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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Sonus faber Expands Entry-Level Lumina Series
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 22, 2021
Italy’s Sonus faber has expanded the entry-level Lumina speaker series it introduced last fall with a new flagship floorstanding model and larger bookshelf speaker.
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Signals
The Latest Fad: Elf Ears
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 21, 2021
I am not making this up. Let me repeat: I am not making this up. The latest plastic surgery trend in China is elf ears. I am trying to decide whether or not I should get elf ears.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Godzilla
Al Griffin  |  Jun 18, 2021
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As the first film to launch the MonsterVerse, a "cinematic universe" featuring enduring monster movie icons, this 2014 reboot of the Godzilla franchise set the template for several movies to come, including Kong: Skull Island and the late-pandemic sensation, Godzilla vs. Kong. Here's the deal: After escaping a nuclear weapons assault (cloaked by authorities as a "nuclear test") in the 1950s, Godzilla went deep underground.
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Vintage Gear
The KLH Model Nine Rides Again
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 17, 2021
KLH, the iconic audio brand co-founded by audio visionary Henry Kloss in 1957, is well known for the great sounding two-and three-way acoustic-suspension speakers it designed and built in the 1960s and ’70s. All had simple names — Model Four, Model Five, etc. — and featured unassuming but nicely finished wood-veneer cabinets. What you may not know is that KLH also introduced the first full-range electrostatic speaker — the legendary Model Nine.
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Home Movie Theaters
A Home Theater Dream Come True
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 16, 2021
For Michael Meeker, the road to A/V paradise was long and circuitous but also immensely rewarding as he experimented his way from cobbling together a crude setup almost 30 years ago to building the theater of his dreams—one most of us would die for. In those early days, the "marriage of audio and video" was a concept embraced by enthusiasts and a handful of audio companies as they inched their way toward what we would come to know as "home theater."
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A/V Veteran
The Heat is Off: AC Infinity's Aircom T8 Electronics Fan System
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 15, 2021
Heat is the enemy of electronics, including all of that audio gear crammed into your A/V cabinet. In the early days of electronic entertainment, vacuum tubes (or as our Brit friends call them, valves) were the thing—the only thing. As one of my teachers once explained, the key to vacuum tubes was the little man with a switch inside. But he must have been sweaty, as a tube device could serve well as a space heater.

Back in the day our electronic entertainment consisted of little more than a radio. The family gave no thought to what was inside until one of the tubes failed, prompting a visit to the local drug store with its tube tester and ready supply of replacements.

Then came hi-fi and an interesting thing happened. Because of the heat issue, relegated largely to the output stages of an amplifier, separates were born. The separate preamp driving an amp on a separate chassis was a popular way to go.

The divide, between separates and the integrated amplifier (or perhaps AVR), still exists today in both the 2-channel and home theater worlds. Long forgotten is its genesis, since with solid state electronics heat is no longer an issue.

Or is it?...

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Andover Previews Sub for its SpinBase System
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 14, 2021
Massachusetts-based Andover Audio has announced a companion subwoofer for its innovative SpinBase turntable system, winner of a Sound & Vision Top Pick in 2020.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition (Remastered)
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 11, 2021
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Legend has it that director Zack Snyder was streaming his Dawn of Justice one day and was unhappy with the color, specifically red, a shade relevant to much more than a certain Last Son of Krypton. And so, the studio took the unusual step of remastering the movie from the existing 4K video transfer and rereleasing it, with the new version addressing Snyder's crimson concerns as well as showcasing the de rigueur IMAX scenes in their full and correct 1.43:1 aspect ratio.
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Audio Video News
Best Speakers of 2021 (So Far)
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 10, 2021
Is your sound system as good as it can be or, more to the point, as good as you want it to be? If not, it’s a great time to make tweaks and upgrades you thought about but didn’t quite get to during pandemic lockdown. Here’s the lowdown on the dozen speakers that made our Top Picks list so far this year.
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Editor's Eye
Back to Basics
Al Griffin  |  Jun 10, 2021
Yes, it had to be done. Consider it a form of spring cleaning. The “it” is in this case is a streaming service — HBO Max to be specific — that I decided to drop. My video streaming plate had become over-filled during the pandemic as I spent much of my free time at home, and now that I was vaxxed up and ready to re-engage (as much as possible) with the world, I made the decision to dump at least one service. It’s not that I wanted to lose it — in the final days of my active subscription, I of course happened upon a new original series, Mare of Easttown, that was right up my alley — but something had to give, and it was going to be HBO Max.
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