LATEST ADDITIONS

Wide Angle
The Sweet Sound of 78s
Al Griffin  |  Jun 11, 2018
For me, a thrill that comes with the arrival of spring and summer months is jumping in my car and traveling in pursuit of music. Two months back, I saluted the warm weather, loaded up my Impreza, and drove a few hundred miles south to Takoma Park, Maryland to attend The Thousand Incarnations of the Rose, A Festival of American Primitive Guitar.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
New Salamander Cabinets Made for UST Projectors
SV Staff  |  Jun 11, 2018
Salamander Designs, the Connecticut-based maker of quality AV furniture, is addressing the growing interest in ultra-short-throw (UST) projectors with a line of cabinets custom-built for video projection systems designed to sit mere inches from the wall.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Sonos-Certified AV Receivers Now Available from Onkyo, Pioneer, and Integra
SV Staff  |  Jun 08, 2018
Onkyo USA has announced that the “Works with Sonos” firmware update for more than two dozen AV receivers from Onkyo, Pioneer, and Integra is now available.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Amazon 4K Streamer Trades Remote for Voice Control
SV Staff  |  Jun 08, 2018
Amazon has expanded its popular Fire TV family of streaming media players with a new 4K/HDR-ready model featuring Alexa voice control.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Jun 08, 2018
Picture
Sound
Extras
The 2014 wuxia film Brotherhood of Blades established the story of three members of an elite palace guard unit during the Ming Dynasty who must abandon their brotherhood and apprehend one of their own after he goes rogue, only to find themselves caught up in an even larger conspiracy. The Infernal Battlefield continues the story of these best-of-the-best guardsmen. It brings back much of the cast, but this is a standalone film that doesn’t require viewing the first to be understood.
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Remotely Possible
Sonos Beam Smart TV Speaker Puts Alexa in Your Living Room
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jun 08, 2018
It may be hard to believe, but it's been under four years since the Amazon Echo was first introduced in late 2014. Since then, the number of companies offering or developing so-called "smart speakers" has mushroomed to the point where smart speakers have become yawningly commonplace. The recently introduced Sonos Beam, though, takes the concept of a smart speaker to an entirely new level—and into a previously neglected room. When Beam begins shipping on July 17 of this year, it will include Amazon Alexa as a built-in voice-control service; and, Sonos says, Beam will have...
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Audio Video News
Essential Phone Gets MQA Streaming
SV Staff  |  Jun 08, 2018
MQA has announced that Essential Products, the Palo Alto, CA-based company started by Android co-founder Andy Rubin in 2015, has equipped its Essential Phone with MQA decoding and streaming capability.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Zvox Unveils Next Generation AccuVoice TV Speaker
SV Staff  |  Jun 07, 2018
Zvox has announced the next generation of its innovative AccuVoice TV Speaker.
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Audio Video News
Vanco Updates HDMI-Over-IP System
SV Staff  |  Jun 07, 2018
Vanco International, a specialist in AV distribution and electronic accessories, has announced updates and enhanced features for its EVO-IP HDMI-over-IP system custom installers use to manage, transmit, and receive audio/video signals and control hundreds of devices over a local network.
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Blu-ray Player Reviews
Cambridge Audio CXUHD Ultra HD Blu-ray Player Review
Al Griffin  |  Jun 06, 2018

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $700

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Dolby Vision compatible
High-quality Blu-ray video upconversion
Plays SACDs, DVD-Audio discs, and Blu-ray 3D discs
Minus
No analog audio outputs
Remote control not backlit
Pricey compared with competition

THE VERDICT
Cambridge Audio’s CXUHD provides faultless video performance in a streamlined package.

Cambridge Audio is a British manufacturer known for their sleek, well-built, affordable audio components and speakers. They are also known for their universal disc players, which are based on Oppo Digital units but sold minus the built-in digital-to-analog converters and analog audio outputs. According to Cambridge, this is meant to “decrease interference to the signal, improving quality by reducing video noise.” Since the brand makes A/V receivers with built-in DACs designed to mate with their players, there’s some sound reasoning behind that strategy.

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