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A/V Veteran
Titanic: Blood & Steel - A Compelling 12-Part Miniseries
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 09, 2019
I’ve long been a fan of the Titanic saga, well before the 1997 film. I loved that one, but mainly for the stunning effects and James Horner’s magnificent score, not the badly written soap opera that took up over half of its running time. This week it returned to my attention, partly because in a few days the 107th anniversary of the disaster will arrive (April 15, though no one typically commemorates such an odd number) and partly because last week I re-watched a story of the Titanic on Blu-ray as one of the sources I used for a product review.

The latter however, wasn’t James Cameron’s flawed but still compelling epic. Instead, Titanic: Blood & Steel is a 12-part mini-series, released in 2012 (the 100th anniversary of the sinking, about the building of the ship. It doesn’t address the sinking at all. In fact, it ends just as the ship steams out of Belfast, where she was built (A ship is always a she, and as the narrative makes clear, she’s a ship, not a boat!)

But there’s a lot more here as well...

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Music Reviews
Rush: Hemispheres - 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 09, 2019
Performance
Sound
Rush was on a roll. After the celebrated Canadian trio had finally broken through the FM ether with 1976's dystopian statement piece 2112, they took the next evolutionary sonic turn with 1977's expansively majestic A Farewell to Kings. The following year, Rush rotated the screws once again by taking their proto-prog metal to the headiest of limits on 1978's Hemispheres, their final mind-altering statement of the Me-So-Introspective Decade before shedding their muso-skins yet again with 1980's forward-thinking Permanent Waves.
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New Products
Epson Unveils New High-Performance Home Cinema Projectors
SV Staff  |  Apr 09, 2019
Epson today announced the availability of two new projectors in its Home Cinema line, the 5050UB ($2,999) and 5050UBe 4K PRO-UHD2 ($3,299). Both models are available now through select online retailers and at Epson’s online store.
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Signals
Listen to the World's First Genderless AI Voice
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 09, 2019
"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." [Genesis 1:27]

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
IKEA and Sonos Reveal the First Speakers Under Partnership
SV Staff  |  Apr 08, 2019
Swedish furniture king IKEA and wireless speaker innovator Sonos have revealed the first Wi-Fi-enabled wireless speakers to come out of the partnership they announced last year.
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Grace Notes
Pandora NOW: First Shared Station from SiriusXM and Pandora
Leslie Shapiro  |  Apr 08, 2019
After SiriusXM purchased Pandora for $3.5 billion in February, there was a bit of speculation about how each company would benefit each other. Today, the first evidence of the collaboration launched with the unveiling of Pandora NOW, the first Pandora station available on the SiriusXM platform featuring the most-played music currently trending on Pandora.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Notorious
Josef Krebs  |  Apr 05, 2019
Picture
Sound
Extras
After her father is jailed for treason at the end of World War II, Alicia Huberman, a disillusioned, hard-drinking, but patriotic party girl is recruited by Devlin, a suave, cynical government agent. Her mission is to romance a wealthy friend of her father's, Sebastian, infiltrate his palatial home, and observe his associates that are suspected of Nazi conspiracy in Rio, Brazil.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Audio Time Machine: The Garrard 401 Spins Again
SV Staff  |  Apr 05, 2019
This spectacular stereo specimen is a new arrival from New Jersey-based vintage audio specialist SkyFi Audio. Introduced in 1965 and produced until 1976, the Garrard 401 turntable — and its predecessor, the Garrard 301 — were designed and built in the U.K. and exported around the world. As a testimony to their build quality, the sister turntables were also used by the BBC and European radio stations.
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Ask S&V
Can I Send Surround Sound from My AVR to Headphones?
Al Griffin  |  Apr 04, 2019
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q If I use an Apple TV 4K with an AV receiver, is it possible to route the surround sound to headphones? I ask because I’m viewing using a computer monitor and the only way I can get sound is through headphones. —H.G. Fernand, via email

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Questyle Previews High-End Wireless Audio System
SV Staff  |  Apr 04, 2019
Questyle, the China-based company specializing in high-resolution portable audio systems, has announced plans to demonstrate a high-end, multiroom wireless audio system at the upcoming Audio Expo North America (AXPONA) in Chicago.
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