Innehållsförteckning för June/July 2024 från Sound & Vision

Customer Service And Subscriptions soundandvision@emailcustomerservice.com Call (800) 666-3746 (international calls: 386-447-6383) or write to: Sound & Vision, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235 Please include your full name, address, and phone number on any inquiries. The Even Bigger Picture BACK IN January, in a column I titled “The Big Picture,” I discussed the expansion of large TV screens and how CES hinted at future trends. Now, in the midst of summer, “100-inch-class” TVs are being shipped by all major brands, while 85-inch TVs have become surprisingly affordable and are selling rapidly. These significant shifts have had startling effects. At a Hisense press event, it was revealed that sales of 85-inch TVs had increased thirteenfold over the previous year, and the company struggled to meet the overwhelming demand for 98-inch…

Q (REGINALD TINSLEY) Bluesound’s Node streamer, which includes a built-in DAC, costs around $500. Meanwhile, companies like Lumin, Linn, and Naim sell streamers without built-in DACs for over $2,000 or $3,000. What do these more expensive streamers do to the signal that justifies the extra expense compared to the Node? If the digital output from these pricier streamers is of higher “quality,” can a high-quality DAC compensate for a lower-priced streamer with a “lower quality” output? A Why are the streamers from companies like Linn and Naim so much more expensive than a Bluesound Node? These brands don’t make or sell nearly as many products as Bluesound. And economies of scale are definitely at play in the electronics’ world. The pricier components have a higher build-quality. The Node is a fine component,…

We don’t often get a chance to peer into tomorrow, but spending half an hour for a free demo of Vision Pro at an Apple store is one of those opportunities not to be missed. My first encounter with the virtual reality headset that Apple refers to as “a spatial computer” was a jaw-dropping experience that had me reaching for my wallet—almost. Since last year when Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, announced this groundbreaking product, I’ve been intrigued by the prospect of revisiting a type of personal technology that’s been kicking around for 30 years but has never broken into the mainstream. Once Vision Pro went on sale in February, I was able to book a demo at my closest Apple store through the company’s website. The Apple Store at Queens…

THE HOME theater projector market is undergoing a major transformation. Lamp-based projectors are being replaced by solid-state projectors. BenQ is a unique company in this market, primarily using 4LED technology instead of the single or multilaser setups that are becoming more common. BenQ recently introduced its first 4LED home theater projector, the BenQ HT4550i, which uses the new DLP 0.65-inch DMD from Texas Instruments to achieve a rated brightness of 3200 ANSI lumens. It also supports HDR10+ high dynamic range (HDR) and a host of other intriguing features. However, the most intriguing aspect of this projector is its price: $2,999. This price point is significant because it is the traditional sweet spot for budget-conscious home theater enthusiasts. This price point has been dominated by bang-for-your-buck titans like the Epson 5000…

A WOMAN who has committed suicide is given a baby’s brain by a brilliant but demented surgeon (Willem Dafoe) before being reanimated using traditional mad-scientist electrical feats. Thereafter, Bella (Emma Stone) must gradually learn everything–walking, talking, sense, and behavior–from scratch, just as a child must. In this unique film (nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning four), a Frankenstein-like tale is told in unique episodes as Bella conquers various stages of understanding people, books, and the ways of the world while experiencing new adventures as she travels from Victorian London to Lisbon, Africa, and Paris. The first of many beautiful visuals has a woman clad in a rich blue dress, seen against a moody, blue-gray sky, creating the look of a lush surrealist painting. Her subsequent plunge off the bridge–shown in…

WRITER/DIRECTOR Darren Aronofsky’s debut feature still pulses with the promise of a brilliant career ahead, swinging for the fences despite a meager budget and the limited technology of the era. Pi tells the story of Max Cohen, a tortured mathematical genius who sees the world as few do, detecting the patterns that exist all around us. He’s searching for an elusive 216-digit number that could have applications in the stock market and even in the divine, but his obsession might be killing him, or driving him insane, or both. And then paranoia creeps in, as forces seek to exploit his not-so-beautiful mind. What the filmmakers lacked in dollars they more than made up for in creativity, yielding a brisk, gripping tale told with genuine tension. Pi has been restored and remastered…

Machine Head is one of those perfect storm albums. As Deep Purple entered the 1970s, they undertook a creative shift from the psychedelic blues/pop of their late-’60s origins—embodied by hits like 1968’s perpetually catchy “Hush” and their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman”—to move into full-on rock overdrive with June 1970’s Deep Purple in Rock and July 1971’s Fireball. With that tableau firmly set, Deep Purple ramped it up yet another notch to construct March 1972’s truly seminal Machine Head, which features enduring hardrock staples like “Smoke on the Water” (ahh, that right-of-passage guitar riff), “Highway Star” (their 8-cylinder vehicular love letter), and “Space Truckin’” (“Come on!”) among them. Deep Purple and their team have certainly chosen an intriguing route to celebrate 50 years of Machine Head—though, technically speaking, it’s…

Congratulations! Welcome home! That five-year mission to Mars (and back!) must have really been something. While you were gone, honestly, nothing much happened. There was a flu bug of unknown origins, but that’s about it. Well, you might want to look into something called AI. I think it’s going to really shake things up. Take this magazine column, for example. Writing it is a real chore. It takes me a good 20 minutes of half-ass work to achieve my high journalistic standard, a standard that is consistently awarded a Gold Medal–well, a Participant Trophy. But I digress. Instead of me kind of working for 20 minutes, with AI, all I have to do is ask the computer and–voila! Let me show you what I am talking about. I just type…

If anybody has Mark Knopfler’s ear, it’s Guy Fletcher. He’s the legendary British singer/songwriter/guitarist’s longtime go- to production partner, and he’s also the man (or guy) responsible for the stellar Atmos mix on the Blu-ray version of Knopfler’s latest solo album, One Deep River (EMI). During a recent Zoom interview across the Pond, Fletcher (seen here amidst a literal wall of keyboards) and I discussed how he convinced Knopfler he had no choice but to release One Deep River in Atmos, which Dire Straits tracks are his favorite Atmos mixes to date, and what Knopfler solo material he’d like to tackle in Atmos next. (A longer version of this interview appears in my monthly Immersive Audio File column on soundandvision.com.) Mike Mettler: According to what Mark told me directly, you…

Calibration equipment includes a NIST-certified Minolta CS-200, Murideo 8K SIX G and 8K SEVEN signal generators, Bullet Train HDMI cables, and Calman software. Posting settings for projectors are a bit like Fool’s Gold. Since the projector, screen, and room comprise a system, it is impossible to duplicate results based on plugging in numbers. For flat panels, it is more like a game of horseshoes…you can get close. Still, flat panels deviate between manufacturing runs as parts substitutions often require firmware changes that fail to translate transparently. The review depicts the few changes I made that deviate from default, especially after using High Color Accuracy. I discovered that despite the assortment of adjustments that would make a seasoned calibrator salivate, overuse by even a slight bit does not produce the desired…

TOM PETTY was going for broke because he had no other choice. He and his then-band Mudcrutch were running on fumes in their Gainesville, Florida home base—so, on April 1, 1974, they decided to head west in search of the last chance saloon of beckoning record deals. Though Mudcrutch made a brief go of it—their 1975 single on Shelter Records, “Depot Street,” stood as a hard-promise signpost of what was to come—the band soon enough dissolved with a fizzle. Undeterred, Petty regrouped with two of his Mudcrutch brothers—lead guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench—at the fore. With the addition of bassist Ron Blair and drummer Stan Lynch, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were born anew in 1976, ready to take on the world with renewed vigor. Fast-forward 50 years…

IN JASON STATHAM’S latest action-thriller, The Beekeeper, he portrays Adam Clay, a retired operative from a clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers.” After the tragic loss of someone close to him, due in part to the actions of professional online scammers, Clay comes out of the shadows, embarking on a mission to dismantle a system that has corrupt ties to the highest levels of government. I am a Jason Statham fan and looked forward to seeing The Beekeeper. It’s far from original, conceptually speaking, containing the requisite formulaic foundation to make for a fairly compelling and somewhat engaging story of justice and retribution. The first two acts are the best, with the third losing the earlier momentum. Regardless, I liked how the unfolding plot was handled, as well as the reliance…

THE DEPARTED is director Martin Scorsese’s hard-hitting drama that tells the story of undercover South Boston rookie cop Billy Costigan, gangland chief Frank Costello, and Colin Sullivan, Costello’s state police mole. Costigan is assigned to get close to Costello to obtain the evidence necessary to bring down his criminal empire. Sullivan’s job is to keep Costello informed of all police movements and thwart their efforts. It isn’t long before it’s discovered by both sides that there are informers in their midst, which escalates the paranoia and the violence, leaving Billy and Colin to figure out each other’s identities in order to save their own lives. This unforgettable and powerful crime drama won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. I have seen it countless times and love the evolution…

PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION: PURPLE RAIN IN THE summer of 1984, two ascending musical forces vaulted themselves into the megastar stratosphere on a parallel tract that would be virtually impossible to duplicate today. Bruce Springsteen upped his own iconography by touring stadiums in support of Born in the U.S.A., a perpetually catchy album whose underlying message actually served to tear down the tenets of the American mythos. At the same time, Prince and The Revolution dominated the charts with Purple Rain, the ostensible soundtrack to the low-budget box-office phenomenon of the same name that chronicled the rise of “The Kid” and his killer Minneapolis-bred band, despite their respective struggles with a myriad of mental and physical obstacles alike. Because Purple Rain was so ubiquitous that fateful summer and beyond, I…

I can remember sitting in the hospital room writing that month’s edition of this column (called “The Custom Installer” at the time) after my daughter, Lauryn, was born in November 2006. Fast-forward 17 years, and now Lauryn is 17 years old, taking college classes, and driving. All that meant that my family needed a new vehicle. But it has been 18 years since I purchased a vehicle, back when we bought an SUV right before Lauryn was born, which we handed down to her. And it’s an understatement to say there have been an incredible number of technological improvements since that last purchase. And after attending CES this year, and seeing the proliferation of smart, autonomous vehicles, I’m wondering if my other daughter, Audrey, now eight, will ever drive! While…

Across a career now spanning 40 years (if we use the version of his résumé that lists The Terminator as his debut), James Cameron has proven himself as one of our most popular filmmakers. His oeuvre totals less than 10 movies, yet they have been much-appreciated–including two that were top box office champs–so newer, superior disc releases are seemingly forever at the top of fans’ wishlists. Fox/Disney recently sent us a trio of long-demanded Cameron films in so-called Ultimate Collector’s Editions, available for the first time on 4K disc. Let’s explore them in the order of their theatrical release. An enduring sci-fi/action gem, Aliens is a suspenseful tale of betrayal, courage, and redemption that might be Cameron’s best work–a sequel that in some ways surpasses even Ridley Scott’s Alien. Ripley…

THE COMEDY classic Mean Girls and its 2024 musical remake serve up the same basic story, with or without the song-and-dance numbers. Wide-eyed Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan/Angourie Rice) returns from Africa with her zoologist parent(s), transitioning from homeschooling to entering the chaotic life of high school in the suburbs of Illinois. She infiltrates the clique that rules the school, led by Regina George (Rachel McAdams/Reneé Rapp), but plans to take down the queen bee, helped by two new outsider friends. All goes well until she falls for Regina’s ex-boyfriend. Then, it is an all-out war. The 2024 film is better crafted and revisits many key moments from the original without feeling forced. The new standout performer is Avantika, Regina’s minion Karen (Amanda Seyfried in the original), sliding effortlessly into the ditzy…

THREE DESPERADOES await their revenge-crazed leader, arriving at an isolated frontier town on the twelve o’clock train. Their target is the marshal, an honor-bound man of conscience who, despite this day being his wedding day, is committed to stand and fight rather than spend the rest of his life running. The impending gunfight will be four against one, so our hero seeks to form a posse, only to fail in every attempt as the fateful hour draws nearer. The weight of the movie, like the weight of the responsibility, rests squarely on the shoulders of lawman Will Kane (Gary Cooper), whose increasingly sweaty, furrowed brow displays each disappointment and betrayal like a dagger to the heart. Tension builds as we feel the gravity of his mounting problems and growing despair as…

When you have a hit, don’t quit! Inspired in some measure by Dune: Part Two’s recent smash success on the big screen, we thought, why not revisit our curated sampler of new and exciting gifts you can treat yourself or someone else to? After all, Father’s Day is right around the corner, and then there are all those birthdays and anniversaries that fall throughout the year. So we bring you this “sequel,” packed with more 4K and Blu-ray discs and some cool gear—24 items in all. Saw 10-Film Collection BLU-RAY (LIONSGATE) This massive 10-movie set marks the upcoming 20th anniversary of the revenge-seeking, trapsetting, self-mutilating horror franchise, and it’s brimming with sequels. S&V contributor Brandon DuHamel and I were recently discussing the merits of the series and I stand by…