Editor's Eye

TAP, TAP, TAP. . . is this thing on? We’re back! If you’re a print subscriber I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to the June/July issue of Sound & Vision so here’s the deal.

As the Covid-19 pandemic started to wind its way through the U.S. in March, a business decision was made by AVTech Media to take a pause and combine the magazine’s next two issues into a single “September” print issue, which hit newsstands in early August.

The move was a temporary austerity measure made in response to the escalating global health crisis, but we have now returned to our regular publication schedule. Apologies to readers who missed getting their bimonthly print fix of Sound & Vision. We hope you and your families are safe and healthy, and that your lives are starting to return to some form of normal.

What have we been up to? Like many of you, we’ve spent a little too much time at home of late. Fortunately — again, like many of you — we have well-outfitted home theaters, and those spaces have provided entertainment, distraction, and comfort over the crazy past few months. If there’s been any upside to what we’ve been through, it’s the reinforcement of the value of home A/V systems, and of tweaking them as near as possible to perfection.

On the personal front, I’ve been organizing my physical media collections and taking time out to appreciate the beauty of the packaging of certain Blu-ray and DVD box sets, as well as the many CDs and LPs I’ve acquired over the years. I’ve revisited favorite movies and TV programs, read liner notes, watched extra features, and listened to commentary tracks on discs. An old friend had the fantastic idea to make chronological playlists of music that inspired us at various points during our lives, and to share those lists with our close social circle.

For me, going down that rabbit hole was more than just a nostalgia exercise, but a way to seriously consider my past going back to childhood, when I first discovered Beatles LPs in a playmate’s parents’ collection. From that moment on, music was inextricably tied to specific events and phases in my life and making a playlist to document it all was akin to creating a personal soundtrack. Yes, it’s been a drag having to stay home, to worry, and to not be able to travel or to visit people. But the downtime has also provided time and space for much needed reorganization and reflection, something that otherwise wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been asked to stay at home.

What did you do to pass time? Did you subscribe to any of the new streaming services (Peacock, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, etc.), some of which seemed to pop up almost on cue after the lockdowns started? Create your own pandemic playlist? Most important, did you make any upgrades to your system(s) that improved A/V quality, and by extension your quality of life? Leave a comment to share your experience.