LATEST ADDITIONS

Audio Video News
Game of Thrones Season 6 Now Available for Download in HD
SV Staff  |  Aug 01, 2016
Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season is available for Digital HD download starting today, three-and-a-half months before the Blu-ray becomes available on November 15.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Avi Greengart  |  Jul 29, 2016
Picture
Sound
Extras
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 is actually the fourth installment in the Hunger Games trilogy. Splitting the last book of a series into two movies can allow for complexity (i.e., Harry Potter), but here it should have been avoided. Part 1 is mostly filler, and even Part 2 has some pacing issues. If you’re new to The Hunger Games, start at the beginning. Of all the teenage dystopian movie series, this one is the best conceived: Underlying the action and drama, it’s a believable look at PTSD and the personal cost of brutal dictatorships. It also has, by far, the best acting.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Concussion
David Vaughn  |  Jul 29, 2016
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Football Hall of Famer Mike Webster of the Pittsburg Steelers won four Super Bowl rings throughout his 17-year NFL career. He retired in 1990 and was enshrined seven years later, but his life would go downhill from there: Five years later, he was dead from a heart attack. The sad story would have stopped there if it weren’t for a junior pathologist in the Allegheny coroner’s office whose relentless search to know why led to the discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. As more cases came to his attention, this Nigerian-born doctor took on one of the most powerful institutions in the world—the NFL.
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Editor's Eye
Image Is Everything
Rob Sabin  |  Jul 29, 2016
There aren’t too many to choose from, but bipole and dipole speakers are a special breed that I've long admired. Here's why.
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Audio Video News
July 2016 Top Picks at a Glance
SV Staff  |  Jul 29, 2016
As you savor every moment of a summer in full swing and get ready to head out for the weekend, why not take a minute to scan our Top Picks for the month of July. More than one of ’em are road worthy. Like Optoma’s awesome micro projector that weighs less than a pound and fits in the palm of your hand or the sleek music player from Questyle that puts studio sound quality in your pocket or Mass Fidelity’s outstanding battery-powered Bluetooth speaker. Need a set of killer earphones? Check out the four-star-rated Cardas A8’s. And for when you’re back at home we offer up two very different yet very special tower speakers for your consideration—both guaranteed to bring pleasure with movies and music.
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Headphone Reviews
Sennheiser HD 800S Headphones
Steve Guttenberg  |  Jul 28, 2016

Performance
Build Quality
Comfort
Value
PRICE $1,699

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Rebooting a classic, making it better
Hand-crafted in Germany
Smoother sound than the original HD 800
Minus
Not as transparent as the very best planar headphones

THE VERDICT
The Sennheiser HD 800 S refines the original, hugely influential headphone, and makes it better than ever.

The hoopla surrounding the introduction of Sennheiser’s original HD 800 headphone in 2009 was monumental because it was such a radical upgrade over the HD 650, the previous Sennheiser flagship. So, we’re due for another flagship, but the HD 800 S is more like a reboot. What about a new flagship? As you’ll read below, it’s coming, too!

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Throwback Thursday
The VCR Is Dead (and you thought it died years ago)
SV Staff  |  Jul 28, 2016
True, the VCR has been effectively dead for years but that didn’t stop Japan-based Funai Electric from selling more than 750,000 VHS machines last year. Where they sold ’em and who bought ’em is an interesting question but none of that matters anymore as this surprising vestige of the past comes to an end.
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Ask S&V
What Is the Maximum Length for a Subwoofer Cable?
Al Griffin  |  Jul 28, 2016
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q In my current system, the receiver’s subwoofer output connects to an external amp linked to a passive subwoofer via a 20-foot length of speaker wire. The speaker wire runs under the floor and is tacked to the basement floor joists, where it crosses several household electrical wires. I would like to upgrade my subwoofer, but am having trouble finding one that is not self-powered. What concerns me about using a powered sub in my current setup is that the 20-foot coaxial cable run from the receiver to the sub would be susceptible to noise and interference. Are my fears unfounded? — David C.

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Surround Sound System ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
Definitive Technology BP9080x Speaker System Review
Daniel Kumin  |  Jul 27, 2016

Performance
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $7,194 as reviewed

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Spacious bipole sound
Seriously full-range with powered bass section
Astounding dynamics
Minus
Big and demanding of floor space
Reflective bipolar reproduction may not suit every room, taste

THE VERDICT
A big speaker with a sound to match, Definitive Technology’s latest, Atmos-onboard, powered-tower flagship delivers the impressive imaging depth and breadth we expect from bipoles. Its response is as full-range, and its dynamic abilities as unfettered, as anything I’ve heard from a one-piece system.

Definitive Technology’s monolithic bipolar towers —which launched the brand in 1990—have been around in one form or another almost as long as that thing in 2001: A Space Odyssey. With the fourth generation bowing recently, the Baltimore-area manufacturer set us up with a full suite: BP9080x fronts, CS9080 center, a pair of smallerbut-still-huge BP9060 towers for surrounds, and the A90 elevation speakers (Dolby Atmos-enabled and compatible with DTS:X) to go on top of those surrounds; the marquee BP9080x fronts have the same elevation componentry to bounce height-channel signals off the ceiling built right into their top 5 inches.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Zvox Targets Clear Dialogue with “Smart Speaker”
SV Staff  |  Jul 27, 2016
Years of rocking out to Zeppelin and any number of other now-classic rock groups has taken its toll on the hearing acuity of a generation. Of course, we’re talking about the Baby Boomer generation. Now soundbar pioneer Zvox has developed a “smart speaker” for people who have trouble discerning dialogue from movies and TV shows.
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