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Soundbar ReviewsSurround Sound System Reviews
Savant Smart Audio WiSA Soundbar System Review
Rob Sabin  |  Aug 26, 2020

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $3,000 (system bundle, minus installation; $4,000 as tested)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Superb sonics
WiSA wireless connection for surrounds and sub
Integrated Savant automation platform
Control via app or touchscreen remote
Minus
No Dolby Pro Logic or other stereo surround mode
No HDMI-ARC connectivity
No processing for lossless surround formats

THE VERDICT
Savant's smart soundbar may be a gateway to home automation, but it distinguishes itself first through its excellent sound quality.

Sound & Vision readers will know Savant as one of two upstarts that, along with Control 4, arrived in the early 2000s to challenge Crestron and AMX in the emerging home automation market. Today, some 15 years after its founding by tech entrepreneur/billionaire Bob Madonna, Savant continues to expand its Mac-based smarthome solution, and with some recent acquisitions, to broaden its market reach. Most notable is the high-profile purchase this year of GE Lighting.

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SmartStream
Mulan Available to Buy on September 4
Barb Gonzalez  |  Aug 26, 2020
Disney's Mulan will be available to buy on September 4th but there's a catch.
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New Products
Zvox Adds AV157 to AccuVoice TV Speaker Line
SV Staff  |  Aug 25, 2020
Soundbar, soundase, and headphone manufacturer Zvox Audio has added a new model to its family of AccuVoice TV speakers. The AV157 ($299) is a compact soundbar with SuperVoice dialogue clarifying technology, a new feature that “uses Zvox’s patented hearing aid algorithms to make dialogue more clear,” and also comes with SuperVoice tech that further enhances dialogue by reducing background noise in TV programs.
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Signals
Where There's OLED Smoke, Is There OLED Fire?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 24, 2020
Before we begin, to all of our South Korean readers, please do me a favor. Check to see if your TV is on fire. I'll wait here while you're gone. Let me know if I should call the fire department. I am standing by.

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Music Reviews
The Allman Brothers: Trouble No More - 50th Anniv. Collection
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 21, 2020
Performance
Sound
When the final notes of "Trouble No More" rang out in the early morning hours of October 29, 2014 at The Beacon Theatre in New York City, the unthinkable was finally upon us, for that meant The Allman Brothers Band were truly no more. After five-plus decades as the consummate road warriors, America's premier jam band was hanging up its collective boots for good at the venue they'd held an annual residency at for a quarter-century.
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Audio Video News
Best Gear You Can Buy for Under $1,000
Bob Ankosko  |  Aug 20, 2020
Despite all of its many challenges, 2020 has so far proven to be a good year for affordable A/V gear. To illustrate the point, we’ve gathered up a couple dozen recent examples — all Sound & Vision Top Picks — and included a few picks from late 2019 as well. To make it easier to browse, we’ve divided the listings into seven categories: Speakers with seven entries, Soundbars (four entries), Subwoofers (three entries), TVs and Source Components (four entries), Receivers & Integrated Amplifiers (two entries), Headphones (three entries), and Accessories (one entry). Will you find your next acquisition on one of the five pages that follow? Read on to find out.
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Editor's Eye
Home Is Where the Theater Is
Al Griffin  |  Aug 20, 2020
TAP, TAP, TAP. . . is this thing on? We’re back! If you’re a print subscriber I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to the June/July issue of Sound & Vision so here’s the deal.
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Power Amplifier Reviews
Legacy Audio i·V 7 Seven-Channel Amplifier
Al Griffin  |  Aug 19, 2020

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $7,950

AT A GLANCE
Plus
High power output
Optimized power supply layout
Classy looks
Minus
Pricey

THE VERDICT
Legacy Audio's i·V 7 offers seemingly unlimited multichannel power in a relatively compact, upscale package.

I first encountered the i·V 7 seven-channel amplifier at CEDIA 2019, where Legacy Audio founder and chief engineer Bill Dudleston was displaying it alongside the company's many freestanding and on-wall speaker offerings. Although Legacy Audio is best known for those real wood-finished speakers that it designs for the high-end home and pro audio markets, the company also has an impressive portfolio of electronics, including the Powerbloc2 and Powerbloc4 Amplifiers that Sound & Vision reviewed back in 2017.

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Sweepstakes
Summer Vinyl Sweeps which features prizes from VPI/SVS/Nordost and Disney Music Emporium!
SV Staff  |  Aug 18, 2020
Register to win a complete vinyl playback system and stack of records (Value $4,682.44 total) we are giving away!

Prizes include: 10 select vinyl LPs from Disney Music Emporium's collection (including the Star Wars: A New Hope Box Set!), The VPI Player Turntable, SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers and Prime Wireless Soundbase, and a complete set of Nordost cables to tie everything together!

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

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A/V Veteran
Gordon’s World: A Video Premonition
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 18, 2020
Recently I completed one of my all too infrequent efforts to cull the herd of old magazines more than three years old; anything earlier worth finding is almost certainly available on-line. A few key older issues were kept for various reasons, and a complete set of the long-defunct Stereophile Guide to Home Theater is still hiding somewhere in the garage. But by accident I ran across my only remaining issue of Video Theater. Never heard of it? It was a magazine begun in the late ‘80s by J. Gordon Holt. Holt is best known as the founder of Stereophile magazine, which inspired a whole raft of competitors anxious to fill a pent-up demand for information on how equipment actually sounds, not just how it measures.

But Gordon was not only an audiophile. He was passionate about video as well in an era when home video hadn’t yet moved much beyond the 21-inch, CRT color TV. Video Theater was short lived, but was well served by Gordon’s unique observations and take-no-prisoners words. But the issue I found also had some pithy editorial observations about the road home audio had travelled, in Gordon’s estimation, and how this might predict the future of video beyond when these words were written, in mid-1990. Here they are:

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