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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Meet Monitor Audio’s All-Weather Ceiling Speakers
SV Staff  |  Aug 16, 2016
There’s no shortage of weather resistant/waterproof outdoor speakers to choose from but Monitor Audio offers a twist on the theme with its CWT all-weather in-wall/ceiling speaker series.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Long Live CD: Marantz Debuts High-End Player
SV Staff  |  Aug 15, 2016
If you’re still spinning CDs you might as well do it in style. On Friday, Marantz announced a compact CD player to go with its HD-AMP1 integrated amplifier.

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Ask S&V
When Will TV Audio Get its Next Upgrade?
Al Griffin  |  Aug 15, 2016
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q Digital high-definition broadcasting started back in 1998, but since then, only video has received a facelift, not audio. Why hasn’t DTV audio evolved to at least Dolby Digital Plus status? —David Musoke / via e-mail

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Tech2
Day of the Dead Review
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Aug 12, 2016
Among my eclectic musical loves is the Grateful Dead. I remember enjoying the occasional song, as many do, and then discovering the brilliant Reckoning, which is still one of my favorite live albums.

I wouldn’t say I’m the biggest fan, but I thoroughly a good Dead tune, and have played their songs live more than any other band (except maybe the Allman Brothers).

There are countless cover albums of Dead tunes, and most are… well I guess what you think of them largely has to do with what you think of the bands playing them.

Day of the Dead, a meaty 59-track album whose profits go to the Red Hot Organization, are a fantastic mix of artists. And, for the most part, it works great. Here are some highlights and thoughts.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Phoenix
Fred Kaplan  |  Aug 12, 2016
Picture
Sound
Extras
Phoenix was one of the best films of 2015 (the U.S. release date): taut, nerve-racking, gorgeous in a lurid way. It has a Vertigo vibe, leaning heavily on Hitchcock’s German Expressionist influences, but marked with Angst of a more sociopolitical nature, as if the likes of F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang had shot films just after WWII instead of the two decades before. It begins with a woman, an Auschwitz survivor (played by Nina Hoss), entering a hospital for facial surgery to repair the damage done by brutal guards. She wants to look the way she did before, so her husband can recognize her. After the operation, she finds him waiting tables at a nightclub called Phoenix.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Ip Man 3
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Aug 12, 2016
Picture
Sound
Extras
Director Wilson Yip returns to helm the third and ostensibly final installment in the Ip Man saga with Ip Man 3. As with the previous films, international star Donnie Yen returns to the role as wing chun legend Ip Man, and the film also, questionably, brings Mike Tyson on board as a ruthless and violent American real estate developer.
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Audio Video News
Amazon Section Promotes Kickstarter Products
SV Staff  |  Aug 12, 2016
Crowdfunding is one of the 21st Century’s great innovations (it actually started late in the 20th Century…we know), providing a way for anyone to take a shot at funding their Next Big Thing product.
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Audio Video News
Order Your 24k Gold iPhone 7 Now for Only $…
SV Staff  |  Aug 12, 2016
Leave it an entrepreneur to find an innovative (and ostentatious) way to capitalize on the launch of a popular tech product—in this case, the forthcoming iPhone 7.
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Audio Video News
DirecTV Streaming Service to Target Non-Pay TV Households
SV Staff  |  Aug 12, 2016
DirecTV plans to target the estimated 20 million U.S. households that don’t subscribe to pay TV with its forthcoming DirecTV Now “over-the-top” (OTT) Internet TV service, according to the cable industry news site FierceCable.com.
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Soundbar Reviews
Yamaha YSP-5600 Soundbar Review
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 11, 2016

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $1,700

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Dolby Atmos and (via future upgrade) DTS: X
MusicCast, AirPlay, Bluetooth (both in and out), and Wi-Fi for music streaming
Minus
Larger than most soundbars
Remote control isn’t backlit

THE VERDICT
It’s pricey, but outstanding sonic performance and an impressive list of useful features makes the Yamaha YSP-5600 one of the best overall soundbar values on the market.

It had to happen: Somebody took Dolby Atmos and superglued it to a soundbar. It looks like Dolby Atmos in a Bar (DAIB) is the new Home Theater in a Box (HTIB). Oh, joy of joys.

I jest, of course. I’ve reviewed some really great soundbars—and Yamaha, the company behind this groundbreaking Atmos-enabled model, is no slouch when it comes to all-in-one theater systems. At $1,700, the new YSP-5600 is the most expensive, and most extensively featured, soundbar in Yamaha’s lineup. Measuring in at 43.25 inches wide x 8.38 high x 3.63 deep (without its stand), it looks to be the largest, too. From the size, heft (almost 26 pounds), and quality of construction (including a metal—not cloth—grille), it should be obvious to even the most unshakable soundbar skeptic that this aspires to be a serious speaker system, with or without the Atmos-enabling bits.

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