LATEST ADDITIONS

Ears On
Loving LPs Is Easy, Storing Them Hard
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 01, 2016
When it comes to my music library, sometimes I'm like a little kid. Buy now, think about the consequences later. My apartment was already groaning under the load of LPs, CDs, other media, and gear a year or two back when I suddenly went on an accelerated vinyl-collecting binge. When my workday was over, I'd sit in my armchair with a tablet, making one Ebay buy after another. On weekends I was off to Academy Records on West 18th Street in Manhattan to look for classical treasures (because classical vinyl is still cheap and cheap is what it's all about). Vinyl started overflowing from the shelves to the floor. Those LP-size BD/DVD-A/CD box sets made matters worse. Soon, and not for the first time in my life, I was in the throes of a full-blown LP storage crisis.

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AV Receiver Reviews
Pioneer Elite SC-95 A/V Receiver Review
Daniel Kumin  |  Jun 30, 2016

Audio Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $1,600

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Latest-gen audio and video processing
Fine-performing nine-channel Class D power
Cooler-than-ever free phone/tablet apps
Extensive proprietary auto-setup/EQ
Minus
Uninspired supplied remote
Occasional streaming audio glitches

THE VERDICT
All the good stuff—including Dolby Atmos/DTS:X, 4K/HDR with upscaling, and HD-remote-room ability—in a nicely usable, fine-sounding, fairly priced package.

It has been more than two years since Onkyo bought—or merged with, depending on your financial-accounting philosophy—Pioneer’s home-audio unit, but so far there has been no sign of their brands melding into a single entity. (Piokyo? Onkioneer?) And in all seriousness, we’ve no such expectation. For its part, Pioneer still retains two more or less discrete A/V receiver lines, the more quotidian VSX range and the higher-end SC models. More or less: All of the SCs reside in the brand’s specialist-oriented Elite series, while most of the VSXs remain in the “regular” Pioneer lineup. Yet a few sub-$1,000 VSXs, including two new ones, nestle in among the SCs on the Elite side of the ledger.

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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1972: Atari Is Born
SV Staff  |  Jun 30, 2016
Forty-four years ago this week the iconic video game company Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney.
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Editor's Eye
Are You Ready to Step into Our VR Future?
Rob Sabin  |  Jun 30, 2016
A scene from 1993’s virtual reality thriller Arcade

Working on our July/August print edition we had fun with some categories we don’t normally follow closely. Yours truly got curious enough about so-called pico projectors to call in a few for a test. Watch for our survey, which includes two remarkable projectors that actually slip into your breast pocket, and two “minibeamers” that resemble the big-boy home theater projectors we test year round, just shrunk way, way down.

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Audio Video News
PlayStation VR, Set for October Launch, Promises Next Level of Immersion
SV Staff  |  Jun 30, 2016
Sony says gamers and developers are ready to embrace the highly anticipated PlayStation VR (PS VR) when it becomes goes on sale in the U.S. on October 13 for $399.
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3D Tech
Virtual Reality Is Here
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jun 29, 2016
I’m standing atop the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona. I look up, and Gaudí’s organically ornate spires reach up toward the sky and sun above me. I look down, and the streets radiate out like spokes on a wheel. Suddenly, I want tapas.

Click

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Audio Video News
Amazon Upgrades Alexa Digital Assistant
SV Staff  |  Jun 29, 2016
Amazon has introduced new ways to discover and enable skills for Alexa, the digital assistant that made a name for itself as the voice interface for the popular Echo Bluetooth speaker.
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The Connected Life
Welcoming the 21st Century Baby
John Sciacca  |  Jun 29, 2016
As I write this I’m sitting in a hospital room waiting for my wife, Dana, to be induced sometime around 5:00 this evening. My weekend plans had been to grab some craft beer and watch The Masters in 4K on DirecTV, but this was a late-in-life, bonus baby (I’m 46), and the pregnancy has been fraught with “excitement” as we’ve dealt with high blood pressure and gestational diabetes. If you get nothing else from this column, heed my advice to have kids sooner rather than later.
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Audio Video News
Amazon Gets Aggressive with TV
SV Staff  |  Jun 29, 2016
Are you old enough to remember the days when electronics stores were everywhere? If you’re from the New York area you may recall Crazy Eddie’s “insane” radio and TV ads. If you’re on the West Coast you probably remember the one-time institution, Pacific Stereo. Today, the field is defined by Best Buy, which operates in every state, a handful of savvy regional players like hhgregg, and a smattering of veteran independents.
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Headphone Reviews
Technics EAH-T 700 Headphone Review
Steve Guttenberg  |  Jun 28, 2016
Performance
Build Quality
Comfort
Value
PRICE $1,199

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Two-way design with super tweeter
High sensitivity makes it ideal for use with portable hi-res music players
Handcrafted in Japan
Minus
No padded storage case

THE VERDICT
The Technics EAH-T 700 sounds sweet at home, and its high sensitivity makes it ideal with high-resolution portable players.

Remember Technics? They made turntables, right? Yes, they did, and now they’re making them again. The brand’s history dates back to 1965 when it debuted the Technics 1 monitor speaker. The brand went on to create a wide range of components, including a tube amplifier in 1966, and in 1970 the world’s first direct-drive turntable, the SP-10. Many other products followed, but the Technics name faded from view a few years ago and then roared back to life in 2015 with a couple of stellar speakers and a new line of electronics. This year, Technics showed an all-new SL-1200 Series turntable and these remarkable headphones, the EAH-T700.

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