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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Periodic Launches 'No-Compromise' In-Ear Monitors
SV Staff  |  Feb 06, 2017
Periodic Audio, formed last year by consumer electronics veterans Daniel Wiggins and Mike Kim and backed by a team of engineers with deep audio experience, introduced its first in-ear monitors over the weekend at the CanJam NYC headphone expo.

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Ears On
Greg Lake: Like the Low End of a Steinway
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 04, 2017
2016 was a brutal year for rock fans and especially for progressive-rock fans. We didn't lose just Prince and Bowie. We lost Keith Emerson's keyboards, and in the final month of the year, the extraordinary voice, not to mention the bass and guitar, of Greg Lake. The year before we lost Chris Squire's Rickenbacker bass. If you recall my ELP in 5.1 review and Keith Emerson tribute, you might be a little tired of hearing about the keyboard-based power trio that was one of my boyhood heroes. But I can't let Greg Lake's death at age 69 pass unremarked.

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Audio Video News
January 2017 Top Picks at a Glance
SV Staff  |  Feb 03, 2017
In reviewing our Top Picks for the month of January, something became evident very quickly: Seven of the nine products we reviewed made our 2016 Top Picks of the Year list...
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Boy & the World
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 03, 2017
Picture
Sound
Extras
When a child’s father leaves his home in a small village to seek work in the city, his young son, not understanding why his father has left, sets out on a mission to find him.

That’s the plot of Brazilian director Alê Abreu’s dramatically obscure but stunningly animated film. We’re encouraged to experience the world through the boy’s eyes. If his world doesn’t always make sense to us, that may be the point. The world is a jumble to a young boy, and the result is a brilliant and visually compelling adventure. The film was nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2015 (Inside Out won, however).

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Shallows
David Vaughn  |  Feb 03, 2017
Picture
Sound
Extras
Having recently lost her mother to cancer, Nancy decides to drop out of medical school in order to go surfing at a remote Mexican beach where her mother used to surf. Unfortunately, Nancy’s “plus one” decides she’d rather hang out with the guy she met at the hotel bar, so Nancy makes the stupid decision to go by herself. What could go wrong?
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Pioneer Launches Svelte Stereo Receiver
SV Staff  |  Feb 03, 2017
Pioneer has introduced a versatile, hi-res-capable stereo receiver that’s less than 4 inches tall, making it slim enough to fit almost anywhere.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Oppo Introduces Audiophile DAC/Streamer
SV Staff  |  Feb 02, 2017
Oppo Digital has introduced an audiophile-grade digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that doubles as an app-based media streamer that supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and AirPlay.
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Ask S&V
Is My AV Receiver Dolby Vision-Compatible?
Al Griffin  |  Feb 02, 2017
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q Sony recently announced a firmware update that adds Dolby Vision support for my TV, the XBR-65Z9D. Here’s my question: Will my Pioneer Elite SC-LX901 receiver be able to pass signals from Dolby Vision discs played on Ultra HD Blu-ray players that support Dolby Vision? The SC-LX901 is equipped with HDMI version 2.0a connections, so I’m assuming it should have no problem. —Cesar Sanchez

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Surround Sound System ReviewsBookshelf Speaker ReviewsSubwoofer Reviews
Focal Dôme Flax 5.1 Speaker System Review
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 02, 2017

Dôme Flax 5.1 Speaker System
Performance
Build Quality
Value

Sub Air Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $1,999

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Flax cone woofer
Aluminum-magnesium inverted-dome tweeter
Wall-hugging sub
Minus
Limited bass from sats

THE VERDICT
Unique driver materials, overall quality of construction, and adroit voicing make the Focal Dôme Flax 5.1 one of the best-sounding compact sat/sub systems I’ve heard.

As the home theater milieu increasingly divides into Atmos and non-Atmos camps, the satellite/subwoofer category seems destined to remain part of the old guard, usually sold in a set of five little speakers and a sub or two. Is it possible for a satellite speaker to retain its merciful compactness if it’s also to include an Atmos-enabled upfiring driver? I’d love to review such a product, but right now it’s a figment of my imagination and hopes. Focal, the prodigious French speaker manufacturer, does now offer a 5.1.2-channel Atmos-capable sat/sub system that takes a different approach (see below), but you’ll be happy to know that plain ol’ 5.1 is still alive and supported by this and other fine speaker makers. Even now it remains the bedrock configuration of surround sound.

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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1951: First A-Bomb Test Televised
SV Staff  |  Feb 02, 2017
Sixty-six years ago this week, Los Angeles TV station KTLA made history when it broadcast the live detonation of an atomic bomb dropped in the Nevada desert, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
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