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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
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David Vaughn  |  May 11, 2018
Picture
Sound
Extras
In the late 1980s in the town of Derry, Maine, a young boy goes out to test a paper boat during a torrential rainstorm. Braving the elements, he places the boat in the gutter and runs alongside to watch its progress. Unfortunately, he’s too slow and watches it descend into the storm drain. He bends down to see if it’s lost forever and is surprised to see a clown staring back at him. Startled, he quickly jumps back.
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The Connected Life
Working with a Custom Installer: Fundamentals Never Change
John Sciacca  |  May 11, 2018
As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, prior to becoming a custom installer I was a golf professional at a club in California’s Bay Area. I bring this up because we recently started receiving Golf magazine in the mail. (Bizarrely we’re also suddenly getting The New Yorker and Money, none of which we subscribed to.) As I flipped through a recent issue of Golf, I was reminded of really how little has changed in the golf world since I left.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Focal Expands Flagship Utopia Speaker Lineup
SV Staff  |  May 11, 2018
Focal, the French maker of high-end speakers, is expanding the flagship Utopia III speaker line it introduced a decade ago with two new three-way models and updates to the Grande Utopia EM Evo and Stella Utopia EM Evo models.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Polk Taps Google Assistant for First Smart Speaker
SV Staff  |  May 11, 2018
Polk Audio has entered the smart speaker race with a compact Google-powered speaker that supports voice control and wireless audio streaming.
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Audio Video News
You’re Invited to Visit a Control4 Certified Showroom
SV Staff  |  May 10, 2018
Mark your calendar: Control4, a leading provider of smart home solutions, wants you to experience the marvels of smart home technology in one of the 140 Control4 Certified Showrooms it recently opened in the U.S., Canada, U.K., China, and Australia.
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Subwoofer Reviews
Monoprice Monolith 12" and 15" THX Ultra Subwoofers Review
David Vaughn  |  May 10, 2018

Monolith 15"
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

Monolith 12"
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $800, $1,300

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Clean, copious, and articulate bass
Outstanding build quality
Five-year replacement warranty
Minus
No parametric equalizer
No app control
Extremely heavy

THE VERDICT
Entry into the crowded internet-direct subwoofer market is a bold move from Monoprice, but the performance of these subs will surely make some waves and breed some fierce competition.

Reproducing a movie soundtrack in a home environment isn’t an easy task. At your local cinema, the theater will hopefully have sound dampening so you don’t hear outside noise. And if you’re lucky, the system will be calibrated properly and provide enough headroom so there’s no clipping or distortion during the dynamic portions of the soundtrack.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Dali Ships BluOS-Enabled Wireless Speaker
SV Staff  |  May 10, 2018
Danish speaker maker Dali today announced the availability of its Callisto wireless speaker system, the latest product to embrace the proprietary BluOS wireless streaming platform developed by Canada’s Lenbrook, parent company of the iconic audio brands NAD and PSB Speakers and Bluesound.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Sonus faber Announces Sonetto Collection
SV Staff  |  May 10, 2018
Italian speaker maker Sonus faber today announced the Sonetto collection, an eight-model speaker series slated to hit U.S. stores in late August.
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SmartStream
Hands On: YouTube Red Premium Service
Barb Gonzalez  |  May 09, 2018
YouTube’s premium YouTube Red service offers some good original programming, removes the ads from YouTube videos, and provides enhanced features for music playback, but is it worth 10 bucks a month?
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Headphone Reviews
Klipsch Heritage HP-3 Headphones
Steve Guttenberg  |  May 09, 2018
Performance
Features
Comfort
Value
PRICE $1,199

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Solid machined wood earcups
Rich sound balance
Bio Dynamic drivers
Minus
So-so comfort over long sessions

THE VERDICT
At last, with the Heritage HP-3 there’s finally a Klipsch headphone founder Paul W. Klipsch would be proud of.

The Heritage HP-3 is a clean break from all of Klipsch’s previous full-sized headphones. Although Klipsch’s previous headphones were decent, I never felt they put the same passion into their headphones as their speakers. Maybe that’s why the HP-3 feels like a new beginning. Klipsch is finally going up against the big boys in the high-end audio headphone biz.

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