Bowers & Wilkins is stepping up its decade-long partnership with McLaren, becoming the official audio partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team. This expanded collaboration, initially established in 2015, previously focused solely on audio systems within McLaren's high-performance automotive division.
Q Acoustics has introduced the Q SUB series, a new trio of active subwoofers designed for home theater and stereo systems. Available in three sizes—the compact 8-inch Q SUB80, the mid-sized 10-inch Q SUB100, and the larger 12-inch Q SUB120—the subs aim for flexible integration through built-in Digital Signal Processing (DSP).
TCL has announced its latest television series, the QM7K Precise Dimming Series, featuring the company’s latest QD-Mini LED technology. Following the introduction of its QM6K at CES earlier this year, TCL’s QM7K is designed to improve upon its predecessor with an emphasis on high brightness and precision dimming.
Up until the last hundred years or so, music—and the musicians who performed it—were nearly always both heard and seen. Perhaps it was a local (or traveling) minstrel attracting a curious crowd in the town square, or it might have been the upper crust gathered in a concert hall. In either case, the music was heard, and the musicians were seen. The experience was always savored; music at the time was rarely an everyday event.
Rotel’s latest foray into the world of personal audio, the DX-3, is a compact but ambitious piece of kit. Designed in Tokyo and measuring just 8.5" x 3" x 9.75", this integrated headphone amplifier, pre-amplifier, and DAC contradicts the notion that high-end audio has to come in a bulky package.
It turns out that if you mix a little history with high-performance audio (and sprinkle on a dash of irreverence) you get the 2025 Klipsch Pilgrimage. Happening on March 7 and 8 in Hope, AR (the town that gave birth to Klipsch), this two-day extravaganza is a full-throttle celebration of Paul W. Klipsch’s 121st birthday.
Beyond his unique and powerful visual sense, honed largely on an eclectic mix of music videos, director David Fincher also has a knack for choosing compelling scripts, resulting in several of the boldest, most original and memorable movies of the past three decades. He certainly hasn’t been rushing to make them all available on 4K disc, but two more titles from his catalog have recently dropped, which was apparently reason enough to revisit a third (which remains one of his best).
Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her. Set in 1830s Germany, the plot begins with estate agent Thomas Hutter who, at the bequest of his boss, travels to Transylvania to meet with Count Orlok, a prospective client looking to purchase a rundown estate in their province.
Miloš Forman’s Amadeus is a cinematic masterpiece that transcends the boundaries of traditional biopics, a complex dive into the intersection of genius, envy, and human creativity. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture (Saul Zaentz), Best Director (Miloš Forman), and Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), the film weaves a brilliant story with superb performances and excellent visual artistry. Based on Peter Shaffer’s stage play of the same name, Amadeus reimagines the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the lens of his rival, Antonio Salieri, creating a narrative that is as much about the torment of mediocrity as it is about the brilliance of genius.
As Black History Month comes to a close, we wanted to put our final BHM aural spotlight on the always dynamic Tampa rapper Doechii. Not only did she perform a mightily charged set in New Orleans the night before Super Bowl LIX just 19 days ago, but on February 2, 2025, Doechii also won the Grammy for Best Rap Album for her powerful 2024 mixtape release, Alligator Bites Never Heal. Even better, all of Bites is available in Dolby Atmos. Read Mike Mettler’s review of a pair Alligator tracks — the self-analytical “Denial Is a River” and the knowingly defiant “Boiled Peanuts” — to find out just how Doechii has taken a serious bite out of the 360-degree apple. . .