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Subwoofer ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
Perlisten Audio R5t Loudspeaker and D15s Subwoofer Review
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 11, 2022

R5t Tower
Performance
Build Quality
Value

D15s Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $7,000/pair (R5t tower), $5,000 (D15s subwoofer)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Clean, uncolored sound (R5t)
Surprisingly powerful bass (R5t)
Excellent build quality (R5t)
Stunningly dynamic performance (D15s)
Excellent build quality (D15s)
Minus
Pricey (both)
Not the best option for very large rooms (R5t)

THE VERDICT
Perlisten Audio's R5t towers and D15s subwoofer offer stunning performance and good looks, but in this case the great sound and build quality will cost you.

Even the most veteran A/V enthusiast is unlikely to have heard of Perlisten (short for Perceptual Listening) Audio, but that situation should soon change. Founded by a group of audio industry veterans, the company was formally launched in 2021. For a new speaker outfit, the number of Perlisten models is astonishingly long and encompasses towers, standmounts, center and surround speakers, in-walls, and subwoofers, all of them engineered in the U.S. and manufactured in China.

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SmartStream
Netflix May Soon Charge for Sharing Passwords
Barb Gonzalez  |  May 11, 2022
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Bluesound Previews Streaming Hub for Legacy Devices
Bob Ankosko  |  May 10, 2022
Bluesound, the sister company of Canada’s NAD and PSB specializing in wireless streaming gear, has announced an accessory hub that turns any wired analog or digital audio source into an app-controllable multiroom streaming player.
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Signals
Roman Chariots, Space Shuttles, Fire Hydrants, and Lightning
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 09, 2022
Personally, I do not believe the oft-told story that the width of the solid rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle were based on the standard width of two Roman war horses. But, the story does remind us of the importance of standards, and how they affect our lives in ways that are great and small.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Chris Chiarella  |  May 06, 2022
Picture
Sound
Extras
Nostalgia--that "twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone" as Don Draper famously explained it--can be a potent ally to the modern filmmaker. With its risky and highly publicized meta-twist (which I won't spoil here, just in case), Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to complete director Jon Watts' arachno-trilogy on an epic scale, capping not only this story arc but one far grander, much as Avengers: Endgame did for the whole of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Spatial Audio File
Hey! Ho! Let’s Spatial Audio!
Mike Mettler  |  May 06, 2022
Can it really be 20 full years since singer/songwriter/piano ingenue Norah Jones burst on the scene with her stunning, multiple-Grammy Award-winning February 2002 debut album, Come Away With Me? This breakthrough album is currently being properly feted with a 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition that contains bonus tracks galore, but the immediate impact of its lead-track sensation “Don’t Know Why” is what sealed Jones as the real deal in the first place—and it mesmerizes the ears (and soul) even more fully in its Dolby Atmos incarnation.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
New Gear Roundup: Spring 2022
Bob Ankosko  |  May 05, 2022
We round up the latest gear from the bustling world of home and mobile entertainment.
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Projector Reviews
LG HU710PW 4K Laser DLP Projector Review
Al Griffin  |  May 04, 2022

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $2,499

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Impressive contrast
Flexible zoom and lens shift range
Built-in streaming platform with HDMI eARC
Minus
Limited brightness necessitates dark room viewing
Smart interface not for everyone

THE VERDICT
LG’s 4K laser DLP projector delivers impressive picture quality and value, but its limited brightness requires a dark room for best performance.

LG has been at the vanguard in manufacturing "smart" projectors—models that, like more traditional offerings, sit at the back of the room and beam images to a separate screen, but also provide the streaming and voice control features you'd find in any smart OLED or LCD flat-panel TV. In 2021 we reviewed the company's HU810PW ($2,999), a single-chip (0.47-inch) DLP projector that delivered 4K images via pixel-shifting. Now, we have that model's sibling, the HU710PW, a similarly featured projector that arrives with a lower 2,000 ANSI lumens brightness spec, but also a lower price ($2,499 MSRP).

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Audio Video News
An Evening With Satchmo at the KEF Music Lounge
Howard Kneller  |  May 04, 2022
KEF’s April 30, 2022 “An Evening with Satchmo” event, featuring special guest Grammy winner Ricky Ricciardi, Director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archives, marked the first time that I wore a suit since the pandemic’s start. Although the manufacturer events that I’ve recently attended have each raised the bar on luxury, this one promised to significantly up the ante. It featured not only a semi-formal dress code, but high-end food and spirits and Louis Armstrong music and video clips in an elegant setting—KEF’s Marlboro, New Jersey Music Lounge, which the company describes as an “idea, training, and experience center” that’s physically attached to its U.S. corporate headquarters.
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Stream On
Can Tidal Stem the Tide of Its Hi-Res Challengers?
Mike Mettler  |  May 03, 2022
Streaming giant Tidal continues upping its sound quality game. But can the company stem the tide of its many hi-res challengers? Mike Mettler takes the streaming service for a spin to find out.
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