders of yesteryear, it’s not exactly nothing, either. Nevertheless, the newest Onkyo is indeed a Class D design. The marketing materials refer to it as “Onkyo High-Current Digital Amplification,” which raises my hackles slightly since Class D isn’t “digital” in the digital-audio sense, but that is discussed in my recent online article about amplifiers (found at soundandvision.com). The TX-RZ1100 does have, however, a fully nine-channel layout, rated at 140 watts each with channels driven in pairs. That’s a lot of pretty substantial channels for any receiver, whatever the…

PRICE $4,000 I VIVIDLY REMEMBER PLASMA displays, and I mourned their passing. But even before 4K came along, LCD TVs—with their brighter images, lighter weight, lower energy consumption, and, toward the end, cheaper prices—were putting a full-court press on plasma technology. The best LED-backlit localdimming LCDs can now equal or exceed the performance of plasmas in what were their main calling cards: black level and shadow detail. But now, even LCDs have competition. OLED TVs arrived just about the same time that plasmas faded from the scene. So far, they’re offered only by LG, whose current models are much reduced in price from earlier designs—though they’re still not bargain-basement specials. What’s Inside? OLED TVs have nothing in common with the LED sets so prevalent in today’s market. An “LED TV”…