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Audio Video News
CEDIA Announces Home Tech Pro Award Finalists
SV Staff  |  Jun 10, 2019
CEDIA, the trade association for the $19 billion home technology industry, today released the list of finalists for the 2019 CEDIA Home Technology Professional Awards competition, which recognizes the best custom-installation projects completed by member companies over the past year.
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Audio Video News
China’s TCL Tops Samsung in North American TV Sales
SV Staff  |  Jun 10, 2019
The ongoing trade war with China has yet to impinge on sales of TVs from TCL, which has been pushing hard to live up to its tag line: “America’s fastest growing TV brand.”
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Audience Unveils 8-Outlet AC Power Conditioner
SV Staff  |  Jun 10, 2019
Audience, the San Marcos, CA-based maker of high-end power products, has introduced an eight-outlet power conditioner that offers a “very high quality AC platform at an extremely affordable price.”
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Music Reviews
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: The Best of Everything - The Definitive Career Spanning Hits Collection: 1976-2016
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 07, 2019
Performance
Sound
When Tom Petty unexpectedly passed away in October 2017 following a triumphant 40th anniversary tour with The Heartbreakers that had wrapped up barely a week earlier in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, the outpouring of grief on an international scale was beyond palpable. Petty's loss at age 66 was a gut-punch, to be sure, especially considering the successive sonic triple threat of 2010's Mojo, 2014's Hypnotic Eye, and 2016's Mudcrutch 2.
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Audio Video News
Survey: Mobile Time Outpacing TV Time for U.S. Adults
SV Staff  |  Jun 07, 2019
For the first time ever, U.S. adults will spend more time in 2019 using smartphones and other mobile devices than they will spend watching TV, according to new research from eMarketer.
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SmartStream
R.I.P. iTunes: Apple Announces New Music, TV and Podcast Apps
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jun 06, 2019
Apple’s iTunes will soon be a thing of the past. At its Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC 2019), Apple announced that iTunes will be put to rest.  Instead of the one-stop streaming media app for 18 years since it first launched alongside the iPod, each type of media will now stream separately to its own app.
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Audio Video News
Best Home Theater Speakers of 2019 (So Far)
SV Staff  |  Jun 06, 2019
As we approach the midpoint of 2019, we’ve given our Top Pick blessings to a half dozen outstanding home theater speaker systems — from a value-busting 5.1 system from Klipsch that can be had for less than a grand to an audiophile-approved Dolby Atmos rig from KEF that costs 10 times as much. Two of the six systems netted our Top Value Pick designation for delivering excellent performance for the price.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Cambridge Audio Unveils Affordable Hi-Fi Separates
SV Staff  |  Jun 06, 2019
U.K-based Cambridge Audio has unveiled a series of affordable hi-fi separates that balances performance and price.
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Signals
Does Anyone Care About Privacy Anymore?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 06, 2019
Apple has a long history of creating compelling advertising like the legendary “1984” commercial that contrasted its maverick standing with the conformity of its competitors. In January Apple rented a billboard to deliver a message to attendees of the annual CES trade show: “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”
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Tower Speaker Reviews
JBL Stage A170 Loudspeaker Review
Michael Trei  |  Jun 05, 2019

Performance
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $500/pair

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Clear and dynamic sound
Bargain price
Minus
Plain-Jane appearance
Limited finish options

THE VERDICT
The A170 is a refined, capable speaker that draws the best from recordings, and punches way above its bargain price.

It's funny how old impressions die hard. Remember the loudspeaker wars of the 1960s and 1970s? I certainly do. Back then, people would describe speakers as having either an East Coast or a West Coast sound, with the buttoned-down and refined east represented by brands like Acoustic Research, Bozak, and Dynaco, and the more raucous, wild west dominated by Altec Lansing and JBL.

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