Control Central

ANY NEW surround sound processor circa-2021 is bound to have a heap of demands placed upon it. Along with support for the latest immersive audio formats—Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, etc.—there’s music streaming, Auto EQ/room correction, and HDMI video switching of the latest 4K/ high dynamic range video formats.

How Napoleon Bonaparte Invented the Compact Disc

You can admit it. You are intrigued. Of course, it can’t be true. But is it purely nonsensical? Is it a “pigs can fly” kind of declaration? Or is there someway, somehow, a grain of truth in it? And if that’s the case, how on earth could you conceivably connect the dots between the Little Corporal and the Compact Disc?

Bass is the Place

AS SOMEONE who appreciates the benefit deep bass brings to music and movie soundtracks, I’ve come to accept that having a box the size of a small refrigerator in my living room is a reality of life I need to contend with.

The World Of Raised By Wolves

A behind-the-scenes look at director Ridley’s Scott’s HBO Max sci-fi series

Headphones

Headphones

Wireless Speakers

Wireless Speakers

Subwoofers

Subwoofers

Extras

Extras

The Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup Super Deluxe Edition

Show of hands, please—how many of you rate August 1973’s Goats Head Soup as your favorite Rolling Stones album? Anyone? No? Can’t say I blame you.

Home electronics – Buy Once, Cry Once

PART 2. In my previous column (Buy Once, Cry Once), I considered areas in your A/V budget where you should consider splurging when building a system. The categories I listed—projection screens, amplifiers, speakers—are ones that can provide years of enjoyment, but don’t see regular or major upgrades. I also covered categories like subwoofers that have a real impact on a system’s overall performance, and ones like pre-wiring that can strongly affect a system’s future serviceability.

Supersized TV

Remember the rear-projection TV (RPTV)? RPTVs were big, boxy contraptions housing a projector that beamed an image at the rear of a screen mounted on the set’s front surface.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Okay, children! Time for a bedtime story! Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. While walking through the forest, she came upon a quaint little village. In that village, there were three ways to watch movies.

The Sound of Silver

THERE ARE quite literally hundreds of small, two-way loudspeakers you can buy priced from under $100 to well north of $10,000 per pair.

Qello Hooray

Qello seeks to corner the market on streaming concerts and music documentaries. Do they have enough diverse material in their coffers to satisfy our consumptive hunger for content?

New Bronze Age

BRITAIN-BASED Monitor Audio offers a wide range of loudspeakers at prices spanning from the bargain basement up to the penthouse that are cleverly named for a variety of metals: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze.

Class-D-elightful

Whether you fall into the “all well-designed amps sound the same when used within their limits” camp or the “amp selection is critical” army of true believers, it’s arguable that prior to the turn of the millennium amps designed for high-performance audio had fallen into a rut.

The Next Generation

The big car companies refresh their lineups on a pretty regular schedule. Honda, for example, brings out all-new versions of its models every four to five years, and it makes smaller upgrades and improvements in the years between the big changes.

John Lennon Reimagined

The Making of Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes

The 300 Spartans - Ultra HD Blu-ray

Inspired by the 1962 Cinemascope epic The 300 Spartans that he saw as a lad, writer/artist Frank Miller would go on to create the five-issue graphic novel 300, a wildly stylized, heavily fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae.

Meet the New Boss

VPL-VW885ES, a 4K LCOS projector with a laser light engine

JVC Projector Theater Optimizer Function

JVC announced a firmware update for its native 4K D-ILA projectors that delivered true frame adaptive HDR tone mapping to the lineup.

Ditching DLNA

HIGH END- PROJECTORS

Buy Once, Cry Once

Buy once, cry once. You might be familiar with that old adage, which is used to describe the purchase of a high-cost item that entails upfront financial “pain,” but with no need to buy again in the future due to the superior craftsmanship and build quality. It’s often associated with tools and watches but works quite well for A/V gear.

Turn It up To 11.2

DENON AVR-X6700H 11.2-CHANNEL A/V RECEIVER

The Road to Utopia

FOCAL CHORA 826-D SPEAKER SYSTEM

The Rapture of the Rumble

Because everything must be controversial, I am going to be controversial. This column discusses God, politics, climate change, and Enzo Ferrari. Furthermore, if it causes lightning to strike you, so be it.

Virtually There

With large-scale live events still in a holding pattern, attending VR and AR concerts online could be the next best bet for diehard concertgoers.

DISTRICT 9 - ULTRA HD BLU-RAY

DISTRICT 9 rises above its disparate components—there are multiple strong influences, everything from Alien Nation to the faux-documentary feel of The Office—to deliver a socially resonant story that’s even more relevant a decade after its release.

GHOST IN THE SHELL - ULTRA HD BLU-RAY

MAMORO OSHII’S beautiful and unsettling anime film, Ghost in the Shell, has been released on Ultra HD Blu-ray to celebrate its 25 th anniversary.

Beryllium Dreams

Revel Performabe surround speaker system