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Audio Video News
Audio Advice Launches Interactive Home Theater Design Tool
Al Griffin  |  Aug 31, 2020
A/V retailer and e-commerce site Audio Advice has introduced Home Theater Designer, an interactive 3D design tool that lets consumers model a virtual home theater system. Users simply enter their room’s dimensions, and the tool helps them to create a three-dimensional visualization of an optimized A/V space complete with speakers, TV or projector, and seating. The Home Theater Designer is available for free on the Audio Advice website.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Metallica & San Francisco Symphony: S&M2
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 28, 2020
Picture
Sound
Extras
Composer Michael Kamen had a vision. Back in April 1999, he convinced Bay Area metal overlords Metallica to team up with the San Francisco Symphony in Berkeley, California, for S&M, a 2.2-hour concert wherein classical music met aggro-rock head-on. Not only that, but Kamen's skilled orchestral re-arrangements of 20 Metallica classics also revealed how many of the band's subversive originals were perhaps more progressively inclined than others may have previously thought.
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Audio Video News
Best Gear of Summer 2020
Bob Ankosko  |  Aug 27, 2020
We spotlight 13 products that made Sound & Vision’s Top Pick list over the past three months, starting with affordable noise-canceling earbuds from an unexpected source and ending with a super-refined speaker system for enthusiasts seeking the very best in music and movie reproduction. In between, you’ll find an eclectic mix of soundbars and speaker systems, affordable 4K TVs, and a home-theater amplifier that delivers an insane amount of power from a surprisingly compact chassis.
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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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