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Headphone Reviews
Review: Flips headphones
Brent Butterworth  |  Aug 10, 2013
Headphones that let you share your music — or annoy the hell out of people.
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On-Wall Speaker Reviews
Opalum Flow.1010 On-Wall Speaker System
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 09, 2013
Performance
Build Quality
Value
Price: $4,747 as reviewed ($2,499/pair) At A Glance: Transmits digital audio and power over 18-gauge wire • 24-volt DC low-voltage wiring • Can be used vertically or horizontally

I worked at an A/V shop back in the Middle Ages when customers actually drove to a local store and spoke with a salesperson face to face about the gear they were interested in. Every now and then during that golden era, a speaker manufacturer would come along with the “revolutionary” idea of building an amplifier(s) into a speaker. With all the benefits that came with such a design, it seemed like such a no-brainer.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews3D Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Top Gun
Corey Gunnestad  |  Aug 09, 2013
Picture
3D-Ness
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
I was a senior in high school when Top Gun came out in 1986. After that, every guy in my class, including myself, wanted to be Tom Cruise. He just epitomized coolness in a way that transcended even his iconic turn in Risky Business. Our Navy recruitment officer was extremely happy that year because enlistment was at an all-time high. No, they didn’t ensnare me, thankfully. My admiration for Mr. Cruise and this film went only as far as the box office and not swabbing decks on some aircraft carrier. But I remember we drove an extra 20 miles out of our way to see Top Gun at a brand-new theater that was the first in the state equipped for THX sound. And it made all the difference.
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Audio Video News
Google Glass: Running with Screens—Or Not
Michael Antonoff  |  Aug 09, 2013
A home theater display is more riveting and safer to operate than any mobile screen, yet tech pundits are abuzz over Glass, Google’s high-tech eyewear. Indeed, the spectacles’ first-generation specifications are compelling.
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Grace Notes
Movie Premiere: Elysium
Leslie Shapiro  |  Aug 09, 2013

As with most futuristic films, the earth portrayed in Elysium is overpopulated, crime-ridden, diseased, and has all the bucolic charm of a garbage dump. Awfully bleak. Unless you are a member of the elite, in which case you live in an orbiting, utopian, titular space station. You have access to miraculous health care and views to die for. When an oppressed Matt Damon is poisoned by radiation, he decides to crash the upper-crust party.

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Audio Video News
Sony Soundbar Has Sense of Quartz
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 09, 2013
The Sony HT-ST7 is the first product to use Sony's "Sense of Quartz" design imperative, which I first saw in an embargoed product showing in Tokyo a few months ago. I subsequently heard the production version and it sounded even better than it looks.

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SmartStream
New Netflix Profiles Provide Personalized Recommendations
Barb Gonzalez  |  Aug 08, 2013
It's easier to find the titles you want to watch with the newly added Netflix Profiles feature. Find out how it works and which devices are compatible.
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Sweepstakes
Jason is Serious about Sound
Ariel Bitran  |  Aug 08, 2013  |  First Published: Aug 09, 2013
Congratulations to Jason Baugh of Hollywood, Florida on winning the Griffin Twenty Integrated Amplifier Sweepstakes. He's happy about his prize, I think.
Song From My Soundtrack
David Chesky and "The Girl From Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Aug 06, 2013

David Chesky is a jazz, classical, and opera composer, co-founder of Chesky Records and HDTracks, and vocal proponent of high-resolution audio. Here he picks a song from his soundtrack.

I think the one song that is six degrees of separation for me would be "The Girl From Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

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This Week
This Week in Movies & TV, August 6, 2013: E.T. Killed Home
Josef Krebs  |  Aug 06, 2013

Oblivion

Based on director Joseph Kosinski's acclaimed graphic novel, Oblivion is set in the post-apocalyptic future in which an invading alien army is beaten but only through the use of nuclear weapons that leave the planet uninhabitable.

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