Innehållsförteckning för February/March 2020 från Sound & Vision

After carefully weighing the complex moral and ethical issues involved here, I have determined the answer to the question of the manufacturer’s liability. Hell to the yes! Interestingly, this moral dilemma is no theoretical exercise. This exact kind of software malfeasance is what happened to some customers who bought Google Home and Mini speakers. What we are dealing with here is something called “bricking.” That’s when an electronic device becomes unable to function, usually on a permanent basis. The culprit could be physical damage, a fried component, or other catastrophic hardware failure. But the cruelest kind of bricking is when a flash or firmware update goes bad, and the software crashes into an unrecoverable state. Has this ever happened to you? Voila! Your new phone is now a brick! In…

I conducted several in-room measurements using the Parts Express Omnimic measuring software and microphone. Though the results from this $300 package are not as precise as might be obtained from more expensive test gear, it can provide a usefully accurate in-room response of a speaker at the chosen listening seat when used carefully. The results shown here are for my room. All of them were taken at the single, seated ear position, not an average of several positions. (Previous experience has shown that an average of several readings in my room, taken across a span of about 2-3 feet, differs little from the single position apart from smoothing out small ripples.) For all curves, red is the left speaker, blue is the right Specs NOVUS TOWER: 2 × 5.25 in…

UHD BLU-RAY THE TITULAR characters in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw were introduced in earlier Fast & Furious films, but you don’t have to know much about their backstories to enjoy this film, an extremely serviceable action-comedy that leans heavily on the charm and chemistry of its stars, Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw. Hobbs & Shaw is also elevated by the formidable presence of Idris Elba as an evil, cyber-enhanced villain and excellent supporting performances from Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren, Kevin Hart, and Ryan Reynolds. The Dolby Vision-enhanced Ultra HD picture is nearly as perfect as you would expect from a big budget action film, even though it was reportedly shot at resolutions less than 4K and mastered in 2K. An establishing…

UHD BLU-RAY WITH ITS childlike innocence and a universal charm that’s born of its exquisite characters, The Wizard of Oz is likely the greatest family film of all time, the sort we may never see again. The adventure of a willful Kansas farmgirl transported to a strange, wondrous land is a heart-tugging journey of music and laughter that should continue to enthrall generations to come. There are 80 years’ worth of observations for me to draw upon here, but I’ll just go with this: Not enough can ever be said of Margaret Hamilton’s turn as the gleefully, irresistibly, deliciously wicked villain. The then-revolutionary transition from the film’s sepia-toned opening to a lush color palette is still magical, and has never looked more striking than on this Ultra HD disc, which…

WHICH ONE’S PINK? It’s a question the mighty members of Pink Floyd have answered more than once throughout their unmatched 50-plus-year career. No matter who’s been at the helm—the wide-eyed lysergic-minded guitarist/vocalist Syd Barrett, the uncompromising iconoclast bassist/vocalist Roger Waters, or the melodic linchpin guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour—the mantra of delivering music that’s always high fidelity, first class has been at the core of Pink Floyd’s production values from the very beginning. Back in 2016, Pink Floyd hit us with The Early Years: 1965-1972, a massive 28-disc collection that reset the bar for archival presentation of the recorded output of the key bands that defined the classic rock era. Cut to three years later for The Later Years: 1987-2019, an 18-disc box set that’s as good as any collection you’ll come across.…

On a recent visit to Samsung’s corporate headquarters near Seoul, South Korea, myself and group of reviewers and editors from the U.S. and Europe had the opportunity to visit the Samsung Innovation museum. Along with artifacts such as Leyden jars, Edison filament lamps, and a few early TV prototypes, the museum featured an extensive collection of early mobile phones like the Integrated Systems Technology TEL-COM 150A shown above. More than anything else, seeing these bulky, Bond-like contraptions made me appreciate just how far technology has advanced over the past few decades. Back in the early 1970s, a TEL-COM 150A in its leather attaché case would have set you back $3,500 (about twenty grand in today’s dollars) and all you could do with it was make calls. My iPhone Xs cost…

THEY STILL make stereo receivers? Who knew! But seriously, folks—I’m here all week. Stale humor aside, there will always be a sure market for high-quality audio playback, with access to terrestrial-broadcast radio, AKA good old FM, and a basic feature set for hooking up outboard components. And Cambridge Audio’s AXR100 is one of a small but growing cadre of current-day stereo receivers aiming to satisfy it. British stalwart Cambridge Audio—that’s Cambridge as in punting on the Cam, not duckboats on the Charles—has a well-earned reputation for judiciously balancing audiophile desires with the imperatives of value, an equation to which the AXR100 seems well-targeted. Its 100-watts-per-channel amplifier is supplied by an impressively solid power supply, including a substantial toroidal transformer, something not always seen at this entry-ish level. Also of note…

IN A departure for JVC, the company didn’t announce new D-ILA projector models at CEDIA Expo in September 2019. Instead, JVC’s key announcement at the show was a firmware update for the native 4K projector line it had unveiled at the previous CEDIA Expo in 2018. (Supported models include the DLA-NX9, DLA-NX7, DLA-NX5, DLA-RS3000, DLA-RS2000, and DLA-RS1000.) This update adds new features including proper 16x9 internal scaling when using a Panamorph “DCR” anamorphic lens (labeled as Anamorphic D) and new screen offsets for calibration purposes. But the most beneficial update by far is dynamic tone mapping, a feature that sets JVC apart as the only front projection brand on the market to offer a true “frame by frame” solution (LG’s HU85LA ultra-short throw projector also features frame by frame tone…

UHD BLU-RAY IN AD ASTRA (Latin for “to the stars”), a curious mashup of 2001 and Apocalypse Now, new facts have recently come to light about the disappearance of a deep, deep space probe launched to find intelligent life in the cosmos. The commander was Cliff McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), the most decorated man in the history of the space program, and now his son Roy (Brad Pitt) is tasked with his own top-secret mission, to reestablish contact…perhaps. Fatherless Roy has chosen a life of emotional isolation, which is desirable for the difficult career of an astronaut but not healthy for his long-suffering wife, and certainly not ideal for the audience. Other than his daddy quandary, there isn’t a lot here to engage us on a human level, and the…

BLU-RAY IS IT the search for assorted MacGuffii—bank-heist loot, giant opal, camera that records brainwave images the blind can see—that sends self-destructive Claire, her writer ex, and a bounty hunter after thief Sam Farber? Or is it love? Threatening in the wings is a nuclear satellite plunging to Earth that, if shot down, could create a chain-reaction atomic pulse that wipes all electronic circuit boards, including the file of the novel the film is being based upon. The initial, near-five-hour cut of Until the End of the World was intended to be the ultimate existential road movie, one that would convey the experience of a real journey. In order to get it released, though, co-screenwriter and director Wim Wenders had to slash the running time by nearly half. But he…

FEW ARTISTS have oh-so-quantifiably defined their own uncopiable sound as definitively as King Crimson did with their October 1969 debut, the full-title-mouthful In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation by King Crimson. This five-track, beyond-progressive salvo brought together forward-thinking pastoral, orchestral, jazz, and blues-rock sounds into a distinctive blend that only served to widen the overall aural palette of the most formative decade in popular music. “The original King Crimson only had tinges of abstractivity,” original KC lead vocalist/bassist Greg Lake once told me. “At the heart of King Crimson, there were always the songs.” Lake’s insight is particularly poignant here, for Court, while expansive in scope and reach, is most certainly also about the songs at its core. Whether it’s the mournful title track or the frenzied…

The Legend Lives On As a long-time fan of Polk Audio products, I was pleased to see the company re-enter the mid-high-end speaker market with its Legend L800 SDA Pro-equipped loudspeaker and read Al Griffin’s review in Sound & Vision’s December 2019/January 2020 issue with enthusiasm. It made me reflect on my own journey with Polk Audio that started in 1985 with the Monitor 10B at a now-defunct Denver chain store named Soundtrack. When the store’s salesman removed the grille covers on the speakers and cranked up a song on CD from a new supergroup called the Power Station featuring Robert Palmer, I saw the dual 6.5-inch mid-bass drivers and the 10-inch passive radiator thump away and light up the room with music. Even as a semi-broke 23-year-old, I couldn’t…

Q I am using the built-in apps on my Sony XBR-55X850C TV for video streaming. The set’s optical digital audio output is connected to an older Denon AVR-4306 receiver. My problem is that I only get Dolby Digital 5.1 sound from the TV’s Netflix app; no other app (HBO Now/Go, Sony Crackle, Hulu, or Disney+) provides DD 5.1. After much internet research, I suspect that it has something to do with either the Denon’s lack of HDMI ARC capability, or the use of Dolby Digital Plus by the streaming services. However, I understand that Netflix also uses DD Plus. I performed a very recent software upgrade on the Sony, but to no avail. My local A/V shop suggested using another streaming device or upgrading to a high-quality optical cable. Any…

UHD BLU-RAY Aging TV actor Rick Dalton (movie actor Leonardo DiCaprio) suspects that his career as he knew it might be over, and grapples with the vanity and insecurity that comes with such an uncertain future. He makes his living pretending to be a cowboy, in contrast with his best bud and stunt double/driver, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt, embracing his recent grizzle), who actually embodies the no-nonsense, two-fisted demeanor of a good old-fashioned horseman. Together, they navigate the show business landscape of 1969 in this nostalgic journey through the boulevards, backlots, and bars of La La Land. For the purposes of this narrative, the fictitious Rick is also the next-door neighbor of real-life director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate (played by Margot Robbie), who, along with her…

UHD BLU-RAY IT CHAPTER TWO picks up 27 years after the kids from The Losers Club in the first film have grown up and moved on with their lives. The killer clown Pennywise has returned, and a phone call from an old friend brings them all back to the town of Derry where they must face their fears and confront a past that has damaged them in more ways than they know. In part, this sequel to the 2017 horror remake is an intelligent, multilayered examination on how our childhood experiences greatly influence our adulthood for better or worse. However, the film within a film aspect of Chapter Two—flashbacks to the kitschy ’80s era that made the first IT so endearing, alongside its gathering of broken adults decades later—is often…

BLU-RAY SUBTITLE IT The Ballad of Never-Easy Rider. Produced by Cameron Crowe, David Crosby: Remember My Name is a self-actualized love letter to one of rock’s most significant rollercoaster-ride careers. Croz’s admitted goal for the film’s wished-for postscript is some level of interactive redemption with his chief collaborators of years past—i.e., Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young—all of whom he doesn’t speak with to this day. (Why? As he readily admits, the combination of anger and adrenaline always turn him into “instant asshole.”) Crowe conducts the majority of the astute on-camera interviews with Croz that appear throughout the film, itself a combo travelogue/documentary interspersed with little-seen historical footage and excerpts of live performances and studio recordings. Director A.J. Eaton’s lens follows Croz (often shepherded in an imposing black Cadillac Escalade)…