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AV Receiver Reviews
Sherwood R-977 A/V Receiver
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 03, 2013
Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $1,000 At A Glance: Built-in Wi-Fi • Bluetooth with supplied dongle • Rudimentary room EQ

Sherwood can fairly lay claim to a slice of audio history. Born in Chicago in 1953, it was one of the great American brands of home audio’s infancy. Its vintage tube amps still sell on eBay as affordable alternatives to more sought-after brands like McIntosh and Marantz; some folks make a hobby of refurbishing them. Its early solid-state stereo receivers also have a modest following.

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New Products
Bringing the live event to your living room
 |  May 03, 2013

No matter what your taste in music, movies, or sound, the goal of every speaker is always the same: to recreate the ambience and excitement of the original performance. However, recreating every type of musical performance-from a world-famous rock band performing in a sports arena to a folk artist playing in an intimate coffeehouse-is a task very few speakers can accomplish.

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Headphone Reviews
Review: AudioTechnica ATH-AD900X
Brent Butterworth  |  May 03, 2013

When I’m asked to pick my favorite headphones for S&V’s Editor’s Choice awards, it’s always easy. I just make a list of the ones I kept using after the review was done—the ones I listened to even when I didn’t have to. After our test of affordable audiophile headphones last year, the headphone I kept on using afterward was the AudioTechnica ATH-AD900. It’s a big, comfortable, spacious-sounding, tonally neutral open-back headphone. Just the thing for streaming Internet radio for hours while I’m writing, or to use for an all-night-long Netflix binge.

That’s why I was so happy to find a successor to the ATH-AD900 at the January CES show. The ATH-AD900X has the same list price, pretty much the same specs, and similar looks.

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Streaming Device Reviews
Favi SmartStick Media Streamer
Barb Gonzalez  |  May 02, 2013
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Price: $40 (wireless pocket keyboard additional $40) At a Glance: Android operating system • HDMI Stick connects directly to TV • Potentially unlimited content • Best keyboard/mouse remote available for any media player

Favi’s SmartStick is not, as many call it, a Google TV. Instead, it is a dongle (stick) that connects to an HDMI input on your TV and runs the Android operating system. Typically, smartphones and tablets have Android, but this is the first streaming Android dongle for your TV. And herein lies the problem. While most Android apps made for tablets can be downloaded to the SmartStick, they are not designed for a TV streaming device, and they don’t work when you try to use them.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blade Runner: 30th Anniversary Edition
Corey Gunnestad  |  May 02, 2013
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
There’s an old expression: “God is in the details.” This was never truer for a film than Ridley Scott’s visceral dystopian masterpiece Blade Runner. It’s not uncommon for a motion picture to be released in more than one version or cut for the public’s delectation. Many times, a filmmaker’s original vision is compromised in favor of releasing a more commercially marketable product by the studio putting up the money. As a result, director’s cuts, extended cuts, and special editions are much more prevalent now in the digital age and home video market. Few films, however, have seen as many versions or received as much scrutiny as Blade Runner.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
David Vaughn  |  May 02, 2013
Picture
Sound
Extras
Steve Martin stars as Neal Page, an uptight advertising executive who misses his scheduled flight from New York to Chicago when an obnoxious salesman steals his cab. As fate would have it, the cab thief turns out to be a shower curtain ring salesman (John Candy) who just happens to sit next to Neal on his flight home. Due to inclement weather, their plane is diverted to Wichita, and when they land, Neal fails to secure a place to stay for the evening. Lucky for him, his new “friend” has booked the last room in town. Thus begins a relationship made in heaven—or hell, depending on your perspective.
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Bluetooth Speaker Reviews
Review: Outdoor Technology Turtle Shell wireless speaker
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 01, 2013

 

When summer rolls around, we all go mobile. We drink morning coffee out on the patio, surf while sitting by the pool, and might even do an overnighter in a treehouse. Of course, all of those activities are accompanied by music, and we also need to stay connected for incoming calls.

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A/V Veteran
Sony Springs Into 4K
Tom Norton  |  May 01, 2013
Last week Sony put on its best April clothes and entertained the foreign press in Los Angeles. Consumer electronics scribes attended from the U.K, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, and likely others that I (with apologies) can’t recall. Only a few of local CE press were in attendance, including your humble reporter.
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This Week
This Week in Music, April 30, 2013: Powered Up for Iggy and the Stooges
Ken Richardson  |  Apr 30, 2013

Iggy and the Stooges: Ready to Die

New release (Fat Possum; tour dates)
Photo by David Raccuglia

Ready to Die is billed as the 40th-anniversary follow-up to 1973’s Raw Power because it’s the first album since then to be credited specifically to Iggy and the Stooges, with James Williamson returning on guitar.

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This Week
This Week in Movies & TV, April 30, 2013: Demented Dancers & Dreamers
Josef Krebs  |  Apr 30, 2013

Silver Linings Playbook

In Silver Linings Playbook by director David O. Russell (Three Kings, The Fighter, I Heart Huckabees), former high school history teacher Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) gets out of a state institution after spending eight months incarcerated there.

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