Sound & Vision October 2017

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. The complex in New York consists of 12 individual “pods”— walled-in cubes with an open front. VR headsets, haptic vests that provide tactile sensations to the wearer’s back and chest, surround sound headphones, and various interactive controllers and/or tactile seating in each pod allow customers to fully immerse themselves in VR sequences created in conjunction with content partners. Some…

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. Sirius Mistakes I read with interest the article by Ken Pohlmann on why he didn’t buy the Benz (“Why I Didn’t Buy the Benz,” Signals, July/ August 2017), which I found especially interesting considering that I own two Benz…

NEW GEAR, TOP NEWS, HOW TO, AND MORE... • Remember iPod Hi-Fi? Of Course You Don’t. I tried to contain my excitement when Apple announced HomePod, declaring it “a breakthrough wireless speaker for the home that delivers amazing audio quality.” And to think that it will use “spatial awareness to sense its location in a room and automatically adjust the audio.” Fantastic! With that kind of technology, I might be forced to end my longstanding (but tenuous) relationship with Windows once and for all, trade in my Samsung Galaxy for an iPhone, and embrace Apple Music. As I pondered Apple’s place in the burgeoning smart speaker market, I scanned the internet to gauge the media’s reaction to the HomePod, trying to decide whether Apple is fashionably late to the party Amazon started three…

Dolby Vision has been added to Oppo UDP-203 ($549) and UDP-205 ($1,299) Ultra HD Blu-ray players as a firmware update. It is also coming to TCL’s U.S. TV line for the first time via the P Series ($499 to $999) and C Series ($699 to $1,000)... TBS and TNT are expanding their mobile presence to include the Roku, Chromecast, and Vizio SmartCast platforms. They are already on Android, iOS, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire... AccuWeather is now an app for Android TV. That brings it to smart TVs from Sony, Philips, TCL, and others... DirecTV Now, AT&T’s shot at luring cord-cutters, now streams on Roku. The set-top box was the last major platform without the streaming service... AT&T’s Latest Unlimited Choice mobile package provides 60 DirecTV channels for $70, which is 10 bucks more than the regular UC bundle…

MrSpeakers Aeon Headphones PRICE $799 RATING MrSpeakers Aeon Headphones THE VERDICT The Aeon are a game changer for MrSpeakers. Their least expensive headphones might be their most accomplished design. AT A GLANCE Plus Closed-back, planar magnetic design Made in San Diego, California Beautifully balanced sound Minus Non-standard connectors on the earcups I MEET A LOT OF AUDIOPHILES who flat out refuse to give headphones a chance. They go on about the headphones they bought in college when Michael Jackson released Thriller and won’t even try the new breed of ’phones. This one here, the MrSpeakers Aeon, might be the headphones that turn them around. The complete package— the sound, the shape, the smooth feel of the carbon fiber earcups, the luxuriously thick earpads, and best of all, the price—might win over even the most curmudgeonly of resistors. The lightweight Nitinol…

With mobile screens dominating your waking hours, app makers have begun targeting the time you spend sleeping. Touch the Sleep button, and some apps will lull you into slumber with tranquil audio or mask invasive sound with white noise. They’ll graph your snores, chart your turnovers, and rate the quality of your experience. They can wake you with good vibrations. While most apps rely solely on your smartphone, others require a Bluetoothconnected pillow or under-mattress sensors. Given S&V’s penchant for speakers, I decided to lay down with the ZEEQ Smart Pillow by REM-Fit. The pillow (26.5 x 16.75 x 5.5 inches) embeds eight wireless speakers (four on each side), a microphone, two vibration motors, a three-axis gyroscope, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery (affording about two weeks of usage), and a wired remote.…