LATEST ADDITIONS

In a galaxy far, far away—well, to be more precise, it was actually in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh—I received a home-made C-60 compact cassette for my 11th birthday in October 1978. My audiophile grandfather had dubbed Charles Gerhardt conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra's performance of music culled from composer John Williams' original scores for Star Wars on Side 1 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Side 2.

No question, new product introductions dropped off from what we usually see during springtime but they didn’t grind to a halt. Dozens of products were announced during the historic COVID-19 lockdown that transformed the life of every American for more than three months and continues to threaten our return to normalcy. As we prepare to celebrate the founding of this great country, we pause to take look at some of the gear AV companies have rolled out in recent weeks, including a few you may have missed. Here’s to hoping that the current wave of flare-ups is short-lived.

PRICE $799

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Outstanding music and movie sound
Impressive rendering of height information
Solid bass for standalone soundbar
Minus
May require latest eARC HDMI connection for Atmos
No DTS decoding

THE VERDICT
The latest home theater offering from Sonos delivers an impressive Atmos experience from a standalone soundbar. Add the company's Sub and bookshelf speakers as surrounds for even more intense audio immersion.

The new Sonos Arc soundbar is the company's fourth home theater product and the clear result of an evolution. Its first soundbar, the Playbar (currently $599 and being closed out), debuted in 2013. But with only a single optical input intended to ease installation and no HDMI port, it was already outdated on Day 1.

Denon has announced a new 8K-compatible addition to its affordable S-Series family of A/V receivers, the 7.2-channel AVR-S960H ($649). The new model, which will arrive in July, follows the company’s recent update of its premium X-Series AVR line earlier this month.