LATEST ADDITIONS

Speakers are front and center in our January 2019 mix of Top Picks — from a full-on audiophile-approved 5.1 speaker system to a Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar system that provides an easy path to immersive surround sound plus two distinctly different takes on the ever-popular wireless speaker. Rounding things out is an impressive (and long overdue) update of the original Sonos Connect:Amp and an AVR that nabbed Top Value Pick status for packing an insane level of performance and features into a $700 piece of gear.

The nomenclature of the key line that appears within the credits of the original October 1968 double-vinyl release of Electric Ladyland tells quite the prescient tale: “Produced And Directed By Jimi Hendrix.” The most crucial word in that phraseology, of course, is Directed, as the ace guitar slinger spent a good bit of his in-studio time in 1968 thinking in purely cinematic terms.

PRICE $4,700 (as tested)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Crisp detail
Big, powerful sound
Minus
Tower unstable on thick carpet
Poorly designed grilles

THE VERDICT
The Premier range is far from the most expensive in Paradigm's speaker lineup, but the performance and build quality that it offers lets it compete with speakers twice the price.

The other day a friend who's neither a videophile nor an audiophile dropped by my home to watch a movie. A pair of loudspeakers I had just finished reviewing for Stereophile, our sister publication, were sitting in a corner, waiting to be packed up. When I told him their price—$6,000/pair—he appeared shocked. Even Paradigm's affordable new 700F speakers, then as now serving as the left/right channels in my system, are pricier than he would like were he to invest in a system of his own (unlikely!).

Sonos has announced that subscribers of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium can now access the YouTube Music streaming service through the Sonos app.