February/March 2022

Sound & Vision

Authoritative information on entertainment technologies and products.

Sound & Vision3 min read
Ways of Watching
Customer Service And Subscriptions soundandvision@email-customerservice.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 p
Sound & Vision8 min read
Letters
I can feel myself getting sucked into the Old Tech Vortex, and Michael Trei is partly to blame. I ignored his first review of Andover Audio’s SpinBase (October/November 2020 issue) because, well, turntables are Old Tech and mine has been in storage f
Sound & Vision1 min read
Sound & Vision
EDITOR: Al Griffin SENIOR EDITOR, TECHNICAL EDITOR: Tom Norton EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Bob Ankosko CONTRIBUTING TECHNICAL EDITORS: Kris Deering, Barb Gonzalez, Michael P. Hamilton, Howard Kneller, Daniel Kumin, Rob Sabin, John Sciacca, Michael Trei, David V
Sound & Vision5 min read
Fluance Ai41 Bluetooth Speaker System
You can tell if a speaker is good the moment it starts playing, so I knew right away the Ai41 was good but didn’t fully appreciate how good until I had lived with it for a couple of weeks. Designed by Fluance, one of the many excellent speaker compan
Sound & Vision3 min read
We’re Not in Kansas Anymore
Many years ago, I would ride my bicycle to the neighborhood record store, lean it against the window (no need to padlock), spend an enjoyable hour flipping through LPs, pick one out, and buy it (cash, of course). I would then slip it into my backpack
Sound & Vision9 min read
Media Room Insider: Apartment Theater
AN ISRAELI A/V enthusiast faced a quandary not uncommon among home theater builders: Is the space I’ve set aside big enough for a no-compromise audio solution? The question loomed large as he pondered the entertainment options for a new luxury pentho
Sound & Vision3 min read
HDMI eARC & ARC
Q I want to get the highest possible audio quality from my home theater system when using the streaming apps on my new Samsung QN90A Neo QLED 4K Smart TV. I have a Denon AVR-A100 A/V receiver that has an HDMI ARC port. My previous TV only had an opti
Sound & Vision4 min read
Head Space
Whenever people say I have my head in the clouds, I often take it as a compliment—even if they don’t mean it that way. (I can usually tell they don’t, especially if there’s an expletive modifying the word “head” and/or “clouds.”) Chances are, you hav
Sound & Vision3 min read
Big Screen Decisions
When I started out as a custom installer back in 1998, a “big screen” was a 60-inch rear-projection TV, with high-end models available from the likes of Mitsubishi and Pioneer Elite. These were 4:3 aspect ratio, cathode ray tube-driven sets with 480i
Sound & Vision14 min read
The Future Looks Bright
GIVEN THE current uncertain state of the world, I was truly surprised when JVC announced not one but three new projectors prior to the kickoff of CEDIA Expo 2021, an event that ended up being a pale shade of its regular self. The new JVC trio largely
Sound & Vision17 min read
Top Picks Of The Year
FLAT-PANEL UHDTVS ❚ PROJECTORS ❚ SCREENS ❚ A/V RECEIVERS ❚ AUDIO SEPARATES & INTEGRATED AMPS ❚ SOURCE COMPONENTS ❚ SPEAKERS ❚ SOUNDBARS ❚ WIRELESS SPEAKERS ❚ SUBWOOFERS ❚ HEADPHONES ❚ EXTRAS ❚ TOP VALUES LOOKING BACK on 2021, I can honestly state tha
Sound & Vision9 min read
Monolithic Value
PERFORMANCE BUILD QUALITY VALUE THE STORY of how Monoprice parlayed its success as a humble purveyor of computer peripherals into its current status as a direct-toconsumer A/V gear powerhouse will have to wait for another day, mostly because I don’t
Sound & Vision10 min read
In Living Color
PERFORMANCE FEATURES ERGONOMICS VALUE IS THERE a projector maker that hasn’t yet come out with an ultra short throw (UST) model aimed at viewers who want a theater-size image in their living room, but without the usual ceiling-mount and dark room bag
Sound & Vision9 min read
Beam Me Up
PERFORMANCE FEATURES ERGONOMICS VALUE BOTH THE original Sonos Beam and the company’s new Beam Gen 2 soundbar use beamforming, a technology that combines an array of drivers with advanced signal processing, to create an enveloping audio experience wit
Sound & Vision6 min read
Are You Experienced?
PERFORMANCE FEATURES ERGONOMICS VALUE KALEIDESCAPE SURE has been busy since I reviewed its Strato S 4K Ultra HD Movie Player late last year (October/November 2020 issue). The company added three new servers to its Terra lineup: the compact 6TB ($5,99
Sound & Vision5 min read
It’s Chrono Time
PERFORMANCE BUILD QUALITY VALUE CANTON MAY be a speaker brand that’s relatively unknown in North America—no doubt due to the company’s products not being available in these parts for the past decade—but the German outfit has been doing business for a
Sound & Vision9 min read
The Suicide Squad
REFERENCE EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR POOR Blurring the line between sequel, reboot, and remake, The Suicide Squad fairly leaps off the screen with something too often conspicuously absent from the DC Cinematic Universe: a sense of fun. Written and directed
Sound & Vision4 min read
R.e.m. new Adventures In Hi-fi: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
R.E.M. were the undisputed kings of American-bred alt-rock by the time the mid-1990s rolled around. Emerging from the college-town kudzu of Athens, Georgia, with the game-changing jangle of July 1981’s “Radio Free Europe” single and August 1982’s sub
Sound & Vision6 min read
Triple Threat
PERFORMANCE FEATURES BUILD QUALITY VALUE OSD AUDIO is a maker of many audiorelated things, its extensive product line covering most bases for custom residential and commercial installations. But the company also has a fair number of consumer offering
Sound & Vision4 min read
Creating Beyond Your Mind
The seven-man band then known as Chicago Transit Authority were at the forefront of the horn-driven jazz-rock movement when they emerged in April 1969 with their self-titled double-length debut album, thanks in no small part to the knob-turning effor

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