Supply disruptions and the ever-lingering effects of the COVID-now-Delta pandemic have made it a challenging year for getting new A/V products to market. Despite the slowdowns, we’ve managed to corral enough gear to keep our reviewers busy even though we would have preferred having more options in some product categories. Our test reports have focused on TV and video projection in recent weeks so we decided to broaden the scope of this roundup to include all TV- and video-related products that have been awarded Top Pick status so far in 2021.
Monitor Audio, the British company that has been building high-quality speakers for almost a half a century, is putting the final touches on the seventh generation of the Silver Series it introduced 22 years ago.
The speaker-meisters at Germany’s Elac are keeping busy these days. Following closely on the heels of the new Uni-Fi Reference series, the Solano series brings the brand’s signature Jet 5 folded-ribbon tweeter to more affordable price levels.
Sony is previewing a new flagship Dolby Atmos-capable soundbar and home theater system that creates an immersive sound field from four compact speakers. Both are due out early fall.
We hope you’re enjoying the dog days of summer along with a return to some semblance of pre-pandemic normal even as the COVID-19 Delta variant threatens a return to mask-wearing protocols. Meanwhile, here at Sound & Vision we continue to pursue the latest audio and video offerings with an eye toward isolating gear that rises above the pack. In July, our efforts were duly rewarded with an impressive soundbar that can be had for less than $200 and a compact subwoofer that plays remarkably low and loud. Our testing also uncovered a reference-quality DAC that doubles as a streaming media player and a new flagship speaker from one of Canada’s top audio brands. Let’s take a closer look.
Ah, summertime… Life has more or less returned to normal and we’re finally getting back to our pre-COVID-19 lives but the effects of the Great Pandemic linger — and I’m not talking about the Delta variant causing worry in some quarters. No, I’m talking about global chip shortages and shipping delays that continue to constrain the availability of a whole host of new electronics products. The upshot: As we head in to the dogs days of summer we’re seeing fewer new product announcements than usual, though there is still plenty to keep tabs on. Let’s take a look…
Germany’s Elac plans to start shipping the recently announced Uni-Fi Reference series of speakers this week. The line builds on the success of its highly rated Uni-Fi 2.0 series.
With a little over six months under our belts — and COVID now thankfully behind us — now is the perfect time to review our Top Picks for the first half of the year. In all, we’ve highlighted more than two dozen products that have made the cut.
LG announced pricing and availability for the LCD-based QNED TVs it previewed at CES 2021 and has started rolling out a firmware update that adds support for Dolby Vision high-dynamic range (HDR) at 4K/120 Hz to a number of its TVs.
Talk about extremes. The summer’s first official batch of Top Picks range from a $60 set of noise-cancelling wireless earbuds from a brand you never heard of to an $18,000 state-of-the-art surround processor from one of Europe’s premiere electronics companies. Both will surprise you.
Italy’s Sonus faber has expanded the entry-level Lumina speaker series it introduced last fall with a new flagship floorstanding model and larger bookshelf speaker.