LATEST ADDITIONS

With VR flooding 360 degrees of our fields of vision, the clock is ticking on 3D audio to match. Lately there seem to be a plethora of kickstarters for headphones that will track head movement. But what if you love the headphones you already have? A company called 3D Sound Labs has created a module that they say will allow any headphones to be 3D sound ready. Of course I had to get one in and try it myself. Could this really work?

Space is tight and time is short, so let’s dispense with the preliminaries. This is a guide to evaluating loudspeakers—how I do it, anyway. You’ll find as many methodologies as you will listeners, but most experienced “experts” fall in along similar lines.

On Tuesday, Irvine, CA-based startup Epict launched its WatchAir Smart HDTV Antenna on Kickstarter. Less than four days later the company had already funded 97 percent of its $50,000 goal with 29 days to spare. Not too shabby.

PRICE $1,199

AT A GLANCE
Plus
True surround sound without the wiring hassles
Quick and easy setup
Hi-res wireless audio transmission
Minus
No Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio decoding
Remote is difficult to use
Lots of wall-wart power supplies to plug in

THE VERDICT
By eliminating the hassle of running speaker cables for a 5.1-channel system, the CineHome HD delivers a true, fuss-free surround experience that no single-point soundbar can match. While its feature set is pretty basic, that simplicity will likely be a plus for its targeted customers.

Here at Sound & Vision, we like to think of ourselves as hard-core home theater enthusiasts, so it’s difficult for us to fathom why average people don’t want to jump through hoops to set up a complete 5.1-channel surround system. Sure, you’d need to find space for an A/V receiver and a pile of speakers—plus you’d have to hook up a bunch of wires and thumb through a stack of onscreen menus to get everything properly configured and adjusted—but that’s all part of the fun, right?