Sound & Vision January 2018

“It’s my honor to hold up the banner as we enter our 60th anniversary year.” Last fall, while visiting family in upstate New York, I took a side-trip to Bethel, the rural enclave that unwittingly found fame as the last-minute, rabbit-out-of-the-hat site chosen for the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair. We all know what happened that August weekend, what with the 400,000-plus crowd of music-loving hippies descending on an event planned for 150,000, the busted-down fences that turned it into a free concert before it got started, the rain, the mud, the brown acid that was “not specifically too good,” the skinny dipping, more rain, more mud, and of course the legendary musical performances that culminated on Monday morning with Jimi Hendrix’s set and his iconic wailing of the national…

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. When I Grow Up, I Want to Be Mark Peterson I’m interested in purchasing some test equipment to test speakers. Basic stuff like frequency response, sensitivity, impedance, and so on. Can you recommend some items and/or where to look…

• 15 Minutes with Apple’s Phil Schiller WHEN AMAZON introduced Echo in November 2014, we didn’t know quite what to make of it. A voice-controlled speaker from Amazon? Of course, with its new Alexa voice service on board, it was more than just a speaker—it was, as Amazon put it, a “new category of device.” That category, which has come to be known as smart speakers, has exploded, attracting the likes of Google, Sonos, Harman (now owned by Samsung), and most recently Apple. While Amazon is still the undisputed king of the category it invented—owning 70-plus percent of the market and offering a full line of products—will it be able to hold onto that lead as competition heats up? When Apple announced in June its intention to deliver the HomePod smart…

Apple TV Went UHD in its fifth-generation box. And yes, it supports HDR... A Free Apple TV Box is what you get for subscribing to the DirecTV Now streaming service at $35/ month for 60 live and on-demand channels. You’ll have to pre-pay for three months... TiVo’s 4K Mini will support Ultra HD IP video, complementing the UHD Bolt DVR. Multichannel News reports that “it might also serve as a wholehome complement to a new Arris-made gateway that is powered by TiVo’s software and is targeted to MVPD [cable or satellite] partners”... DirecTV Now’s Cloud DVR is in beta testing, allowing storage of up to 100 hours of shows. No word on further rollout or cost... Panasonic Joined the HDR10+ crew, supporting the platform developed by Samsung and 20th Century Fox. Like competing Dolby…

PRICE $2,495 I’M GOING TO COME RIGHT OUT and say it: The Audeze LCDi4 are hands down the best-sounding in-ear headphones I’ve heard. They’re the most transparent and open, have the flattest tonal balance, and the bass—OMG—is deeper and faster than any other in-ears on the planet! The LCDi4, like Audeze’s other in-ear headphones, the iSine 10 ($399, reviewed in our May 2017 issue) and iSine 20 ($599), redefine the in-ear category. They look, fit, and sound like no other in-ears. The LCDi4, iSine 20, and iSine 10 each feature 30mm planar magnetic drivers, and their Fluxor magnet arrays are all the same. It’s the i4’s diaphragm that’s different. It’s one-quarter the thickness and weight of the iSine 10/20’s diaphragms, so the LCDi4’s impulse and treble response are cleaner. The iSine 10…

Got Connection? How important is internet connectivity? In a poll of 18- to 25-yearolds in the U.K., they valued a good internet connection more highly than trifles such as a healthy diet, hot water, daylight, and the welfare system. Now, I admit that vegetables have never been high on my favorites list. Hmm.... In any case, connectivity is pretty important. Ask yourself: How many hours a day do you spend with an internet connection? Which is more important to you, a voice telephone or an internet connection? How long could you go without a connection? A month? A week? A day? And they say crack cocaine is addictive. Fully cognizant of this, companies are rushing to provide the bitstreams we crave. For example, Samsung has announced that by 2020, all of their home…