Audio Video News

TCL 6-Series 65R635 Roku LCD Ultra HDTV: $1,000

With its latest LCD TV, TCL embraces the popular Roku platform that puts top streaming services at your fingertips while demonstrating the benefits of using Mini-LEDs to deliver more uniform backlighting at a price most of us can afford — hence, the well-deserved Top Value designation. The 65R635 boasts an impressive 160 zones of local dimming for its 65-inch screen, which translates into a highly satisfying viewing experience whether you’re watching in 4K or plain old high-definition. The set also brings quantum-dot technology into the fold for expanded color performance, supports three flavors of high dynamic range (HDR) — Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG — and offers a low-lag THX Certified Game Mode to meet the challenges of fast-paced gaming. It even offers a unique feature called iPQ Mobile Calibration that uses the camera in an iPhone or Google Pixel phone to capture onscreen images and calibrate the color, though its capabilities are limited.

Putting the set to the test with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and other challenging material on 4K Blu-ray, the video perfectionist in reviewer Tom Norton described what he saw as “eye-catching” with the ability to convey subtle detail and rich, though not overdone, color. He was also impressed with how cleanly the set handled the “wickedly challenging” horses-grazing-in-snow demo segment from the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark test disc and praised the TCL set for its ability to produce impressive looking Dolby Vision HDR images when properly adjusted.

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Effective, 160- zone local-dimming
App-based color calibration
Affordable price
Minus
Image quality reduced at off-center seats
Some green push with HDR content

Full Review Here

KEF KC62 Subwoofer: $1,499

Let’s be honest. Many (most?) subwoofers are big, black cubes that beg to be hidden. England’s KEF and companies like Bluesound, whose Pulse Sub+ is also featured in this post, have separated from the pack and made a conscious effort to lend some style to a speaker category that almost always gets shortchanged in the looks department. And, in the case of KEF’s KC62, the beauty is anything but skin deep, extending to the heart of its elegant and extremely dense extruded-aluminum cabinet where you find a "force-cancelling" (back-to-back) double-woofer that joins two outward-facing drivers in a common magnet structure. KEF calls the clever design Uni-Core and its goal is to coax deep bass from a (roughly) 11-inch cube with the help of “smart” digital processing, current sensing feedback that limits output on the fly to prevent audible distortion, and a Class D amplifier that delivers 500 watts to each driver. Guess what? It works.

Listening tests confirmed the KC62’s ability to deliver solid bass that was smooth and clean down to 25 Hz at levels that were loud, though not earthshaking, making it ideally suited for smaller spaces or listening at more moderate volumes. When hitched with a pair of small monitors, the KEF had no difficulty in "keeping up," wrote audio guru/reviewer Dan Kumin. “Deep bass stayed solid, dynamic, and undistorted, and the next octave displayed zero boom, thud, or unseemly whooshing.” When called to support a larger tower-based speaker system, the sub revealed rich orchestral bass with no hint of buzz or woofiness while playing Prokofiev’s “Dance of the Knights” from Romeo & Juliet at moderately loud levels, before things got really loud and dynamic limiting kicked in, leaving Kumin impressed that a “breadbox-size subwoofer can produce actual 25 Hz-and-lower content at musically useful levels….The KC62 will match the performance of a well-engineered 12-inch sub in every important parameter except peak dynamics and level.”

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Incredible extension from incredibly small design
Highly flexible controls and features
Wireless option
Elegant finish
Minus
Limited peak output
Pricey

Full Review Here

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