IK Multimedia iLoud MTM Powered Monitor Review

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

PRICE $700/pair

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Superbly accurate tonal balance
Remarkable bass extension
Highly adaptable onboard EQ options
Onboard auto room correction
Minus
Finite output may not suit far-field listening
No auto on/off
No built-in sub integration option

THE VERDICT
IK Multimedia’s powered monitor is a great desktop audio option, and it also delivers sufficient output for far-field listening in small-size rooms.

With few of us straying far from home these days, or from our computer with its constant stream of information, entertainment, hope, and fear, desktop audio is having a moment.

For this reason, many are discovering a need for some- thing better than the crappy 2.1-channel "computer speaker" systems we bought back in the early 'aughts. What we need is an ultra-compact active monitor—like IK Multimedia's iLoud MTM.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/ik-multimedia-iloud-mtm-powered-monitor-review

Hands-On: Vidgo Live TV Streaming

Vidgo Live TV streaming service launched at the end of 2019. Similar to lesser-known PhiloTV and FuboTV, it is holding its own against the popular YouTube TV and Hulu+Live TV. The experience is not as robust as what you'll get from YouTube, Hulu, AT&T TV, or Sling TV, but it may be enough to give basic cable channels to those who've cut the cord.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/hands-vidgo-live-tv-streaming

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...

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Paramount Presents: Elizabethtown, Love Story and The Greatest Show on Earth

The Paramount Presents line kicked off last April, reintroducing viewers to some of the most enduring titles in the studio's vast library in reverent new Blu-ray editions. Thomas J. Norton recently reviewed the 13th release, The Court Jester, and three more are now available, spanning quite different eras of filmmaking.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/paramount-presents-elizabethtown-love-story-and-greatest-show-earth

Best Gear of March 2021

Along with the Gift of Spring, March delivered an international mix of gear, including wireless earbuds that bring a personal twist to on-the-go listening, a fantastic space-saving speaker system from one of Canada’s most popular audio brands, and the latest Top Pick offerings from two family-owned hi-fi companies that have been operating in far-flung parts of the world for decades.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/best-gear-march-2021

Are Preamp Outs on AVRs and Pre-Pros the Same?

Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q Do the preamp outputs on A/V receivers work as well as those on a standalone preamp-processor? What functionality does one lose when using pre-outs on a receiver? —Ravinder Dhawan, Watchung, NJ

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/are-preamp-outs-avrs-and-pre-pros-same

PSB PWM-1 On-Wall Surround Speaker System Review

Speakers
Performance
Build Quality
Value

Subwoofer
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

PRICE $6,193 (as tested)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Dynamic sound for on- wall speakers
Versatile installation options
Solid build quality
Minus
Sub pricey compared with standalone units

THE VERDICT
PSB’s classy but low-profile PWM1 on-wall speakers and CSIR SUB subwoofer won’t attract attention, and they're not meant to. An excellent choice if you want a great-sounding speaker system for movies and music that won’t take over your room or your life.

A common notion among audiophiles who dismiss on-wall speakers is that speakers need to be positioned well out into a room in order to get big, spacious sound. But that kind of thinking misses the point. For many, on-wall speakers can be an excellent option if you don't want to dedicate your living room to a hi-fi or home theater audio system, but also expect dynamic and enveloping sound that's a step above what you'd get from in-wall speakers.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/psb-pwm-1-wall-surround-speaker-system-review

Are Your Ready to Build Your Own Loudspeakers?

Building your own speakers from scratch Is an activity I've written about before. But that first blog is now accessible only by delving deeply into our Wayback Time Machine, so a revisit to this intriguing audio subculture is worth a follow-up here. Read on to find out if you have what it takes to take on a DIY speaker project.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/diy-loudspeakers

Polk Audio Launches Reserve Series Loudspeakers

Baltimore’s Polk Audio has announced the launch of its Reserve Series loudspeaker lineup. Following in the wake of the company’s premium, and correspondingly pricey, Legend Series, which debuted in 2019, the Reserve family seeks “to retain as much of the Polk Legend flagship performance as possible within a moderately priced package,” according to the company’s press release.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/polk-audio-launches-reserve-series-loudspeakers

Qobuz Hi-Res Music Streaming Now Available on Sonos

Music streaming service Qobuz has announced that its Hi-Res music library is now available for streaming on Sonos wireless multiroom speakers. This makes Qobuz the first music service to deliver 24-bit Hi-Res audio streaming on the Sonos platform.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/qobuz-hi-res-music-streaming-now-available-sonos

DIY Loudspeakers

Building your own speakers from scratch Is an activity I've written about before. But that first blog is now accessible only by delving deeply into our Wayback Time Machine, so a revisit to this intriguing audio subculture is worth a follow-up here.

There was a time, even further back in time, when building ones own loudspeakers was fairly common. It was both easier then and at the same time more difficult. But ignorance was bliss. Research was hard, and with little technical help available and no internet or computers (horrifying; how could anyone possibly cope!!), wild experimentation was common. That was even true of many classic commercial speakers, with their multiple midranges (and/or) and tweeters often spread out every which way on the baffle, with no of regard for diffraction or comb filtering. The Dark Ages! (Humbling thought: in 50 years audiophiles, if such a thing still exists, might well look back at 2021 as the Heart of Audio Darkness!)

I built four pairs of loudspeakers myself back in the day...

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/diy-loudspeakers

Polk Audio Launches Reserve Series Loudspeakers

Baltimore’s Polk Audio has announced the launch of its Reserve Series loudspeaker lineup. Following in the wake of the company’s premium, and correspondingly pricey, Legend Series, which debuted in 2019, the Reserve family seeks “to retain as much of the Polk Legend flagship performance as possible within a moderately priced package,” according to the company’s press release.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/polk-audio-launches-reserve-series-loudspeakers

Bluesound Introduces Pulse Soundbar+

Bluesound has announced that the Pulse Soundbar+ will soon be added to its family of wireless multiroom speakers. The “plus” in this case is the addition of Dolby Atmos immersive audio, along with a few other features including HDMI eARC that help position the company’s new offering a sizeable step above its original Pulse Soundbar.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/bluesound-introduces-pulse-soundbar

Remaster Class: Derek and the Dominos: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Eric Clapton was in pain. Deep pain. He was hopelessly in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his close friend George Harrison, and there was little he could do about it. Hence, Clapton did what any relatively desperate artist would to express his innermost feelings about the situation—he created an alternate identity (Derek), gathered a semi-fictional band around him (The Dominos), and channeled all of his heartache into a triumphant, sprawling double album, November 1970's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/remaster-class-derek-and-dominos-layla-and-other-assorted-love-songs

SVS Announces 3000 Micro Subwoofer

‘Tis the season for micro-subs! SVS, a company known best for powerful, take-no-prisoners subwoofers, has announced the arrival of its new baby, the 3000 Micro. The latest from SVS features dual opposing 8-inch drivers in a compact 10.9 x 11.7 x 10.7-inch (HxWxD) enclosure. An 800-watt RMS, 2,500-watt peak Power Sledge STA-800D2 amplifier with discreet MOSFET output provides equal power to both drivers, which fire in opposite directions to cancel out any energy transferred to the cabinet that might result in vibration and “sub crawl.” Like other subs in the SVS family, the 3000 Micro benefits from the SVS subwoofer control smartphone app for advanced DSP tuning.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/svs-announces-3000-micro-subwoofer

Peter Vasay: How THX Is Staying True to its Mission

Few companies in the home entertainment electronics industry have as storied a history as THX, the company born out of George Lucas’ desire to bring the movie-going experience as close as possible to how he envisioned his theatrical creations on the big screen. Disappointed by the sonic limitations of movie theaters when the original Star Wars film was released in 1977, the celebrated screenwriter/director engaged a team of audio engineers to define a series of technical parameters theater owners could follow to achieve what we would call today an immersive experience. The theatrical program was a huge success, eventually finding its way into the home, and the rest is history. We caught up with Peter Vasay, general manager and senior VP for home products at THX Ltd., to get an update on what the iconic brand has been up to lately and where it’s headed.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/peter-vasay-how-thx-staying-true-its-mission

SVS Virtual Audiophile Happy Hour Is Back—Again!

The SVS Virtual Audiophile Happy Hour returns with yet another new product announcement today, Thursday, March 18 at 6p.m. ET, live on the SVS Facebook page and YouTube channel! According to SVS, the new product is “game-changing” and will “dwarf anything SVS has done before.” Wonder what it could be?

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/svs-virtual-audiophile-happy-hour-back-again

Linn Majik DSM Streaming Integrated Amplifier Review

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

PRICE $3,835

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Great sound quality
Multiple HDMI inputs (w/ARC)
Effective Space Optimisation room correction
Built-in phono stage
Minus
Dealer setup recommended
Small speaker terminals

THE VERDICT
Linn's all-in-one wireless streamer/amplifier/DAC offers impressive sound, sleek looks, and plentiful connectivity options.

According to the corporate lore of Scottish audio manufacturer Linn, in 1973 a newly married engineer named Ivor Tiefenbrun went shopping at his wife's direction to buy home furnishings. To his wife's chagrin, the story goes, he instead returned with a stereo system. After setting it up, Ivor was disappointed with the sound, but soon discovered that moving the turntable from his listening room into an adjoining room improved the system's performance since the speakers' output no longer interacted with the turntable and distorted the audio signal.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/linn-majik-dsm-streaming-integrated-amplifier-review

How to Plan Your AV Budget Part 2

In my previous blog, I considered areas in your A/V budget where you should consider splurging when building a system. If you’re fortunate enough to have the budget for a high-end home entertainment system, then absolutely pursue the best gear available. Premium gear does offer premium performance — plus pride of ownership — and it’s hard to put a price on the joy a top-notch system can deliver. But for the bulk of us who need to carefully allocate our A/V budget, here are some suggestions on where to consider saving, or even scrimping.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/how-plan-your-av-budget-part-2

Ottens and Máaz

Juxtaposition: noun. The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. The Dutch inventor of the compact cassette tape recorder has died. The Perseverance rover has transmitted an acoustic recording of laser shots on Mars.

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Pat & Deborah Mastelotto Reveal How They Romanticized King Crimson

It's not a complete misnomer to observe the audience for King Crimson music tends to skew more towards the male side of the listening ledger—but that statement in no way means their forward-thinking music holds little or no sway with female music aficionados and audiophiles alike. In fact, far from it.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/pat-deborah-mastelotto-reveal-how-they-romanticized-king-crimson

Building a Home Theater? Avoid these Pitfalls

Are you thinking about building a home theater — or maybe converting an existing media room into a space dedicated to movie viewing? If so, there are a whole host of things to consider before you break ground, so to speak. Drawing on its 40-plus years of experience as a home audio and video specialist, North Carolina’s Audio Advice has identified the most common mistakes home theater builders make — from picking a screen that’s too small to ignoring room acoustics — and come up with meaningful advice on how to avoid these pitfalls to ensure a great home theater experience.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/building-home-theater-avoid-these-pitfalls

TV Testing: How Do You Measure Brightness?

Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q How do you measure the brightness of a TV and convert that number to nits? —Gary Eickmeier, Lakeland, FL

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Hands On: All About Paramount Plus

Paramount+ launched last week, absorbing and adding to the CBS All Access app. The newly rebranded service adds content from several channels brought to CBS following the 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom. Find out more about the expanded streaming service.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/hands-all-about-paramount-plus

Monolith by Monoprice M-TWE True Wireless Earbuds Review

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

PRICE $130

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Long battery life
Comfortable fit
Compatible with SonarWorks SoundID app
Minus
Complicated LED indicators
No track controls on touchpads
Sound quality reduction with ANC off

THE VERDICT
Affordable true wire- less earbuds that work with the SonarWorks SoundID app might seem too good to be true, but that’s exactly what you get with the Monolith M-TWE.

Monoprice is an affordable direct-to-consumer brand, and its Monolith product line features sophisticated A/V gear including speakers, amps, surround sound processors, and now the new Monolith M-TWE earbuds. The M-TWE touts aptX Bluetooth audio, active noise cancellation (with cVc Echo Cancelling and Noise Suppression for phone calls), and SonorWorks SoundID, a feature that lets you customize sound to your preference, all at a very budget-friendly $130.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/monolith-monoprice-m-twe-true-wireless-earbuds-review

Sonos Introduces Roam Portable Smart Speaker

Spring has nearly sprung, and that means people will soon be heading outdoors for socially distanced adventures. More good news: Your adventures can be soundtracked by the Roam, a new $169 ultra-portable smart speaker from Sonos that connects via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and has an IP67 rating to make it both dust- and water-proof.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/sonos-introduces-roam-portable-smart-speaker

Dune, Theaters, and Streaming

The changes to how we watch media resulting from the closing of theaters due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been unprecedented. True, not all theaters are closed. Here in the wilds of Florida my local AMC has been open for some time. But its current slate of movies is hardly the stuff of dreams: Boogie, Chaos Walking, The Mauritanian (not The Mandalorian!), The Little Things, The Marksman, The Croods: A New Age, and Raya and the Last Dragon. The latter is the only one tempting me to break my year long hiatus from that theater's Dolby Vision and IMAX auditoriums, but not quite enough for me to do so even though I've now joined the few, the proud, and the vaccinated.

A whole spate of potential blockbusters have either been released to streaming or are being held over until the studios are confident that if they show them (in theaters) they will come.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/dune-theaters-and-streaming

Epson, Philips Agree on Industry Standard Projector Specs

Epson wants to protect you, the consumer, from misleading brightness claims in projector advertising. To that end, the company has reached an agreement with Philips and Screeneo Innovation that all future Philips NeoPix projectors designed, manufactured, and sold by Screeneo will use industry standard specifications (ISO 21118:2020) for brightness claims. The agreement is the latest chapter in Epson’s ongoing effort to cast light on deceptive advertising—a particular problem with cheap models sold on Amazon’s e-commerce site.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/epson-philips-agree-industry-standard-projector-specs

The Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup Super Deluxe Edition

Performance
Sound

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. Any record following The Stones' May 1972 career-defining double-album masterpiece Exile on Main St. would have an impossibly high bar to overcome, no matter what made the final cut. Fact is, Goats Head Soup had a master chef's menu stacked against it from the outset. And time has very much not been on its side, as Goats Head Soup has long served as a relatively underappreciated entry in The Rolling Stones' somewhat uneven mid-1970s studio-album canon.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/rolling-stones-goats-head-soup-super-deluxe-edition

Paradigm Launches Founder Series Loudspeakers

Canada’s Paradigm has announced its new Founder Series, the first speaker lineup to emerge from the company since it was reacquired by founder Scott Bagby two years ago. According to Paradigm, the new line, which is designed, tested, engineered, and manufactured at its Toronto, Canada facility, is an evolution of its Persona line and features new driver design and cabinet construction technologies.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/paradigm-launches-founder-series-loudspeakers

New Gear for Spring 2021

The historic cold of Winter 2021 is almost behind us at last. As a new season beckons and we anticipate what “spring cleaning” might look like in a world moving quickly toward post-pandemic status, it’s a good time to take stock in all facets of your life, including the home entertainment setup that helped push you through the darkest days of COVID-19 isolation. Many of us took time during lockdown to upgrade our AV systems with bigger screens, better sounding audio gear, a new turntable, or perhaps a more functional setup. To help keep the wheels of progress turning, we present a sampling of the latest A/V news, which as it turns out is dominated by a gaggle of interesting speakers from brands old and new.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/new-gear-spring-2021

Rotel RSP-1576MKII Surround Sound Processor Review

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

PRICE $3,500

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Dolby Atmos and DTS:X processing
Dirac Live Full room correction
Fully backlit remote control
Minus
No Dolby Vision pass-through
Music streaming options limited to Bluetooth
Lacks setup and control app

THE VERDICT
Rotel's RSP-1576MKII lacks some features you'd expect to see on a surround sound preamp/processor circa-2021, but audiophile-grade sound quality and Dirac Live Full room correction help make up for any deficits.

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. And because a surround sound processor serves as the main user interface in an A/V system, ergonomic considerations are paramount—how easy is it to switch between sources and tweak audio settings like surround, subwoofer, and center-channel levels on the fly?

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/rotel-rsp-1576mkii-surround-sound-processor-review

Dear Best Buy,

First, congratulations on your company's many successes, including your recent decisions that helped you to weather the lock-down storm. You strike me as a company that is well-run, and I hope you will agree that every well-run company listens to its customers. So, on behalf of audio/videophiles everywhere, I am asking you – begging you – to take into account one very special need of our community.

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https://www.soundandvision.com/content/dear-best-buy