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Audio Video News
Japan’s NHK Forges Ahead with 8K Broadcasts at Olympics
SV Staff  |  Aug 05, 2016
As sales of 4K Ultra HD (UHD) TVs begin to take off and 4K content slowly becomes available, Japan’s NHK is forging ahead with 8K TV, which delivers four times more pixels than UHD or 16 times that of standard HD.
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Audio Video News
Americans Vote for Home Entertainment with Their Wallets
SV Staff  |  Aug 05, 2016  |  First Published: Aug 04, 2016
Consumer spending on home entertainment products was strong during the second quarter of 2016, rising 6 percent over the same period last year, according to preliminary numbers released by the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG).
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Headphone Reviews
Grado RS1e Headphone Review
Steve Guttenberg  |  Aug 04, 2016

Performance
Build Quality
Comfort
Value
PRICE $695

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Hand-crafted in Brooklyn!
Lightweight design
Incredibly open soundstage
Minus
Cable isn’t user-replaceable

THE VERDICT
The Grado RS1e is lightweight and has a big-as-all-outdoors soundstage and clarity that are unbeatable in its price class.

Grado Labs is located in a nondescript four-story building in the Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, where Joe Grado started manufacturing phono cartridges in the early 1950s. John Grado (Joe’s nephew) took over day-to-day operations in 1978, and in 1989 Grado Labs jumped into the headphone market. John and Joe hand-built all of the company’s first-generation headphones—the HP-1, HP-2, and HP-3—and those ’phones now fetch anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500 on eBay! Grado Labs is still a family-owned business, and John’s son Jonathan came aboard in 2014.

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Ask S&V
Should I Get a Projector or 85" TV for My Man Cave?
Al Griffin  |  Aug 04, 2016
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I am looking to replace the 65-inch Panasonic plasma TV in my man cave/theater room with a larger, high dynamic range-compatible Ultra HD model that would be used for watching sports and movies. I was considering a Samsung 85-inch LCD, but am also looking into a projector like the JVC DLA-X550R, a Sound & Vision top pick. When all is said and done, I believe that the cost would be the same: roughly $8-10,000. My room is 30 feet long by 20 feet wide, so I have plenty of wall space for the new screen. What display should I buy? —Chris Amaral

A Since your room is a man cave, I’d say get a projector. To me, man cave implies an utter absence of aesthetic or lifestyle considerations that might interfere with the quest to get the biggest, best picture possible. It also means stuff like dartboards and mirrors embossed with the Jack Daniel’s logo, but that’s not our concern here.

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Throwback Thursday
’70s Flashback: Forgotten Brands A-Z, Part 3
SV Staff  |  Aug 04, 2016
Enjoy this multi-part collage recalling long-forgotten audio brands, represented here by iconic advertising of the day.
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Audio Video News
Watch Out Samsung: Hisense Is Coming to Get You
SV Staff  |  Aug 04, 2016
Hisense USA, a division of China-based Hisense Company, Ltd, the number three TV manufacturer globally according to 2015 IHS data, has restated its aggressive plan to become a top-three TV maker in the U.S. in the next five years.
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Audio Video News
Gaining Momentum, MQA Hires Label Exec as CEO
SV Staff  |  Aug 04, 2016
In yet another sign of its momentum, music technology company MQA has hired Warner Music executive Mike Jbara to lead the company as CEO and sit on the Board of MQA Ltd.
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The S&V Interview
Mapping Out the Perfect Sonic Blueprint With Stephen Bishop
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 03, 2016
It’s one of the Top 3 moments of smashed guitars in music history, right behind Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop and Pete Townshend at Woodstock. But this one happened in a movie — namely, in the 1978 comedy classic, National Lampoon’s Animal House. That man on the stairs whose guitar was so violently gutted by Bluto (John Belushi) was in fact noted singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop (“On and On,” “It Might Be You,” “Separate Lives”). I called Bishop, 64, at his homestead in Los Angeles to discuss the literal sonic blueprint for his eclectic new album Blueprint, the give and take of writing with Eric Clapton, and confirming some heretofore unrevealed tech specs about that infamous Animal House guitar.
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4K TV ReviewsTV ReviewsLCD TV Reviews
Sony XBR-65X930D LCD Ultra HDTV Review
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 03, 2016

2D Performance
3D Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $3,000

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Impressive edge-lit local dimming
Respectable off-axis viewing
Bright, punchy HDR
Minus
Often redundant menus
Tight remote control layout

THE VERDICT
Full-array local dimming remains the gold standard for LCD Ultra HDTVs, but Sony has now upped the ante with the best edge-lit set we’ve seen.

The last time I reviewed one of Sony’s 4K sets, it had large speaker enclosures attached permanently to the sides of the screen, with a separate “subwoofer” firing out the back. This made for an inconveniently wide design, and with the introduction of Sony’s new 2016 models, those audio “wings” are now history.

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SmartStream
Hands On: Xbox One S Brings 4K, HDR into the Fold
Barb Gonzalez  |  Aug 03, 2016
The Xbox One S was just released with 4K and high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities. Here are some first impressions.
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