LATEST ADDITIONS

Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jun 05, 2016
The era of VR is here, finally, with the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are leading the charge. I’ve tried several generations the Oculus Rift and while it’s amazing, the Vive goes one step further. Literally.

Using laser tracking, the Vive lets you actually move around a virtual space.

I got my hands (and head) on one. Here’s the first part of a multi-part review series.

Rob Sabin  |  Jun 03, 2016
Prior to a decade ago, having distributed music around your house usually meant calling a custom installer to put in hundreds of feet of cable, multiple pairs of in-ceiling or in-wall speakers, and racks of amplifiers. You’d get keypads on your walls that could control, just barely, your distant sources via IR. There was no metadata feedback to select a particular song; you might have been able to advance to the next track on your CD player or dial up a different preset station on your FM tuner, but not much more. The cost for this was, well, prohibitive. Multiroom audio, for a long time, was strictly a rich man’s game.
Al Griffin  |  Jun 03, 2016
When you hear the term wireless speakers, chances are you think of Sonos. There’s good reason for that. Sonos staked out the wireless speaker category early on, establishing a solid product line known for reliable performance, engaging sound, and a user-friendly app that controls speakers in multiple rooms around the home. It also didn’t hurt that Sonos had the marketing budget in recent years for Super Bowl commercials—not exactly something that audio manufacturers are known for doing.
SV Staff  |  Jun 03, 2016
Integra has announced that its new DRX series of “advanced” 7.2 channel receivers is now shipping.
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 03, 2016
The audiocassette killed the LP. The Compact Disc killed the audiocassette. Downloads have all but killed the CD. And it looks increasingly as if streaming is killing downloads. Yet vinyl resurges, confounding the wing of audio punditry that has long asserted its flaws ought to make it stay dead. Me, I love good analog as much as I love good digital, and I also love the tactile experience of handling LPs. Once in a while I pick one off the shelf and marvel at what a beautiful artifact it is. Following are some of my favorite LP artifacts, with emphasis on unusual design and manufacturing gimmicks that make them especially pleasing as physical art objects.

SV Staff  |  Jun 02, 2016
Awareness of and interest in 4K/Ultra HD TV is growing among the general public, according to a new report from the NPD Group
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 02, 2016
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In June 1957, Soviet spy Rudolf Abel is captured in New York City. Insurance attorney James B. Donovan is appointed to handle the defense, based on his experience at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Reluctant to take the case at first, Donovan ultimately accepts, passionate in his belief that everyone deserves a fair trial.
Anthony Chiarella  |  Jun 02, 2016
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Richie Lanz (Bill Murray) is a rock ’n’ roll casualty, a down-and-out band promoter who leaps at the chance to join a USO tour to Afghanistan. Before the first show, however, Richie’s client, assistant, and possible paramour Ronnie Smiler (Zooey Deschanel) flees the country, leaving him broke, stranded, and $1,000 in debt to a trigger-happy mercenary (Bruce Willis). To the rescue come two hapless arms dealers who hire Richie to deliver munitions to a remote village.
SV Staff  |  Jun 02, 2016
Napster, the notorious Internet-based peer-to-peer file sharing service made its debut 17 years ago this week, forever changing the way we discover and share music and (ultimately) forcing the record industry to face the music: The Internet wasn’t going away and (with the help of Apple) would radically transform music distribution.
SV Staff  |  Jun 02, 2016
Meridian Audio will stage the first public demonstration of a high-performance digital-to-analog converter at The Home Entertainment Show (T.H.E.) in Newport Beach, CA, which opens tomorrow and runs through Sunday, June 5.

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