Audio Video News

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you don’t have good speakers, you don’t have a good sound system. Period. The speakers you use (or choose) have a disproportionate impact on how your music sounds — more so than the source, amp and preamp, or any other component or accessory in the audio chain. Simply put, your speakers define the character of the sound, which is why they are so important and why we’ve compiled capsule reviews of our Top Picks in speakers so far this year. With prices that range from $250 for a simple smart speaker to more than $9,000 for a topnotch home theater ensemble and lots of interesting choices in between, there is something for everyone.

Klipsch today announced a series of portable Bluetooth speakers that will bring the total number of portable models it offers to seven, at prices ranging from $99 to $349.

Marantz today introduced a pair of classic stereo components that celebrate its roots as a hi-fi pioneer.

In his new post, “Breaking Up Is Easy to Do,” Ken Pohlmann decries Netflix’s recent decision to dust out the cobwebs and render older TVs, Blu-ray players and other streaming devices useless — at least when it comes to watching movies and shows on Netflix. The list includes Roku, which has 73.5 million active accounts worldwide and commands an amazing 43% share of smart TVs sold in the U.S.

HDR10+ Technologies LLC, the industry group that supports the HDR10+ high dynamic range (HDR) standard with over 150 adopters and more than 8,000 supported devices, today announced a new HDR10+ Gaming plug-in for game developers who use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine (a.k.a. UE).

Panasonic aims to help gamers get inside the game with a new wearable version of the SoundSlayer gaming speaker it introduced in 2020.