LATEST ADDITIONS

Music Reviews
Bruce Springsteen: The Ties That Bind--The River Collection
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 27, 2016
Performance
Sound
When the calendar turned to 1980, it was time for Bruce Springsteen to grow up. “How people connect and relate to one another, or don’t—I want to be a part of that, not just looking at it from the outside,” Bruce says at the outset of the new documentary on the Blu-ray Disc that lies at the very center of The Ties That Bind – The River Collection box set. And that statement is, in essence, the manifesto for the direction taken by The Boss and his merry E Street Bandmates on The River, which found the brash ’n’ brazen New Jersey singer/songwriter staring down the dawn of a new decade with a cautious combination of equal parts hope and trepidation. The River could have easily taken a wrong turn and just kept going—and, in fact, it nearly did—but Bruce held steadfast to deliver a double album that put him on a path of “writing for my age” from that point forward on each successive album.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Iconic Brands Hafler and Dynaco Make a Comeback
SV Staff  |  Apr 27, 2016
Two iconic amplifier brands from decades past are coming together under the aegis of Canadian distributor-turned-manufacturer Radial Engineering Ltd., which is staging a global launch of the brands at the High End 2016 show in Munich, Germany, May 5-8.
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Audio Video News
Try-Before-You-Buy Service Adds Audio
SV Staff  |  Apr 27, 2016
San Francisco-based startup Lumoid has added headphones and portable Bluetooth speakers to its try-before-you-buy service, which lets you effectively rent photography and video gear, drones, and wearable fitness trackers for two weeks before making a purchase.
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Headphone Reviews
Oppo PM-2 Headphone Review
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 26, 2016

Performance
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $699

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Planar diaphragms
Smooth, sweet, high-res sound
Long and short cables supplied
Minus
Not as airy as some competitive ’phones

THE VERDICT
Planar headphones don’t come cheap, but the Oppo PM-2 is a relatively affordable specimen that sounds beautiful with a variety of content and signal sources.

Planar magnetic headphones have potential advantages over conventional dynamic headphones. Their flat diaphragms have magnets evenly spread across them, driving the entire surface, as opposed to a single coil driving the center of a diaphragm. The result can be greater resolution and phase coherence. But that potential performance edge comes at a price. So headphone fans rejoiced when Oppo—which won positive reviews for its $1,099 PM-1—introduced the PM-2, with some of the same features, at a more affordable price of $699, followed by the even more affordable PM-3 ($399). I’ve been spending much of the past year or so listening to the PM-2.

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Audio Video News
Cord Trimming Accelerates
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 26, 2016
Seventy-nine percent of U.S. consumers still subscribe to pay TV, but that number is dwindling as cord-trimmers, cord-cutters, and cord-nevers cut into the base. That’s the news from PricewaterhouseCoopers in its report “Videoquake 3.0: The Evolution of TV’s Revolution.”
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Onkyo Unveils Atmos-Ready Home Theater in a Box
SV Staff  |  Apr 26, 2016
And you thought home theater in a box was dead… Not only is HTiB not dead, Onkyo has announced plans to introduce a Dolby Atmos-equipped 5.1.2-channel home theater box system in May.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Marantz Announces Low-Profile Atmos AV Receiver
SV Staff  |  Apr 26, 2016
Marantz is kicking off its 2016 home theater line-up with an affordable, low-profile 7.2-channel network AV receiver aimed at design- and space-conscious enthusiasts who don’t want to compromise on performance.
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Signals
President Obama Wants to Liberate Your Cable Box
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 26, 2016
Quick. What's the company everyone loves to hate? The cable company, of course. The aggravating installation, the inexplicable outtages, the maddening programming bundles, and the fees. Oh yes, the fees. But there's hope, and possibly change. President Obama has endorsed a proposal that would eliminate perhaps the most annoying cable TV fee. That's good, right?

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Ask S&V
Should I Put My Center Speaker Above or Below the TV Screen?
Al Griffin  |  Apr 25, 2016
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I am coordinating the install of my new home theater system with a floating entertainment unit and a 75-inch Sony TV. The system will use three MartinLogan SLM XL speakers for the front channels. My dilemma is whether to position the center-channel speaker above or below the TV. The bottom location is closer to ear level but will require mounting the TV 6 inches higher than I’d like (because of the floating entertainment unit). My idea is to locate the center channel above the TV instead, which also isn’t ideal, but I feel that my ears will be able to adjust better to the configuration than my eyes. What do you think? —Fred Bredemeyer / via e-mail

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Audio Video News
Universal to Release Movies on 4K UHD Blu-ray
SV Staff  |  Apr 25, 2016
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has announced plans to progressively roll out a “broad selection” of films on 4K Ultra HD (UHD) Blu-ray and in UHD digital formats beginning this summer, helping to push the total number of UHD titles expected to be released in 2016 to more than 100.
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