LATEST ADDITIONS

New Products
SVS Launches 1000 Pro Series Subwoofers
SV Staff  |  Feb 26, 2021
Ohio-based speaker manufacturer SVS has launched the 1000 Pro Series, an entry-level subwoofer offering. Consisting of two models, the sealed cabinet SB-1000 Pro and ported cabinet PB-1000 Pro, the new subs feature all-new 12-inch high-excursion drivers, a 325 watts RMS/ 820-plus watts peak power Sledge STA-325D amplifier with fully discrete MOSFET output, Analog Devices DSP, and control via the SVS subwoofer control app.
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Best Gear of February 2021
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 25, 2021
Spring beckons and so does the long-awaited return to normal life as the pandemic winds down. Though February was short, we learned a few things from our Top Picks for the month: (1) Subwoofers don’t have to look like subwoofers, (2) you can’t judge a speaker by its looks, and (3) you don’t have to spend thousands to get a big-screen TV that delivers terrific picture quality. Will one of our February gems help you rediscover your passion for music and movies or gaming (Pac-Man anyone?) and push your home entertainment experience to the next level? There’s only one way to find out.
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
The SVS Virtual Audiophile Happy Hour Returns
SV Staff  |  Feb 25, 2021
The SVS Virtual Audiophile Happy Hour returns with a momentous announcement today, Thursday, February 25 at 6p.m. ET, live on the SVS Facebook page and YouTube channel! For the first time in SVS history, full details of new products will be revealed via live stream and questions taken on the fly.
Continue Reading »
Subwoofer Reviews
KEF KC62 Subwoofer Review
Daniel Kumin  |  Feb 24, 2021

Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $1,499

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Incredible extension from incredibly small design
Highly flexible controls and features
Wireless option
Elegant finish
Minus
Limited peak output
Pricey

THE VERDICT
KEF’s KC62 delivers impressively deep bass in an elegant, ultra-compact package, though its output is best suited for smaller rooms or listening at more moderate levels.

Mankind has sought to get more and deeper bass from smaller and smaller designs ever since the first Neolithic audiophile blew through a conch shell and thought, "Damn, I wish this went lower, louder!"

Continue Reading »
SmartStream
How to Stream PBS Programming
Barb Gonzalez  |  Feb 24, 2021
While PBS Passport has a variety of the stations' programming, a PBS Channel subscription through Amazon Prime Video offers a deep dive into different genres.
Continue Reading »
Stream On
Qello Brings Live Concerts into Your Home and Beyond
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 24, 2021
Qello seeks to corner the market on streaming concerts and music documentaries but do they offer enough diverse material to satisfy our hunger for content?
Continue Reading »
A/V Veteran
Taming the Room Monster
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 23, 2021
Anyone who has read any of my speaker reviews over the past few years knows that my current room has bass issues (the photo here is, sadly, NOT my room!!). Welcome me to the club; rooms without bass problems are few and far between. Only the obsessed worries about a peak at 30Hz, but erratic response higher in the bass, particularly in the 80 to 200Hz region, can have serious negative effects on the overall sound. To little response there can reduce a source's natural weight, particularly on large scale music or home theater effects. Too much and the bass sounds bloated.

Once you get above a certain frequency, usually between 200 and 500 Hz (known as the Schroeder frequency, after the physicist who first identified it and not the Peanuts character), the room's effect on the sound becomes less significant.

Continue Reading »
Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mad Max
Chris Chiarella  |  Feb 19, 2021
Picture
Sound
Extras
Let's never forget that the enduring Mad Max franchise—four movies in with a fifth on the way—began right here 42 years ago with this low-budget car/motorcycle-chase gem. Relative to its more popular sequel, The Road Warrior, Max can be viewed as a sort of origin story, showing how a good cop (Mel Gibson) goes mad after a horrible act of violence befalls his family. He hits the road to exact some fuel-injected revenge, leaving behind the world he once knew. What's striking about this movie today is seeing how much better it is than it needed to be, from the emotional story to the intense acting, superb cinematography, sharp editing, and outrageous stunts.
Continue Reading »
Vintage Gear
The Mighty Technics SL-1200
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 18, 2021

Coveted by audiophiles and DJs, the iconic turntable is still going strong half a century later.

It’s rare for any piece of audio gear to remain in production for more than a few years, let alone a turntable that not only survives but continues to evolve for the better part of five decades. The Technics SL-1200 turntable and its many iterations have been in production for 43 of the last 49 years, an extraordinary feat by any measure.

Continue Reading »
Ask S&V
Can I Stream MQA Tracks to My Amp via Bluetooth?
Al Griffin  |  Feb 18, 2021
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q My LG V30 smartphone has a high-performance Quad-DAC audio system capable of decoding hi-res files encoded with MQA. I want to use the LG phone as a source to stream Masters-quality music from Tidal via Bluetooth (aptX HD) to my new NAD integrated amplifier. Will this work for MQA, or do I need an external digital-to-analog converter to “unfold” the MQA-encoded files? —Joel Johnson, via email

Continue Reading »

Pages

X