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Soundbar Reviews
Polk Audio Command Bar Soundbar Review
Rob Sabin  |  Sep 27, 2018

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $300

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Alexa voice control
Flexible connectivity
Good sound quality
Great value
Minus
No multiroom music functions

THE VERDICT
Polk’s feature-packed soundbar offers Alexa voice control and above-average sound quality. For $300, there’s plenty here to like.

A couple of Consumer Electronics Shows ago I was visiting the booth of Sound United, the parent of Polk Audio, when a friendly executive invited me up a narrow staircase to a private meeting room. Once I was sworn to secrecy, a long, thin, black travel case was brought out and laid on the ground, and its buckles were snapped open for the big reveal. I half expected it to house a bazooka of some sort. Instead, what popped out was the prototype of a thin spear of a soundbar that appeared to have an Amazon Echo Dot sunk into its middle. Polk’s team was rightfully excited about their new project. The smart speaker was just beginning its explosive push into people’s homes, and no one had yet combined Amazon’s increasingly popular Alexa voice control technology with a soundbar. It seemed liked a perfect fit for the emerging market. So, in a way, it really was Polk’s new secret weapon.

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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1996: WebTV Aims to Televise the Internet
SV Staff  |  Sep 27, 2018
Twenty-two years ago this month, Silicon Valley startup WebTV made a noble effort to bring the internet to the big screen with the launch of a set-top box that connected any TV to the internet. Noble because the World Wide Web was a wide-open frontier with only 36 million users worldwide. (Today, more than 4 billion people are online.) A good 92% of the American public had yet to even experience the internet let alone think about searching the web on their TV. Oh, and internet access in those days was via a “dial-up” phone connection.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Amazon Expands Echo/Alexa Portfolio by 9 in Pre-Holiday Push
SV Staff  |  Sep 27, 2018
The we-sell-everything-everywhere behemoth otherwise known as Amazon is determined to remain the Big Kahuna in Smart-Speakerville.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
TiVo Bolt OTA: Bring Your Own Antenna
Michael Antonoff  |  Sep 27, 2018
Members of the cord-cutter's club are glad to save $100 or more each month by weaning themselves off cable TV or not signing up at all. Still, some cutters suffer remorse. They miss the convenience of a set-top DVR with its sleek onscreen guides, search facility, ability to amass recordings of their favorite series and navigational shortcuts. Suddenly, they're looking at apps across devices to fill the gaps.
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Bluetooth Speaker Reviews
Kanto SYD Bluetooth Speaker Review
Bob Ankosko  |  Sep 26, 2018

Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $330

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent sound quality
Compact and well-built
Easy to set up and use
Great value
Minus
No Wi-Fi streaming
No visual feedback
No grille cover

THE VERDICT
Kanto’s SYD is a simple, high-performance Bluetooth speaker that will wow you with rich, powerful sound that belies its size.

I could tell SYD was a serious speaker the moment I heard Joni Mitchell singing “A Case of You” from 1971’s Blue. Her angelic voice was mesmerizing in a way I didn’t expect from a speaker this size, not to mention a 47-year-old recording — and I was streaming from my phone.

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The S&V Interview
Tommy Shaw on Mixing Styx’s ‘The Mission’ in 5.1
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 26, 2018
Some long-gestating sonic missions are simply worth the wait. Case in point: Styx’s June 2017 studio concept album The Mission (Alpha Dog 2T/UMe), which recently entered into the 5.1 stratosphere via the 24-bit/96kHz surround sound mix found on the just-released two-disc CD + Blu-ray Edition of the album. As good and enveloping as The Mission sounds in stereo, it sounds even better in its hi-res 5.1 mix — and that’s due in no small part to the creative synergy between the record’s three chief sonic architects: Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, producer/guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich (Shaw-Blades, The Guess Who), and producer/engineer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Wilco, Dixie Chicks). I spoke with Shaw and Evankovich to delve into the making of the surround sound mix of The Mission.
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Audio Video News
Sony A9F OLED Crowned ‘King of TV’ at 2018 Shootout
SV Staff  |  Sep 26, 2018
Sony’s new XBR-65A9F 4K/Ultra HD OLED TV was declared the reigning “King of TV” by a panel of expert judges and video enthusiasts at the 14th Annual TV Shootout hosted by Scarsdale, NY-based AV retailer Value Electronics.
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Signals
Sony's Aspirational Audio Player
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 25, 2018
Rolex, Tiffany, Ferrari. And now, Sony.

Depending on your point of view, Sony is doing something wonderful, or deplorable. Either way, I'm sure the Internet will be outraged.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Klipsch Updates the Klipschorn — the Speaker that Started it All
SV Staff  |  Sep 25, 2018
Klipsch had updated the iconic Klipschorn, the first speaker founder Paul W. Klipsch designed and built in 1946-47 and the “only speaker in the world to be in continuous production (and remain relatively unchanged) for more than 70 years.”
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Projector Buying TipsAudio Video News
Ultra-Short-Throw Projectors and Ambient-Light Rejecting Screens: Perfect Together?
SV Staff  |  Sep 24, 2018
All illustrations courtesy of Elite Screens.

You might think so. But Elite Screens’ Dave Rodgers says not so fast. It wouldn’t be wise to automatically assume that any ambient-light rejecting (ALR) screen is the best choice for ultra-show-throw (UST) projectors like the Hisense Laser TV system Al Griffin reviewed earlier this year or Sony’s extravagant VPL-VZ1000ES.

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