LATEST ADDITIONS

Audio Video NewsNew Products
Panasonic UHD Blu-ray Player Due in September
SV Staff  |  Jul 05, 2016
Panasonic will join Samsung and Philips to become the third company to offer an Ultra HD Blu-ray player in September when it ships the DMP-UB900.
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Being There: Live vs. Live Streaming
Michael Antonoff  |  Jul 05, 2016
It's hard to miss the variety and depth of live entertainment streaming into the home, some you pay for, some you don't. On the last night of June I paid $9.99 to "attend" She Loves Me, an as-slick-as-they come Broadway musical performed by the Roundabout Theatre Company at Studio 54. Minutes before the 8 p.m. curtain I typed my credit card info into BroadwayHD.com and ended up having a rip-roaring time. Put in the form of a pull quote: "The best musical I ever saw in my underwear!"
Continue Reading »
Audio Video NewsTop Picks
June 2016 Top Picks at a Glance
SV Staff  |  Jul 02, 2016  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2016
As we head into a long, lazy July 4th Weekend, we’ve encapsulated a formidable list of recent Top Picks. Half of our Picks are devoted to an eclectic mix of wireless speakers, including one built for use outdoors. The other half includes what may be the world’s best TV, a couple of high-end headphones, a bad-ass budget subwoofer, a crazy cool micro tube amp, and an awesome AVR. Enjoy the holiday…and the gear.
Continue Reading »
Tech2
Even In-Ear 'Phones Adapt to Your Hearing
Lauren Dragan  |  Jul 02, 2016  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2016
The way the team at Even describe it, their debut in-ear headphones evaluate your hearing in each ear and adapt the EQ of your music’s playback to compensate, much in the way a pair of prescription reading glasses adjust your vision. It’s a novel idea; one that makes a certain amount of sense. But does Even’s process really work, or is it all a gimmick? The only way to find out was to meet Sarah.
Continue Reading »
3D Blu-ray Movie ReviewsBlu-ray Movie Reviews
The Good Dinosaur
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 01, 2016
Picture
3D-ness
Sound
Extras
Ever wonder what would happen if the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs missed Earth instead, enabling our prehistoric pals to evolve into the dominant animals on the planet, rather than man? Regardless of your answer, here’s The Good Dinosaur, a rare misfire from the esteemed Pixar gang. While we on the sofa are still wrestling with the ramifications of this bizarre setup, we’re introduced to a family of dino farmers: no, seriously, a pack of apatosauruses that harvests corn and plows the field with their blunt heads.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Creed
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Jul 01, 2016
Picture
Sound
Extras
With Creed, director Ryan Coogler (Frutivale Station) reboots the long-running Rocky franchise for a new generation of fans. Like The Force Awakens, Creed, from a screenplay by Aaron Covington and Coogler, plays it safe, never deviating far from the fundamentals that made the original film such a success.
Continue Reading »
Ears On
Loving LPs Is Easy, Storing Them Hard
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 01, 2016
When it comes to my music library, sometimes I'm like a little kid. Buy now, think about the consequences later. My apartment was already groaning under the load of LPs, CDs, other media, and gear a year or two back when I suddenly went on an accelerated vinyl-collecting binge. When my workday was over, I'd sit in my armchair with a tablet, making one Ebay buy after another. On weekends I was off to Academy Records on West 18th Street in Manhattan to look for classical treasures (because classical vinyl is still cheap and cheap is what it's all about). Vinyl started overflowing from the shelves to the floor. Those LP-size BD/DVD-A/CD box sets made matters worse. Soon, and not for the first time in my life, I was in the throes of a full-blown LP storage crisis.

Continue Reading »
AV Receiver Reviews
Pioneer Elite SC-95 A/V Receiver Review
Daniel Kumin  |  Jun 30, 2016

Audio Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $1,600

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Latest-gen audio and video processing
Fine-performing nine-channel Class D power
Cooler-than-ever free phone/tablet apps
Extensive proprietary auto-setup/EQ
Minus
Uninspired supplied remote
Occasional streaming audio glitches

THE VERDICT
All the good stuff—including Dolby Atmos/DTS:X, 4K/HDR with upscaling, and HD-remote-room ability—in a nicely usable, fine-sounding, fairly priced package.

It has been more than two years since Onkyo bought—or merged with, depending on your financial-accounting philosophy—Pioneer’s home-audio unit, but so far there has been no sign of their brands melding into a single entity. (Piokyo? Onkioneer?) And in all seriousness, we’ve no such expectation. For its part, Pioneer still retains two more or less discrete A/V receiver lines, the more quotidian VSX range and the higher-end SC models. More or less: All of the SCs reside in the brand’s specialist-oriented Elite series, while most of the VSXs remain in the “regular” Pioneer lineup. Yet a few sub-$1,000 VSXs, including two new ones, nestle in among the SCs on the Elite side of the ledger.

Continue Reading »
Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1972: Atari Is Born
SV Staff  |  Jun 30, 2016
Forty-four years ago this week the iconic video game company Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney.
Continue Reading »
Editor's Eye
Are You Ready to Step into Our VR Future?
Rob Sabin  |  Jun 30, 2016
A scene from 1993’s virtual reality thriller Arcade

Working on our July/August print edition we had fun with some categories we don’t normally follow closely. Yours truly got curious enough about so-called pico projectors to call in a few for a test. Watch for our survey, which includes two remarkable projectors that actually slip into your breast pocket, and two “minibeamers” that resemble the big-boy home theater projectors we test year round, just shrunk way, way down.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X