Sound & Vision February - March 2017

Our Top Picks of the Year roundup is our annual opportunity to look back on the work we accomplished through the year and ruminate on which products really stood out. We start by querying individual reviewers for their nominees, asking them to pick strictly from among those products they tested themselves and which were already granted Top Pick status. There are usually a few among the list that jump out. If you’ve been lucky as an enthusiast, you may recall components in your system that you connected with emotionally and which just gave you, well, satisfaction. These are the hardest ones to part with when you find they no longer serve your needs or have become outdated. For our reviewers, a look at that list of completed reviews might even…

E-mail them to HTLetters@sorc.com.Please note: Questions about the features and functions of a particular product are best directed to the manufacturer. Questions about what product you should buy are best directed to a dealer who knows all the details of your system, your preferences, and your personal habits. All submissions are considered the exclusive property of Sound & Vision magazine and TEN: The Enthusiast Network. We reserve the right to edit letters for brevity. Due to the volume of mail that we receive, we regret that we cannot respond to every letter. Just Like Clockwork It’s been amusing to read the letters from the opposite sides of the audiocultural-generational debate over the last few issues. It all reminds me of A Clockwork Orange. Our dear brother Alex from that movie had speakers around…

NEW GEAR, TOP NEWS, HOW TO, AND MORE... The daggers (OK, beans) were flying around the room, whizzing by my head as they traversed the room. I flinched. More than once. It was a convincing demo of fast-moving sound placement, courtesy of the “Echo Game” drum/dance scene in House of Flying Daggers. The 7.1-channel reference system, still in prototype form, did a remarkable job of putting me in the middle of the action. Even more impressive, all of the speakers were wireless. I’ve never forgotten that demo, but I haven’t heard much lately about the Wireless Speaker & Audio (WiSA) technology behind it, so I reached out to Tony Ostrom, who took over as president of the WiSA Association last August, for an update.—Bob Ankosko S&V: You joined WiSA last August. Tell…

AT&T’s AirGig would deliver highspeed wireless Internet service using a modulated radio signal around power lines for last-mile distribution. It would complement the fiber-based GigaPower platform... “4K Is Our Destiny,” says Jeff Joseph of the Consumer Technology Association. Research shows that 62 percent of consumers plan to buy an Ultra HD viewing device in the next year, and 29 percent plan to buy a UHD TV, with screen size and picture quality high on their priority list... Virtual Reality Headsets in the wild will number 81 million by 2020, says IHS Technology. Sony’s Play-Station VR platform for PS4 is expected to outpace PC-based Oculus Rift and HTC Vive this year, though Google’s new Daydream View may make inroads... Universal’s VRTGO virtual reality app boasts 3D 360-degree live streaming and is free for Android…

Sony MDR-1000X Bluetooth Headphones PRICE $399 FOR SEVERAL YEARS, BOSE HAS reigned supreme in the world of active noise cancellation. Sony is hoping to change that with the MDR-1000X, their most advanced active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones to date. If the quality of noise cancelling is all that matters to you, I’ll save you time skimming: The ANC on these is rather impressive. Looking to cancel frequencies above the low rumble of an airplane, say, office voices and traffic noise? The 1000X are one of your best bets. However, if you’re also concerned with audio performance and features that extend beyond the ability to block out the world around you, read on. Sony has clearly spent a lot of time designing the MDR-1000X. Clean, simple lines wrapped in protein leather, the MDR-1000X have…

It surprises me how often people come into my showroom looking to improve their TV audio with still no idea how a surround system works or what it entails. Just last week, a 20-something came in saying he wanted a wireless audio system by a specific brand that he’d heard was the best. I talked to him for a few minutes, querying him on what he wanted the wireless audio system for and what his room layout was like, and it turned out that he was looking for a dedicated home theater system in the $15,000-to-$20,000 range but thought a wireless soundbar was the best place to start. I’ll be honest; I died a little inside. So, to help clear up any misunderstandings, I’m going to give you some general statements…