LATEST ADDITIONS

Subwoofer Reviews
REL Acoustics Habitat1 Subwoofer
Brent Butterworth  |  Mar 07, 2014
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $1,999

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Décor-friendly form factor
Beautiful build quality
Surprisingly easy installation
Minus
Low output

THE VERDICT
The Habitat1 has a terrific industrial design that may work where a traditional sub won’t, but don’t expect miracles.

Almost every subwoofer on the market today is a boring, bulky black box, designed with hardly a thought about how the thing’s going to look in a living room. With its new Habitat1 subwoofer, REL joins the small group of manufacturers who’ve put serious thought into making their subwoofers blend in with room décor.

Continue Reading »
Wireless Multiroom Speaker Reviews
Sonos Play:1 Wireless Speaker System
Rob Sabin  |  Mar 07, 2014

Performance
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $199

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Lowest price ever for a Sonos starter system
Attractive, décor-friendly design
Natural, unhyped sound quality
Minus
Needs near-wall placement or optional SUB to sound its best

THE VERDICT
The Play:1’s low price and natural sound quality make starting or expanding a Sonos system easier than ever.

At $199 each, the Play:1 represents the new low entry point for the Sonos multiroom wireless audio system. Connect it to your router, download the free controller app to your smartphone or tablet, and you’re ready to start building a wireless wholehouse music system fed by your personal music library or any of the dozens of streaming services now integrated with the system. If you’d rather put your Play:1 in a room distant from your router, you can buy the $49 Bridge adapter to make the one required wired network connection, and you’ll be free to add Sonos components wirelessly all over the house.

Continue Reading »
Ears On
Used Vinyl Is the Poor Man's High-Res
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 07, 2014
My moment of immortality in the Pazz & Jop Poll, the annual music critic's poll that runs in The Village Voice, came when I confessed my craving for classical music, not a popular genre at the Voice. I mentioned how much I loved gorging on $2 used LPs at the now-gone Tower Annex in Lower Manhattan, buying "as much dead white boy music as I can carry to the bus." My ballot comment ran in the paper, which was a great honor. That was sometime in the early 1990s, during the golden age of cheap vinyl, before the current vinyl resurgence. Folks were dumping LPs for CDs and even an impecunious collector could make out like a bandit. Today vinyl isn't as cheap as it once was; those 180-gram virgin-vinyl reissues cost a bundle, as do vintage pressings of Beatles and Pink Floyd albums. Yet even today I continue to collect loads of used classical vinyl. Most of it is still cheap and it's one of the few forms of high-res audio an inkstained wretch can afford to buy in large quantities.

Continue Reading »
Tech2
What's Your Playlist for the Apocalypse?
Lauren Dragan  |  Mar 07, 2014
Some people are naturally motivated to exercise. They push themselves to the limit with nothing but the sound of their own breathing to guide them, entering a zen-like workout induced euphoria. I kinda hate these people. Don’t get me wrong. I love being in shape, but personally, I dislike “working out”. It’s hard. In fact, the reason that I run is because it’s not something that comes easily to me: I like the sense of accomplishment. But to get through it, I need a little something to distract me from all that muscle-and-lung-burning stuff. I know I’m not alone. Whenever I head out for a longer jog, one of my friends inevitably jokes that the only way that they would run is if they’re being chased. Well, friends, that can be arranged. How’d you like to escape a virtual zombie horde? Motivated yet?
Continue Reading »
SmartStream
An HDMI Roku Streaming Stick for Everyone
Barb Gonzalez  |  Mar 06, 2014
Roku will release the Roku Streaming Stick that will work with any TV. Is a streaming stick right for you?
Continue Reading »
Ask S&V
Is it Time to Replace the Lamp in My Old DLP Rear Projector?
Al Griffin  |  Mar 06, 2014
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I have a 56-inch Samsung rear-projection DLP TV that I purchased in 2006. The set is installed in a room with low to medium light, and I sit about 12 to 14 feet away. I have never had any problems with the TV and have yet to replace its lamp. I’m now wondering, though, should I wait for the lamp to die, or replace it? Would a lamp replacement improve the picture? I have a two-year-old 40-inch Samsung LCD in another room that I’ve always admired for its crisp picture, though it looks a bit like a daytime soap opera even with the Movie mode selected.—Brian Pridgen / via e-mail

Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The World’s End
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 05, 2014
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
Magnifying the crisis in midlife crisis, arrested adolescent Gary King (Simon Pegg) coaxes his better-adjusted childhood chums to revisit their hometown and reattempt the feat that conquered them 20 years earlier: drinking their way through all 12 pubs of Newton Haven’s Golden Mile. Last stop: The World’s End. The five friends soon realize that most of the citizenry—including two of their own—have been replaced by alien automatons (“blanks”) and that sleepy Newton Haven is the beachhead for world conquest.
Continue Reading »
3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie Reviews
Man of Steel
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 05, 2014
Picture
3D-ness
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
Whenever you dramatize one of the most beloved characters in all of popular culture, you’re going to elicit a lot of strong opinions. Many folks seem to either love or loathe Man of Steel, director Zack Snyder and producer/co-writer Christopher Nolan’s major reboot of the Superman franchise. The basic story is recognizable to even the most casual fans, yet much has changed, so it doesn’t feel like a rehash of any version we’ve seen before.
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Miller & Kreisel Brand Returns
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 05, 2014
The venerable Miller & Kreisel loudspeaker brand is making a comeback. When a Danish company bought the brand in 2007, it was forced to take the name MK Sound. But new products being released for the 40th anniversary will wear the M&K (as opposed to MK) badge. These THX Ultra2–certified products include the S-300 monitor ($3,500/each), MP-300 on-wall speaker ($3,350/each), and S-300T on-wall tripole speaker ($4,000/pair).
New ProductsPremiere Design
MartinLogan Crescendo Music System
Bob Ankosko  |  Mar 05, 2014
Smile If You Like Music
Yep, you read that right. MartinLogan, the 30-year-old Kansas-based company known for elegant, high-performance electrostatic speakers, is branching out. And, no, the Crescendo is not a center-channel speaker.
Continue Reading »

Pages

X