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Audio Video News
Dolby Atmos Movie-Theater-Sound Technology Heading to Home Gear
SV Staff  |  Jun 23, 2014
Onkyo, Integra and Pioneer Announce Atmos-Equipped Products

If you haven’t heard of Dolby Atmos—Hollywood’s attempt at delivering a “powerful new listening experience” that’s more enveloping than the best of today’s Dolby Surround 7.1 theaters—you might want to find an Atmos-equipped theater near you and see (actually hear) what it’s all about now that Atmos is heading home.

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Headphone ReviewsGrace Notes
Beats by Dr. Dre Solo2 Headphones
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jun 23, 2014
On the heels of Apple’s buyout of Beats, it’s unfair to expect Beats to suddenly stop production of anything that isn’t Apple white. The newly designed Beats by Dr. Dre Solo2 headphone actually comes in a rainbow of colors, including, umm, white. This is a revision of the original Solo headphone. While I was unboxing, I wondered, did Beats dial back the pounding bass that plagued the first generation of their headphone lineup?

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Ask S&V
Why Do Most 5.1 Concert Discs Default to 2.0 Stereo?
Al Griffin  |  Jun 23, 2014
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q Most movies on DVD and Blu-ray default to 5.1 surround sound, but most concert videos default to 2.0 stereo, and the viewer has to manually select 5.1 surround when playing the disc. What’s the reason for this? —John Kellam / Tucson, AZ

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Tech2
PixelTrek: An Amusing Little Diversion
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jun 21, 2014
Like Star Trek: The Next Generation? Got a few minutes to spare? PixelTrek is a web-based “game” that lets you explore areas of good old NCC-1701-D, in adorable 8-bit form.

You control Commander Data as he wanders around the Enterprise, exploring strange new rooms, seeking out new closets, and new bathrooms. Bolding going where no pixelized android has gone before.

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Music Reviews
Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust: The Bridge
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 20, 2014
Performance
Sound
“What did you do in the Cold War, Daddy?” It was a question Billy Joel felt his daughter Alexa would ask someday, and at the height of the most decidedly chilly U.S.–Russian relations in the ’80s, Joel didn’t have an acceptable answer. So he packed up all of the gear, crew, and machinations behind his mammoth Bridge Tour and headed to Russia to spearhead the largest-scale tour a Western musician had ever done in the Soviet Union. A Matter of Trust is the four-disc box set that serves as an extended chronicle of the time in July and August 1987 when an animated American piano man opened the eyes and ears of an Eastern Bloc country just beginning to experience the rise of freedom.
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Headphone Reviews
Audeze LCD-XC Headphone
Steve Guttenberg  |  Jun 20, 2014

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $1,799

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Bass to die for!
Rock-solid build quality
Advanced technology drivers
Minus
It’s crazy expensive!
They’re heavy!

THE VERDICT
Every now and then, a headphone comes along that truly advances the state of the art. Audeze LCD-XC is a game changer!

Even now, in the midst of an unprecedented boom market, American-made headphones are pretty rare. There’s Grado and Koss, but Audeze joined the fray just four years ago, when their LCD-2 debuted at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver. I was knocked out by its big and brawny sound; it was easily the most powerful headphone I’d ever heard.

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Remotely Possible
GoldenEar Triton One, Revisited
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jun 20, 2014
My recent review of GoldenEar Technology’s newest speaker, the Triton One, generated a surprising number of entries in the Comments section at the end of the review. Some were short and to the point, such as the one from the reader who declared he or she “will not be renewing my subscription” because the piece was “a waste of a review.” (Okay, if you’ve got a beef with something I wrote, so be it. But don’t tar and feather Rob, Tom, Mark, and the rest of the S&V crew for a piece with my byline. Surely you ought to be able to find a subscription’s worth of value in the stuff they write.) But other comments were more substantive and warranted a more in-depth response than posting a brief reply...
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Headphone Amp/DAC ReviewsDesktop Speaker Reviews
Audioengine 2+ Powered Desktop Speakers
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 20, 2014

Performance
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $249/pair

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Inviting, carefully tailored sonics
USB computer input
Easy setup
Minus
Controls in back
Unprotected drivers

THE VERDICT
Our audio editor’s favorite budget desktop (and TV) speakers have gotten more convenient thanks to the addition of a PC-friendly USB input, making them an even better value.

We may love good sound, but we can’t completely banish bad sound from our lives. We can’t listen to vinyl and high-rez audio all the time. We’ve all got some lousy MP3 files in our music libraries, love streaming services, and endure blaring SUV ads on TV. What’s the best way to make this substandard content palatable? Audioengine has offered compelling answers for years with its powered speakers, the chunky Audioengine 5 and smaller Audioengine 2. Now they’re available in variations that can accept USB input from a computer, including the Audioengine 2+ reviewed here.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
American Hustle
Josef Krebs  |  Jun 19, 2014
Picture
Sound
Extras
Set in 1978, this entertaining film tells the “some of this actually happened” story of a brilliant grifter (Christian Bale) and his co-conspirator lover (Amy Adams), who, on getting busted in a scam sting, are forced to work for an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) in bringing down four fellow crooks. But the crazily ambitious fed ups the ante to entrapping corrupt politicians willing to accept kickbacks to grease the wheels of the sheik’s scheme to rebuild Atlantic City casinos. But this, of course, will mean mafia involvement and taking down a decent New Jersey mayor (Jeremy Renner) who just wants to help his community. And out of all these fast-talking con artists, who’s really zooming whom?
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Audio Video News
Home Automation Is for Everyone
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 19, 2014
Consumer desire for home automation is rising, with 48 percent of those surveyed by the NPD Group “extremely” or “somewhat interested” in buying home automation products. The use of smartphones and tablets to control systems is driving the interest. And it’s not just the wealthy who are interested. A whopping 37 percent of automation-happy homeowners have incomes of less than $75,000.

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