Rob Sabin

Bluetooth Speaker ReviewsWireless Multiroom Speaker Reviews
Riva WAND Wireless Music System Review
Rob Sabin  |  Nov 21, 2017  |  0 comments

Arena Wireless Speaker
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

Festival Wireless Speaker
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE Festival, $499; Arena, $249

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent build and sound quality
Chromecast, AirPlay, Bluetooth built-in
Away mode and optional battery for portability
Minus
Chromecast multiroom interface

THE VERDICT
Riva Audio continues a tradition of excellent sound quality with the WAND series, the company’s first wireless multiroom speakers.

I first met Riva Audio founder Rikki Farr and chief engineer (now also president) Don North in the fall of 2014 when they marched into Sound & Vision’s New York City conference room to demo their first product, a Bluetooth speaker called the Turbo X. North was a youthful, glasses-wearing geek who had just enough of the right credentials and tech swagger to suggest he really knew what he was doing.

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Editor's Eye
Where Have All the Audiophiles Gone?
Rob Sabin  |  Nov 10, 2017  |  101 comments
A couple of emails we recently received got me thinking about our current state of audiophile affairs. One, from Paul Thiel of Crescent Springs, Kentucky, headlined “The Great Equalizer,” asks whether the disappearance of standalone graphic equalizers from the home audio market, along with the jacks to connect them, was the result of automated room EQ coming to bear...or perhaps proof that manufacturers were mistaken in the notion that consumers were interested enough in audio to want to tailor the frequency response of their systems.
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Editor's Eye
Train Rec: Confusion Abounds Over Color Gamut
Rob Sabin  |  Oct 27, 2017  |  2 comments
Courtesy of Imaging Science Foundtion

If you ever wonder what the geeks at Sound & Vision do when we’re not listening to new speakers or tuning up video displays, well, we’re probably debating some arcane technical detail that most non-enthusiast mortals would neither understand nor care about. And so it was that a rather fired-up exchange of e-mails occurred recently between myself, video technical editor Tom Norton, and our contributing technical editor Kris Deering.

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AV Receiver Buying TipsAV Receiver Tech
How to Buy an AV Receiver
Rob Sabin  |  Oct 17, 2017  |  3 comments
Yeah, we keep hearing how the awesomely versatile, stupendously well-performing, and tremendously high-value audio/video receiver is going away, soon to be replaced by all manner of soundbars and soundbases, self-powered tabletop wireless speakers, or perhaps just your old Aunt Matilda playing her kazoo from atop a stool in your living room.
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Audio Video News
LG Takes OLED On The Road with Cinema House
Rob Sabin  |  Oct 12, 2017  |  1 comments
Not content to let consumers come to OLED, LG Electronics is now taking OLED straight to the public in an impressive new traveling demo experience. Dubbed the "LG OLED TV Cinema House powered by Dolby," LG's portable theater kiosk features a spartan demo room inside that comes to life with the assistance of a 77-inch sample of LG's Signature W7 "wallpaper" OLED TV, it's accompanying Dolby Atmos soundbar, and a half-dozen projectors that together turn the four walls of the approximately 10 x 20-feet viewing space into a visually and sonically immersive cocoon.

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Pixels & Bits
Pixels & Bits: Episode No. 4
Rob Sabin,  |  Sep 27, 2017  |  1 comments
In this episode of Pixels & Bits, Sound & Vision editor Rob Sabin and contributing tech editor Steve Guttenberg spotlight the Vizio SB3621 36-inch soundbar (00:50), talk about the anticipated arrival of HDMI 2.1 and what it means for today's TV and A/V receiver shoppers (4:18), and review Angeleena Presley's CD, Wrangled (8:18).

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Editor's Eye
VR Is Moving Forward But Is It Ready for the Masses?
Rob Sabin  |  Sep 15, 2017  |  1 comments
Last June, I was invited to a press tour and demo of a new IMAX VR Experience Center in New York City. The company best known for entertaining big audiences with big screens had created a space in the lobby of a popular AMC multiplex on Manhattan’s East Side to deliver one-on-one virtual reality entertainment to walk-in customers. It was their second such facility, after a standalone pilot location in Los Angeles.
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CEDIA 2017
M&K Shows Off Powered Monitors, New Sub
Rob Sabin  |  Sep 11, 2017  |  0 comments
M&K Sound, known for its studio-quality speakers and subwoofers, was at CEDIA this week talking up some new powered studio monitors, a new slimline on-wall speaker, and a new powered subwoofer.

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CEDIA 2017
Electrocompaniet Offers Wireless Multiroom Audio
Rob Sabin  |  Sep 09, 2017  |  0 comments
The Norwegian high-end audio manufacturer Electrocompaniet was at CEDIA this year with something a little different: the North American launch of the company's EC Living wireless multiroom music system.

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CEDIA 2017
Meridian Unlocks the Door to its DSP Speakers
Rob Sabin  |  Sep 09, 2017  |  0 comments
UK-based Meridian, known for its high-end, DSP-driven self-powered loudspeakers, has created a component interface that, for the first time, allows any surround processor or preamp to drive its digital speaker line.

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