LATEST ADDITIONS

A/V Veteran
An Inside Look at Sony’s Latest TV Technology
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 07, 2018
Last week Sound & Vision editor Al Griffin wrote on this site about Sony’s recent New York event. The subject was the launching of the company’s new Master Series flagship televisions, the new A9F OLEDs (in 55- and 65-inch sizes) and Z9F LCDs (65- and 75-inches). The event was held in a venue that in its past life was an exclusive dinner theater from 1938 to 1951, fell into disrepair in the following decades, and was remodeled in 2013. Since then it has been contracted to Sony, renamed Sony Hall, and used for a variety of theatrical and business events.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
New Yamaha Soundbar Has Wireless Speaker Option
SV Staff  |  Aug 07, 2018
Yamaha today announced a new soundbar that will be its first to feature a wireless surround speaker option in addition to supporting the company’s MusicCast multiroom platform.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Denon’s $999 AVR Boasts AirPlay 2, Atmos, Alexa
SV Staff  |  Aug 07, 2018
Denon today announced the addition of a feature-rich 7.2-channel AVR-X3500H to its X-Series line of AV receivers.
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Audio Video News
Fall from Grace: CDs Relegated to the Bargain Bin
SV Staff  |  Aug 06, 2018
U.S. Recorded Music Sales Volume by Format, 1983-2017. The orange segments represent CD. Source: Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

When we heard back in February that Best Buy was planning to drop CDs, we weren’t surprised. It’s now official: Best Buy has removed CDs altogether from its website and “de-emphasized” the category in its stores. In other words, CDs have been relegated to those chaotic bargain bins.

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Audio Video News
Apple’s HomePod Sales Perk Up
SV Staff  |  Aug 06, 2018
Apple was late to the burgeoning smart speaker space when it launched the HomePod in early February, following a delay that caused it to miss the big holiday season.
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Headphone ReviewsGrace Notes
Cleer Edge Pulse Earphone Gives Your Workout an Edge
Leslie Shapiro  |  Aug 06, 2018
While everyone and their sister is coming out with wireless earphones (thank you, Apple), clearly there’s a need for companies to give themselves an edge in a very crowded marketplace. The new Edge Pulse earphone from Cleer clearly has an edge over the competition.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Die Hard: 30th Anniversary Edition
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 03, 2018
Picture
Sound
Extras
In the 30 years since its debut, Die Hard has been riffed on and ripped off beyond count, and been sequelized no less than four times. This crown jewel of the Fox catalog, unleashed upon audiences with a ferocity, personality, and originality that we never saw coming, will likely never be topped. A very 1980s interpretation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, it finds grouchy New York City police detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) stuck in an under-construction Los Angeles skyscraper on December 24th.
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Audio Video News
Sonos IPO Kickoff: So Did You Buy Sonos Stock?
SV Staff  |  Aug 03, 2018
It’s official: Sonos is now a public company, having made its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange yesterday under the symbol “SONO.”
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Klipsch Unveils Enhanced Reference Series Speakers
SV Staff  |  Aug 03, 2018
Klipsch has announced a round of updates for its popular Reference Series of speakers that it says improve sound quality and appearance.
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4K TV ReviewsLCD TV ReviewsTV Reviews
Samsung QN65Q8FN LCD Ultra HDTV Review
Al Griffin  |  Aug 02, 2018

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $2,799

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent color rendition
Deep, detailed-looking blacks
Full-array backlight with local dimming
Minus
Potentially confusing screen GUI and remote
Unreliable voice command feature
No Dolby Vision

THE VERDICT
Quantum dots in Samsung’s near-top-of-line QLED TV allow it to deliver exceptionally rich color. Add in a full-array backlight with local dimming and the QN65Q8FN amounts to a winning proposition from a picture quality standpoint.

Samsung’s QLED—not to be confused with OLED—UHDTVs are the company’s top-of-the-line models. In case you’re wondering, that Q in QLED stands for quantum dot, a backlight technology that provides a more precise method to generate the red, green, and blue light that creates a video image than the process typically used for LCD displays. How does it happen? In a Samsung QLED TV, a blue LED backlight generates the blue component of the image and also stimulates a layer of nanocrystal dots sized to emit a specific wavelength of light —red and green in this case—when energized.

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