Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Sound & Vision

To begin, some quotes from this issue: • “I found the app to be a little cumbersome and glitchy...on quite a few occasions it would not find one of the zone players on the network or one of the two speakers in my stereo pair.” • “I found the software mostly intuitive and largely stable, but I did encounter a few things to gripe about.” • “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only frustration I experienced with the app. Over the course of two weeks, I found it to be sluggish and unpredictable at times, leaving me longing for the good old days when pressing a button produced immediate results.” • “The app seemed shaky when accessing the larger of the two libraries. Sometimes it would freeze, albeit without interrupting the musical…

Sling Media Has Stopped making Slingbox units, raising questions about its future in standalone devices. The Dish Network–owned technology may continue as a feature built into apps and devices like Dish’s Hopper DVR... Sony Adopted Dolby Vision HDR video technology along with HDR10 in three 2017 Bravia OLED models and three LCD models. Screen sizes range from 55 to 77 inches... LG Adopted Dolby Vision in all 2017 models, having already offered it in several 2016 models along with HDR10. Screen sizes range from 65 to 77 inches... Amazon’s Fire TV interface is being built into UHD sets from Element, Seiki, and Westinghouse in sizes from 32 to 65 inches. “Alexa, turn on the TV”... Haier Is Switching from Roku to Google Chromecast as the streaming platform for its TV…

THE VERDICT The Three melds retro style with modern sound in a beautifully crafted tabletop stereo. PRICE $400 I’M NOT GONNA LIE. WHEN I FIRST saw a press photo of the Three, I was immediately taken with its elegant retro styling—the wraparound grille, the walnut top…those copper control knobs. I wanted one. knobs. I wanted one. Evoking what Klipsch calls the “mid-century” design legacy of its late founder Paul W. Klipsch, the Three boasts impeccably finished walnut panels, a knit grille, and a copper strip with two knobs—one for volume, the other for source selection—plus something you don’t expect to see on modern gear: a toggle switch. Positively retro. Behind the classic façade is a stereo pair of 2.25-inch drivers that flank a 5.25-inch woofer. Klipsch has also incorporated two…

THIS MONTH’S HOT STUFF... DPioneer SE-MS7BT-K Wireless Headphones You’ll be surprised by the price of these elegant headphones—they look way more expensive than they are and support both wireless (Bluetooth aptX/AAC with NFC) and wired playback (via a detachable cord for purists who prefer a direct connection). Battery life in wireless mode is rated for 12 hours, and the ’phones remember up to eight devices for hassle-free connection. Big ’n Cushy: Sound is produced by “hi-res-capable” 1.5-inch drivers, while wide, ergonomically curved earpads create a seal around the ear to increase comfort and reduce noise. A microphone and buttons for play/pause/ answer and volume are located on the edge of the left earcup for easy access. Available in tan or black faux leather with silver earcups or all black. Price:…

PRICE $699 THE VERDICT For the folks who don’t mount their TV on a wall—that is, for the overwhelming majority of TV owners—the Sonos Playbase is an elegant way of creating an excellent-sounding home theater system that’s nearly invisible, supereasy to set up, and blessedly simple to use. SOUNDBASE SONOS PLAYBASE PRICE: $699 Sonos • (800) 680-2345 • sonos.com A SURPRISINGLY SALIENT special survey by Sonos says that something like 70 percent of slender-TV owners select to stand their set on a flat surface rather than sticking it on a wall. (Say that silently seven times.) Seriously—OK, that’s enough of that—Sonos says that the vast majority of people who own a flat-screen TV don’t mount it on a wall. Instead, they set it on a cabinet, cart, table, shelf, the…

THE VERDICT It’s hardly cheap, but McIntosh’s wireless speaker will satisfy your inner audiophile in more ways than one. LOUDSPEAKER MCINTOSH RS100 WIRELESS SPEAKER PRICE: $1,000 ea McIntosh Laboratory • (800) 538-6576 • mcintoshlabs.com PRICE $1,000 ea MY UPS DELIVERY GUY—AFTER having me sign for a pair of McIntosh RS100 wireless speakers, whose brand labeling was plainly evident—couldn’t resist commenting before walking off with a wink and a smile: “Have fun with those!” He was in on the secret, a member of that club of audiophiles or savvy-enough tech consumers who understand that McIntosh isn’t just any old audio brand. The company was founded in Maryland in 1949 by Frank McIntosh, a broadcast industry consultant seeking a decent audio amplifier to sell to his clients. He hired engineer Gordon Gow,…

THE VERDICT The Mu-so Qb is pricey, but it’s impeccably built, offers a number of wired and wireless playback options, and is one of the best-sounding compact wireless speaker systems I’ve heard. WIRELESS SPEAKER NAIM MU-SO QB WIRELESS MUSIC SYSTEM PRICE: $900 Naim Audio • (800) 961-5681 • naimaudio.com PRICE $900 I WAS TROLLING FOR HIGH-BITrate internet radio stations when I stumbled upon Incubus performing “Love Hurts” on Alternative Times Radio out of Prague. I’d never heard the song before but was immediately captivated by the richness of Brandon Boyd’s voice and how realistic the kick drum and snare sounded. And the stream was only 128 kilobits per second… Seeking higher ground, I continued scrolling until I found Radio Paradise, a delightfully eclectic station streaming out of Northern, California at…

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. An Aloof Loof With great anticipation, I quickly leafed through the pages of the April issue looking for the announcement of the latest product from Lirpa Labs. At first I couldn’t find it, but then I spied…

PRICE $1,800 THE VERDICT The MrSpeakers Ether Flow headphones combine clarity with an effortless, non-fatiguing sound that ensures long-term satisfaction. I’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTO headphones, starting with my longlost Sennheiser HD 414 in the early 1970s. I love ’phones, and they keep getting better and better, but I get a lot of pushback from audiophile pals who aren’t yet ready to take the plunge. When asked about what’s holding them back, they complain about comfort and sound that feels crammed inside their heads. Sure, but that was then. It’s time to listen to some of the best new ’phones to hear what’s happening now. Take the new MrSpeakers Ether Flow: It’s so open and spacious, the sound seems to come from around your head! The Ether Flow’s pleated planar magnetic…

The Neal Morse Band Progresses Into the Realization of a Fine Sonic Dream Neal Morse is a busy man. For one thing, the former Spock’s Beard vocalist/keyboardist found much great success after embarking on a long and fruitful solo career 15 years ago. Morse also runs his own label, Radiant Records, and he somehow finds the time to front two other sonically adventurous progressive-leaning bands, Transatlantic and Flying Colors. All of this begs the question: Brother Neal, do you ever sleep? “Oh, I get enough rest! The Lord helps me get enough rest. But sometimes, you know, I have to schedule it in,” Morse says with a chuckle. (Can I get an Amen?) The Neal Morse Band’s latest effort, the double-disc The Similitude of a Dream (available in a special…

THE VERDICT We could argue with the mandatory inclusion of an outboard soundbar, the lack of a stand-mount option, and a lower (but still perfectly satisfactory) peak brightness for HDR than the best of the LCD competition provides. But it’s hard to imagine that any other 65-inch Ultra HDTV in 2017 will offer overall performance superior, or a more impressive aesthetic, than the best LCD competition. ULTRA HDTV LG SIGNATURE OLED65W7P OLED ULTRA HDTV PRICE: $8,000 LG • (800) 243-0000 • lgusa.com PRICE $8,000 DATELINE: MARCH 2017. ALONG with several other bit-drenched members of the audio/video press, we’ve been brought to San Francisco for a day with LG. The events will include a briefing on the company’s Ultra HDTV lineup for 2017, a visit to Dolby headquarters for the latest…

THE VERDICT Accurate, dynamic musical sound, lifelike stereo imaging, and remarkable bass extension and control—plus extensive multiroom streaming abilities—easily counterbalance the few ergonomic quirks of a lovely, ultra-compact design. SOUNDBAR BLUESOUND PULSE SOUNDBAR AND PULSE SUB PRICE: $999, $599 Bluesound • (855) 531-4666 • bluesound.com PRICE $1,598 as reviewed DON’T LOOK NOW, BUT THE soundbars are gaining on us. Hardcore home theater heads like you and me can scoff all we want, but consumer electronics’ all-inone answer to audio for video is getting better, smarter, bassier, and popular-er, by leaps and bounds. High-end-ier, too. For Exhibit A, take the Pulse Soundbar, the latest addition to Bluesound’s wireless-audio ecosystem. Bluesound, the Canadian brand making a serious run at Sonos, lives under the Lenbrook corporate tent, which means it has access to…

NEW GEAR, TOP NEWS, HOW TO, AND MORE... 15 Minutes with Bruno Putzeys You may not have heard of Bruno Putzeys, but if you’re an audiophile and have purchased a highperformance power amplifier in the recent past, you might know his work. Putzeys’ groundbreaking NCore Class D amplifier module, created under the aegis of Netherlands-based Hypex Electronics, is used in amplifiers from ATI, Marantz, Jeff Rowland, and Bel Canto, to name a few. That Morris Kessler, founder of ATI and longtime champion of Class AB amplification, chose NCore for his new AT527NC and AT524NC amplifiers, is telling. Both models received Sound & Vision’s Top Pick designation, earning five stars in the Performance category. We tracked down Putzeys to learn more about the new Class D and the apparent revolution he…

Hi-Res Streams I own an Integra DTR-40.6 A/V receiver that is capable of playing Hi-Resolution Audio (HRA). Here’s what I want to know: If I were to upgrade my Pandora or Spotify account to stream HRA, would I be able to listen to it using the Pandora or Spotify app built into the receiver? My internet service plan is 50-Mbps FIOS, and I have the receiver connected to my router with an Ethernet cable. Tony Held / via e-mail Before I answer your question, let me take a moment to recap some recent HRA streaming news. At CES 2017, Universal, Sony, and Warner all announced they would make titles available for streaming in hires format. Pandora, Napster (formerly Rhapsody), and hi-res download site HDtracks also announced plans to support streaming…

PRICE $399 THE VERDICT The Blue Sadie is one of the more unique headphones on the market. The look and feel are mighty impressive. The sound is up to snuff too! BLUE IS KNOWN PRIMARILY AS a high-end studio and consumer microphone manufacturer, but they broke into the headphone scene with their radically designed Mo-Fi back in 2014. I liked that headphone well enough, but it was heavy, and the sound balance struck me as a little too Beats inspired. Mo-Fi is history, but Blue’s new one goes by the name Sadie, and her sound is more in tune with audiophile tastes. Sadie feels sturdy, but she’s 7 ounces lighter than Mo-Fi, tilting the scales comfortably under one pound. She’s fairly comfortable, and for that I credit Sadie’s Formula One…

The Golden Age of Podcasting Radio has been around for so long that to call it “new media” would be oxymoronic. Yet today’s smorgasbord of podcasts, a.k.a. radio on demand, now reaches a burgeoning audience of mobile users, many of whom assume AM only refers to time. Much like how the automobile expanded listening from parlor to highway, the smartphone has extended podcast play from desktop to shirt pocket. According to Triton Digital/Edison Research, in 2013, 58 percent of users listened to podcasts on a PC and 42 percent on a mobile device. By 2016, shares had shifted to 29 percent on computers and 71 percent on mobile devices. That same research outfit estimated that as of 2016, 36 percent of Americans age 12 and older had listened to a…

THE VERDICT With the Triton Reference, GoldenEar Technology has delivered their finest loudspeaker yet. It looks great, sounds great, and represents an exceptional value in high-end audio. LOUDSPEAKER GOLDENEAR TECHNOLOGY TRITON REFERENCE LOUDSPEAKER PRICE: $8,498/pair GoldenEar Technology • goldenear.com PRICE $8,498/pair WHEN I REVIEWED GOLDENEAR Technology’s debut loudspeaker, the Triton Two, shortly after the company launched in 2010, co-founder/ president/polymath Sandy Gross indicated that it would be the first of many to come. He wasn’t exaggerating. New entries arrived thereafter in quick succession, including powered towers, passive towers, soundbars, subwoofers, bookshelf models, and in-ceiling speakers. And in 2014, the company introduced the Triton One. Priced at $2,500 each or $5,000 for the pair, it represented the pinnacle of GoldenEar’s mission to combine high performance with high value. My take—and that…

BEFORE Calibration AFTER Calibration FULL-ON/FULL-OFF Contrast Ratio: Unmeasurable FOR the picture settings used in this review, go to soundandvision.com. THE measurements here were made using CalMAN measurement software from SpectraCal, together with a Konica Minolta CS-2000 and Klein K-10A color meters, and the Murideo Fresco Six-G 4K pattern generator. The peak white levels given below were rounded here to the nearest foot-lambert/nit. AT a peak white output (SDR Rec. 709 mode, post calibration) of 44 ft-L (measured in ISF Expert Dark Room Picture Mode, with the OLED Light at 43, Contrast at 79, Brightness at 52), the set’s black level could not be measured (in effect, it was totally black). IN SDR and the ISF Expert (Dark Room) Picture Mode, the pre-calibration grayscale Delta E values, at a peak unclipped…

THE VERDICT The Yamaha WXA-50 has a clean and lively sound, a space-saving form factor, and the ability to stream to devices using the company’s MusicCast system—including the reasonable-sounding WX-010 wireless speaker. AMPLIFIER AND SPEAKER YAMAHA MUSICCAST WXA-50 AMPLIFIER AND WX-010 SPEAKER PRICE: $500, $200 Yamaha • (714) 522-9105 • usa.yamaha.com PRICE $500 (amp); $200 (speaker) IF YOU ARE THE INTENDED audience for the Yamaha MusicCast WXA-50 amplifier, you find A/V receivers too big, black, and boxy. You are happy with two-channel sound but turned off by doghousesized stereo amps sitting on the floor. Soundbars may give you Bluetooth, but that isn’t enough. You’re willing to accept the architecture of a conventional home audio system— amp, speakers, sources—but on a more modest scale. And because you live in more than…