Expertise

Contrast ratio vs black level
Tied together, but not the same importance.
The Connected Car: 2013 Edition
New in-dash receivers play nice with smartphones. Plus: Sync and MyLink app updates.
The "mad scientist" of Sony audio
The engineer who guides development of Sony audio electronics—right down to the choice of solder

What's New

Is Everybody Happy?

How to get great home theater performance without having to file for divorce
- By Doug Newcomb
- Posted July 30, 2002
Photos by Tony Cordoza
I consider myself very fortunate to have a wife who indulges my obsessions. There's the time last summer when she sat in a rental car on a sweltering beach in Baja while I surfed for more than an hour.

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15 Minutes with Chris Isaak
- By Mike Mettler
- Posted July 30, 2002
Chris Isaak can't sit still. The second successful season of Showtime's art-imitates-life-imitating-art pseudo-reality series The Chris Isaak Show is wrapping up, but that leaves little time for the quick-draw 45-year-old crooner to relax. The third season is already in development, and a summer tour supporting his latest album, Always Got Tonight (Reprise), is coming up.
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Action Figures

Portables on four platforms offer plenty of options for musical excitement.
- By Michael Antonoff
- Posted July 30, 2002
Photos by Tony Cordoza
Over the years personal stereo has evolved from an offensive weapon (think boombox) to a defensive one. When you're wearing earphones in a crowd, you're ensconced in a zone of privacy. People don headphones at a health club or on the street in part to signify they don't want to be approached.

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How to Audition Speakers

(Originally published in: /Stereo Review/, Sept. 1998)
- By Daniel Kumin
- Posted July 23, 2002
Surely there are few more subjective tasks than evaluating speakers solely by listening. One audiophile's meat is another one's poison, after all.
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Strings Attached

Thanks to wireless technology, there's never been a better time to install a home network.
- By Brian C. Fenton
- Posted July 22, 2002
Photos by Eric Yang An Intel AnyPoint PC Card wireless network adapter ($99).
Computer networking isn't a subject you'd necessarily expect to read about in Sound & Vision.

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No Strings Attached

Thanks to wireless technology, there's never been a better time to install a home network.
- By Brian C. Fenton
- Posted July 22, 2002
Photos by Eric Yang
Computer networking isn't a subject you'd necessarily expect to read about in Sound & Vision. But because more and more home-entertainment gear wants to get connected to the Internet and because networking is a viable way to distribute compressed audio and video, it makes sense for us to look at where home networks are today.

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Satellite Radio A to Z

XM and Sirius go head to head in a Rocky Mountain road trip.
- By Ken C. Pohlmann & Leslie Shapiro
- Posted July 10, 2002
Photos by Brian Payne The temperature was chilly - at least to two southerners - but even the coldest day in Rocky Mountain National Park is sweltering compared to the frigid -450° void of outer space.
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Mighty Cam

Sony's Internet-savvy MicroMV camcorder.
- By Michael Antonoff
- Posted July 10, 2002
Photos by Tony Cordoza The launch of a new cassette format in 2002 made me wonder whether those who invented the Walkman were back in charge at Sony. The payoff is that the tape cassettes, so tiny they could be mistaken for audio microcassettes, are for high-quality video recording in Sony's new MicroMV camcorders.
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High-Tech Hotel

Going on the road doesn’t mean leaving your entertainment at home anymore
- By Jamie Sorcher
- Posted June 27, 2002
Arrive at a high-tech hotel, and you're in for a refreshing experience. Imagine being greeted curbside by a bellman bearing a PDA who registers you in just moments, eliminating what can be a frustrating trip to the front desk. In more and more hotels, new technology is making agonizingly long check-in lines and the risk of getting stuck with a lousy room nuisances of the past.

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Three for the Money

Our expert helps three people figure out the best way to spend their home-entertainment dollars
- By Gear Guy
- Posted June 27, 2002
A lot has changed since a year ago, when I was last given the chance to offer some advice in these pages. Home theater systems in general - and DVD players in particular - have gotten a lot cheaper; new formats like DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD, and recordable DVD are becoming established; and convergence gear like hard-drive audio and video recorders is cheaper and more common.

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HDTV at Large

Three reports from the field on the current state of high-definition TV.
- By Al Griffin, Michael Antonoff And Leslie Shapiro
- Posted June 26, 2002
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Panasonic's e-wear

The SV-AV10 camera, A/V recorder, and music player makes a high-tech fashion statement.
- By Michael Antonoff
- Posted June 26, 2002
You might suppose Minerva & the Bell Ringers was a 1960s girl group, but it's actually a mechanical clock located outdoors in New York City's Herald Square. On the hour, pivoting statues strike a bell up to 12 times, temporarily dislodging a pigeon or two. A still camera is inadequate for capturing the sound and motion. If I were a tourist, I might reach for a camcorder.
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