As the new decade gets underway and we get used to “living in the future,” the editors of Sound & Vision have cherry-picked 10 products across three categories that merit a close look by anyone contemplating an electronics upgrade. All made our coveted 2019 Top Picks of the Year list, meaning they’re all stellar performers.
Looking over the list of products that earned a Sound & Vision Top Pick award in 2019, one entry towered over the others: JVC’s DLA-NX9 D-ILA projector. Congratulations to JVC for a job well done in being selected as S&V’s overall Top Pick for 2019!
AT A GLANCE Plus
Great sound quality
Onboard Dirac Live room correction
Well-designed control app
Minus
Overly busy remote control
THE VERDICT
NAD's streaming preamp brings vinyl playback and Dirac Live room correction to the mix for a very complete package at an affordable price.
I'm no stranger to the network audio player/preamplifier category, having evaluated two such specimens in 2019: Cary Audio's DMS-550 and Simaudio's Moon 390. These components act as a hub for switching a range of digital and analog sources, along with streaming music from online services and local networked storage. The DMS-550 and Moon 390 impressed me with their versatility and sound quality, but at $5,000-plus, both are priced outside the range of an average listener. Fortunately, other options exist such as the NAD C 658, a $1,649 network audio player/ preamplifier aimed at audiophiles on a budget. How does the C 658 hold up against the pricier models? Let's give it a listen.
In less than three months the Disney+ streaming service has taken off like a rocket. It’s come on so strong that the powers-that-be at Netflix and Amazon must be losing sleep as a gigantic Mickey Mouse looms over them in a recurring nightmare.
Sandy Gross, audio icon and founder/president of GoldenEar Technology and before that Definitive Technology and Polk Audio (as co-founder), will be appearing at Baltimore audio/video specialist Soundscape on Thursday, February 13.
Last week the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a $20 billion, 10-year plan to bring gigabit-speed broadband networks to unserved rural areas of America.
Puro Sound Labs, the San Diego-based maker of kid-safe wireless headphones, has announced a 15% Valentine’s Day discount on its PuroQuiet noise-cancelling headphones, which limit volume to prevent hearing damage.
LG today announced that the Apple TV app, which will be available via a firmware upgrade on its 2020 smart TVs that ship later this year, is now available on 2019 model-year smart TVs.