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Audio Video News
Prince to Release New Album Only on Tidal
SV Staff  |  Aug 10, 2015
Tidal, the Jay Z-owned Tidal streaming service, announced that Prince will release his latest album exclusively on its platform. The album, HITNRUN, is due out September 7.

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Tech2
The Expanse: The Upcoming Show and the Books
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Aug 07, 2015
The Sci-Fi Channel (or whatever stupid name they’re calling it now. Siffy or something?) hasn’t had a show worth watching since Battlestar ended its run. Yes, I’m including the horribly squandered premise of Stargate Universe.

With intense hope and prayers to the FSM, that might change with The Expanse premiering in December.

Why am I writing about it now? It’s based on a series of books, and you’ll have time to read them (or some of them) before the show starts, if you want.

Here’s some details about the show and the books.

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Audio Video News
UHD Thumbs a Ride
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 07, 2015
Ultra HD content on a thumb drive? Sure, why not? Mance Media is the first company to sell it—and that makes it the first to sell UHD in a hard-copy format. The Website lists more than a dozen movies priced at $24.99 as well as TV shows. For details, visit buy4kuhd.com. UHD will also be available on forthcoming variations of Blu-ray and is already available via streaming and satellite.
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Music Reviews
The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers—Super Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 07, 2015
Performance
Sound
The Rolling Stones are at it again. The world’s greatest band has rolled out the big guns for its 15-date North American stadium run that’s been dubbed the ZIP CODE Tour, a 19-song walk, stomp ’n romp through a half-century of impeccably unimpeachable classics. That taut live set places an emphasis on digging deeper into cuts culled from the perpetually seminal 1971 album Sticky Fingers, which has just been given the Super Deluxe box-set treatment by Polydor/UMe. A club gig at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on May 20 saw The Stones rip that joint up 16 times, including their first stabs at Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Gotta Move” since 1976 and the dreamily soothing “Moonlight Mile” since 1999, both Sticky tracks having since made their way into regular rotation as part of the stadium set lists. (Longtime fans like yours truly feel The Stones should do intimate clubs gig like the Fonda outing more often, as it helps loosen up the vibe of songs that often become broader and less adventuresome in stadium settings.)
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Audio Video News
Man From U.N.C.L.E. Soundtrack Out Today
SV Staff  |  Aug 07, 2015
The soundtrack to The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which opens in theaters Friday, August 14, is now available on CD or for download at iTunes and Amazon.
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Ears On
Half-Atmosed: Is the 7-Channel AVR Obsolete?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 07, 2015
Most receivers have seven amp channels. I've just reviewed several of them in a row: the Onkyo TX-NR545, Pioneer VSX-1130, and Sony STR-DN1060. Our October issue will collect them in a roundup, with a review of the Denon AVR-X1200W following in November. All list for $600 and include Dolby Atmos height-enriched surround in a 5.1.2-channel configuration. That is a couple of height channels short of the 5.1.4 configuration Dolby Labs recommends for Atmos in the home. And that in turn prompts an uncomfortable question: Is the seven-channel receiver obsolete?

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Audio Video News
Forget 3D…Fantastic Four Opens in MX4D
SV Staff  |  Aug 07, 2015
Fantastic Four, which opens today, will be a full-on multi-sensory experience at the Showcase Cinema de Lux in Revere, MA, the nation’s second MX4D theater but the East Coast’s first such venue.

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Streaming Device ReviewsOther Tech
D-Link DIR890L/R Tri-Band Router Review
Barb Gonzalez  |  Aug 07, 2015

Performance
Features
Ergonomics

PRICE $130

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Three bands with automatic switching for greater dedicated bandwidth to individual devices
Fast, reliable streaming throughout home network
Two USB ports make hard drives accessible within home and remotely
Minus
Dashboard makes it hard to customize some settings
Automated band switching and QoS remove options to change settings to suit your needs
No backup or media management software

THE VERDICT
A speedy, reliable router that’s great if you accept its automatic settings.

As I’ve taken to streaming as much 4K video as I can from Netflix and Amazon, it was important to get the fastest router. Perhaps there’s something psychological about the candy-apple red glossy exterior that reminds me of a cross between a drag racer and a spaceship, or perhaps it was its impressive specs, but either way, I was inspired to try out D-Link’s DIR890L/R top-of-the-line tri-band router.

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Speaker Buying TipsSpeaker SetupSpeaker TechHome Movie Theaters
The Ultimate Test: Dolby Atmos vs. Dolby Atmos
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 06, 2015
Dolby Atmos, for you members of the unwashed and uninformed masses (yeah, you know who you are), enables film sound designers to treat individual sonic elements as virtual “objects” that can be placed and moved almost anywhere within the three-dimensional space of a movie theater. Two things are important about its adaptation for home theater. First, the soundfield—in its original, discretely encoded version, not an extrapolated one—is no longer limited to a two-dimensional plane circling around your ears.
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Dolby Atmos Speaker ReviewsSurround Sound System ReviewsBookshelf Speaker ReviewsSubwoofer Reviews
Triad Atmos-Enabled InRoom Bronze LR-H Speaker System Review
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 06, 2015

InRoom Bronze LR-H Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value

InWall Bronze/4 SlimSub
Performance
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $11,050

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Dolby Atmos enabled
Natural, open character
Superb match with InWall Bronze/4 SlimSub
Minus
Atmos operation limits use in cabinets or behind a screen

THE VERDICT
Awesome for Atmos and awesome at most everything else.

Nine out of 11.4 people (approximately) reading this report are thinking, “Who the hell is Triad?” (Hopefully, fewer folks are asking, “What the hell is Atmos?” If you’re one of them, hang in there. I’ll get to Atmos in a bit.) To answer the original question, Triad is a Swiss Army Knife-like manufacturer of custom-installed speakers. That is, regardless of the particular application, Triad has a blade—er, speaker—designed and built for it (in the U.S. of A., by the way). You need in-room, in-ceiling, or in-wall speakers? Check. Invisible in-wall speakers? Ditto. OK, what kind of subwoofer do you want? The standard in-room or an in-wall design? Yes and yes. (Yawn.) Why not try something a little less common, like one of Triad’s on-wall, in-cabinet, or in-ceiling subwoofers? Then there’s Triad’s esoteric and rather sinister-looking FlexSub, which includes an expandable, flexible tube that channels the bass output from the hidden subwoofer cabinet to a remotely located grate or grille.

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