Innehållsförteckning för June/July 2023 från Sound & Vision

RATING PERFORMANCE FEATURES ERGONOMICS VALUE IT IS amazing how rapidly TVs have grown in capability while their prices have dropped, defying inflation. I am very familiar with TCL’s 6-Series and remember its first U.S. market iteration. It was an affordable 55-inch 4K TV that turned out to be great for both movies and gaming, thanks to its ease of use and nice, contrasty screen. Soon enough, the screen sizes of TCL’s 6-Series TVs grew and the bezels shrank. Now they come in sizes from 55-up to 85-inches with advanced features like a 144 Hz native refresh rate (except the 85-inch model which maxes out at 120 Hz) and Freesync/G-Sync for gaming. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are supported, in addition to HDR10 and HLG. Both aesthetically and in terms of picture…

RATING PERFORMANCE FEATURES ERGONOMICS VALUE AUDIO AMPLIFIERS have but one task: take an electrical signal and make it more powerful without changing its character. A good amplifier is as transparent as possible, neither adding nor subtracting anything from what you hear. The OSD Nero XA7180 promises all that plus high efficiency at a very attractive price. Before attending CEDIA 2022 in Dallas TX, I was not familiar with OSD, a company specializing in high-performance, cost-effective gear—my preferred type. A bit of Googling revealed the company has a good reputation in online forums, so I took the plunge on doing a full review. This proved timely, as 2023 brought numerous premium AVRs with preamp outputs compatible with the XA7180. In this competitive arena of solid-state home theater amps, companies like ATI, Monoprice,…

RATING PERFORMANCE FEATURES ERGONOMICS VALUE THIS IS the third edition of LG’s Gallery Edition OLED, replacing last year’s 65-inch, G2 (reviewed in the August/September 2022 Sound & Vision and also at Sound&Vision.com). As with its earlier siblings, the G3 has a design optimized for wall mount applications and by default it comes with a bracket not a stand. You can buy an optional tabletop stand, that’s what I used. The table stand tilts the TV backward slightly and offers no rotation. It is solid, immobile and sturdy. There’s also an easel-like floor stand option available for $350. Why the wall-mount-focus? It’s intrinsic to the design. This OLED is thin and will mount flush to a wall with it’s near-gapless design. As in the older G1 and G2, the G3 offers…

RATINGS REFERENCE EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR POOR After several Hollywood adaptations for both the big and small screens, Edward Berger is now the first German director to adapt his countryman Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Here, Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) is a young German man who finds himself caught up in the patriotic fervor of World War I Germany and, along with his friends, enlists in the military to fight. Upon arriving at the Western Front against France, Paul and his friends are confronted with the reality of trench warfare, which is vastly different from the glory they imagined. Like Sam Mendes’ 1917 and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Berger’s film does not shy away from the visceral violence of war. Despite the severed limbs,…

I was all set to plunge into Atmos—I have a Marantz AV receiver that can decode the signal—by getting a couple of upward-firing Atmos speakers and letting it rip. However, I just read Dolby’s guidance regarding object-oriented sound and they say, among other things, that four in-ceiling speakers properly situated are necessary to get the real impact. Upward-firing speakers, let alone two of them, are described as being seriously inadequate. And yet the market seems to be filled with upward-firing speakers which are sold in pairs. As of now, I’ve put the brakes on a move to Atmos pending an assessment of an impartial, informed technical expert—who would be you, I hope. Hi Steven, There is an answer to your question, but there are several factors to consider before deciding…

RATING PERFORMANCE FEATURES ERGONOMICS VALUE THEY SAY money can’t buy happiness. Without a doubt, it can buy the $999 Mark Levinson No. 5909 head-phones, and without a doubt, these make me happy. The Mark Levinson No. 5909 headphones are the first headphones from this elite division of Harman. These over-ear headphones feature adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, USB-C wired connections and wireless Bluetooth with broad codec compatibility. With a simple app to fine tune ANC modes and bass response, the No. 5909 are one of the best wire-less noise-canceling headphones on the market. The Mark Levinson No. 5909 are the first wireless headphones from this company that has always been synonymous with high-fidelity audio. They join amplifiers, pre-amps, CD players, turntables, and of course, luxury car audio systems. That these are…

RATING PERFORMANCE BUILD QUALITY VALUE THE NEW Dymension DM70 Tower speaker is an evolution of a design that’s signature Definitive Technology. It’s an adjustable bipolar arrangement with two arrays (front an rear) with dual 5.25-inch mid/bass drivers and a one-inch aluminum-dome tweeter on each side, combined with an adjustable 10-inch powered subwoofer (augmented by dual 10-inch passive radiators) that has a 250 W (peak) power amp and is seamlessly integrated into the tower. With its bipolar design, it is not your typical 2-way or 3-way cone-and-dome tower speaker. The DM70 has a distinct character that’s larger than life, if you love three-dimensional imaging then you have to give them a listen. And with its adjustable bipolar array and subwoofer, the DM70 provides more tuning options than most tower speakers. The…

RATING PERFORMANCE BUILD QUALITY ERGONOMICS VALUE HOW DO you know when an audio trend is more than just a bandwagon? When America’s oldest hi-fi brand climbs on board. (Yes, I know that JBL and Klipsch were both founded in 1946. But JBL’s earliest incarnation goes back to the 1930’s.) The trend I’m talking about is “just-pressplay” speakers, stream-ready active speakers that embody everything you need for serious, high-resolution-audio listening except the music. Unpack, set up, log into your network, and be an instant audiophile. At least, that’s the theory behind such impressive examples as KEF’s LS60 and Klipsch’s The Nines. And now, JBL’s 4329P Studio Monitor system. Unlike several competitors including the two mentioned above, JBL’s 4329P is strictly a Bring-Your-Own-Streaming solution: there’s no propri-etary streaming-quarterback app, such as KEF’s…

Steven Wilson has long been a man with a mission to push musical boundaries and stretch the limits of our listening expectations with his own music, whether it be the post-prog leanings of Porcupine Tree, his more adventurous solo work, or his voluminous experimental collaborations. “My perspective on music is always changing anyway,” Wilson told me back in 2020, “and what I want to do with music is always in a state of flux and evolution.” Not only that, but Wilson also has a passion for championing releases from other artists whom we all may have been underexposed to or have overlooked entirely. With all this in mind, is it really any wonder Wilson is behind a new and quite, well, intriguing import-only box set compilation entitled Intrigue: Steven Wilson…

A Simple Streaming Solution Multiroom streaming audio is a fun and affordable way to upgrade your home. Juke Audio’s six-zone or eight-zone (12- or 16-channel) smart amplifier is a quick, easy, and reasonably priced way to get started. Leveraging AirPlay/AirPlay2 and Spotify Connect, it communicates directly with a wide array of supported apps. Features and Specifications Juke Audio amps come in two configurations: a six-zone model ($1,349) and an eight-zone model ($1,499), with the only difference being the number of active channels. Both models have identical hardware and the limitation is due to a software restriction. Upgrading from six to eight zones costs $325. The 15x8x3-inch (WxDxH), 6-pound chassis features a minimalist “black box” design with a large logo on the front. The Juke supports up to four concurrent stereo…

RATING PERFORMANCE FEATURES BUILD QUALITY VALUE RENOWNED FOR their expertise in crafting high-performance subwoofers, SVS has carved a niche for itself within the home theater and music system communities. Established in 1998 by a team of passionate audio enthusiasts their mission was to revolutionize the subwoofer market by delivering exceptional performance that exceeded existing offerings. SVS’s groundbreaking cylindrical subwoofer, accompanied by an outboard amplifier, quickly gained acclaim for its outstanding performance, cost-effectiveness and the company’s unparalleled customer service. It quickly gained a following among home theater enthusiasts and helped establish SVS as a serious player in the subwoofer market. I vividly recall my first SVS subwoofer, a 20-39 PC with an integrated amp, which served me well for several years before upgrading to a PC Ultra which I still use…