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Audio Video News
Best Gear of Late 2023/Early 2024
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 01, 2024  |  3 comments
In the waning weeks of 2023, our last few Top Picks included small and large sets of speakers from two well-known but very different brands and two superb TVs — a quantum-dot OLED and a mini-LED Google TV, both reasonably priced. As we kicked off the New Year, the hits kept coming with an audiophile-caliber streaming amp combo, a state-of-the-art AV preamp/processor that leaves little to the imagination, and a high-performing yet affordable streaming amp. Let’s take a closer look...
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SmartStream
Prime Video Now Charging Extra for Ad-Free Viewing
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jan 31, 2024  |  8 comments
On January 29th, Amazon started running ads with its video-on-demand Prime Video streaming service. As announced in September 2023, Prime subscribers must pay an extra $3 a month to watch ad-free.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
There’s a New Flagship AVR in Town: Marantz
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 31, 2024  |  2 comments
Marantz just put a cherry on the top of its AV receiver lineup with the Cinema 30, a new flagship model loaded up with the bells and whistles enthusiasts love and the same classy look introduced with 2022’s Top Pick-rated Cinema 50.
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Surround Processor Reviews
Marantz AV10 15.4-Channel AV Preamp/Processor Review
Mark Henninger  |  Jan 31, 2024  |  2 comments

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $7,000

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Balanced outputs for all channels
Supports four subwoofers
Audyssey MultEQ XT32 with Directional Bass
Dirac Live Bass Control
Easy on-screen setup
Minus
Antiquated front panel interface
Dirac features cost extra

THE VERDICT
An engineering marvel from Marantz with just about everything you could ask for in an AV processor. Just add an amp and speakers for total immersion.

The AV preamp and surround processor is the less well-known sibling of the AV receiver. The main difference being that processors don’t have built-in amplification. This is a reasonable approach because as a rule amplifiers last a rather long time, and don’t come obsoleted by things like new immersive sound formats or updates to HDMI standards. Going the AV separate route also lets you tailor the amplification to the speaker system whereas AV receivers are forced to split the difference between whatever speakers are connected to it and hope for the best.

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A/V Veteran
The Maestro and the Cellist
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 30, 2024  |  5 comments
I've commented before on finding interesting posts on YouTube. Though marred by incessant commercial interruptions (I keep my TV's remote close enough to exit the promotions as soon as possible) that service's offerings cover endless topics: sports, history, current events, music, and much more...Several recent British documentaries, for example, covered the hazards found in English homes of different eras...I recently discovered another far more serious entry. Running for 86 minutes, The Maestro and the Cellist of Auschwitz (a German production with subtitles and translations where needed) covers the very different stories of two musicians during World War II...The maestro of the title here was Germany's Willhelm Furtwangler, arguably one of the most storied and feted symphonic and opera conductors of the 20th Century.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Naim’s New High-end Streaming Amp Packs a Punch
SV Staff  |  Jan 30, 2024  |  0 comments
U.K.-based Naim Audio today introduced a powerful addition to its popular Uniti line of high-end streaming amplifiers.
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Music Disc Reviews
Remaster Class – Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 29, 2024  |  4 comments

Burning Dinosaur Bones

Soundgarden was catching fire. The proto-headbanging Seattle-bred foursome began to emerge from the misnomered grunge ooze with their second LP, September 1989’s aptly named Louder Than Love, with tracks like “Loud Love” and “Big Dumb Sex” deftly adding observational tact to the band’s already thunderous bouillabaisse. And then, in October of that forever-hallowed alt-rock emergence year of 1991, Soundgarden swerved into even more progressive-leaning hard-metal lanes with the unrelenting Badmotorfinger.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
PhaseTech Introduces Variable-Length Soundbar
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 29, 2024  |  2 comments
PhaseTech, the American speaker specialist known for developing and patenting one of the world’s most widely used tweeter designs in 1967 — the soft-dome tweeter — has introduced an adjustable, three-channel soundbar that can be matched to the width and color of any TV for a seamless look.
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Spatial Audio File
Ryan Ulyate Opens the Curtains on the Atmos Mix of His Grammy-Nominated Solo Album, Act 3
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 26, 2024  |  1 comments

With apologies to the late, great Tom Petty, we do know how it feels to be Ryan Ulyate, thanks to the open book approach the acclaimed producer/engineer has taken with the songwriting and subject matter that dominates his very first solo album, Act 3, which has also been nominated for a Best Immersive Audio Album Grammy. During a recent Zoom interview, music editor Mike Mettler and Ulyate discussed how he learned about his Grammy nomination, why the immersive Atmos palette gives him the additional space needed to take more of an orchestral approach with his mixes, and why the cover image for Act 3 is the perfect full-circle choice to best reflect his life’s work. . .

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Prey
Ralph Potts  |  Jan 26, 2024  |  1 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras

Prey is the latest installment in the iconic Predator film franchise. Set in the year 1719, it tells the story of a young woman, Naru, a skilled yet untested warrior of the Comanche Nation who has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters to roam the Great Plains. When a mysterious danger arises, she fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly evolved Predators to visit Earth.

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