After almost a year-and-a-half in lockdown, I was honored to be the first member of the press to experience the KEF Music Lounge Theater. In late May, I visited the company's U.S. headquarters in Marlboro, NJ and received a warm—and long overdue—Jersey welcome from KEF VP David Kroll and marketing director Stephanie Scola.
Monitor Audio, the British company that has been building high-quality speakers for almost a half a century, is putting the final touches on the seventh generation of the Silver Series it introduced 22 years ago.
The speaker-meisters at Germany’s Elac are keeping busy these days. Following closely on the heels of the new Uni-Fi Reference series, the Solano series brings the brand’s signature Jet 5 folded-ribbon tweeter to more affordable price levels.
Sony is previewing a new flagship Dolby Atmos-capable soundbar and home theater system that creates an immersive sound field from four compact speakers. Both are due out early fall.
We hope you’re enjoying the dog days of summer along with a return to some semblance of pre-pandemic normal even as the COVID-19 Delta variant threatens a return to mask-wearing protocols. Meanwhile, here at Sound & Vision we continue to pursue the latest audio and video offerings with an eye toward isolating gear that rises above the pack. In July, our efforts were duly rewarded with an impressive soundbar that can be had for less than $200 and a compact subwoofer that plays remarkably low and loud. Our testing also uncovered a reference-quality DAC that doubles as a streaming media player and a new flagship speaker from one of Canada’s top audio brands. Let’s take a closer look.
As part of its ongoing 75th anniversary celebration, Klipsch is upscaling its presence in soundbars with four new systems designed to evoke its Reference series of home theater speakers.