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.
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…
It’s been some time since Definitive Technology rolled out a new line of subwoofers, but the new Descend Series lineup the company announced today looks worth the wait. The Descend family consists of 15-, 12, 10-, and 8-inch sealed models, each featuring a “3XR” driver array that couples an active driver with a pair of passive radiators.
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.
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.
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.
Massachusetts-based Andover Audio has announced a companion subwoofer for its innovative SpinBase turntable system, winner of a Sound & Vision Top Pick in 2020.
Vizio has announced details, pricing, and availability for the 32 models that comprise its 2022 TV lineup. You read that right — 2022. Pandemic-driven setbacks pushed the release of its 2020 TVs to late in the year so those models were carried over into 2021. About a third of the new models are currently available, with the remainder slated to ship in July or August. All but eight of the models are 4K.
With the Great Pandemic largely behind us, the masks are disappearing as life slowly returns to normal and the electronics industry is, as always, ready to greet us with an ever-expanding roster of new gear, even though it is still dealing with lingering chip shortages and supply-chain disruptions. The past few weeks have brought to light a unique “triphonic’ speaker designed by a former Apple designer, a tiny projector that makes it easy to take movies and gaming out to the patio, and a couple of really cool turntables that commemorate the album that redefined popular music 54 years ago.