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AV Receiver Reviews
Yamaha RX-A730 Network AV Receiver
David Vaughn  |  Nov 08, 2013

Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $700

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Audiophile sound quality
Outstanding build quality
Successful YPAO room correction
Minus
Pedestrian power output
Suboptimal video processing
Crowded, hard-to-use remote

THE VERDICT
A $700 receiver that puts the audio first.

The AVR is the Grand Central Station of our home entertainment systems. Everything runs into one box from our source components and then out to our speakers and displays for audio and video. In the process, we hope the video signal moves through the AVR without being harmed and that the amplifiers in the receiver mate well with our speakers, providing them plenty of juice without any distortion or clipping.

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Reference Tracks
Dream Theater Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 08, 2013
Performance
Sound
Could there be a better-named band to push the boundaries of creating original music for surround playback than Dream Theater? The ever-adventurous post-prog-metal collective previously experimented with 5.1 via Paul Northfield’s valiant multichannel spin on 2007’s frenzied Systematic Chaos, but Richard Chycki’s all-in full-bore mix of the band’s new, sprawling self-titled epic is in another stratosphere of total envelopment.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
White Heat
Fred Kaplan  |  Nov 08, 2013
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
White Heat is one of the greatest gangster movies ever made. It’s a true film noir, a Freudian character study, and a pioneering police procedural, with slick suspense, a dry wit, and a deep-cutting (but not bloody) cruelty that’s still jarring today. The script is by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, who later wrote a few seasons of the Charlie’s Angels TV show, which at its best pulled off a warmed-over, softly satirical simulacrum of those traits.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Jack Reacher
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 08, 2013
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
You take on some baggage when your movie stars Tom Cruise. He’s been a box office titan for decades, so you’re improving your chances of a hit. On the other hand, ever since the couch-jumping incident, he tends to bring a certain off-screen persona that rubs a lot of folks the wrong way. Plus, a leading man of his magnitude tends to be Tom first, character second.
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Remotely Possible
Oh, My Aching Bluetooth!
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Nov 08, 2013
Several months ago, Win Jeanfreau, the Founder/Director of Aperion Audio, asked if I would take a listen to the company’s Allaire ARIS Wireless Speaker System. Technically, the Allaire ARIS isn’t a new wireless speaker system from Aperion. It’s been available for a little over a year. In fact, we ran a very favorable review of the ARIS in October of 2012. So what gives? This is an industry that thrives on the newest, the latest, and anything that can lay claim to being enhanced, upgraded, or otherwise improved.
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SmartStream
Stream Video in a Hotel With D-Link’s Shareport Go Portable Router
Barb Gonzalez  |  Nov 07, 2013
Don't believe it when you read that you can't stream video to a Chromecast or other media player from a hotel's Wi-Fi. Find out how to use D-Link's Shareport Go to stream when on the road.
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A/V Veteran
Gaming with Ender
Thomas J. Norton  |  Nov 07, 2013
A week ago this past Monday I was fortunate to be one of Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer TCL’s guests at the premier of Ender’s Game at the TCL Chinese IMAX Theater in Hollywood. (The theater is still best known as Grauman’s Chinese; see my earlier blog here about TCL’s purchasing and remodeling this classic movie palace into an IMAX theater with stadium seating).
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Ask S&V
DAC Connections: Asynchronous USB Input vs. Ethernet
Al Griffin  |  Nov 07, 2013
Q Can you explain what it is about an asynchronous USB DAC input on a receiver that would enable it to sound superior to an Ethernet connection streaming the same file over a home network? —Chris Hebner / Delano, MN

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Audio Video News
End of an Era as Blockbuster Shuts Down Remaining Stores
SV Staff  |  Nov 07, 2013
Blockbuster, the name that became synonymous with video rental and represented an empire of 9,000 stores at its peak, announced plans to close the remaining 300 company-owned stores in the U.S. by early January.
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Audio Video News
Hanging at Sonos Studio in Los Angeles
Kim Wilson  |  Nov 06, 2013
You are no doubt familiar with the Sonos Wireless Home Audio system, as we’ve written up many reviews of their products in the magazine. What you might not know is that they have a facility in Los Angeles called the Sonos Studio, which opened in June 2012.
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