LATEST ADDITIONS

Audio Video NewsNew Products
GoldenEar Launches Less Expensive Follow-Up to its Flagship Triton Reference
SV Staff  |  Nov 29, 2018
GoldenEar Technology has introduced a slightly scaled-down, less expensive follow-up to its flagship Triton Reference speaker, one of Sound & Vision’s 2017 Top Picks of the Year.
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Ask S&V
How Can I Create a Stealth Setup for Playing Discs on 2 Wall-Mounted TVs?
Al Griffin  |  Nov 29, 2018
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I am planning to buy two TVs, a 65-inch LG OLED and a 49-inch Samsung LCD, both of which will be wall-mounted. I also want the option to play Blu-ray discs and DVDs with both TVs. My initial plan was to buy disc players and hide them behind the wall-mounted sets, but I can’t find a player with a vertical orientation. My goal is to see nothing but the TV on the wall. The one option I’m contemplating at this point is sticking a PlayStation 3 Super Slim game console behind the TV. Do you have any other suggestions? —Steve Knot, via email

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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1996: U.S. Grants MP3 Patent
SV Staff  |  Nov 29, 2018
Twenty-two years ago this week, few people noticed an event that would forever change the course of distributed music when Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute was awarded a U.S. patent for a ground-breaking “digital encoding process” known as MPEG Audio Layer III, a.k.a. MP3.
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SmartStream
Hands On: Fire TV Cube - A Cross Between Amazon Echo and Fire TV
Barb Gonzalez  |  Nov 28, 2018
Although the Fire TV Cube was released by Amazon in June, it has not yet received the recognition or hype it deserves. The Cube is a cross between a smart speaker and a Fire TV media player. Like an Amazon Echo speaker, the Cube can hear commands from across the room and has a built-in speaker to play back its reply. Like a Fire TV media player, it streams from all the same apps as other Fire TV models and can play 4K HDR content.
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Projector Reviews
Sony VPL-VW295ES 4K Video Projector Review
Thomas J. Norton  |  Nov 28, 2018

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $5,000

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent resolution
Good HDR brightness
Quiet
Minus
Middling black level
Limited BT.2020 and P3 color coverage
No 10-point white balance adjustment

THE VERDICT
Sony’s VPL-VW295ES isn’t significantly different than last year’s VPL-VW285ES, but it’s still a tempting entry in the limited world of affordable true 4K home projectors.

Until recently, most home 4K projectors used lower-than-4K-resolution imaging chips and employed various types of time-offset pixel shifting to display a 4K image on a screen. Such projectors are affordable and widely available, and they can be remarkably effective. True, full 4K projection, on the other hand, has remained something of a golden goose, priced out of the range of mere mortals.

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The S&V Interview
Jean-Michel Jarre Dives Deep Into Equinoxe Infinity
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 28, 2018
We got on the line with electronic music maestro Jean-Michel Jarre to discuss his adventurous new album Equinoxe Infinity, his far-reaching “multi-mono” surround sound goals, how to best harness the way music moves through space, and how he fielded a “spatial” performance suggestion from noted sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Puro Sound’s Latest Kid-Safe Headphones Boast Active Noise Cancellation
SV Staff  |  Nov 28, 2018
Puro Sound Labs, the San Diego-based company “dedicated to fighting the growing epidemic of noise-induced hearing loss,” today expanded its line of volume-limited headphones for kids with a wireless over-ear model featuring active noise cancellation (ANC).
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Audio Video News
Klipsch Updates ‘The Three’ Wireless Speaker with Google Assistant
SV Staff  |  Nov 28, 2018
Just in time for the holidays, Klipsch has announced that it is now shipping the next generation of its Top Pick-designated wireless speaker, The Three, which has been updated with Google Assistant voice control.
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Headphone Reviews
Sennheiser HD 569 Headphones Review
Steve Guttenberg  |  Nov 27, 2018

Performance
Build Quality
Comfort
Value
PRICE $149

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Lightweight yet rugged design
Smooth overall sound balance
Two-year warranty
Minus
Isolation from external noise could be better

THE VERDICT
Audiophiles on a budget need look no further than Sennheiser’s HD 569 headphones.

My long-running fascination with Sennheiser headphones dates back to the first ones that I bought in 1972: the HD 414 with canary yellow ear pads. I can’t remember how or why they vanished from my collection decades back, so I recently bought an ancient pair of HD 414s on eBay, and the sound was even better than I remembered. I still have the company’s HD 580, which I bought in 1994—another model I keep coming back to. Listening to the company’s relatively new HD 569, I have the feeling they’ll still be cherished by their owners decades from now. They’re that good.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Astell&Kern Introduces High-End Headphones, In-Ear Monitors
SV Staff  |  Nov 27, 2018
Hi-res audio specialist Astell&Kern has announced limited-edition headphones developed in partnership with Beyerdynamic and a set of universal-fit in-ear monitors (IEM) designed by IEM pioneer Jerry Harvey.
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