Innehållsförteckning för July - August 2017 från Sound & Vision

I love that time of year when, after a couple of false starts and brief teases, the persistence of winter finally breaks for good and the soft breezes of spring arrive. That’s a decidedly northern experience, of course, one that some folks eventually move south to get away from permanently (well, the winter that precedes it, anyway), and which others have never known because of their origins in warmer climes. I get it—I’ve got family all over the country and have spent plenty of time out west and in Florida, and I see how a guy could get used to it. But the New Yorker in me thinks those folks are missing out. If you haven’t struggled through a winter, even a mild one, you can’t fully appreciate the fleeting…

Gracenote, the Metadata King, is launching Gracenote Global Video Data, Gracenote Global Music Data, and Gracenote Global Sports Data. The databases will include TV schedules, song info, and sports scores and stats to enhance various devices... Sony Added Nine UHDTVs to the line announced earlier in the year. The sets will have HDR10, and a subsequent firmware update will activate Google Assistant voice control... Sharp May Build TVs in the U.S., according to an unidentified source quoted by Reuters. Foxconn, the TV brand’s Chinese owner (and manufacturer of Apple products), may create as many as 700,000 jobs in the States... Dolby Vision HDR can now run as software on gaming consoles and smart TVs, as the company demonstrated with a souped-up PS4. It can run on HDMI 1.4, which would allow…

THE VERDICT The Monoprice TripleXXX’s sound quality definitely ups the ante for budget-priced in-ear headphones. PRICE $49 THE MONOPRICE TRIPLEXXX MAY be the most affordable headphone I’ve ever reviewed for Sound & Vision, but I took it seriously. So much so, it was my go-to headphone for NYC subway rides for weeks, even when I wasn’t in reviewing mode and just listening to the TripleXXX for fun. That says a lot about these headphones, so don’t let the low price throw you. These little guys sound plenty good enough for audiophiles looking for a set of budget-priced travel headphones. With just a little prodding on my part, Monoprice told me they invested little design time in the TripleXXX. Instead, they took an off-the-shelf design from an OEM Chinese headphone maker…

Decorator-Friendly Bass Without a doubt, one of the most impressive and important speakers in your home theater system is the subwoofer. The sub lays down the bedrock foundation of a good system, producing deep, tactile bass that makes music more dynamic, movies more visceral, and raises the overall performance of any speaker system. When I’m working with clients on designing their surround systems, my recommendation is almost always that they buy the biggest and best subwoofer they can afford. Of course, with styling that’s rarely beyond the adjectives of “big, black cube,” the sub is usually public enemy number one when it comes to aesthetics. And when people see the size of a serious subwoofer, their first reaction is often a kind of stunned, “Umm, where do you expect me…

THE VERDICT Sony’s ultra-affordable Ultra HD Blu-ray player offers solid video performance, and it also plays SACDs and DVD-Audio discs. BLU-RAY PLAYER SONY UBP-X800 ULTRA HD BLU-RAY PLAYER PRICE: $300 Sony • sony.com PRICE $300 CALL IT NOSTALGIA, BUT THE launch of an audio or video format strikes me as an opportunity to reflect on what came before it— especially now, with the sun threatening to set on physical media. When the Blu-ray Disc first appeared a little more than a decade ago, Sony was among its main flagwavers. Not only that, but the company’s PlayStation 3 console was considered by many to be the top-performing player in the Blu-ray format’s primitive days. Samsung and Panasonic were quick to push out standalone Blu-ray players, but the folks at Sony took…

THE VERDICT This subwoofer system does the seemingly impossible in an impossibly seeming way by hiding an amazingly shallow, high-excursion 13.5-inch woofer, along with the 70-inch-tall cabinet it requires, inside a wall having standard 2 x 4 construction, with only a driver-hiding grille screen as evidence—and it does this surprising feat without causing excessive wall vibrations. Even better, it does all that while performing like a top-end in-room sub. SUBWOOFER JL AUDIO FATHOM IWS-SYS-1 IN-WALL SUBWOOFER SYSTEM PRICE: $4,500 (plus installation) JL Audio • (954) 443-1100 • jlaudio.com PRICE $4,500 (plus installation) IF I NEEDED ADDITIONAL PROOF of how much Rob Sabin, our esteemed editor-in-chief (and part-time male stripper for the visually impaired) dislikes me, this would be it. He asks me the other day if I’d want to review…

THE VERDICT The Solus Audio Entré II is a well-rounded performer whose special attribute is an elaborate bass-enhancing enclosure. LOUDSPEAKER SOLUS AUDIO ENTRÉ II LOUDSPEAKER PRICE: $1,795 pr Solus Audio • (602) 437-4445 • solusaudio.com PRICE $1,795/pr LIFE HAS A WAY OF SETTING US up for disappointment. So we develop a hard shell of skepticism and rote responses: There is no free lunch. You can’t get blood from a stone. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. There’s no such thing as an honest politician. Don’t order the fish on a Monday. And to that list, add: You can’t get big bass out of a small speaker. Little speakers that try to sound big just end up with a bloated bass hump and a turbulent, chuffing…

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. Where’s the Music? I’m a long, longtime subscriber, going back to Stereo Review. And I actually like the forward direction your magazine takes concerning today’s technology and ever-changing landscape. But one thing doesn’t change—the music. Oh sure,…

THE VERDICT The Noble Sage offers stunning clarity over the full frequency range, from low bass to high treble, in an easy-to-drive design. PRICE $599 THEY’RE GREEN! THE NOBLE Audio Sage’s exquisitely machined anodized aluminum earpieces are green. Wow! The look is oh so modern, yet classic at the same time. Noble is based in Santa Barbara, California, but cofounder Dr. John Moulton designs the headphones in Thailand, while his co-founder Brannan Mason runs the operation in the U.S. They make a wide range of in-ear headphones tuned for different tastes, and I’ve heard a number of them over the years, gravitating toward the ones with uber clarity, like this new one, the Sage. Production starts in California, where the aluminum and plastic parts of the earpieces are made. Next,…

Why I Didn’t Buy the Benz I like German cars, and I cannot lie. Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz. What wonderful machines they are. Give me more than adequate horsepower, a six- or seven-speed manual transmission, a soulful exhaust note, and I am in heaven. On my most recent car shopping expedition, I fell in love with a car, then I pressed a button and immediately fell out of love. I needed a practical German car to supplement my less-than-practical other German car. The Mercedes-Benz GLC is Motor Trend’s SUV of the Year. I walked around a Mercedes dealer’s lot, then test-drove a GLC. Nice, really nice. Then I turned on the SiriusXM satellite radio. Oh, my. The problem is this: Originally, Sirius and XM were separate companies. From day one…

It’s never easy creating music that can stand the test of time, but that’s exactly what Procol Harum did 50 years ago when they released their indelibly seductive debut single, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” on May 12, 1967. An alluring mono mesh of Gary Brooker’s affecting vocals and piano lines, Matthew Fisher’s wistful Hammond M-102 organ, and dreamscape-inducing lyrical imagery, “Pale” firmly planted dual flagpoles in both the thenburgeoning prog and psychedelic camps, and it remains as vestally impactful today as it instantly was back then. Though “Pale” singlehandedly sealed their position in rock history, Procol Harum continued to make sonic waves from the late ’60s on into the ’70s with heady tracks like “Shine on Brightly,” “A Salty Dog,” “The Devil Came From Kansas,” and “Conquistador.” Fast-forward to…

You can make all the excuses you want, but there’s really no good reason these days for not enjoying some form of A/V entertainment outdoors, whether you’re listening to music or watching a video in your backyard, at the park, or on the beach. Allow us to inspire you with a dozen products guaranteed to enrich your outdoor experience…or adventure. Inside and Out It’s easy to keep the tunes flowing when you walk out onto your deck with Riva Audio’s Arena, a formidable speaker ($249) that handles hi-res audio up to 192 kilohertz/24 bits and supports streaming over your Wi-Fi/AirPlay/DLNA network or via Bluetooth when you’re out of range. It’s only 7 inches tall but packs a 50-watt amplifier and three drivers, each paired with a bass-boosting passive radiator. The…

THE VERDICT Focal’s Utopia headphones are a bleeding-edge statement from a pedigreed loudspeaker manufacturer that has made the most of its speakerdesigning experience. HEADPHONES FOCAL UTOPIA HEADPHONES PRICE: $3,999 Focal • (844) 362-2562 • focal.com PRICE $3,999 WHEN I LOOK BACK ON ALL THE dumb things I did as a kid, surely one of the dumbest was pitching rocks and dirt balls at a wasp nest. With each impact, a cloud of wasps rose from the nest. It was mesmerizing— until one of us got stung. Reviewing Focal’s Utopia headphones isn’t at all stupid, but I suspect the results are going to be similar: a cloud of wasps, maybe a sting. Some readers will look askance at $3,999 headphones, especially since the things I have on hand for comparison cost…

THE VERDICT Soundcast’s new flagship outdoor Bluetooth speaker carries a substantial price tag, but if you’re headed for the backyard or a tailgate party, you’ll get what you pay for in sound quality, ease of use, and reliable operation. LOUDSPEAKER SOUNDCAST VG7 OUTDOOR WIRELESS SPEAKER PRICE: $800 Soundcast • (800) 722-1293 • gosoundcast.com PRICE $800 EVER SINCE THE INTRODUCTION of the first battery-driven transistor pocket radio, we’ve been taking our music outside and on the go. (By the way, that was the Regency TR-1 in the fall of 1954; visit regencytr1.com for a retrospective maintained by Don Pies, son of Regency cofounder John Pies.) Of course, any conversation today about “outdoor audio” needs to be placed in modern context. We’ve gone from being grateful for a tinny AM broadcast of…

THE VERDICT Audioengine, always a champ in powered compact speakers, sweetens the deal on this one with a PC-friendly USB input and headphone jack. LOUDSPEAKER AUDIOENGINE HD3 LOUDSPEAKER PRICE: $399 pr Audioengine • (910) 408-5557 • audioengineusa.com PRICE $399 pr TWELVE-YEAR-OLD AUDIOengine is best known for active compact speakers, though the company also makes passive compact speakers, a subwoofer, a small amplifier, a USB stick DAC, and a couple of streaming DACs. The HD3 loudspeaker is more or less an amalgamation of most of those products, infusing a sweet little speaker with a Class A/B amp, DAC, Bluetooth streaming, and a couple of less common features that just might make it irresistible to those in the market for a pair of small wireless speakers. The Smarter USB Input One of…

Wrensilva Loft Record Console Wrensilva • wrensilva.com Stereo consoles were all the rage in the ’60s. Every major TV company sold them—some with an integrated 25- inch screen, some without. Many were imposing pieces of furniture placed front and center in living rooms across America. I have vivid memories of paying $3 or $4 for my first album at the long-gone Jersey-based chain store Two Guys and promptly replacing the Engelbert Humperdinck LP on the platter of our Zenith console with Abbey Road. I spent countless hours lying in front of the stereo obsessing over the lyrics, McCartney’s sumptuous bass line, Ringo’s precise drumming, and Harrison’s awesome guitar sounds on “Come Together.” I imagined being in the studio with my heroes. The bass was palpable, and John Lennon was in…

NEW GEAR, TOP NEWS, HOW TO, AND MORE... To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the OLED display, we reached out to Dr. Taka Tsujimura at the Society for Information Display (SID) to discuss the past, present, and future of a TV technology whose future looks nearly as bright as it did three decades ago when researchers cobbled together the first practical OLED device. Tsujimura, who was named one of Japan’s 10 best engineer/researchers by Nikkei Electronics magazine, holds 144 patents worldwide and is a Konica Minolta Fellow and general manager of Konica Minolta’s OLED Business Unit in addition to being a member of SID’s executive committee and serving as treasurer.—Bob Ankosko S&V: It’s hard to believe that OLED has been around for 30 years. Let’s go back to the early…

All About Atmos If I use two Dolby Atmos Enabled towers as the front left/right speakers in my system, will that be sufficient to experience the format when playing discs with Atmos soundtracks? David Lambert / via e-mail Unlike previous channel-based audio formats, Dolby Atmos is object-based, allowing for audio “objects” to be positioned anywhere in 3D space, including overhead, when creating a soundtrack mix. Dolby’s new format is also scalable: Audio objects contain metadata that allows them to be rendered for playback on a wide range of speaker configurations, though a minimum of two height speakers—either in-ceiling or Atmos Enabled models—used in a 5.1.2 setup is required. So, according to Dolby, the answer is yes: Adding a pair of Atmos Enabled towers to your system will be sufficient to…

THE VERDICT The 1More Quad Driver’s sound dazzles with its transparency, wide-open imaging, and nimble bass. PRICE $200 THERE’S SOMETHING REALLY special happening here. The 1More Quad Driver In-Ear is easily the most transparent, best-imaging headphone I’ve heard for $200. I’m not joking—before I knew the price, I assumed it was at least $300 or $400. Since there’s no outward indication of what makes the Quad Driver so outstanding, I was super eager to find out. 1More may be a new name to you and me, but they’ve been making headphones since 2012 in China and didn’t enter the U.S. market till late 2015 with their $100 Triple Driver In-Ear headphone. When I heard that one, I knew 1More wasn’t just another upstart company cashing in on the headphone boom. 1More…

Bingeing on CBS Assets With TV listings divided between what’s on and what’s streaming, CBS has been salivating at the prospect of collecting subscriber fees from cord cutters and mobile users much like its sibling, the premium service Showtime, has been doing. The network derives most of its revenue from commercials and retransmission fees from cable or satellite operators. So, allowing viewers to watch its shows without commercials or a pay TV subscription by tempting them with an over-the-top streaming service disrupts a business model that’s minted money for years. This is why CBS All Access, launched in 2014, seems so tentative even now versus the type of service it could become if the company decided to fully compete against the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. CBS All Access…

An American Story THE VERDICT With the Signature Series, Polk successfully practices its long-held ethos of delivering high performance at affordable cost in a new, smartly designed lineup. SPEAKER SYSTEM POLK SIGNATURE S60 SPEAKER SYSTEM PRICE: $1,600 (S60, $450 ea; S35, $300; S20, $300 pr; PSW125, $350) Polk Audio • (800) 377-7655 • polkaudio.com PRICE $1,600 as reviewed OF THE THREE OR FOUR SPEAKER brands that pumped the vast majority of air throughout the hi-fi boom of the 1970s, only one—Polk Audio—is still doing what they’ve always done (design and make loudspeakers), where they’ve always done it (more or less), and with very much the same ethos (value/performance, with value in italics). OK, so Polks, like virtually all other mass-market speakers sold in the U.S. are now actually manufactured overseas.…

THE VERDICT Epson’s mid-range projector delivers very bright images, but it also offers enough refinement to make it a worthy upgrade over cheaper budget-priced models. PROJECTOR EPSON HOME CINEMA 3700 LCD PROJECTOR PRICE: $1,500 Epson • epson.com PRICE $1,500 LET’S FACE FACTS: BUDGET home theater projectors can be a mixed bag. Last year, I tested a trio of such models from Optoma (December 2016 issue), InFocus (soundandvision.com), and ViewSonic (September 2016 issue). More recently, I checked out BenQ’s HT1070 (May), another projector that proved to be a high-value find. But while I liked the idea of getting a big, bright 1080p-resoluton picture for under $1,000, the less-thanimpressive picture contrast and sparse installation features put a cap on my enthusiasm. When I look back at the bunch, it seems clear that…

THE VERDICT All the power most will ever need, with the sound quality you want in a slim, coolrunning package. AMPLIFIER LEGACY AUDIO POWERBLOC2 AND POWERBLOC4 AMPLIFIERS PRICE: $1,800, $2,950 Legacy Audio • (800) 283-4644 • legacyaudio.com PRICE $1,800, $2,950 POWER AMPLIFIERS ARE GOD’S gift to the long-suffering audio reviewer, his (or her) compensation for all those A/V receivers, smart-streamers, net-connected speakers, and assorted other CPU-centric components that gray and thin our hair. No arcane MAC or IP addresses for the power amp; no obfuscatory wireless setup routines, stubbornly mute computer connections for auto-EQ procedures, or HDMI ports that refuse to shake hands with other HDMI ports. Whatever its provenance, the power amp demands little more than audio inputs, speaker outputs, and a power cord and calls it good. Sure,…

BLU-RAY Moonlight And the Winner Is... This coming-of-age drama is notable for a lot more than the Oscar night flub seen around the world that ultimately had the film walking away with the Best Picture statuette. It’s a beautifully captured movie set in three distinct acts and, notably, one of the few dramas about the black American experience to be recognized that is not overtly concerned with slavery, the civil rights struggle, or institutionalized violence against said community, although one could make an argument about the undercurrent of those issues running through the story. Barry Jenkins directs from his adapted screenplay (for which he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay) of the short play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The film traces the early life…