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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1982: Apple Approaches McIntosh Labs
SV Staff  |  Nov 17, 2016
Thirty-four years ago this week, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs asks McIntosh Labs for rights to use “Macintosh” as the brand name of a computer it was developing, a year after settling a trademark infringement suit brought by The Beatles’ holding company Apple Corps.
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Audio Video News
James Unveils Unique Modular Home Theater
SV Staff  |  Nov 16, 2016
The speaker specialists at Napa, CA-based James Loudspeaker have come up with an innovative way to deliver surround sound to any environment in a high-performance, fully custom freestanding form factor.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Teac Turntable Combines Best of Old and New
SV Staff  |  Nov 16, 2016
Teac says its new TN-400S turntable ($400) offers “everything you loved about classic, old-school turntables, along with the advantages of digital technology and attractive, contemporary design.”

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Audio Video News
McIntosh Releases DTS:X, Auro-3D Update
SV Staff  |  Nov 16, 2016
McIntosh has announced that a firmware update that adds DTS:X and Auro-3D decoding is now available for its MX122 AV processor.
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The Connected Life
Survey: What People Would Pay to Watch First-Run Movies at Home
John Sciacca  |  Nov 16, 2016
Last month I wrote a blog titled, Day and Date: How Much Would You Pay? which pondered how much avid home theater owners like Sound & Vision readers might be willing to pay for the privilege of viewing first-run Hollywood films at home. To give this some perspective, it’s important to point out that the only system capable of doing this is the stratospherically priced PRIMA Cinema, with hardware selling for $35,000 and a $500 per film rental charge.
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A/V Veteran
Why A/B Testing Is Harder Than You Think
Thomas J. Norton  |  Nov 15, 2016
While popular among readers, direct A/B tests comparing one audio or video component with a competing model are far more difficult to do properly than you might imagine. I’ve conducted or participated in numerous such tests over the years, going back to speaker shootouts when I wrote exclusively for Stereophile back in the ‘90s. I also set up or participated in several shootouts of video displays for Home Theater.
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4K TV ReviewsTV ReviewsLCD TV Reviews
Sony XBR-65Z9D LCD Ultra HDTV Review
Thomas J. Norton  |  Nov 15, 2016

2D Performance
3D Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $5,500

AT A GLANCE
Plus
State-of-the-art local dimming
Class-leading HDR brightness
Above average off-center viewing
Minus
Price

THE VERDICT
With the top manufacturers jostling for a view from the top of the Ultra HD pyramid, Sony has taken an express elevator and is racing fast for the checkered flag. But enough with the mixed metaphors. If this TV isn’t today’s best LCD UHD/HDR set (and perhaps the best of any type), it’s not for lack of trying. Sony has given us their best technology here, and it shows.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2016, Sony demonstrated a prototype of a future LCD TV design incorporating what the company called Backlight Master Drive. We found it dazzling, as did most of the show-goers with whom we spoke. Nevertheless, we all looked at it as a “show car”—something that might appear in a store near you in a couple of years, if ever.

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Audio Video News
Feeling Nostalgic? Check Out This Retro TV
SV Staff  |  Nov 15, 2016
If you yearn for a simpler time when changing the channel meant leaving the couch and turning a knob to click your way through TV channels, you’ll appreciate the Vintage Taste TV.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Mass Fidelity Unveils Second Wireless Speaker
SV Staff  |  Nov 15, 2016
Mass Fidelity today launched a 30-day Indiegogo campaign to introduce a smaller, ruggedized follow-up to its Core wireless speaker, which earned a Sound & Vision Top Pick designation earlier this year.
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Remotely Possible
Roost’s RSA-400 Smart Smoke Alarm Stops Chirps, Sniffs Methane, and Saves Lives
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Nov 14, 2016  |  First Published: Nov 15, 2016
I wish smoke alarms were sexier. Most of them are dull, white pucks that try to look as unobtrusive as possible. Even the squarish Nest Protect with the swirling perforation pattern on the cover isn’t something that most people will want to highlight as it hangs on the wall or ceiling. But there’s no doubt that smoke/carbon monoxide alarms save lives. The American Red Cross says that the organization’s Home Fire Campaign, which has “a goal to reduce fire-related deaths and injuries in the US by 25% by 2020” by getting more smoke alarms installed in more homes, has already demonstrably saved 111 lives in the short time since the program began in 2014. And since it’s recommended that you should check the working status of the smoke alarms in your home on the days when Daylight Saving Time begins and ends every year, it’s a good time to take a brief look at Roost’s brand new and—at $80 MSRP—nicely affordable RSA-400 Smart Smoke Alarm...

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