Special Features

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New ProductsSpecial Features
2016 Tech Guide: A Dozen Gifts to Give & Get
Bob Ankosko  |  Nov 23, 2016  | 
When you stop and think how tech-infused our lives have become, it’s no wonder electronic gadgets are the most popular holiday gifts. Technology is cool. Technology enriches our lives. Technology… (add your declaration here). As the holiday shopping season gets under way, we’ve sifted through dozens of potential gifts and settled on 12 at prices ranging from $20 to $800. Approach these pages with an eye toward matching one or more of these gems with friends and loved ones on your list. Or maybe you’ll be inspired to put one or two on your wish list. I don’t know about you, but my family is always asking me what I want for Christmas. I now have a better idea…
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Projector ReviewsProjector Buying TipsSpecial Features
4K Projector Buyer’s Guide
Mark Henninger  |  Nov 22, 2023  | 
In just a few short years the home projector landscape has undergone a radical revolution in terms of price and selection. There's the proliferation of UST (ultra-short-throw) DLP projectors with laser light sources over the past few years. Even more recently, a new breed of compact and powerful "lifestyle" standard-throw models has emerged. These produce bright and sharp images, often with a level of fidelity previously unimaginable at their price point.
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Special Features
A 2023 Holiday Gift Guide
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 23, 2023  | 
Easy to wrap. Easy to give. Easy to enjoy. Because the holidays are a perfect opportunity to share our love of movies and music, here are a few suggestions to brighten that someone’s season in new and different ways that can last all year.
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Music and Soundtrack FeaturesSpecial Features
Back to the Garden: Woodstock at 55
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 14, 2024  | 
Fifty-five years ago on August 15, 1969, 500,000 people gathered in upstate New York for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair — a long, heady weekend that lives on as a landmark soundtrack and film that deftly capture the counterculture zeitgeist.
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Special Features
Guide To Hi-Res Audio
SV Staff  |  Nov 12, 2015  | 
High Resolution-Audio is the next evolution of digital music. This Guide, produced by Sound & Vision’s editorial staff in partnership with the Consumer Technology Association (best known as hosts of the annual CES), provides a deep-dive look at this exciting technology, including basic technical definitions, information about equipment you’ll need, tips on where to find hi-res music online, and more.

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Special Features
How High Tech Brings the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to Life
Rob Sabin  |  Apr 07, 2016  | 
The I.M. Pei–designed Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum, with its soaring glass pyramid atrium, 162-foot tower, and haphazardly attached circular white column, sits at the edge of Lake Erie looking like the hard-won beachhead of some futuristic society risen from the depths. A crown jewel of Cleveland’s cultural scene, it entertains a half-million visitors a year who come to peruse the five levels and 55,000 square feet of exhibit space that house the instruments, personal effects, costumes, stage props, lyric sheets, recording gear, and still imagery that constitute an intricate, embroidered backdrop to countless American teenage lives.
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Director's IntentSpecial Features
How James Cameron Created an Otherworldly Reality in Avatar: The Way of Water
Matt Hurwitz  |  Jul 28, 2023  | 
“I see you.” That is the line spoken in both James Cameron’s original Avatar (2009) and its first sequel, the incredible Avatar: The Way of Water, released this past December, when the native Na’vi characters look into each other’s eyes and see the person within.

And with the Oscar®-winning visual effects (VFX) he and his team have developed and utilized, the phrase takes on new meaning. The CG animated characters are not cartoons – they are people. And we see them, from the inside out.

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Special Features
King(s) of Long Throw Projectors Crowned
Mark Henninger  |  Dec 13, 2022  | 
JVC swept the field at the inaugural Projector Shootout evaluation event, put on by Dealerscope and Value Electronics at 335 Madison Avenue (NYC) on December 11, 2022. I attended to see all the competing projectors do their thing in person and for the excellent conversations with people who know their stuff when it comes to projection.
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Special Features
Moody Blues: Passed, Present, And Future
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 27, 2024  | 
How The Moody Blues co-created the hybrid music genre known as orchestral rock by going all-in on making their groundbreaking audiophile-favorite masterpiece, November 1967’s Days of Future Passed.
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Special Features
Outdoor AV Roundup: Cool Gear for a Hot Summer
Al Griffin  |  Jul 25, 2018  | 
The weather is warm and outdoors is the place to be. It doesn’t matter if you’re poolside, at the beach, or on the road with the family, you don’t have to leave your music and movies behind. Here are 10 AV gear suggestions for getting an entertainment fix in the great outdoors.
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Pixels & BitsS&V VideosSpecial Features
Pixels & Bits: Episode No. 1
Rob Sabin, Steve Guttenberg  |  Jul 18, 2017  | 
In this first episode of Sound & Vision's podcast Pixels & Bits, Editor-in-Chief Rob Sabin and Contributing Technical Editor Steve Guttenberg discuss their roots in high-end audio; the affordable Magnepan MMGi magnetic planar speakers (4:00); the problem with "feature glut" (9:00), and whether Sonos sacrificed too much sound quality to gain simplicity with its Playbar soundbar (14:20).

Comments are welcome on these subjects, along with your suggestions for future episodes!

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Special Features
Roon Demystified
Howard Kneller  |  Mar 16, 2022  | 
Why does summer always seem to fly by and winter to drag on? Why does the line you're in at the supermarket always seem to be the one moving the slowest? What is Roon? These aren't the easiest questions to answer.

For our purposes, we'll address the question of Roon, a subscription-based digital music library and streaming management software that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux-based computers as well as music servers like Roon's own Nucleus and Nucleus Plus.

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Music and Soundtrack FeaturesSpecial Features
Runnin’ Into the Great Wide Open
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 26, 2024  | 
50 years ago, Tom Petty and his soon-to-be Heartbreakers were on a crash course for success or bust. What these rebels with a clue achieved over their rightfully acclaimed multi-decade career stands as a benchmark for how to match universally appealing songwriting with uncompromising sound quality.
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Special Features
Sony HiRes Guide
SV  |  Nov 07, 2016  | 
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Music Disc ReviewsMusic and Soundtrack FeaturesStreaming Movies and TVSpecial Features
The Making of The Beatles' Let It Be and Peter Jackson's Get Back
Matt Hurwitz  |  Dec 03, 2021  | 
1968 was a busy year for The Beatles. They had traveled to India to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, launched their own record label, Apple, and spent months at EMI's studios at Abbey Road recording their mammoth double-album, The Beatles (aka The White Album). But even before that album was released, they were planning what would end up as their post-breakup album and film, Let It Be. That disc was recently reissued by Apple/Capitol/Universal in a super deluxe edition, remixed by Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, complete with previously-unreleased bonus tracks, and the film has now been given a reimagining by Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson, in the form of The Beatles: Get Back on the Disney+ streaming service.
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