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Wide AngleAudio Video News
IFA 2018: Up Close with LG’s 8K OLED TV
Al Griffin  |  Sep 01, 2018
Not to be outdone by Samsung, LG had its own 8K TV to show at IFA 2018, this one an 88-inch OLED model.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
A Quiet Place
Al Griffin  |  Aug 31, 2018
Picture
Sound
Extras
Directed by John Krasinksi (star of TV’s “The Office”) and produced by action film director Michael Bay, A Quiet Place is a curious mashup of sci-fi/horror and family drama. The world is under siege by alien creatures who are blind but have powerful hearing capability, which they use to locate human prey. To survive, a family at the story’s center of needs to remain completely silent at all times— not something that’s easy to do when the clan includes young children.
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Music Reviews
Love: Forever Changes - 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 31, 2018
Performance
Sound
Always the pauper, never quite the prince. Such was the case for Love, the racially integrated Los Angeles psychedelic/folk-rock hybrid who were always on the cusp of breaking through the ether during those heady revolutionary times of the late 1960s, but just couldn’t totally get there. While the sounds of other SoCal Sunset Strip brethren like The Doors and The Byrds made the leap into mass consciousness, Love’s impact initially came at more of the cult-favorite level—though their multicultural influence has only grown over the ensuing years, especially within the British alternative scene of the early ’90s.
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Wide AngleAudio Video News
IFA 2018: Up Close with Samsung’s 8K TV
Al Griffin  |  Aug 31, 2018
The IFA show happening right now in Berlin, Germany is as much about home appliances as A/V electronics — I’ve never seen so many refrigerators in one place in my life. Still, there are interesting products to report on, particularly the new 8K TVs from Samsung and LG.
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The Connected Life
Top Design Mistakes, Part One
John Sciacca  |  Aug 31, 2018
I’ve spent the past 20 years in the custom installation industry, and it would be no exaggeration to say I’ve worked with more than a thousand clients during that time. A regular part of my job is consulting with clients on the design and installation of media rooms and home theaters. (The difference between the two: a media room is a social, multi-use space, while a home theater is a purpose-designed room for watching movies.) Sometimes the project is a new build (the best). Other times it involves repurposing a room or trying to fix and improve an existing room.
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SmartStream
Orbi Voice Melds Smart Speaker Tech with Mesh Networking
Barb Gonzalez  |  Aug 30, 2018
Netgear’s Orbi Voice is a melding of smart speaker technology and mesh networking that makes sense.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Samsung Will Deliver First 8K TV in October
SV Staff  |  Aug 30, 2018
Ready or not here it comes. Samsung today unveiled an 85-inch 8K TV that will become the first 8K set available for sale in the U.S. when it ships in October.
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Remotely Possible
New Sonos Amp Is a Wireless Wonder
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 29, 2018
Less than a week before the CEDIA Expo 2018 is set to begin in San Diego, Sonos has taken the wraps off of the company's all-new Amp. Replacing the CONNECT:AMP, one of Sonos's earliest products (originally called the ZP120) that has been in its lineup for 12 years, the Sonos Amp is more than twice as powerful (125 watts per channel) and features an entirely revamped design—both on the inside and the outside—enabling it to be used in more custom applications (including powering up to 4 speakers in stereo or mono, a feature often requested by custom integrators) and within more decors (as well as AV racks) than its predecessor. In addition to more power...
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AV Receiver Reviews
Yamaha RX-V685 AV Receiver Review
Daniel Kumin  |  Aug 29, 2018

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $599

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Class-leading DSP surround
5.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos/DTS:X decoding
Useful Scene memory feature
Wireless surround speaker (and multiroom) option via MusicCast speakers
Minus
No 9-channel (front- and rear-height) Atmos/DTS:X expansion option
Slow DLNA audio streaming respons

THE VERDICT
Yamaha’s unique DSP-surround technology sets apart what is otherwise still a strong A/V receiver in a highly competitive market niche.

I get to review a lot of A/V receivers. Familiarity breeding— well, familiarity— I confess that I tend to sort new examples into one of three classes. The flagship models cost a lot, pump out 140 or so watts from each of at least nine and often more channels, and they tend to cram in every conceivable feature. Entry-level jobs are cheap, five- or seven-channel affairs that usually top out at 65-or-so real watts per channel and incorporate more basic feature sets.

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Audio Video News
Panasonic and Samsung Deploy HDR10+ in 2018 TVs
SV Staff  |  Aug 29, 2018
HDR10+ Technologies, the joint venture between 20th Century Fox, Panasonic, and Samsung, stepped up its game in the fight for HDR supremacy yesterday with the announcement that Panasonic and Samsung have deployed HDR10+ firmware in 2018 TVs.
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