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Movie Premiere: Fast & Furious 6

Leslie Shapiro And Ken C. Pohlmann — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:22:18 GMT

Fast & Furious 6 has cars, explosions, women, and more cars. Did we mention the cars?

The Fast and Furious filmography began in 2001 as a low-budget film based on a magazine article. It now incompasses six feature films and two short films, video games, and it even has its own Guess clothing line. Never aspiring to the same league as franchises such as 007 or Star Trek, FFs are scrappy, popcorn-munching, tremendously profitable testosterone trips. Does the latest installment fire on all cylinders, or run out of gas?

Leslie: I only have four words to say about this film: “Go speed racer, go.”

Ken: But - but - but - we’re being paid by the word! And by stammering, I just make an extra 10 cents! You need to say more than four words!

Leslie: I don’t want to say anything.

Ken: What?!?! You have to give your opinion! That’s a movie critic’s job.

[a long and awkward silence]

Leslie: Okay! I liked the film! I liked it a lot! Are you happy?

Ken: You’re kidding, right? A movie about cars, car chases, car crashes, and car explosions, and you liked it?

Leslie: First, I happen to like cars. Especially fast cars. And this flick has lots of deliciously fast cars driven quickly and with great anger. Second, this movie has real heart. Third, the film has a terrific sense of humor. Fourth, the film has impeccable timing; it knows exactly when to be macho, when to be sentimental, when to be honorable, when to be violent, and when to not take itself so seriously.

Ken: Wow. And you know what - I agree with you. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself, but I did. Who knew that a film about vehicular warfare could be so much fun. I only wish it had more porn.

Leslie: What?!?!?

Ken: Car porn! I was expecting to see 2 hours of uninterrupted car beauty shots and lots of carnauba wax polishing going on, but the film is much more than that. After 4 installments of mainly street racer plots, this one follows in the skid marks of FF5, reaching out for bigger audiences, transitioning into a bigger action story - one with car chases, of course. And, I think they pulled it off.

Leslie: And it has a terrific ensemble cast. If I was a teenage boy, I would have a serious man crush on Vin Diesel.

Ken: I am secure enough in my manhood to say that a man crush on Mr. Diesel is completely understandable. What a cool guy.

Leslie: Agreed. Shifting gears, I thought the production work was first class all the way - as good as any Bond film.

Ken: To hit the summer release date, the crew had to work fast. They set up two mixing theaters and essentially had to compress 18 months of production into 12 weeks. At one point, they had 5 film editors worked simultaneously.

Leslie: The soundtrack doesn’t sound rushed at all. I thought the mix between music and sound effects in the London street race sequence was spectacular. The attention to detail was impressive. The song “Here We Go/Quasar” has some great percussive beats that echoed the skittering sound of the tires going around the corners. Plus, the film edits worked perfectly with the music. This whole scene was outstanding.

Ken: And did you notice where the race ended?

Leslie: Are you kidding? Any rock ‘n roll fan who doesn’t see that should have their Stratocaster taken away.

Ken: The soundtrack is perfect for this kind of movie - from the opening track with 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa, to The Crystal Method and Deadmau5.

Leslie: And of course, Ludacris.

Ken: Of course!

Leslie: The director, Justin Lin, clearly studied his craft at the Film School of More is More. The final sequence, on what is seriously the world’s longest runway, has one of the most complex soundtracks I’ve ever heard. Conservatively speaking, there must be a zillion sound effects mixed in there.

Ken: The sound of the harpoon gun and the various cables zipping through the air was outstanding.

Leslie: I really admired how the mixing engineers were able to sustain such an onslaught of massive sound, while simultaneously mixing in details, and keep it building in intensity. That takes skill, and is a blast when you pull it off.

Ken: The sound mixers definitely had fun, and some clout too, on this film. The first time we see cars flying through the air, the music stops to let the “whoosh” play out.

Leslie: And it’s done subtly - it feels like the music just naturally timed out to allow a breath there. It’s a nice touch.

Ken: Considering this is such a macho flick, I’ll bet you were surprised at how strong the women were portrayed - they kicked some serious ass.

Leslie: Seriously! I think the punches and hits in their fight scenes were even louder and more impactful than the guys. Tough chicks rock! Actually, throughout the film, the Foley work was intense and perfect.

Ken: One thing that car fans might notice is that even though the motor in the flip cars is clearly an LS3, it sounds like an F1. I guess an LS3 just doesn’t sound cool enough.

Leslie: LS3 motors are also used in a lot of the mocked up cars. So, to make the sounds match the pretend body style, they replaced the original sounds. In fact, all the car engines were overdubbed.

Ken: In Hollywood, everyone and everything gets overdubbed.

Leslie: You say that like the cars are actors.

Ken: Well, in a film like this, aren’t they? I liked how the plot conveniently had them unable to use contemporary cars, and they had to find a cache of cool retro cars.

Leslie: I loved the line where the guys identify the engine solely from its sound. My kind of guys. And personally, I could have used more screen time with that flip car.

Ken: I need one of those for my rush-hour commute. I wonder if they’ll have a hybrid coming out?

Leslie: Or at least a diesel.... I thought that Lucas Vidal did a great job with the score. The music had a fabulous techno-beat even in quieter scenes, but he also used some really interesting percussion.

Ken: I liked the mixing of the electronic score with deep, acoustic drums - nice blending of electric and organic sounds.

Leslie: There were a few backfires that even great sound design and music couldn’t save. One of the biggest set pieces, the convoy heist, felt tremendously flat and the action was just plain silly. The producers are probably proud that they were able to destroy so many cars, but that seemed to be the only point of that scene - to shred as many cars as they could.

Ken: They also shredded the laws of physics. And, although the film’s plot is adequate, and even has scenes in Russia, it isn’t exactly Crime and Punishment.

Leslie: Speaking of which, what is the verdict?

Ken: I thought Fast 6 would be a guilty pleasure. But it was a genuine pleasure. Moviegoers who avoid it because they think it’s just a dopey car movie are doing themselves a disservice.

Leslie: I agree. This is a fun, high-octane film with lots of clever dialogue and inventive action. Actually, I found it as thoroughly entertaining as Star Trek Into Darkness.

Ken: To end on an even more positive note, the next installment, Fast Seven, is set to begin filming this summer, for a July, 2014 release! Is it a date?

Leslie: Well, actually - yes. After the tease at the end of 6, it would kill me not to see 7.

Ken: As my close, personal friend Vin Diesel says, “Ride or die.”

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Fast & Furious Gibson

Onkyo adds new mid-priced receivers

Brent Butterworth — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:11:43 GMT

The new top of the middle line adds DTS Neo:X, onboard WiFi, and Bluetooth.

Onkyo has spruced up the middle of its receiver line with two new models, the $1,399 TX-NR929 and the $1,099 TX-NR828. Both are THX Select2 Plus-certified, with 135 watts of power per channel. Both include wireless streaming through WiFi of files up to 24-bit/192-kilohertz resolution from computers, NAS drives, and other networked devices. And both include Bluetooth so your daughter can stream the latest Justin Bieber tune from her iPhone.

The flagship (of the mid-priced line, at least) TX-NR929 includes nine channels of amplification and 11.2-channel preamp line output. Three processing modes—DTS Neo:X, Audyssey DSX, and Dolby ProLogic IIz—create the 9-channel or 11-channel sound from stereo, 5.1, or 7.1 material. It has nine HDMI inputs with Ultra HD 4K pass-through, including an MHL input on the front panel. And it also has MultEQ XT32, the latest and most high-res version of Audyssey's room acoustic equalization technology.

The only-slightly-downscale TX-NR828 has seven channels of amplification, 7.2-channel preamp line output, no Neo:X, just eight HDMI inputs, and plain ol' Audyssey MultEQ instead of the XT32 variant. (Here's Audyssey's explanation of the different versions of MultEQ.)

The TX-NR828 hits retailers in June while the TX-NR929 arrives in July.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Onkyo_TX-NR929

The Onkyo TX-NR929 A/V receiver includes 9 channels of amplification and 11.2-channel preamp outputs.

Eton Rugged Rukus Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Ken C. Pohlmann — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:24:35 GMT

Okay, tough guy. Here’s your lean, mean, music machine.

Sometimes, even during the most secret of covert ops, you need to unwind a little. You know - put your weapons aside (but still placed within easy reach) and relax with The Duffel Blog. But what kind of music playback system is best? You sure can’t pack a big boombox into your knapsack, and when the batteries run out, where are you going to find a Radio Shack in Tora Bora? What you need is a small, rugged music player that can recharge on solar power. With carabiner attach points, of course. What you need is an Eton Rugged Rukus.

The Rugged Rukus is a followup for the Rukus we reviewed a year ago. We liked the Rukus, but when you’re being inserted by helicopter into the Afghan mountains, we find it a little bulky, and it is not ruggedized. The Rugged Rukus is tougher and smaller, measuring a wee 6.5 x 5.9 x 1.8 inches (and weighing 1 pound, 3 ounces). Available in black or green. MSRP is $100.

The wedge-shaped player has stereo speakers firing outward from the big end of the wedge; they are safely tucked behind a grille cover. Top buttons provide power, Bluetooth, level indicator for the internal lithium-ion battery, and volume. You may find the buttons to be too small for your large, manly fingers. On the other hand, they require a good deal of force, and engage with a reassuring lock-and-load feel. Tabs on two corners can be used to strap or secure the player. Aside from the indicator lights, there are no other displays to give away your secret location.

On the small end of the wedge, behind two protective flaps, are an auxiliary input and on/off button with LED indicator, and microUSB port and USB port with on/off button and LED indicator. The microUSB is used to charge the Rukus using the supplied USB cable; sadly, a charger is not included. The USB port can be used to charge your smartphone or other device. That’s pretty nice; even if you never use it for music playback, you’ve got a solar charger for your gear.

The top of the wedge is covered by 20 square inches of solar cells. Eton advises that the Rukus can be charged in about 5 hours in bright sunlight. Playback time from a full charge is about 8 hours; if played in sunlight, playback time would be longer. Charging time via USB/AC is about 2.5 hours. All of these figures seemed about right during our tests.

The Rugged Rukus is ruggedized. I like ruggedized; my phone is ruggedized. It lets me sleep better at night. The RR proves its ruggedized status through its IPX4 rating, meaning it is water resistant/splashproof. If you actually drop it into the lake, all bets are off. On the other hand, Eton claims that the player can be dropped onto the ground from a height of 1 meter.

As noted, the Rukus has an auxiliary audio input but chances are, you’ll usually connect to the Rukus via Bluetooth. This easily accomplished by pressing and holding the Bluetooth button. Pairing is swift and painless.

Either way, wired or wireless, sound quality is surprisingly good. Yes, there isn’t any low bass at all, and treble has its share of notches. But the all-important midrange is actually quite nice. Vocals sound clear and crisp, with low audible distortion; acoustic instruments have a decent sense of natural timbre about them. Moreover, the sound is free of cabinet resonances and any other fuzz-inducing vibration. There is also a certain amount of lower midrange warmth that puts the Rukus a half notch above the platoon of tinny-sounding speakers out there. I wish there had been room in the chassis for a downward firing woofer, to kick in a little bass.

There’s not much stereo separation; the speakers are just too close together (3.25 inches, center-to-center), and there isn’t any spatial perceptual software onboard. On-axis sound quality is radically better than off-axis. I do wish the designers had taken advantage of the wedge shape and angled the speakers upward a bit.

Whether running on batteries or USB/AC power, even at maximum level, volume is relatively low. But, it is satisfactory for most indoor and even modest patio applications but you won’t rock out your next pool party. Probably just as well; a more powerful amplifier would probably overdrive the speakers, increasing distortion. The good news: no matter how hard you are rocking out, the music volume won’t give away your position to the insurgents in the adjacent cave.

Eton is carving out a nice market niche for itself; its portable radios, emergency radios, solar speakers, and even crank-powered radios, show where its head is at. With solar power, Li-ion battery, Bluetooth, compact size, and all-terrain design, the Rugged Rukus is a welcome addition to the lineup. Now drop and give me twenty.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Eton Rugged Rukus Black

Review: Braven BRV-1

Brent Butterworth — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:09:37 GMT

A Bluetooth speaker built to take a pounding ... or a drenching.

Compact Bluetooth speakers are all small enough to toss into a suitcase—but they’re not all tough enough to survive the trip. But I knew the Braven BRV-1 was different when I first pulled it out of its package.

With rubber bumpers covering most of its surface, rubber control buttons, and a bolted-on perfed metal grille, it looked tough enough that I could toss it onto the wooden floor of my office. So I did. Not necessarily a smart thing to do with a review sample, but when I went to mate my Samsung G3S phone with the BRV-1, everything worked just fine. I repeated the demo for my fellow Tech^2 blogger Geoff Morrison and frequent West Coast headphone tester Will Huff, and the BRV-1’s still working, still not showing a scratch.

It’s also rated as waterproof to IPX5 standards, which means it can tolerate a 12.5-liter-per-minute stream of water from a 6.3mm nozzle for 3 minutes. A watertight cap on the back protects the USB jacks and the 3.5mm analog input from water ingress. The top has waterproof controls for power, volume up and down, and play/pause for a Bluetooth-connected device.

Wait, you're asking, why two USB jacks? One's a micro USB for charging the BRV-1. The other's a full-size USB that works as a power output to charge your mobile device. A five-LED meter below the jacks tells you how much charge is let in the BRV-1's batter.

Obviously, the BRV-1 would easily survive any hike, camping trip, or bike tour I’ve ever taken. But that’s all for naught if it doesn’t sound good. It certainly at least looks like it could sound good. The driver complement follows the general paradigm set by the Soundmatters FoxL: two 1.25-inch active drivers, each powered by a 3-watt amp, and a 3-inch passive radiator to reinforce the bass.

Braving the listening panel

Will happened to be in to test some headphones with me, so I asked him to give the BRV-1 a listen, too. I set up a blind listening comparison with two other compact Bluetooth speakers—the RockSteady XS and the Native Union Switch—covering all the speakers with thin black fabric so Will couldn’t see which was which. I then connected all of them to my custom-built blind testing switcher and matched the listening levels. I did the test on my own before Will came over; for me, of course, the test wasn’t blind.

Both Will and I felt that the BRV-1 sounded substantially better than the other Bluetooth speakers we heard. The great thing about it is that its tonal balance is so natural. It's quite a bit fuller-sounding than your average compact Bluetooth speaker, even more so if you place it atop a table or shelf that can vibrate a bit to reinforce the bass. John Paul Jones' alternating pulsing-then-melodic bass line in Led Zeppelin's "Living Loving Maid" rocked hard through the BRV-1, every note from the deepest to the highest sounding even and the little passive radiator putting out enough vibration to get my head bobbing. You pretty much have to crank the unit full-blast when you play rock, because it doesn't play all that loud (typically 80 to 82 dB SPL on dynamically compressed rock tunes), but even at full blast Robert Plant's voice didn't distort or sound strained, and every instrument could clearly be heard.

Less punishing material sounded just as good, maybe even better. On "Bemsha Swing" from Thelonious Monk Trio: Rudy Van Gelder Remasters, I could hear plenty of detail: Max Roach's snare echoing off the walls and ceiling, his metal brush slapping the ride cymbal, and Monk quietly "singing" along with his piano.

I also got a chance to compare the BRV-1 to the Soundmatters FoxL Dash 7, one of the best-sounding compact Bluetooth speakers available. From a tonal balance standpoint, both sounded similarly natural. The Dash 7 has the advantage in refinement, though; the voices of Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger in the English Beat's "Hands Off She's Mine" simply sounded clearer, as did the marimba solo in the middle. It sounds to me like the BRV-1 has a trace of "cupped hands" distortion, as if the singers had their hands lightly cupped around their mouths. I also noticed a slight edginess in the treble with the voices.

Still, while I do prefer the Dash 7, I could live happily with either speaker on a week-long vacation. Which in fact I did when I brought the BRV-1 along on a road trip through California's northern coast, across Oregon to Crater Lake, then returning through Reno and the back side of the Sierras. The BRV-1 easily filled my hotel rooms with sound, whether it was R.E.M.'s Reckoning or NPR's Morning Edition.

Measurements

Frequency response
90 Hz to 20 kHz, ±8.9 dB 0° on-axis, ±7.6 dB 0° to 30° avg

MCMäxxx™ maximum level test (1 meter)
87 dB

Frequency response measurements were taken with a Clio 10 FW audio analyzer and the MIC-01 measurement mike designed for use with Clio. The measurements above 300 Hz were done at a distance of 0.5 meters with the BRV-1 atop a 2-meter stand using quasi-anechoic MLS technique. The blue curve in the accompanying graph shows the response at 0° on-axis; the green curve shows the average of measurements taken at 0°, 10°, 20°, and 30° horizontally. To measure response below 300 Hz, I did a ground plane measurement at 1 meter. The ground plane result was then spliced to the quasi-anechoic curves. The ground plane measurement was smoothed to 1/6^th octave; quasi-anechoic measurements to 1/12^th octave. All measurements were taken using the 3.5mm line input, feeding the left channel only.

The BRV-1's frequency response is rather shockingly flat from 100 Hz to 2 kHz. Then the output rises considerably in the treble, peaking at 6 kHz. This is likely the cause of the mild edginess I heard in some voices. Why didn't it bother us more? Probably because these compact speakers can't play loud enough to annoy you much. Averaged 0° to 30° response is a little smoother than the on-axis response.

On my MCMäxxx™ test, in which I crank up Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart” (a tune that employs extreme dynamic compression) then record the maximum usable volume at 1 meter, the BRV-1 scored 87 dB with the volume turned all the way up, beating out the Dash 7 (which is something of a class leader in output) by 1 dB.

Bottom line

The Braven BRV-1 ranks among the best of the compact Bluetooth speakers I've tested. Sonically, it blows away most of what's on the market. There are a couple of compact Bluetooth speakers that sound a bit better to me, but I'd hesitate to take them on a bike tour. With the BRV-1, though, I'm confident I could (literally) toss it into my panniers and come back after a two-week, rain-filled trip with the unit still working great and probably looking nearly new.

Photo by: Brent Butterworth

Braven_BRV1_main

Primus: Sailing the Seas of Surround

Mike Mettler — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:43:26 GMT

Give a hand to Primus’s Les Claypool, who dives into the 5.1 arena and emerges as a captain of all channels.

Primus does 5.1 proud. And what better way to inaugurate the ever-adventurous Bay Area band’s foray into the surround-sound audio arena than by wrassling the burbling energy of their 1991 major-label breakthrough, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, into a Deluxe Edition (4 1/2 stars; Interscope/UMe)? Thankfully, this Deluxe Cheese has been properly fermented on Blu-ray Audio in 96-kHz/24-bit Dolby TrueHD 5.1.

In the accompanying liner notes (which can also be accessed onscreen), prime Primus visionary, vocalist/bassist Les Claypool, states in no uncertain terms that he wanted to achieve a mix that went “all around the room,” and he’s succeeded in spectacular fashion. Claypool and his co-5.1 mixer and co-engineer Josh Mills weren’t shy about playing up the band’s strengths in every channel, and often. They positively take charge of all corners during “Sgt. Baker.” Claypool’s tiptoeing bass lines walk the fronts as his repeated shouts of “Right!” and “Left!” get localized to their respective, name-checked rear channels — at first, that is; then they move around the room at will. When guitarist Larry LaLonde’s skittery howitzer of a solo takes over, it squeals and veers from the right front to the right rear to the left rear, and then the barrage is retraced in reverse order.

In “American Life,” Claypool’s hypnotic, driving, round-robin lead bass is an inveterate channel-seeker, but his lead vocal roots in the rears during the later verses. The “ahhh” sections of “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” flank the rears, but when Claypool sneers, “Dog will hunt,” everything drops out and only the center channel is deployed.

Muscular drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander takes the spotlight at the outset of “Eleven,” with his percussion and cymbal work dominating the rears; then it returns to the frontline. And when LaLonde’s Zappa-esque noodling takes residence out back, the Claypool/Alexander rhythm section holds the line up front. On “Tommy the Cat,” guest vocalist Tom Waits’s signature growl is reverently centered while the “say baby” cat-call sections seduce all quadrants.

One can only hope that, after conquering the high Seas, Primus will chart another 5.1 voyage into its catalog ASAP.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Primus Sail on in 5.1

This Week in Movies & TV, May 21, 2013: Mad, Bad, & Dangerous

Josef Krebs — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:08:41 GMT

Also, Side Effects, Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics: The Public Enemy, The Petrified Forest, Little Caesar, White Heat, True Bloods: Season 5, Beautiful Creatures, Parker, The Last Stand, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle.

Side Effects

When her husband, Martin (Channing Tatum) gets out of stint in prison for insider trading, Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) falls into a deep depression and attempts suicide leading to her being put on an experimental new medication that has complicated side effects — such as stabbing your husband while you’re sleep walking. This poses all kinds of problems for her psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), and so begins what initially seems to be an exposé of the medication industry but soon turns into a whole different, more traditional — if quite unpredictable — bitter-pill ball of wax.

In his swan-song film, director and cinematographer Steven Soderbergh keeps the look of the picture very low key to match the mood of the movie, with very muted colors, warm, gentle, even lighting, and shallow-focus compositions. This shallowness reflects well the lives of the characters since for everyone it’s all about the money — the psychiatrist, pushing the untested drug on his patients as part of a study he’s getting paid $50,000 for from the profit-margin-motivated pharmaceutical company, his wife, who leaves him when his income dries up and she doesn’t need him anymore because she’s just finally gotten a job of her own, his partners, who bail because they risk losing money by association with him, the patient’s old psychiatrist (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Emily’s reckless trader husband, and even at times the patient herself, all driven by selfishness more than love.

Within these parameters, images are bright, clean, sharp — and somewhat bland. Muted greys and blues fill this rather emotionally grey, bleak film. Within the limited palette, though, there’s a wide range of tones. There are deep blacks throughout and bright whites in professional suits, shirts, and blouses. Occasional rich colors, such as Emily’s scarlet lipstick or a red desk ornament, are so rare that they really catch your eye. Skin tones are natural at times, grey or green at others as in the rare exterior scene where the characters are surrounded by a mass of grass and hedges. Images are well detailed, patterns distinct in the office sofa, faces in the many extreme close-ups revealing textures, lines, and pores as well as individuated strands in hair.

As with the visuals, the same, downplaying approach is applied to the sound, used in an unobtrusive, unexpressive way, the soundfield generally kept as shallow as the images. Surround channels are rarely employed much for music or effects, occupied instead in providing a continuous flow of not-too-persuasive atmospherics, although in one scene on the subway station an attempted suicide is psychologically expressed through an effective, startlingly sudden, loud panning of the train passing front to back and then across the screen. They are similarly used at the moment of the stabbing when overwhelming, squeamishness-inducing bassy electronic sounds flare up immersing you in the moment.

Those two incidents and the more room-filling end-credits music apart, most of the sonic action is up front left, right, and center, Thomas Newman’s engaging score — consisting of North African-style instrumentation mixed with a little electronica — seeming so natural, full, and open that the musicians could almost be in the room.

Video: 1.85:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Extras: “Aliza Website Experience” mock website with ad for the drug, “Ablixa Commercial” the same mock ad, “Behind the Scenes of Side Effects” 3-minute spoof, “Intenin Commercial” promo for a fictional ADHD drug; DVD, iTunes digital copy, and UltraViolet digital copy for streaming/downloading. Studio: Universal.

Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics

Four of the biggest Warner classics that helped define the gangster genre — Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, The Petrified Forest, White Heat — have been collected in this 5-disc set which includes a bonus DVD with the feature-length documentary Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film. Each title comes with a commentary and Warner Night at the Movies extras hosted by Leonard Maltin that include an introduction and relevant-to-the-film newsreel, short film, cartoon featurette, and trailer to the film and to a connected title of the same era. (The Petrified Forest also has a radio broadcast starring Humphrey Bogart!)

Little Caesar

The Pre-Code crime drama Little Caesar (1931) tells of Caesar Enrico Bandello (Edward G. Robinson), a little pug of a guy with a big chip on his shoulder, a small-time hoodlum whose massive ambition takes him — with his cohort Joe Massar (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) — from his country roots to Chicago to pursue his career in crime. There, Rico joins the gang of Sam Vettori (Stanley Fields) while Joe becomes a dancer in a nightclub with Olga (Glenda Farrell) as his dance partner and girlfriend. But Rico, who doesn’t approve of women, intends to drag his friend back into the criminal world by involving him in the robbery of the nightclub where Joe dances.

Gradually Rico turns the gang against Vettori, who he claims is getting soft, takes over the gang, and transforms himself into a big shot known as Little Caesar.

Little Caesar, based on the novel by William R. Burnett (who also wrote High Sierra, The Asphalt Jungle, and Dark Command), was directed by Mervyn LeRoy (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Gold Diggers of 1933, Mister Roberts, Gypsy, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo) and made a star of Robinson.

The Public Enemy

Another Pre-Code crime drama, this one set in Prohibition-era Chicago,The Public Enemy (1931) was directed by William “Wild Bill” Wellman (Wings, the 1937 version of A Star Is Born, Nothing Sacred, the 1939 version of Beau Geste, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Story of G.I. Joe, Battleground).

The screenplay is based on Beer and Blood, a never-published novel by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon, two street thugs who had witnessed some of Al Capone’s gang warfare in Chicago. It tells the life story of an Irish-American, Tom Powers (James Cagney), and his pal, Matt Doyle (Edward Woods), who as kids start a life of crime together engaging in petty theft. They sell their loot to “Putty Nose” (Murray Kinnell) and later, when they come of age, Putty talks them into joining his gang and doing a job stealing furs from a warehouse. But the naïve, inexperienced young men blow the job and, while being chased by a cop, they shoot him.

In 1920, just before Prohibition, Tom and Matt become enforcers for Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O’Connor), going around bars intimidating owners into buying Paddy’s beer. Soon they’re in the bootlegging business, which is far more lucrative, and they’re making good money, living large, but disapproved of by Tom’s straight-laced brother, Mike (Donald Cook), a shell-shocked ex-World War I Marine who rejects Tom’s values and gifts of money to their mother (Beryl Mercer).

Otherwise, everything is going great for the boys — Tom living with Kitty (Mae Clarke), Matt with Mamie (Joan Blondell), until Tom tires of his girlfriend, doing the gentlemanly thing by breaking up with a grapefruit and takes up with Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow) — that is until a rival gang tries to move into Paddy’s territory and his boys are forced to go to the mattresses.

The Petrified Forest

A world-weary writer who’s a penniless hobo, a waitress yearning for bigger, more poetic and spiritual things, and a dumb jock who loves her walk into restaurant in the Petrified Forest area in northern Arizona. This alone would make for a good story — or joke — but when an infamous bank robber fleeing a massive police hunt holes up there, too, taking them and the rest of the clientele hostage, you get a marvelous mix of crime drama, love story, and thought-provoking existential questioning.

In the lonely, rundown desert diner, disillusioned writer Alan Squire must talk his way out of a deadly situation with a killer — primitive but instinctive Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart). All the while young Gabby Maple (Bette Davis) is touched and smitten by Squire’s genteel, intellectual curiosity and the descriptions of his travels in Europe — much to the chagrin of her jealous, blue-collar, beefcake boyfriend.

The Petrified Forest (1936) was directed by Archie Mayo (A Night in Casablanca, Bordertown, Black Legion), the screenplay — co-written by Charles Kenyon and Delmer Daves (writer of An Affair to Remember, White Feather, and Queen Kelly and director of 3:10 to Yuma, Dark Passage, and Broken Arrow) — was based on Robert E. Sherwood’s 1935 Broadway hit from which Howard and Bogart recreated their stage roles for the film. It had been newcomer Bogart’s first major role and the actor mimicked mannerisms of John Dillinger (who Mantee was based upon) in his portrayal of the complex character, his performance in the film making Bogart a star.

“It looks like I'll spend the rest of my life dead.”

White Heat

James Cagney gives a thrilling performance in this 1949 über gangster movie by director Raoul Walsh (High Sierra, The Roaring Twenties, Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.) playing Cody Jarrett, a psychotic with the mother of all Oedipus complexes.

In the wake of robbing a train, someone squeals on Jarrett and he ends up in the big house where as a roommate he’s given Vic Pardo, who’s secretly undercover agent, Hank Fallon (Edmond O’Brien). “Pardo” gains Jarrett’s trust when he saves his life from attempted assassination by a con in the pay of “Big Ed” Somers (Steve Cochran) who’s trying to take over the gang and steal Jarrett’s wife, Verna (Virginia Mayo). So that when Jarrett, further deranged by the death of Ma (Margaret Wycherly) breaks out of prison, he takes Pardo with him. Now Big Ed’s in big trouble — especially after treacherous Verna falsely points the finger at him for the killing of Ma.

All, Video: 1.37:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. Little Caesar, Extras: commentary by Richard B. Jewell film historian at the University of Southern California, Warner Night at the Movies 1930 hosted by Leonard Maltin with introduction, newsreel, The Hard Guy short with Spencer Tracy, Lady Play Your Mandolin cartoon, “Little Caesar: End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero” featurette, Five Star Final theatrical trailer with Robinson, 1954 re-release foreword. The Public Enemy, Extras: commentary by Jewell, Warner Night at the Movies 1931 hosted by Maltin with newsreel, The Eyes Have It comedy short, Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! cartoon, “Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public” featurette, 1954 re-release foreword, and theatrical trailers. The Petrified Forest, Extras: commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax, Warner Night at the Movies 1936 hosted by Maltin with introduction, newsreel, Rhythmitis musical short, The Coo Coo Nut Grove Merry Melody cartoon caricaturing movie stars, “The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert” featurette, audio-only Gulf Screen Theater broadcast of The Petrified Forest from 1/7/1940 starring Bogart, Bullets or Ballots (1936) theatrical trailer with Bogart and Robinson. White Heat, Extras: commentary by film historian Dr. Drew Casper, Warner Night at the Movies 1949 hosted by Maltin with introduction, newsreel, So You Think You're Not Guilty comedy short, Homeless Hare cartoon, “White Heat: Top of the World” featurette, and theatrical trailers. Set Extras: Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film feature documentary, 32-page booklet. Studio: Warner.

True Bloods: Season 5

Beautiful Creatures

Young love these days seems to entail lots of blood, brooding, boogey men, ghosts, werewolves, and vampires. Just take a look at The Vampire Diaries, Moonlight, and the British TV series Being Human (and its American adaptation). It’s nothing new, of course, there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and even going back through Dark Shadows in the 1960s to all those 1950s monster movies that teenagers loved to see at the drive in while making out in the privacy of their vehicle. But lately it has definitely gotten more personal and passionate — in a Gothically moody, supernatural teen-romance way — and much more common. The hugely popular TwilightSaga movies set new standards in young passionate angst — not necessarily good standards — and just this week two more Blu-ray examples have been let loose amongst us.

True Bloods: Season 5

Based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is a highly popular spooky-sexy TV drama series created and produced by Alan Ball (Oscar-winning screenwriter of American Beauty, writer-director of Six Feet Under). It concerns a telepathic human-faerie waitress (aren’t they all?), Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), who, on meeting handsome and charming new guy Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), discovers a whole world she never knew existed — vampires.

The creation of synthetic blood (aka “Tru Blood”) by Japanese scientists has allowed vampires to come out of the coffin and reveal their existence since, no longer needing human blood to survive, they pose no danger to man.

In Season 5, The Vampire Authority, the clandestine agency ruling over vampires — governed with an iron stake by Vampire Guardian Roman (Christopher Meloni) and zealot Salome (Valentina Cervi) — who’re behind The Great Revelation and the social movement of mainstreaming — co-existence between vampires and humans — must face the threat of a coup by their rivals, the fanatical, religious vampire fundamentalist group, Sanguinistas.

And, in addition to such developments, which pick up the pace from the slow-moving and rather dopey and maudlin Season 4, the regular characters that fill Sookie’s life — Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) another vampire player, shape-shifting boss Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), clairvoyant Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), teen-vamp Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), friend Tara (Rutina Wesley), and the odd werewolf — in Season 5 are joined by a whole range of other supernatural beings.

All 12 episodes from Season 5 appear in this 7-disc set with DVD and UltraViolet digital copies of the entire season.

Beautiful Creatures

Adapted by writer-director Richard LaGravenese, Beautiful Creatures, is the first film based on one of Kami Carcia and Margaret Stohl’s series of young adult novels. When a young woman, Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), arrives in Gatlin, South Carolina, she takes the fancy of small-town boy Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) who’s dying for the day when he’ll be able to escape. What gets in the way of this romance, based on shared love of poetry and a mutual hottie-attraction, though, is that Lena’s strange powers have a tendency to push possible partners away. For Lena is a caster, capable of performing magical spells, who, upon her upcoming sixteenth birthday, will undergo The Claiming, which will decide whether her powers will be Light or Dark.

Two dark casters with immense power have arrived intending to make sure that Lena — whom they believe to be an even more influential caster — goes to the Dark and purges the Earth of humans.

Other members of the cast include Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, Viola Davis, Emmy Possum, Thomas Mann, and Kyle Gallner.

True Bloods, Video: 1.78:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Extras: commentaries on select episodes, enhanced viewing modes, interactive timelines, “Inside the Episodes,” “Flashbacks/Flash Forwards,” “Anatomy of an Episode,” “True Blood Lines,” “Authority Link-Outs,” and “Character Bios” featurettes; DVDs, iTunes digital copies, and UltraViolet digital copies for streaming/downloading. Studio: HBO. Beautiful Creatures, Video: 2.40:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Extras: deleted scenes, “Book to Screen,” “The Casters,” “Between Two Worlds,” “Forbidden Romance,” “Alternate Worlds,” and “Designing the Costumes” featurettes, book trailer: Icons by Margaret Stohl; DVD and UltraViolet digital copy for streaming/downloading. Studio: Warner.

Parker

Based on the dark, gritty novel Flashfire by Donald Westlake under the pen name Richard Stark, action flic Parker tells of a hard professional thief Parker (Jason Statham) with his own personal set of ethics — “we don’t steal from people who can’t afford it and don’t hurt people who don't deserve it.”

But one day, during a job, a member of his crew goes off plan, killing an innocent man in the process. And later, when Parker won’t throw his cut into the pot to finance a huge heist, his own thieves double cross him — proving the old adage — beating and shooting Parker, stealing his share, and leaving him for dead. So the moralistic thief goes looking for payback on the group who’re now led by Melander (Michael Chiklis), tracking them to Palm Beach, Florida, where the crew is planning their biggest heist ever, the theft of very expensive jewelry from a high-end auction house.

Parker, disguising himself as a rich Texan(!), teams up with real estate agent Leslie (Jennifer Lopez) who’s broke but whose smarts, beauty, and ambition Parker can use to help hijack the heist, conquer his enemies, and make a clean getaway.

This intense, violent, and bloody action thriller is directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray, The Devil’s Advocate, An Officer and a Gentleman) and co-stars Wendell Pierce and Nick Nolte. The character of Parker also appeared in the 1962 novel The Hunter, written by Westlake/Stark and more than 20 follow-up novels and in the films Point Blank (as Walker) and its loose remake Payback (as Porter) based on the book The Hunter.

Video: 2.40:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Extras: director’s commentary, “Bringing the Hunter to Life: The Making of Parker,” “Who is Parker?,” “The Origin of Parker,” and “Broken Necks and Bloody Knuckles” featurettes; UltraViolet digital copy for streaming/downloading. Studio: Sony.

My Neighbor Totoro

Howl’s Moving Castle

These separate releases of feature-length animated films by director Hayao Miyazakitwos (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) from Studio Ghibli both come with new HD digital transfers and a pair of lossless English and Japanese 5.1 soundtracks.

My Neighbor Totoro

In My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ or Tonari no Totoro), from 1988, two young girls, Mei and Satsuki, move into a new home close to the hospital their mother's staying in. Satsuki and her younger, four-year-old sister Mei discover that the extremely large tree in their yard is home to Totoro and two other gods of the forest who can only be seen by children. Soon after, they hear news from the hospital that their mother won’t be coming home as soon as had been promised, so Mei runs away to go visit her mother. So Satsuki seeks out Totoro to help find her sister.

The My Neighbor Totoro English language version features the voice talents of Tim Daly, Lea Salonga, and real-life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning.

Howl’s Moving Castle

In Howl’s Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城 or Hauru no ugoku shiro) from 2004, simple, teenage Sophie, who diligently works in her family’s hat shop, one day finds herself dazzled by a strange, handsome wizard called Howl. Unfortunately, jealous Witch of the Waste, on seeing this encounter, puts young Sophie under a curse, transforming her into a 90-year-old woman.

Horrified by her appearance, Sophie flees from the hat shop and hides in the hills, desperately searching for a cure for the curse. There she comes across a magically floating castle where young Howl dwells, and where she befriends Markl, Howl's apprentice, and the fire demon Calcifer who can see through the spell. He offers to help Sophie, but only if she will aid in Calcifer break his contract with Howl.

The English language version features the voice talents of Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, Billy Crystal, Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall, and Josh Hutcherson.

Both, Video: 1.78:1. Audio: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. My Neighbor Totoro, Extras: “Behind the Microphone,” “Behind the Studio,” “Creating My Neighbor Totoro,” “Creating the Characters,” “The Totoro Experience,” “Producer's Perspective: Creating Gibli,” “The Locations of Totoro,” and “Scoring Miyazaki” featurettes, original Japanese storyboards; DVD. Howl’s Moving Castle, Extras: “Behind the Microphone,” “Interview with Pixar Animation Studios Director Pete Docter,” and “Hello Mr. Lasseter: Hayao Miyazaki Visits Pixar Animation Studios” featurettes, original Japanese storyboards; DVD. Studio: Disney.

The Last Stand

Leaving the Narcotics Division at the Los Angeles Police Department after an operation goes terribly wrong leaving his team decimated, beaten and guilty Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) flees LA to become sheriff of sleepy border town, Sommerton Junction, Arizona, where there’s little crime to deal with.

But when notorious drug cartel boss Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) breaks free — snatched from a seemingly impregnable armored truck in a convoy of vehicles filled with heavily armed guards — during a transfer overseen by FBI agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker), he decides to head for the Mexican border. Suddenly Sheriff Ray’s easy, undemanding life of peace is threatened since the only thing standing between Cortez and safety is Sommerton Junction.

Aided by a team of mercenaries led by Thomas Burrell (Peter Stormare), Cortez, with a beautiful FBI agent hostage (Génesis Rodríguez) in tow, races ever closer in a specially outfitted Corvette ZR1 that can reach speeds of up to 250 mph. Now Sheriff Ray must face his high noon in this bad-guys-on-their-way modern-day Western showdown, since he and his misfit deputized townsfolk and Agent Bannister’s U.S. law enforcement team are making a final stand to stop Cortez and his band of desperados.

Making his American debut, South Korean director Kim Jee-Woon (The Good, the Bad, the Weird), for better or worse, has given Schwarzenegger his first starring role since the debacle of his private life revelation. The Last Stand co-stars Johnny Knoxville, Peter Stormare, Jaimie Alexander, Zach Gilford, Luis Guzmán, Rodrigo Santoro, and Harry Dean Stanton.

This big-boom, good-’n’ dumb action shootout comes with a 7.1-channel soundtrack.

Video: 2.40:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. Extras: “Not In My Town: Making The Last Stand,” “Cornfield Chaos” on the car chase scene, “The Dinkum Firearm and Historic Weaponry Museum” on actual historic weapons, and “Actor-Cam Anarchy: with Knoxville and Alexander,” featurettes, 32 minutes of deleted, extended, and alternate scenes; iTunes digital copy and UltraViolet digital copy for streaming/downloading. Studio: Lionsgate.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Side Effects

Headphone Week Wrap-Up

Brent Butterworth — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:48:39 GMT

Six new headphones. Six in-depth reviews. Read 'em all here.

Last week was Headphone Week on soundandvisionmag.com. Six headphones, ranging from noise-cancellers to Bluetooth 'phones to hip-hop-ish cans to tweaked-out audiophile models. Every one of them done up S&V style, with full lab measurements and opinions from multiple listeners.

In case you missed any of them, here they are:

ADL H118 over-ear audiophile headphones ($299)

Harman Kardon NC noise-cancelling headphones ($299)

Klipsch Image One Bluetooth headphones ($249)

MrSpeakers Mad Dog Alpha audiophile headphones ($299)

Onkyo ES-HF300 over-ear headphones ($179)

SOL Republic Master Tracks HD over-ear headphones ($199)

Anything else you'd like to see reviewed? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

six_headphones

Clockwise from upper left: Onkyo ES-HF300, Harman Kardon NC, Klipsch Image One Bluetooth, SOL Republic Master Tracks HD, ADL H118, and MrSpeakers Mad Dog Alpha

This Week in Music, May 21, 2013: Techno trousers shed by Daft Punk

Ken Richardson — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:14:29 GMT

Also: The National, Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke, Audra McDonald, “Women of Brazil,” and more. Plus: notable historical items from the Rolling Stones, Primus, and Captain Beyond.

Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

New release (Daft Life/Columbia)
Photo by David Black

In this era of electronic dance music, you might think the pioneering French duo Daft Punk would be eager to trump the upstarts. But you’d be thinking wrong.

As Thomas Bangalter told Rolling Stone, “We wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers but with people.” And as Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo said, “It’s not that we can’t make crazy, futuristic-sounding stuff, but we wanted to play with the past.”

They still wear their trademark helmets, but they’ve shed their techno trousers to pay homage to the R&B of the late 1970s and early ’80s. You’ll find only one sample on Random Access Memories, and just two uses of drum machines. Instead, you’ll mainly find actual live musicians, including guitarists Nile Rodgers and Paul Jackson, Jr., bassist Nathan East, and drummers John “J.R.” Robinson and Omar Hakim — people who helped create some of the music that Daft Punk is emulating here.

That said, the album isn’t a high-energy party of Chic “Freak”-outs and Michael Jackson “Beat”-downs. Rather, it’s a mostly understated affair, with nearly every track sharing the same midtempo, mellow groove. This R&B, then, is EZ listening, draped in the West Coast studio sound of Steely Dan. It’s an album that may completely confound Daft Punk’s hardcore fans.

Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with EZ R&B. Too often, however, the results here are a bit slight. Indeed, tracks like “Within” and “Motherboard” aren’t much more than sonic-mood filler. The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas plays guitar and sings on “Instant Crush” (which he co-wrote), but the simple chord progression makes the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” seem complicated by comparison. “Lose Yourself to Dance” doesn’t summon the delirium that its title seems to promise; both this track and the other one sung (and co-written) by Pharrell Williams are ultimately repetitive. Natural vocals abound on RAM, but so do ones processed through vintage vocoders, and their patterns get a little tired a little too quickly (except for Panda Bear’s duet with a vocoder on his co-write, “Doin’ It Right”).

With a slinky, samey album such as this, you’ve gotta take hold of whatever’s out of the ordinary. So grab onto “Giorgio by Moroder,” where a voiceover interview with the producer/songwriter himself leads to a super-catchy dance move that’s later magnified by the addition of live drums. Then there’s the collaboration with Paul Williams — yes, he of “We’ve Only Just Begun” and Phantom of the Paradise. Now 72 and rehabilitated, he evokes his 1970s range by presiding over the multipart, wonderfully oddball “Touch.” And the last of these Memories is “Contact,” which takes the opening theme from the 1981 song “We Ride Tonight” (by the Australian band Sherbet, when it was known as the Sherbs) and uses it as a springboard for a battle between drums and a custom-built synthesizer, ending the album with a bang.

Daft Punk’s previous work was a soundtrack (for Tron: Legacy), and this could be one, too — for whatever you happen to be doing at the moment. Dancing, maybe. But more like driving, or loading the dishwasher, or changing the cat litter. Which is not to slam it outright but to acknowledge that its ear-friendliness comes across like some of the best background music you’ll ever hear.

Or, in good news for S&V readers (and, um, equipment reviewers), the album can be used another way: as a test disc. In fact, it’s so dexterously produced by the band, recorded by folks including Mick Guzauski, and mastered by Bob Ludwig that it’s ideal for any gear or speakers you might want to throw at it. Praise to all concerned for this particular cease fire in the Loudness Wars.

The National: Trouble Will Find Me

New release (4AD; tour dates)
Photo by Dierdre O’Callaghan

With its downcast lyrics, murmuring vocals, and dreamy instrumentation, Trouble Will Find Me has the potential to be a blur. So credit The National for initially putting the listener off balance with irregular time signatures on the first two songs, “I Should Live in Salt” and “Demons.” From there, things are more straightforward on tracks like “Don’t Swallow the Cap” and “Graceless,” with “Sea of Love” achieving the most majesty.

However, the band’s sound tends to blend everything into one big wash; you wouldn’t even notice that St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Sufjan Stevens, and other guests are here if the credits didn’t tell you. So the best compositions are some of the quiet tunes with a small focus — “Fireproof,” “Heavenfaced,” “I Need My Girl,” “Hard to Find” — as well as “Humiliation,” the track that hovers perfectly between the band’s louder and softer tendencies. Those five songs are the keepers on an airy album that, overall, comes and goes like a mild weather front.

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke: Pleased to Meet You

New release (Worm Hole/Burnside Distribution; tour dates)
Photo by Thom Lang

“Kid-friendly”? “Family-music album”? Well, certainly. But some legitimate rock bands would kill to be able to write this stuff.

Not that there’s anything illegitimate about Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke. They’re true pros, and Pleased to Meet You stands out in the family market, with 13 original songs that relish in both their word- and music-play. From electric rock to acoustic folk, from reggae to bluegrass, Wilde & Clarke handle vocals and guitars with aplomb. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re accompanied by a team of nimble musicians — chiefly, bassist Ralph Hockens and drummer Brendan Finnegan — or that they’re imaginatively recorded by leading “kindie” (kid + indie) producer Dean Jones (who also has his own band, Dog on Fleas, and a new solo album, When the World Was New).

There are customary topics, including letters (“Animal Alphabet”), numbers (“Take Ten”), and food (“Eggplant Man”). Two covers give fresh takes on the Reverend Gary Davis (“Candyman”) and classic choo-choo tunes (“Railroad Medley”). But Wilde & Clarke also love to go delightfully nuts on tracks like the nature/nurture contemplation of “Raised by Trolls” and the metallic, monstrous “Trondaxx Berserker.”

So, by all means, listen with the youngsters. But when they’re asleep, you have some homework to do, parents: Cue up this album on your sound system and study (and marvel at) how it makes anyone seem young at heart.

Audra McDonald: Go Back Home

New release (Nonesuch; tour dates)
Photo by Autumn de Wilde

This is the first solo album in 7 years from our Tony-winning treasure, Audra McDonald. The material ranges from Rodgers & Hammerstein (“Edelweiss”) to Kander & Ebb (the title track, from The Scottsboro Boys, and “First You Dream,” from Steel Pier). Other tracks include Stephen Sondheim’s “The Glamorous Life” (A Little Night Music), Adam Guettel’s “Migratory V” (Saturn Returns), and songs inspired by Marlene Dietrich and Edna St. Vincent Millay. McDonald stars in a PBS special this Friday.

Various Artists: Women of Brazil

New release (Putumayo)

Aline Morales (shown above) is just one of the current singers who are carrying on the rich musical traditions of their country, whether based in pop, samba, or bossa nova. Other artists represented: Nossa Alma Canta, Graca Cunha, Clara Moreno, Flavia Coelho, Maguinha, Luisa Maita, Juliana Kehl, Mart’nalia, Miriam Aida, and Miriam Maria.

Other new releases

Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes: Baby Caught the Bus (Vanguard)
Hard to resist that band name. Doubly hard to resist when the band (shown above) sounds just like the name, judging from the first single, “Love Letter.” A press release claims that Browne & the BRs can update everything — soul, R&B, jazz, doo-wop — and I don’t doubt it. Clairy sings lead, three more ladies back her up, and five guys make the noise. Winehouse? Yes, and why not.

Sqürl: EP #1 (ATP)
And I quote: “Sqürl are an enthusiastically marginal rock band from New York City who like big drums & broken guitars, cassette recorders, loops, feedback, sad country songs, molten stoner core, chopped & screwed hip-hop, and imaginary movie scores.” One of the three members just happens to be film director Jim Jarmusch. Track listing: “Pink Dust” (there’s the molten stoner core), “Dead Naked Hippies,” “Little Sister,” and “Some Feedback for Jozef Van Wissem.” Vinyl and digital only.

Darius Rucker: True Believers (Capitol Nashville)
His third country set.

Thirty Seconds to Mars: Love Lust Faith + Dreams (Virgin)
The band’s fourth release is a concept album exploring the four subjects in the title.

Scout Niblett: It’s Up to Emma (Drag City)
. . . “Emma” being the real first name of stripped-down indie rocker Ms. Niblett, heard here on her sixth album.

The Brand New Heavies: Forward (Shanachie)
First studio album in 7 years.

Man or Astro-man?: Defcon 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 (Communicating Vessels/Chunklet)
Blast off with the first studio album in 13 years from the aggressive surf/space-rock crew.

The Beach Boys: Live — The 50th Anniversary Tour (Capitol/UMe)
Speaking of surf, here’s a two-CD, 41-track set recorded during the 2012 reunion of Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston (with David Marks).

Bob James & David Sanborn: Quartette Humaine (OKeh/Sony)
Acoustic set, with the pianist and the saxophonist backed by bassist James Genus and drummer Steve Gadd on four originals by James, three by Sanborn, and two covers.

Michel Camilo: What’s Up? (OKeh/Sony)
Solo-piano outing, with seven originals and four covers (including “Take Five” and “Love for Sale”).

Emerson String Quartet: Journeys (Sony Classical)
Joined by violist Paul Neubauer and cellist Colin Carr, the ensemble performs two sextets from the 1890s: Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night.

The Rolling Stones: Crossfire Hurricane

Documentary film (Eagle Vision; tour dates)
Photo courtesy of ABKCO

Marking the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary, this band-overseen, 2-hour-plus doc features new off-camera interviews with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Mick Taylor, and Ron Wood. Their words (along with archival comments from the late Brian Jones) provide the narrative for the footage, which, as specified by the film’s original tagline, focuses on “The Rise of the Stones” through the 1960s and into the ’70s. Among the extras are live performances from 1964 and ’65.

Primus: Sailing the Seas of Cheese — Deluxe Edition

Reissue (UMe; tour dates)
Photo by Jay Blakesberg

A restoration of Primus’s 1991 album, available on CD+DVD (now) or CD+Blu-ray (coming June 18). Each has a new stereo mix (by Les Claypool) on the CD and a 5.1 surround mix (by Claypool and Josh Mills) on the other disc. Extras: three previously unreleased bonus tracks, four “visualizer” video streams, unpublished photos from the band’s archive, and new liner notes by Greg Prato. For Mike Mettler’s review of the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix on the Blu-ray version, click here.

Captain Beyond: Live in Texas, October 6, 1973

Archival release (Purple Pyramid/Cleopatra)

The original lineup of this truly legendary band: vocalist Rod Evans (the original singer for Deep Purple), guitarist Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt and bassist Lee Dorman (both from Iron Butterfly), and drummer Bobby Caldwell (who played for the group known as Johnny Winter And). In 1972, they released their self-titled debut; it was (and still is) one of rock’s absolutely perfect albums. Back then, Captain Beyond’s idea of “rock” was art, progressive, hard, heavy, space — sometimes individually, sometimes all at once.

The follow-up, 1973’s Sufficiently Breathless, was significantly weaker, owing to the departure of Caldwell. Because he was replaced as a percussionist by drummer Marty Rodriguez and conga/timbale player Guille Garcia, the band took a lighter, often Latin path. Even more important, though, was the loss of Caldwell as a writer, for it was he (primarily) and Evans — not Reinhardt and Dorman — who composed the entire debut. Taking over the pen on Breathless, Dorman simply wasn’t up to the task.

Which is all a preamble to the fact that, later in 1973, the foursome of Evans, Reinhardt, Dorman, and Caldwell reunited for a tour — from which Live in Texas is taken. Alas, fans looking for a revelation won’t find it here, since this seems to be the same recording that has appeared previously as Far Beyond a Distant Sun and Frozen Over Live. A sticker says this new version is an “Official Bootleg,” but the emphasis remains squarely on “bootleg”: The sonics are still poor, with distortion, dropouts, disappearing instruments, and an echoing, wandering soundstage. The sticker further warns that this album is “For Dedicated Fans Only!” If you’re one, you might enjoy the impressive guitar and drum solos, as well as the dominance of material from the debut, but it’s a chore to listen through the murk.

In his decent liner notes, Dave Thompson reveals that there’s a “vast archive of unreleased live material that the original band left behind.” Hopefully, at least some of it is in better shape than Live from Texas. Meanwhile, if you’re eager for some genuinely riveting (and better recorded) segments of Captain Beyond in concert, go to YouTube for Part 1 and Part 2 of a 1972 performance.

P.S. Both Reinhardt and Dorman died last year.

Other reissues & archival releases

Rufus Thomas: “Bear Cat” b/w “Walking in the Rain”
The Prisonaires: “Just Walking in the Rain” b/w “Baby Please”
Johnny Cash: “Get Rhythm” b/w “I Walk the Line”
(Sun/Third Man)
First three releases (shown above) in a new partnership between Sun Records and Jack White’s Third Man Records to reissue classic Sun 45-rpm 7-inch vinyl singles. The first two are from 1953. The Cash is from 1956 — and yes, “I Walk the Line” was the B-side. Available from thirdmanrecords.com.

Donovan:
Mellow Yellow
Wear Your Love Like Heaven
The Hurdy Gurdy Man
(Sundazed)
The first two are from 1967, the last is from ’68, and all are reissued on mono vinyl. (Wear Your Love Like Heaven was the first LP in the double album A Gift from a Flower to a Garden. Both Wear and the other LP, For Little Ones, were also released separately in the U.S. at the time.)

Townes Van Zandt:
High, Low and In Between
The Late Great Townes Van Zandt
(Omnivore)
Reissues of the troubadour’s fifth and sixth albums, from 1971 and ’72. Both include new liner notes by Colin Escott.

Come: 11:11 (Matador)
Also known as Eleven : Eleven, this is the 1993 debut of Thalia Zedek’s band with Chris Brokaw. Long out of print, it now gets a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, with a bonus disc recorded live at the Vermonstress Festival on October 10, 1992.

Queen: On Fire — Live at the Bowl (Eagle Vision)
The National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England, that is. This complete concert film (on two DVDs) was shot on June 5, 1982, in the midst of the Hot Space tour. So there’s a focus on midperiod material; only seven of the 25 selections date from A Day at the Races or before. Disc 2 has band member interviews, a photo gallery, and highlights from two other tour stops — including, fittingly enough, “Teo Torriatte” in Tokyo.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Daft Random photo

Panasonic announces pricing and dates for ZT60 plasmas

Brent Butterworth — Tue, 21 May 2013 02:40:28 GMT

The year's most eagerly awaited new TV hits the stores.

Ever since Geoff Morrison got a preview of Panasonic's new top-of-the-line ZT60 plasma TV at the January CES, we've been waiting impatiently to learn the details: When? Where? And how much?

The two ZT60 models hit the market today, exclusively at Magnolia stores (inside Best Buy) until July 31. List prices are $4,099 for the 65-inch TC-P65ZT60 and $3,499 for the 60-inch TC-P60ZT60.

What's so special about the ZT60 line? Well, its predecessor, the VT50, got our 2012 Editor's Choice Award for Video Product of the Year, and based on what we've seen so far, the ZT60 line looks even better, with deeper black levels and potentially improved color thanks to a new red phosphor formulation. It's THX-certified for 2D and 3D, includes an ISF CCC calibration mode with advanced calibration, and offers new Smart TV functions plus voice command.

For more info, check out the TC-P65ZT60 page on Panasonic's website.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

ZT60_plasma

R.I.P. — Ray Manzarek of The Doors

Mike Mettler — Tue, 21 May 2013 02:04:29 GMT

Remembering the late keyboard whiz who helped open the doors of perception in the '60s, now riding on the storm with Brother Jim.

The Doors’ keyboard whiz Ray Manzarek died in Rosenheim, Germany on May 20, age 74. I had the privilege of speaking with Ray twice for S&V, most recently in early 2008, when we discussed such things as the warmth of vinyl, how to perceive surround sound, and who’s playing in that great band in the sky. After that interview first ran, Ray sent me a note to say how much he enjoyed reading it and how well he thought we dissected the sonic essence of the Doors. Thank you, kind sir, and thank you for creating such mind-expanding music. Now you’re finally the one manning the keys in that dream lineup, Ray. Rest in peace.

METTLER: Are you happy with how Eagle Vision's Classic Albums DVD of The Doors turned out?

MANZAREK: I think it’s great. Somebody said to me, “Gee, you guys are still willing to talk about it.” And I said, “Well, of course. We loved making the first album. We had a lot of fun.” Why? Because the first album is the culmination of everything you’ve been working for since you had the very idea to do it.

They interviewed everybody about that first album — there’s me, John [Densmore, drummer], Robby [Krieger, guitarist], Bruce Botnick [engineer], Bill Siddons [manager], and Jac Holzman [founder of Elektra Records]. The tragedy of it is that Paul Rothchild [the Doors’ late producer] wasn’t around to be interviewed. He's running the show at the Roadhouse up in heaven, where all the rockers are. Jim [Morrison] is up there, along with Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, John Entwistle — what a band they’ve got up there! That’s the band. And then the jazz guys come in, too — Miles Davis, John Coltrane. It’s like a Roadhouse on the outskirts of town at the edge of heaven. What's great about it is you can drink all you want and never have a hangover. [both chuckle]

METTLER: Geez, you make it sound like we should be there right now.

MANZAREK: Well, all in due time. First we got a job to do down here: to present music to people to open the doors of perception of their minds. That’s what the Doors were trying to say: “Hey, wake up. Just wake up. And look around you. You're alive, you're on the planet, you're going to dance for your 70-80 years on this planet. Make the most of it. And make love, not war.”

METTLER: The interviews were the key to this DVD’s success. You had all the right people there instead of the cookie-cutter kind of stuff you see on retrospectives on certain TV channels.

MANZAREK: Yeah, well, you know, they did a real good job. Most everybody’s there, everybody’s alive, everybody’s looking good. You know, Jim [Morrison] and I got together on the beach in Venice, California after graduating from the film school at UCLA, and we decided to put a band together. Jim had great lyrics and I could play the keyboards, so we both said, “Let's get a rock & roll band together.” We had the initial conception in the middle of nothing there at the beach in Venice with the sun setting into the grand Pacific Ocean, standing on the end of Western Civilization.

Then we finally get into the recording studio after all those years of struggling, finding John and Robby at the Maharishi’s meditation that I was involved with, working on the Sunset Strip, working at the Whisky-a-Go-Go, getting signed by Elektra Records, developing all those songs at the little club called the London Fog, playing five sets a night, for God’s sake, on the weekends. We played and played and played, and developed those songs by working and working and working them. Get to the Whisky, turn the audience on, and then Jac Holzman signs us to Elektra Records. Nobody in Los Angeles would sign us. We walked the streets with our demo; we couldn’t get signed! It took a guy from New York City to understand the music of the Doors. And then you get into the recording studio, and that’s everything you’ve been working for. All you want to do is get your music on a disk, and get that disk out to the world and say, “Hey world, we are the Doors. Check this out, man. Open the doors of perception.” So that's why we’re so excited about the first album, and that’s why everybody still loves the first album.

METTLER: It is a timeless record. I like how the Doors’ music is perpetual. Every generation discovers it.

MANZAREK: Isn’t it amazing? Depending on how hip they are, how smart they are, how intelligent they are, kids at 13, 14, and 15 years old get turned onto the Doors. You hear the Doors for the first time and it's like, “What is this music? Who are these guys?”

METTLER: There really isn’t anything else like it. Considering all that came out during that era, you can’t say the Doors are like anybody else.

MANZAREK: You’re right. We're really unique. But I didn’t think we were particularly unique at the time. But now, after seeing all that happened in the ’60s, I agree: The Doors are unique. It was that flamenco guitar of Robby Krieger — he actually plays with his fingers, you know; that bottleneck guitar thing is amazing. It was Densmore’s hard, marching drums. Manzarek’s left-hand bass and organ at the same time — how does he do that? Morrison’s strange, surrealistic poetry. And the jazz, the classical, and the blues. We were all into the blues. So you put all of that together, and that’s the Doors.

METTLER: The background, the foundation you had, the way you were able to improvise...

MANZAREK: You know what, man? Everybody studied their instrument. Everybody practiced. Practice, practice, practice. That’s what you’ve got to do.

METTLER: You think of other artists of the era who had that kind of jazz background and knowledge — Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell...

MANZAREK: Absolutely. I never considered myself a jazz musician — I play rock & roll — but that jazz influence is there. Miles Davis is in my music; so is John Coltrane. John Densmore was a big fan of John Coltrane and Elvin Jones, the drummer. So yeah, jazz was a big influence on the Doors.

METTLER: The Doors’ Vinyl Box Set just came out in a limited edition of 5,000 on Elektra/Rhino. Which songs sound the best on it, and why?

MANZAREK: Well, okay, I'm the keyboard player, so I gotta think of the organ and “Light My Fire” on the first album. On CD, the Vox Continental sounds a little edgy and a little thin to me. It’s got a bottom to it, no doubt about that, but it just has a bite that I’m not really happy with. But when I hear it on the vinyl box, it’s like, “Ahhh, there's the sound. There's the Fender amplifier.” You know, you put a Vox through a Fender Dual Reverb with a pair of 12-inch speakers, and oooh — that sound is loud, full, and fat, with some edge to it, but it’s got a warm, round middle section. That’s what the LPs have that the CDs don’t.

And that’s just the first album. The second album, Strange Days, is my favorite album, because that was done on 8 tracks. The first album is 4 tracks, essentially the Doors live at the Whisky-a-Go-Go. The second album is the studio experimentation. What we do on that one is we get to play the recording studio. Paul Rothchild said to me and Robby on the first day, “Come here, I want to show you something. Look at this machine.” It was the Ampeg. “So what?” I said, “That tape is kinda wide, isn't it?” And Robby said, “Is that what I think it is?” Robby got it right away. “Is that 8-track? Holy shit — everything we did on the first album we can do here, and have 4 more tracks. Overdubs? Wow.” That was when we learned how to play the studio. Just incredible. It’s my favorite album.

And The Soft Parade has all those great horns and strings. That’ll sound so big when Jim sings, “I'm gonna love you” on “Touch Me.” You’re gonna really hear those strings. It’s almost symphonic, for God’s sake.

METTLER: And then there’s “Runnin’ Blue” . . .

MANZAREK: “Runnin’ Blue” has got every kind of music known to man in one song! [chuckles] That’s a good one, too, with the country pickers and the jazz cats, and all sorts of stuff going on.

You’re gonna get everything. Morrison Hotel is just a rocking, bluesy thing — the Doors get back to their roots. And then at the very end of the box set, you get to hear “Riders on the Storm.” Ooh, that sounds good on vinyl.

You know, I love vinyl. I’ve heard from audiophiles about “the sound.” In 1967, of course, you didn’t know there were going to be such things as CDs. Vinyl — that was it. The sound was so good, and so warm, and so rich. Some old timer said to me, “You should have heard 78 rpms. That vinyl was so thick.” He said that’s why the sound was so good — the vinyl was so thick, the grooves were so deep, and it’s moving so fast. He said it sounded incredible. Of course, you only got like 3 minutes of music…. You’d have to change it three or four times just to listen to “The End.”

I remember when I got my first CD player and first CD, which was digitally recorded, not transferred from analog. It was Yo-Yo Ma, the cello player, playing solo cello sonatas. So I put the thing on, and my wife Dorothy said after about 2 minutes, “Gosh, I can’t stand the sound — it’s so edgy.” And if you think about it, the bow across a cello string has a grind and a grit to it that you don’t normally hear, but you put that into a digitally recorded CD… we both went, “What have we done here?” It’s deep, with a big bottom, and there’s a high end up there, but man, the irritation of it — our nerve ends… we’re acid heads. You can’t do that kind of stuff to acid heads! [both laugh] We’re super-sensitized! I’m telling you, man.

METTLER: What did you think of the six-disc Doors surround-sound box set, Perception, that Rhino released in 2006?

MANZAREK: Oh, I loved that. That’s the real wave of the future — or at least it should be. We may not change out of rock & roll, but we’re gonna change the way we listen to music so that we're operating in 360 degrees of sound. Where’s it gonna go? I don’t know, man. Whatever happens, it’s gonna be a very poetic use of aural space. A revolution in music.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Ray Manzarek at the keys

GoldenEar launches HT-centric in-wall/in-ceiling speakers

S&v Staff — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:31:00 GMT

New models include an in-ceiling LCR and a multipolar in-wall.

If there's anyone who writes about audio who hasn't raved about GoldenEar Technology speakers, we don't know 'em. So far, the company's biggest hits have been its Triton Two and Triton Three tower speakers, but it's been rather quietly expanding into other categories, too. Last week the company expanded its line of architectural (i.e., in-wall/in-ceiling) speakers with two new models: the Invisa HTR 7000 in-ceiling LCR and the Invisa MTX multipolar in-wall/in-ceiling speaker. These join the existing Invisa 650 and Invisa 525 in-ceiling speakers.

The Invisa HTR 7000 is intended for use in the left, center, and right channels of a home theater system, with the speakers mounted in the ceiling above and slightly in front of the screen. The drivers are the same as those found in the Aon 3 bookshelf speaker. The 7-inch woofer is angled to fire toward the listener, and the High-Velocity Folded Ribbon (HVFR) tweeter sits in a tiny module in front of the woofer, angled in the same direction. A high-frequency EQ switch allows fine tuning of the sound. A magnetically attached grille covers the speaker and the mounting flange for a clean look.

The Invisa MTX is designed primarily for use in the surround channels of a home theater system, but can also be used in the front channels of a stereo system if you want extra-spacious sound. Its rectangular design is typical of a in-wall model, but the company says it can also be used in-ceiling. The dual 5-inch woofers are angled in different directions to produce broader dispersion, and an HVFR tweeter provides the highs. Like the HTR 7000, the MTX has a high-frequecy EQ switch and a magnetically attached grille.

Price for the Invisa HTR 7000 and the Invisa MTX is the same: $499 each.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Invisa_series

Clockwise from top left: GoldenEar Technology's Invisa 650 and 525 in-ceiling/in-wall speakers, Invisa HTR 7000 reference in-ceiling LCR speaker, and Invisa MTX multipolar in-wall/in-ceiling speaker

Review: SOL Republic Master Tracks

Leslie Shapiro — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:07:10 GMT

With a sleek, minimalistic and customizable look, will the sound stand up to the style?

Two years ago, not a soul had heard of SOL Republic. Last summer, that all changed as everyone watching the Summer Olympics frantically googled to see what brand of headphones were seemingly permanently attached to swimmer Michael Phelps’ head whenever he was out of the water. Overnight, SOL Republic went from “what’s that?” to “must have.” Can their latest design keep up with the hype?

The SOL Republic Master Tracks ($199.99) are their over-ear headphone model. Like previous on-ear versions, this one has completely interchangeable components. The cable, headband and X3 Sound Engines (cups) can all be mixed and matched to create your own look. Right now, it’s available in gunmetal gray, electro-blue or white, but more colors should be available shortly.

The design is somewhat unique. SOL Republic claims that the headband is virtually indestructible. I didn’t test this. The “sound engines” (earpieces) simply slide onto the headband. There’s nothing attaching them except friction, making them infinitely adjustable. To adjust them, just slide them up or down. Surprisingly, they stay where you put them. This design is clever, but because the cups don’t swivel at all, getting a snug fit might be difficult, although they are slightly articulated. Perhaps to make up for this, the cups are extremely cushioned, and they’re remarkably comfortable. Who needs a travel pillow when you can rest your head in these little cushions of SonicSoft delight? All that cushioning also helps with noise isolation. They’re not noise-cancelling, but they block out significant amounts of ambient noise. They weigh 243 grams.

The interchangeable cable has a built-in three-button volume control, playback control and mic. I was surprised that I could skip or jump back to tracks using the pause button on the cable with my iPod nano. The cable is said to be extremely durable. I did not test this either, but if something bad happens, it’s nice to know that it can be easily swapped out. I did notice that the portion of the cable between the jack and the controller is very resistant to touch noise. The split cable from the controller up to the sound engines wasn’t as impervious to this. The cables have small channel indications, and the sound engines also have a tiny indication. I actually have a gripe that this is so faintly marked. It was impossible to read without sliding off the headband.

Performance

The Master Tracks use SOL Republic’s X3 Sound Engine speakers. They are designed to deliver powerful bass, clear highs and vocal accuracy. There’s an inherent problem with headphones that are voiced and tuned to a certain quality – in this case, pushing the bass. These days, most music is already mixed that way – most likely to compensate for crappy little earbuds. This is a perfect example of that situation. These headphones are tuned to have a really heavy bass-response – a hip-hop heavy, club-like sound. The problem is that songs in that genre already have a huge bass response. With these headphones, the bass just sounds tubby and loose. Instead of a tight, impactful bass, you get a mushy, undefined sound. It just doesn’t work for me.

In listening to F.U.N.’s “Some Nights”, the stacked vocals in the intro were already showing a problem – the baritone voices were artificially boosted although the falsetto vocals in the upper ranges had a pleasant brightness. But when the drums and bass kick in, the sound just falls apart. I usually love the low-end of this song, but it becomes an undefined wash of tonality. Same thing with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Can’t Hold Us” – the bass completely overwhelms the vocals.

Other tracks that were more pop-oriented suffered the same problem, country-oriented songs too. I checked them out with Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel.” His voice should have a rich, luscious tone, and here it’s just tubby and boomy. The high-end is clean, but it is masked by the artificial sound of the low-end. Female vocals also sound unnaturally colored. There is a good high-end sound when it can shine above the lows, but the midrange is underwhelming.

Ken Pohlmann, contributing tech editor: I loved the style of these. They’re so comfortable – I really wanted to love them because I wanted to keep wearing them. Listening to “Run” by Kill It Kid, I could appreciate what the SOL Republic designers were trying to pull off, but they should let music engineers do what they do – balance the sound at the mix. This song has massively deep acoustic sounds, and they become a blur instead of having the impact they should. Instead of wanting to hear more, I couldn’t wait to take them off. On less bass-heavy tracks, it still feels artificially colored. I normally seek out a dark, warm sound, but this is too far gone.

Will Huff, L.A. jazz musician and frequent West Coast listening panelist: The design is great. They're extremely comfortable. However, the sound didn't work for me. It's muffled and there's no imaging, so it's hard to tell what sound is coming from where. When I listened to the Eagles' studio version of "Hotel California," the mids and lows didn't jell. It was like a choir where someone is singing out of tune.

Brent Butterworth, contributing tech editor: I do love the SOL Republic design concept with the interchangeable bands, and the super-soft earpads made these a joy to wear -- I was able to go for a couple of hours straight with no discomfort. That said, the sound is a mushy as the earpads. The bass is bloated and undefined; it overwhelms everything else and makes the headphone sound dull and muffled. I have heard other headphones voiced similarly, so SOL Republic isn't the only culprit, but still, I cannot understand why manufacturers ruin great industrial designs with these totally unmusical and unrealistic voicings.

Measurements

I measured the performance of the Master Tracks HD using a G.R.A.S. 43AG ear/cheek simulator, a Clio FW audio analyzer, a laptop computer running TrueRTA software with an M-Audio MobilePre USB audio interface, and a Musical Fidelity V-Can headphone amplifier. Measurements were calibrated for ear reference point (ERP), roughly the point in space where your palm intersects with the axis of your ear canal when you press your hand against your ear. I experimented with the position of the earpads by moving them around slightly on the ear/cheek simulator, and settled on the positions that gave the best bass response and the most characteristic result overall.

This is one of those cases where the frequency response curves do not square well with our panelists' subjective impressions. (Hey, it happens.) The only anomalous features I see in the curves is are less deep bass output (below 50 Hz) than expected, and more output in the midrange around 1 kHz than expected. (Many headphones have a midrange dip between about 500 Hz and 2 or 3 kHz.) Adding 70 ohms output impedance to the V-Can’s 5-ohm output impedance to simulate the effects of using a typical low-quality headphone amp has almost no effect, merely boosting bass by about +1 dB in a narrow band centered at 75 Hz.

The spectral decay plot (a new and somewhat experimental feature of our headphone measurements) shows very little resonance. There's less resonance in the bass compared to most of the headphones we've measured this way, and that resonance indicated by the blue band around 1.8 kHz is almost certainly too narrow to be audible.

Total harmonic distortion (THD) at 100 dBA is somewhat high: 3% at 100 Hz, rising to 8% at 20 Hz. Isolation is about the norm for an over-ear headphone: -8 dB at 1 kHz, dropping to -20 to -30 dB above 2 kHz. Impedance averages 34 ohms, while average sensitivity from 300 Hz to 6 kHz at the rated 33 ohms is 108.4 dB. –Brent Butterworth

Bottom Line

The SOL Republic Master Tracks have a fabulous design. Anyone who is hard on their headphones should consider these with their indestructible headband and completely replaceable components. If you do care for a big, bass-heavy sound, these are just what you are looking for. However, their clean, unadorned look is no match for the colored sound. I will give them huge props for comfort. I finished my listening test about an hour ago, and realized that I still have them on. Nice.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Master Tracks by SOL REPUBLIC

Movie Premiere: Star Trek Into Darkness

Leslie Shapiro And Ken C. Pohlmann — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:57:47 GMT

Going where many Star Treks have gone before, this newest installment tries to both honor the legacy and keep it relevant.

In addition to innumerable television episodes, Paramount has produced no fewer than 12 Star Trek feature films. The canon is vast, and the core characters and their relationships are familiar to many moviegoers. The dilemma is this: How to make a film that satisfies both hardcore Trekkies as well as more casually invested international movie audiences. Does this latest installment boldly reinvigorate the franchise, or merely recycle it?

Leslie: Before you review a Star Trek film, you need to define your official status. I am not a Trekkie but I have always really enjoyed the films.

Ken: I am not a Trekkie either. But, and you have to promise not to tell anyone, sometimes I keep a Tribble in my pants.

Leslie: Thanks for ruining my childhood dream to adopt one. Maybe we should focus on the movie, which I enjoyed. The 2009 outing was epic, and this one was even more epic. I might also add: heroic, exciting, endearing, emotional, humorous, and just plain fun. I also liked how each of the iconic characters is given some quality screen time.

Ken: I appreciated the plot twists. Also, Roddenberry would have loved all the moral predicaments.

Leslie: Am I detecting a thumbs up?

Ken: Well, much like the movie itself, I am conflicted. To make it a Star Trek film, the filmmakers have to put in all the signature elements. But after seeing that stuff countless times, it’s tiring to see it again. Pointed ears jokes. McCoy saying “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor!” How Spock is half-Vulcan and half-human. How Kirk is a womanizer and a wild and crazy guy.....

Leslie: I feel your pain. But that’s what makes a Star Trek film a Star Trek film. Without them, it’s some other sci-fi franchise. Diehard fans would go ballistic.

Ken: Absolutely. But it’s as if J.J. Abrams is afraid of the Trekkies, afraid to boldly seek new film frontiers. The result is a little too slavish to the canon, especially to the 1960’s concept. Even the uniforms looked recycled from previous outings. I wanted something more original.

Leslie: I think the film successfully splits the difference. Don’t forget there’s an entirely new generation seeing all this for the first time. This film is a terrific intro to all future installments. Oddly, my biggest beef was something technical: I got really tired of the CGI lens flares. Holy smokes, those were so distracting! Counting all these is guaranteed to be the next great drinking game.

Ken: I’ll drink to that. Speaking of techno stuff, I was expecting to see and hear tremendous things, and I wasn’t disappointed. The production team is populated with some true artists.

Leslie: I’ll say. The sound mixing was superb. Where do I begin? The sound effects during the warp chase, inside the warp core, the weapon sounds, the Foley - all top notch.

Ken: Lots of good stuff. I loved the effect on Harrison’s voice when he was in the brig - a touch of evil, for sure. And, the raw ambient sounds during the firefight sequence on Kronos echoed the brutal nature of the Klingon regime. Even the music took on a raw, metallic tone.

Leslie: Some of the best moments in the soundtrack come when they pull down the faders and have no sound. [SPOILER ALERT] I loved the scene when after massive chaos and destruction, we’re left with just the music as someone dies, and the only other sounds are the sobs of an emotional James T. Kirk.

Ken: Very effective. This soundtrack also has a seriously good LFE track: a bass-heavy volcano, the torpedo blasts, the moment when the Enterprise suddenly drops out of warp, and the Enterprise’s death spiral sounds - when this comes out on Blu-ray, that bass will stun your subwoofer.

Leslie: There are also a lot of subtle effects. Listen carefully when they are in Pike’s office. In the background you’ll hear the murmur of a computer’s soft tech sounds - all part of creating the perfect room tone.

Ken: Yep. On the ship’s bridge, those background computer sounds could have been copied straight from the original TV series - it felt very familiar.

Leslie: Since they kept the original characters, I was glad that they kept many of the original sounds.

Ken: They brought in sound veteran/guru Ben Burtt to help refine the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, and they wisely kept him at the helm for this installment.

Leslie: He borrowed some elements of the sounds used in the 60’s series. To create the transporter sounds, he manipulated Hammond organ sounds similar to the way he created the originals, enhancing them with more swirling effects to match the new visuals. He also used chimes that are similar in pitch to the originals. The old sounds were flat, almost monotonal, while the new ones have real depth to them.

Ken: That sound design is part of the fabric of the franchise. And unlike the pointed-ears jokes, it’s subtle, and it works. I also heard that he created the sound of arcing sparks from recordings he made from props from the 1930’s Frankenstein films.

Leslie: Talk about “everything old is new again!”

Ken: The music was something new. I was struck by the fact that the iconic Star Trek theme wasn’t heard until the closing credits. At least they were brave enough to write original music!

Leslie: The musical score by Michael Giacchino was perfect. The piano music (a la Philip Glass) during the early London scenes was absolutely beautiful. I would buy the soundtrack just as standalone music - it was that good - a rarity for movie soundtracks.

Ken: Agreed. And you know what, after all the sonic mayhem - the effects, the Foley, the score - at the emotional climax, they bring up the faders on traditional “movie” music with violins and choir, and that’s what ultimately sells the scene, tugs at your heartstrings, and brings a tear to your eye.

Leslie: They got me. I choked up a bit then.

Ken: Did the underwear shot make you emotional too?

Leslie: Seriously??? A woman standing there in her 23rd century underwear while Kirk oogles her. You’ve got to be kidding me! That says it all. These filmmakers aren’t interested in making great films - did we see Mary Todd’s skivvies in Lincoln? - they are only interested in making money and a girl in her underwear helps sell tickets. Thumbs down!

Ken: Should we let our readers see her and decide?

Leslie: No!

Ken: Too late. I just posted it.

Leslie: That’s just gratuitous.

Ken: And I’m guessing you have similar feelings about the 3D?

Leslie: Yep. The 3D was almost as gratuitous. I keep trying to like 3D, but I still find it annoying. Why do they need to put Klingon subtitles in 3D? Having them pop off the screen was extremely distracting during an otherwise great scene. It completely removed me from the action.

Ken: There was some really cheesy 3D shots. The foreground row of rocket ship models was ill-conceived. And all those out-of-focus over-the-shoulder shots! In the bar, there is a row of liquor bottles along the front that instantly reminded me of the silhouettes in Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Leslie: Did you notice the background music in the bar? Good to know they’re still singing the blues in 2259. Back to your point, sometimes 3D works. The rocketmen flying through 3D space through a field of debris was cool. But I sincerely wonder if Star Trek the 13th will be in 3D. In my opinion, 3D might be a fad. At least, I hope it is.

Ken: Speaking of opinions, it’s time to place our bets.

Leslie: We both liked Iron Man 3, but this Star Trek might be better. As a fan of the series, I found it satisfying.

Ken: It wasn’t bad, not at all, but next time they have to surprise me with something new.

Leslie: You realize, of course, that J.J. Abrams is also helming the next Star Wars installment, due in 2015.

Ken: Beam me up, Scotty.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

USS Enterprise

Review: MrSpeakers Mad Dog Alpha

Brent Butterworth — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:09:53 GMT

Can a tiny company “tune” a popular pro headphone for better sound?

“So this is a tuner headphone,” our frequent West Coast listening panelist Will Huff commented when I showed him the Mad Dog Alpha. “Like tuner cars?” he suggested when he saw my quizzical look. “Like in Fast and Furious?” he asked when I gave him a shrug. Ah, finally I got it.

The MrSpeakers Mad Dog Alpha is indeed a tuner headphone. Just as guys will buy a stock Honda Civic, then get better performance out of it by replacing the exhaust, the camshaft, etc., MrSpeakers buys a stock Fostex T50RP professional headphone and tweaks it out for improved comfort and better sound.

Fostex’s RP series headphones have long been a favorite of recording professionals and some audiophiles, too. When I was recording jazz and folk groups in New York City back in the late 1990s, I bought a T20 to use for monitoring my mixes, and it still sounds great today. RP-series ’phones use an orthodynamic (planar magnetic) driver, smaller than but similar to the ones used in HiFiMan headphones like the HE-400 and HE-500.

To upgrade the T50RP, MrSpeakers first seals the vents in the back, which should give the headphone more bass while maybe losing some of the spaciousness that open-back headphones tend to produce. Then the company tunes the acoustics of the enclosure through strategic application of felt, foam, and fibrous stuffing. Then it adds plush, angled leather pads reminiscent of those we saw on Audeze’s $1,999 LCD-3, and supplements the stock Fostex band with a second leather strap intended to help support the weight of the headphones and keep them from drooping down on your ears.

“Spectacular comfort,” Will raved. “They’re like a La-Z-Boy for your ears.”

The Mad Dog Alpha comes with two detachable cords: one with a 3.5mm plug, one with a 6.3mm plug. It also includes a simple velour carrying sack. The headphone originally came with Ralph Steadman-inspired color graphics on the side, but now just says “Mad Dog” in white text—a deeply disappointing move, in our opinion, ’cause the old graphics were so right and the new ones are so boring.

The price for this formerly professional but now fancy audiophile headphone? $299. In comparison, the T50RP lists for $199 but I found it online for $99. Considering that Audeze charges $80 for LCD-3 replacement pads, and that you get that nice strap plus the acoustical tuning mods, $299 seems reasonable. And of course, $299 is an affordable price for an audiophile headphone.

Mad for the Mad Dog?

My fellow Tech^2 blogger Geoff Morrison has a talent for summing things up simply, and he did just that when he listened to the Mad Dog Alpha: “It’s like a Grado with balls.”

For those who aren’t hip to Grado headphones, it’s a brand revered by some (and despised by some) for their hyperdetailed sound, which results in part from an emphasis on midrange and treble and a deficit of bass. For decades, they’ve been a favorite of many audiophiles, but our listening panel’s never quite warmed up to them. Not even me, and I’ve owned two sets of Grados.

So what Geoff was saying was that the Mad Dog Alpha has the hyperdetail and strong treble typical of Grados, but with more bass to balance out the sound. Will agreed: “It’s very accurate,” he said.

One of my two or three favorite test tracks, Steely Dan’s “Aja” (yep, that tune again), showed me exactly what the Mad Dog Alpha was doing. The lead vocal, piano, and rhythm guitar showed just a trace of emphasis in the treble, which gave me a heightened sense of detail. It was extremely easy to pick out the individual instruments in the mix, and each instrument seemed to have its own space around it. The cymbals, cabasa, and triangle (wait, there’s a triangle on this tune?) were mildly boosted in the mix. The bass line sounded tight, although I didn’t get as much of a sense of groove as I usually do on this tune.

Another one of my overused test tracks, the live version of “Shower the People” from James Taylor’s Live at the Beacon Theatre, confirmed my impressions. James’s voice sounded just slightly trebly, and ever-so-slightly sibilant, but his acoustic guitar sounded like I was listening from 3 feet away. The glockenspiel in this recording, which I often use to gauge the high-frequency response of speakers and headphones, sounded cleaner and clearer than I’ve ever heard it before. While I would have appreciated a little more bottom end, the ability to pick out every instrument and every background vocal was pretty compelling.

I have to mention, too, that on the Michael Murray/San Francisco Symphony recording of Jongen’s “Symphony Concertante,” the strings sounded extremely detailed and lifelike, much as they would if you were sitting in row 1, dead center.

Just out of curiosity, I compared the Mad Dog Alpha to my Grado SR225 and Fostex T20. The SR225 was definitely more Grado-ey than the Mad Dog, with just a tad more treble detail, no low bass to speak of, and what sounded like a pronounced midrange peak that to me made the sound fatiguing. The T20 sounded smoother than the Mad Dog Alpha, and tilted a little more toward the bass, with just a dB or two more bottom end and maybe a dB less treble. It's still a great-sounding headphone, and for many it might sound better balanced, but it didn’t have that thrilling detail of the Mad Dog Alpha.

I think there’s little doubt audiophiles will embrace the Mad Dog Alpha. But except for me, while our listeners respected the Mad Dog Alpha, they didn’t love it. Geoff wants to hear a lot more bass than the Mad Dog Alpha's little planar drivers can deliver, and Will commented that the upper bass was fine but the entire bottom octave from 20 to 40 Hz seemed to be missing.

Will also felt the Mad Dog Alpha had a “dual personality,” because sometimes it would sound like he was listening in an acoustically dead studio control room, and other times it would sound like he was in a concert hall. Sometimes the recordings would have the warmth of analog tape, sometimes they would sound like bad digital remasters. I have to wonder, though, if the Mad Dog Alpha wasn’t merely bringing out details he’d never heard before, as it did for me.

There's something else, though, that'll be a major factor in your decision to buy or not buy the Mad Dog Alpha: It definitely needs a good amplifier. With my iPod touch, the Mad Dog Alpha does play at a usable volume, but it doesn't have the sparkle and dynamics that it has with a good amp, and the amp seems to distort a bit. Even my little Fireye Mini, which can muster the oomph to drive the HiFiMan HE-500, sounded rather feeble with the Mad Dog Alpha. We did almost all our listening with my Musical Fidelity V-Can amplifier. If you want to take the Mad Dog Alpha out of the house, I'd recommend a high-end portable amp, such as the V-Moda Vamp Verza.

And how does it compare to the ADL H118, another closed-back audiophile headphone we reviewed a couple of days ago? Sonically, I like 'em both a lot. But I slightly prefer the Mad Dog Alpha. While the H118's mids and treble are smoother, more natural, and not exaggerated as they are with the Mad Dog Alpha, the H118's bass is a little overwhelming for me at times. Regardless, the two products aren't really competitive because: 1) the H118 runs fine off any smartphone or tablet, while the Mad Dog Alpha requires an amp, and 2) the H118 is likely to be uncomfortable for anyone with large ears (i.e., American males), while the Mad Dog Alpha is mega-comfortable.

Measurements

I measured the performance of the Mad Dog Alpha using a G.R.A.S. 43AG ear/cheek simulator, a Clio FW audio analyzer, a laptop computer running TrueRTA software with an M-Audio MobilePre USB audio interface, and a Musical Fidelity V-Can headphone amplifier. Measurements were calibrated for ear reference point (ERP), roughly the point in space where your palm intersects with the axis of your ear canal when you press your hand against your ear. I experimented with the position of the earpads by moving them around slightly on the ear/cheek simulator, and settled on the positions that gave the best bass response and the most characteristic result overall.

The frequency response curves are pretty standard stuff for an audiophile headphone, in that it's mostly flat. What response peaks there are (at 150 Hz, 3 kHz, 6 kHz, 8 kHz, and 10 kHz) are mostly broad and mild. Adding 70 ohms output impedance to the V-Can’s 5-ohm output impedance to simulate the effects of using a typical low-quality headphone amp produces no significant difference in response.

The spectral decay plot (a new and somewhat experimental feature of our headphone measurements) shows some resonance below 1 kHz, but above that the decay is very clean.

Total harmonic distortion (THD) at 100 dBA in the bass is among the lowest I've measured, only 1% at 20 Hz, although there does seem to be a little more than average in the lower mids: about 2 to 3% from 250 to 400 Hz. Isolation is fairly typical for an over-ear headphone: -9 dB at 1 kHz, dropping to -25 to -32 dB from 2 to 17 kHz. Impedance is dead-flat at 56 ohms, while average sensitivity from 300 Hz to 6 kHz at the rated 50 ohms is low at 90.0 dB.

Bottom line

If you’re not an audiophile, just someone who wants to hear your favorite tunes and not necessarily listen with your eyes closed, you might appreciate the Mad Dog Alpha for what it does, but you’d probably be better off with something that has more bass. In this price range, we’d recommend the PSB M4U1 or the Sennheiser Momentum. (Yep, I’ve tested both extensively and I have the measurements and I promise that one day soon we’ll get reviews up on them. In fact, Leslie Shapiro’s planning on posting her Momentum review sometime this month.)

OK, now that we’ve the mass-market crowd has gone back to watching The Voice, and it’s just us audiophiles in the room: If you’re an audiophile, I’d strongly recommend you check out the Mad Dog Alpha. I think you’re gonna like it a lot, and I can’t think of a better audiophile headphone at this price. There’s a 15-day satisfaction guarantee so you got nothing to lose.

Photo by: Brent Butterworth

MrSpeakers_main

The MrSpeakers Mad Dog Alpha is a modded version of the Fostex T50RP professional headphone.

This Week in Movies & TV, May 14, 2013: Eastern Thoughts Go West

Josef Krebs — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:09:58 GMT

Also, Cloud Atlas, 10 Movies Mastered in 4K, Jubal, 3:10 to Yuma, The Bletchley Circle

Cloud Atlas

Written and directed by Andy and Lana (formerly Larry) Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), Cloud Atlas takes you on a mind-boggling odyssey through many ages and places that come together to make up the six-story tapestry of lives and previous lives, allowing many of the best actors in Hollywood and England to play multiple roles — the same soul in different stages — with great relish.

Although the high quality of the images in this reference-level disc is consistent throughout, the palettes, with rich and varied tones, run the range through places and times, the excellent contrast dealing well with them all. Colors in a corporate conspiracy story set in the unrestrained early-Seventies San Francisco are vibrantly garish with mauves in hotel corridors, puces in elevators. The post-apocalyptic “106 Winters After the Fall,” forest settings are a wide range of natural greens and browns. In 2144, where the main character is a replicant slave in Neo Seoul, there are the pop and popping candy colors of saturated neon pink hot-pants, sky-blue tops, and bright yellow chairs with cartoon Buddhas on the back. Futuristic walls are a traditional bright white, as is the shirt of composer Vyvyan Ayrs (Jim Broadbent) in Cambridge 1936 and the clinging, high-tech bodysuit Halle Berry wears in another time and place. There are supersaturated scarlet lamps in the background of the book launch by publisher Timothy Cavendish (Broadbent) in London 2012, the sweater of his author Dermot Hoggins (Tom Hanks) a deep black. In sex scenes skin tones are always natural.

The tattooed face and decorated clothes of primitive Zachary (Hanks) have great detail as do the patterned collars of composer Ayrs and individual hairs in his beard. Tactile textures in textiles and tweeds reveal all their secrets. There’s great depth to compositions and volume to rooms and other spaces. The forest has layers of trees receding into the background, all sharp and well defined. Faces are rounded and solid.

From the get-go in this DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, the surrounds are completely engaged. Instruments are very well separated into each channel, the music bright and distinct. Piano themes and the beautiful “The Cloud Atlas Sextet” symphony are very clear and full. Simultaneously we’re immersed in convincing atmospherics —voices from the past, street traffic, party chatter, wood sounds, and creaking ship. There’s good bassy snap to gunshots and a body thrown off a hotel tower smacks into concrete with a deep, satisfying thud as does a section of bridge collapsing into the stream below.

There’s much talk, most of it about rebirth — “Our lives are not our own, from moon to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present” — and it’s all clear (at least sonically) and full.

Video: 2.40:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Extras: 55 minutes of featurettes — “A Film Like No Other,” “Everything is Connected,” “The Impossible Adaptation,” “The Essence of Acting,” “Spaceships, Slaves & Sextets,” “The Bold Science Fiction of Cloud Atlas,” and “Eternal Recurrence;” DVD and UltraViolet digital copies for streaming/downloading. Studio: Warner.

Movies Mastered in 4K

Last week we had the pleasure ofThe Great Escape released in a high-def transfer struck from a 4K master, but this week there’s a veritable plethora of these smart-looking Blu-ray discs that Sony has created, “optimised for 4K Ultra HD TVs,” to show off the TVs’ upscaling capabilities. The titles aren’t Ultra HD 4K resolution — 4,000 pixels of horizontal resolution — since a 4K movie, weighing in at a hefty 200GB, can’t fit on a Blu-ray disc, but these 1080p transfers, with new expanded color, which can be played using existing HDTVs and Blu-ray players, are a stop-gap for those looking to benefit from the 4K television.

And if that ain’t enough these’ll have to do, until the real thing comes along.

Taxi Driver

Based on Paul Schrader’s screenplay about taxi driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) ferrying people across the River Styx of New York City of 1976 to the Underworld, Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece movie creates a mythological landscape of the horror the city was suffering through with infernal fumes barely contained beneath the city streets.

It was the era of The Omen and The Exorcist, defeat and disillusion, when a Vietnam veteran’s reaction — daily facing through a mirror or a windshielded fishbowl the disintegrated morality, uncaring hedonism, and corrupt, cynical politics — of gradually slipping into a detached psychotic rage at the state of the world, seemed almost a heroic, human response.

Taxi Driver, with its memorable menacing score by Bernard Herrmann (Citizen KaneVertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho) and cinematography by Michael Chapman (Raging Bull, The Last Waltz, Bad) co-stars Cybill Shepherd, Leonard Harris, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks, Peter Boyle, and Scorsese.

Angels & Demons

A priest has been murdered. A terrorist act is being planned against the Vatican. And descendants of an ancient secret brotherhood known as The Illuminati — an underground organization of great ancient power — are plotting. Yes we’re back in Dan Brown territory as Tom Hanks reprises his role from the 2006 film The Da Vinci Code as Harvard scholar, religious expert, and symbologist Robert Langdon, now called in after the untimely death of the Pope to decipher the clues and avert the threat posed by an old enemy of the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider has gone online — that’s that particle accelerator with the capacity to create tiny quantities of anti-matter. Following a break-in at the facility, brilliant and beautiful scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) finds a fellow scientist murdered and all the anti-matter thus far produced, stolen.

Back at the Vatican, Langdon — with the help of Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), the man charged with running the Vatican until a new Pope is elected, Commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgård), head of the Swiss Guard, and Vittoria — must save the lives of four kidnapped Cardinals, likely candidates to replace the dead Pope, by chasing across Rome cracking codes, exposing the dark secrets of Illuminati, and preventing the destruction of the very Vatican itself.

Angels & Demons was directed by Ron Howard from a screenplay by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman.

Spider-Man (2002)

Orphaned at an early age, shy and awkward photography enthusiast Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) leads the life of a normal student in New York, yearning after class beauty Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), hanging with pal Harry Osborn (James Franco), living with his beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris). That is until he’s bitten by a genetically modified arachnid, and — shazam! — he gains unusual spider-like powers of super-human strength, agility, the ability to shoot webs, and spidey-sense ESP-like abilities. In the face of personal tragedy, Peter vows to dedicate his life to fighting crime, becoming a superhero in the process. For, as good ol’ Uncle Ben puts it, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

In the meantime, Harry’s father, Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), has drunken his own Kool-Aid experimental formula, which is great in that it has increased his intelligence and strength — but it has the minor drawback side effect of driving him completely barking crazy. He is now the Green Goblin, instant arch enemy to Spider-Man, who will put young Peter Parker's vow to fight crime and help innocent people to the ultimate test.

Spider-Man was directed by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Oz the Great and Powerful) from a screenplay by David Koepp based on work by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 was scrapped in favor of this retread by director Marc Webb a mere 10 years after the first film in Raimi’s trilogy.

Based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee (also executive producer) and Steve Ditko, the rapid remake/retake action adventure, TheAmazing Spider-Man, retells the character’s origins story. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), who was abandoned by his parents as a boy and raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), is now a bullied, nerdy, science-wiz, a troubled teenage loner, and a high-school student who yearns from afar for beautiful classmate Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone, her father, Capt. Stacy being played by Denis Leary). Parker one day discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father setting him off in search of the facts behind the disappearance of his parents. It contains a complex algorithm that leads him to Oscorp and Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), research scientist and his father's former partner, who, having lost an arm, is working on a process to regrow human tissue much as reptiles can . . . Hunting about in a restricted area of the Oscorp facility, Parker is (of course) bitten by a special genetically-modified spider and finds himself with strange new powers including super-strength and speed, the ability to stick to surfaces, and heightened instincts. Soon, Parker feels the need to create a spidey suit and mask (natch) and a ultra-tensile “biocable” spider-web spinner to allow him to go out looking for vigilante vengeance — following Uncle Ben’s shooting — as Spider-Man! Which, of course, eventually leads him to fall out with Connors’ grouchy alter ego, The Lizard (Rhys Ifan) who tends to threaten the entire city as super-villains have a tendency to. Connors tries to disperse his serum across the city and make everyone into lizards, but only manages to do so in the Wall Street area.

Director Marc Webb had previously only made the rom-com-dram (500) Days of Summer, and so was probably hired — and given the aid of screenwriters James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves and storywriter James Vanderbilt — to creates a more psychologically-driven story and together they’ve succeeded in bringing a more realistically complex Parker/Spider-Man to the screen — along with all the must-have kick-ass, swinging special effects that make home theater such fun while absorbing lessons on the human condition.

Total Recall (2012)

At the end of the 21st century — not too long from now, actually — chemical warfare has decimated Earth. The only two territories capable of sustaining life are The United Federation of Britain (Western Europe) and The Colony (Australia).

Total Recall was created from a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback, based on a screen story by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Kurt Wimmer, and Jon Povill, loosely based on the screenplay of the 1990 film by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, and Gary Goldman which was based on the screen story by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, and Jon Povill, originally loosely based on the short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick. The result of all that Chinese whispering is Total Recall (2012).

It tells of factory worker, Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), who begins to suspect, after visiting Rekall — a vacation company that provides implanted fake memories of adventures as a different, more exciting person — that he is actually a real spy, that the dull life he had been living is merely a fabrication, and that his wife (Kate Beckinsale), friends, and society are part of the conspiracy that’s preventing him being all he could be and saving the world. (Paging Dr. Midlife Crisis.)

Total Recall (2012) was directed by Len Wiseman's (Live Free or Die Hard, Underworld, Underworld: Evolution) and co-stars Jessica Biel, Bill Nighy, and Bryan Cranston.

Battle: Los Angeles

Yes, aliens have invaded yet again and are systematically wiping out beachfront property on the Los Angeles coast. It all started when mysterious objects, spotted approaching Earth at an irregular pace, start splashing down off the coasts of cities around the world. Soon extraterrestrial spacecrafts emerge from the oceans and begin to attack.

This, of course, causes aging veteran Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) to come out of retirement to help young, inexperienced Second Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez) and his platoon to locate and rescue a pocket of civilians stranded in an overrun police station before the entire coastline goes kablooey.

In the process they, along with Tech Sergeant Elena Santos (Michelle Rodriguez) and veterinarian Michele (Bridget Moynahan), must try to understand the alien technology, discover their plan of attack, and find a way to fight back in order to overcome the hopeless situation.

This loud, 2011 action-effects monolith was director Jonathan Liebesman (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Darkness Falls) from a screenplay by Christopher Bertolini (The General's Daughter).

The Karate Kid (2010)

In this well-received remake of the much beloved 1984 film of the same title, 12-year-old cool-in-Detroit Dre Parker (Jaden Smith), after the death of his father, is plucked up by his career-pursuing mother, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson), and moved to China. Dre and a violinist classmate, Mei Ying (Wen Wen Han) are mutually attracted but cultural differences and the class bully, Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) come between them. Soon Dre finds himself set upon by the schoolyard bullies and given a martial-arts beatdown.

Dre has no friends to turn to but, fortunately, he meets his building’s maintenance man, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) who happens to secretly be a master of kung fu and who teaches Dre lessons in self-defense on top of the Great Wall of China and in front of the Wudang Mountains. Han also teaches Dre life lessons, in discipline, self-reliance, integrity, personal honor, responsibility, sacrifice, perseverance — and how to kick ass. Han decides that to restore Dre’s honor and get the bullies to back off, he should compete in a local Kung Fu tournament, allowing for a big ol’ arena showdown setpiece.

The Karate Kid was directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.

The Other Guys

In the 2010 action comedy The Other Guys, directed and co-written by Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Campaign), tough New York City detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), as punishment for accidently shooting Derek Jeter during the World Series, gets assigned to work with a mild-mannered, paper-pushing forensic accountant, Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell).

The unlikely police partners try to emulate their heroes, Detective P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Detective Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson), two gung-hoing New York top cops whose heroics tend to leave a trail of destruction mounting into the millions of dollars, but because of their reputation and popularity with the department, press, and public, they get away with it.

When Danson and Highsmith come to a mysterious untimely end, it leaves a couple of positions open for the title of “Super Cops,” — the department’s best crime-fighting duo — that Hoitz and Gamble decide to try to fill. They intend to do so with the unlikely long-dormant case investigating a local multi-billionaire, David Ershon (Steve Coogan) who has avoided obtaining the proper scaffolding permits around the city. Eventually, though, they discover that there’s a lot more to the case, a plot by Ershon to cover his $32 billion losses to his client Lendl Global. Meanwhile, Lendl CEO Pamela Boardman (Anne Heche) hires a team of mercenaries headed up by Roger Wesley (Ray Stevenson) to make sure no one stops Ershon from paying her company back and Ershon kills his attorney who has discovered Ershon’s intrigue.

The Other Guys co-stars Eva Mendes and Michael Keaton.

Ghostbusters

After their research grants expire and their methodology is called into question, three parapsychologist researchers — Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) — get booted from Columbia University and decide to set up in business together using their knowledge and talents to make money — as Ghostbusters.

Their ghost removal service, located in an abandoned firehouse in New York City with a retrofitted 1959 ambulance as transport, is good to go but the team gets no customers. Then, surprisingly, paranormal activity begins to increase immensely in New York City and the Ghostbusters gang are soon so busy they have to hire a fourth member, Winston (Ernie Hudson), and receptionist, Janine (Annie Potts).

One of their customers is cute cellist Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) who seems to have a mysterious creature is in her kitchen. It turns out to be a demonic spirit, Zuul. Dana becomes possessed by Zuul and declares her/itself The Gatekeeper and talks of releasing Gozer the Gozerian, also known as “The Destructor,” who will bring an end to the world. Since neighbor Louis (Rick Moranis) is possessed by a similar demon called Vinz Clortho, The Keymaster, the Ghostbuster boys, sensibly, try to The Gatekeeper and The Keymaster apart.

Filled with special effects and sight gags, jokes and slapstick, and memorably goofy performances, Ghostbusters (1984) was a huge hit with audiences. It was directed Ivan Reitman (Meatballs, Stripes, Legal Eagles), has a score by Elmer Bernstein (Devil in a Blue Dress, The Age of Innocence, My Left Foot), and cinematography by Lászlo Kovács (Easy Rider, The King of the Marvin Gardens, Shampoo), which isn’t too shabby.

Glory

Winner of three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Cinematography, and Best Sound, the ensemble film Glory (1989) tells the story of the first black regiment — the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry — to fight for the Union in the American Civil War.

After speaking with African-American activist, Frederick Douglass (Raymond St. Jacques), Captain Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) takes on the commission of training an all-black regiment to fight in the war. The idealistic 23-year-old — with the help of his buddy and second-in-command Major Cabot Forbes (Cary Elwes) and a tough, Irish disciplinarian drill instructor, Sergeant Major Mulcahy (John Finn) — must organize the enthusiastic but inexperienced men into a disciplined team, trained and efficient in the practices of modern warfare.

Amongst the men are Shaw’s childhood friend, Thomas Searles (Andre Braugher), a cultured, intellectual African-American out of place amongst the troupe, the angry, rebellious Trip (Washington), a man plagued by demons from his past, sharpshooter Jupiter Sharts (Jihmi Kennedy), stoic, levelheaded John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman), and an assortment of unskilled laborers and escaped slaves.

Shaw’s soldiers repay his determination and leadership by proving themselves “worthy,” despite the bigotry and bureaucracy that holds them back and keeps them underpaid and undersupplied, of facing the enemy with honor and duty, proving their worth in bravery and loyalty, fighting and sacrificing as a mutually supportive brotherhood, united in their trust of each other and the greater good develop in the process a pride and dignity, earning respect and a sense of belonging in their society.
Glory was directed by Edward Zwick's (The Siege, Defiance, The Last Samurai) and has a rousing score by James Horner.

Sadly, for all these titles to make way for the new, better-quality footage, all extras have been dumped from all these discs. But all except Total Recall do include UltraViolet digital copies for streaming or downloading.

Spider-Man, Video: 1.85:1. Audio: Dolby True HD 5.1. The Amazing Spider-Man, Video: 2.40:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Angels & Demons, Video: 2.40:1. Audio: 5.1 (TBA). Battle: Los Angeles, Video: 2.40:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Taxi Driver, Video: 1.85:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Total Recall, Video: 2.40:1. Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The Karate Kid (2010), Video: 2.40:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The Other Guys, Video: 2.40:1. Audio: 5.1 (TBA). Ghostbusters, Video: 2.35:1. Audio: Dolby True HD 5.1. Glory, Video: 1.85:1. Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Extras: all, except Total Recall, UltraViolet digital copy for streaming/downloading. Studio: Sony.

The Bletchley Circle

The Bletchley Circle, created and written by Guy Burt (Kingdom, The Borgias, Wire in the Blood) and directed by Andy De Emmony (Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!), is a three-part period murder mystery miniseries. In 1952, four ordinary women with an exceptional ability to break codes — a skill each had honed during World War II when they secretly worked at Bletchley Park decryption center — are now, in 1952, civilians who keep their former intelligence work secret from family, friends, and officials. After a series of grizzly murders of women, however, the team gets back together to decode the patterns behind the crimes that others cannot see.

Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin), now a housewife with two children, has been collecting data on a series of murders that the police seem incapable of connecting into a pattern. Millie (Rachael Sterling) is fluent in fourteen languages, Lucy (Sophie Rundle) is a young woman with a photographic memory, and Jean (Julie Graham), oldest of the four, is the former head of the Bletchley Park unit.

The Bletchley Circle paints a fascinating portrait of post-war Britain and London of the 1950s while delivering a mixture of thriller and whodunit.

Video: 1.78:1. Audio: LPCM 2.0. Extras: 30 minutes of interviews with cast and crew. Studio: PBS.

Jubal

3:10 to Yuma

Jubal

Director Delmer Daves (The Red House, Dark Passage, Broken Arrow) made Jubal (1956) the year before his more famous and celebrated 3:10 to Yuma, both films psychological Westerns starring Glenn Ford.

Jubal is an Othello-type tale based on the novel by Paul Wellman with memorable performances from its three leads. Jubal Troop (Ford), an honorable itinerant, Cassio-like cattleman who’s found weak and wondering without a horse and is given shelter by kindhearted, Othello-like Shep Horgan (Ernest Borgnine) on his big spread. Despite Troop’s refusal to discuss his past, Horgan befriends and hires him to work on the ranch.

After, Horgan’s bored wife, Mae (Valerie French) takes an interest in Troop — although Troop is more attracted to wagon rider Naomi Hoktor (Felicia Farr) — and Troop is raised to ranch foreman by Horgan after earning Horgan’s trust, sly and jealous Iago-like cowhand, Pinky (Rod Steiger), begins to plot. The stage is set for an intense playing out of the heightened emotions herein.

Jubal has a score by David Raksin (Laura, The Bad and the Beautiful, Pat and Mike) and was shot in gorgeous CinemaScope and Technicolor by cinematographer Charles Lawton, Jr., making expressive use of the mountainous landscapes of Wyoming. Lawton went on to shoot 3:10 to Yuma and four more Daves films. The supporting cast includes Jack Elam, Valerie French, and Charles Bronson.

3:10 to Yuma

In this beautifully shot, complex, tense thriller based on the short story by Elmore Leonard, Ben Wade (Glenn Ford), the leader of a band of outlaws who’ve robbed a stagecoach and murdered its driver, on stopping in a small town to make love to gorgeous bartender Emmy (Felicia Farr), is captured by the Marshal (Ford Rainey).

Modest cattle rancher Dan Evans (Van Heflin), desperate for money after he’s suffered losses from a long draught, agrees to take the $200 offered to secretly take Wade to the nearest town with a railway, Contention City, that will transport him to prison — on the 3:10 to Yuma. In this, he is aided by town drunk Alex Potter (Henry Jones), but along the way, though, he must deal with Wade’s gang and have a showdown with them in Contention.

The task turns into a nerve-racking psychological war with Wade, who proves intelligent and sophisticated, the situation testing each man’s sense of right and honor and transforming each in the process.

3:10 to Yuma (1957) is beautifully shot by cinematographer Charles Lawton, Jr. (The Lady From Shanghai, Two Rode Together, Brewster’s Millions). Its theme song “3:10 to Yuma” was made popular by Frankie Laine.

Jubal, Video: 2.55:1. Audio: LPCM 2.0. Extras: illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kent Jones. 3:10 to Yuma, Video: 1.85:1. Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, LPCM Mono. Extras: new video interview with Leonard, new video interview with Peter Ford, son of actor Glenn Ford and author of the definitive biography Glenn Ford: A Life, illustrated booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones. Studio: The Criterion Collection.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

CloudAtlas

This Week in Music, May 14, 2013: Vampire Weekend’s sonic getaway

Ken Richardson — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:09:20 GMT

Also: ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog, the resurrection of the Del-Lords, and much more. Plus: R.E.M.’s “Green” turns 25.

Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City

New release (XL; tour dates)
Photo by Alex John Beck

“Much of the overall sound and approach to the album was [the outcome of] being able to record the drums to tape on an old Ampex machine at Vox Recording Studios. That put us in a different world. There’s a quality that happens with tape; it lets you really crunch and compress the drums, and they don’t get harsh or painful. It has to do with the transients hitting the tape; something changes. Once the drums have been passed through tape to Pro Tools, you can really mangle them and go crazy with them.”

Interest piqued? That’s just a small portion of what Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij has to say about the recording of Modern Vampires of the City. For the full story, see “Nothing as It Seems” by Ken Micallef in the June issue of Electronic Musician. (Currently, the article can be viewed at a fan blog here.)

From the start, Batmanglij has been not only the band’s multi-instrumentalist but also its producer. This time, however, he shared the console with an outside producer, Ariel Rechtshaid. In “Nothing as It Seems,” Rechtshaid explains:

“This was a quest to make an album that sounded like nothing we’d ever heard or worked on before. It was a conscious effort to not repeat ourselves. We pushed it as far as we could. Everything is based around live performance, but we manipulated sounds. Whenever we came up with something familiar-sounding, it was rejected. They wanted it to sound new and different.”

To which I can quickly say: Quest accomplished.

We’re eased into the change with the opening track, “Obvious Bicycle.” Maintaining the tunefulness of 2008’s self-titled debut and 2010’s Contra, the track has a childlike melody that makes it one of the band’s most affecting songs. Yet it’s underpinned by some of those mangled drums, which ultimately are joined by a mild synthetic pulse — something heard on the Flaming Lips’ The Terror but done more deftly here.

From there, Vampire goes crazy indeed with the drums (and pitch-shifted vocals) on a track like “Diane Young.” There’s also heavy-sounding percussion on “Don’t Lie” and “Ya Hey,” but the former song stays light on its feet with an imaginative arrangement, and the latter has playful touches that its Led Zeppelin cousin, “D’yer Mak’er,” mostly lacks.

Meanwhile, “Diane Young” also proves that the band can rock — as does “Finger Back,” a seemingly silly nonsense song that makes a lot of sense as a carefree pop/rock singalong. And “Unbelievers” sounds as if Buddy Holly had never left us.

Equally effective are the album’s more poignant moments. There’s “Step,” whose chorus supposedly borrows enough from Bread’s “Aubrey” to warrant a cleared sample; other listeners may hear Simon & Garfunkel segueing into “Canticle.” But above all, I hear a theme-and-variations take on Pachelbel’s Canon, and it’s as beautiful, as wistful, as teary-eyed as any of those allusions. Then there’s “Hudson,” which sets contemporary references like a “99-year lease” into what resembles an Elizabethan ghost story, beginning: “Hudson died in Hudson Bay / The water took its victim’s name.”

New and old. Pro Tools and a 1936 recording studio. Modern Vampires. Maybe the biggest achievement of this album, especially for S&V listeners, is that Vampire Weekend can use many tricks of the current trade but still make an album that sounds as natural, as musical, as a backyard jamboree or a whispered secret.

Agnetha Fältskog: A

New release (Verve)

This is Agnetha Fältskog’s first record since 2004’s My Colouring Book. That release was a collection of favorite old songs, so this one is also her first set of new material since 1987’s I Stand Alone.

The primary writer is Jörgen Elofsson, who also co-produced (with Peter Nordahl). Elofsson has worked with Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, and Celine Dion — but more important here, he and Agnetha are both Swedes, and he’s tapped directly into the living legacy of her old band, which you may have heard of: ABBA.

Result: We get an album that, to some extent, recalls The Album, bridging pop explosions and more mature songcraft.

Irresistible hooks? Check. (Especially catchy: “The One Who Loves You Now” and “Perfume in the Breeze.”)

Heartfelt ballads? Check. (Especially passionate: “I Was a Flower” and “Bubble.”)

Duet that’s an actual duet, with the guest enhancing and not overwhelming the host? Check. (“I Should’ve Followed You Home,” featuring Take That’s Gary Barlow.)

Big, weepy finish with strings? Check. (“I Keep Them on the Floor Beside My Bed,” the first song Agnetha had a hand in writing since 1985.)

Not overstaying your welcome on a CD? Check. (Tracks: 10. Playing time: 38:38.)

Production centered on an actual band and not a fleet of techno-gizmos? Check. (Particularly welcome: the driving bass on “I Should’ve Followed You Home” and the frequent acoustic guitars.)

To be honest, I hear some Auto-Tuning (though when it’s used for “Back on Your Radio,” it seems like a wry comment on what’s required to get there). To be further honest, “Dance Your Pain Away” is a disco dud.

Overall, however, Elofsson understands that there’s no need to adopt other genres when ABBA is basically a genre unto itself. And though Agnetha is only one fourth of that equation, A sounds pretty wholesome to me.

Other new releases

The Del-Lords: Elvis Club (GB Music/RED)
Their first album in 23 years. In the photo above (left to right), founders Frank Funaro, Scott Kempner, and Eric Ambel are joined by new bassist Michael DuClos.

Amy Grant: How Mercy Looks from Here (Amy Grant/Universal)
Her first all-new set in 10 years, with guests including Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, and Carole King.

Demi Lovato: Demi (Hollywood)
Album No. 4 from the pop princess (now age 20).

George Strait: Love Is Everything (MCA Nashville)
Album No. 40 — repeat, forty — from the country king (now age 60; his next birthday is Saturday).

Laura Mvula: Sing to the Moon (Columbia)
Full-length debut from U.K. singer/songwriter with Caribbean background. Said Jon Pareles of The New York Times re: the material at one of her SXSW appearances this year: “polished and unconventionally structured songs that suggested Joan Armatrading by way of Cecil B. DeMille.”

Bobby McFerrin: spirityouall (Sony Masterworks)
Press release: “Re-imagines Americana, combining classic spirituals and original tunes.” Eperanza Spalding sings on three numbers.

Tea Leaf Green: In the Wake (Greenhouse/Thirty Tigers)
Press release: What was once a “jam-minded party band” now plays “brawny but hooky classic rock & roll.”

Randall Bramblett: The Bright Spots (New West)
Journeyman Southerner.

Scott Tournet: Ver La Luz (Illusion Tournet)
Lead guitarist of Grace Potter & the Nocturnals.

Andy Cato: Times & Places (Apollo/R&S)
Half of Groove Armada.

The Boxer Rebellion: Promises (Absentee)
Fourth studio album from indie-rock quartet.

The Dillinger Escape Plan: One of Us Is the Killer (Party Smasher/Sumerian)
Fifth studio album from Jersey-bred mathcore quintet.

Greta Gaines: Lighthouse & the Impossible Love (Big Air)
Fifth studio album from Nashville-based singer/songwriter.

Eluvium: Nightmare Ending (Temporary Residence Ltd.)
Ambient/baroque artist Matthew Cooper delivers double album.

Here Come the Mummies: Cryptic (Sphinxter)
R&B/funk-rock outfit — whose outfits onstage are mummy bandages. Disguised/anonymous members include Eddie Mummy, K.W. Tut, and Mummy Cass.

Christian McBride + Inside Straight: People Music (Mack Avenue)
Jazz bassist’s acoustic group.

Will Calhoun: Life in This World (Motéma)
Living Colour drummer returns to his jazz roots, with the assistance of Ron Carter, Donald Harrison, Wallace Roney, Marc Cary, Charnett Moffett, John Benitez, and Malian musician Cheick Tidiane Seck.

R.E.M.: Green — 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Reissue (Rhino)

Remember the naysaying that dogged this album in some quarters after it was released in 1988? Well, today (to paraphrase E.E. Cummings), what I want to know is: How do you like your orange-covered Green now, Mister Dyed-in-the-Wool R.E.M. Fan?

I always loved it, and in hindsight (make that “hind-sound”), it’s even trimmer and tougher. The band brings a variety of sonics, including an acoustic/electric jangle (“World Leader Pretend”), three mandolin-breezy ballads (“You Are the Everything,” “The Wrong Child,” “Hairshirt”), a bubblegum crack (“Stand”), and a blend of the lot (the untitled Track 11). Mostly, though, R.E.M. brings the rock, in “Pop Song 89,” “Get Up,” “Orange Crush,” “Turn You Inside-Out,” and even the ramped-down “I Remember California,” all with the deep, rich sound that co-producer Scott Litt was helping the band to master.

The bonus CD in this two-disc edition has live performances from Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 10, 1989, the penultimate stop on the Green world tour. Very well recorded, it’s a punchy set taken at a fast clip, with 21 tracks in 80 minutes. (Yet there was still more: Five additional tracks were released on Record Store Day as the Live in Greensboro EP.) Somehow, amidst all the electricity, I most appreciate the moving versions of “Low” (a song that would appear on the next album, Out of Time) and “Perfect Circle” (from the band’s debut, Murmur).

You also get new liner notes by Allan Jones, individual photo cards of the band members, and a fold-out poster. You don’t get Elliot Scheiner’s 6-channel mix (or the various video extras) from the DVD-Audio edition of Green that was released by Warner Bros. in 2005. Unfortunately, that version is now deleted.

Other reissues and archival releases

Kings of Leon: The Collection Box (RCA/Legacy; shown above)
All five studio albums: Youth & Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak, Because of the Times, Only by the Night, and Come Around Sundown, each with bonus tracks previously available only on international editions. Plus the band’s 2009 concert DVD: Live at the O2, London, England.

Nick Drake: Bryter Layter (Universal Motown)
A box devoted to his 1970 album, here on audiophile vinyl. According to the sell sheet, it has been “remastered from near-original master tapes by the album’s original engineer, John Wood. For although the original tapes were unusable, Wood had made a safety copy of the album in 1970, and it is from this that the new reissue has been struck.” Also inside: the original shop poster, a smaller poster/brochure, and a reprint of a handwritten set list.

Gotye: Like Drawing Blood (Universal Republic)
American release of second album, originally issued in Australia in 2006.

The Breeders: LSXX (4AD)
In other words, the band’s 1993 album, Last Splash, in a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition on three CDs.

Huey Lewis and the News: Sports (Capitol/UMe)
The 1983 smash in a 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. Disc 2 has live versions of all nine songs.

Eleventh Dream Day: New Moodio (Comedy Minus One)
“Lost” album, recorded with Brad Wood in 1991 — a “parallel-world version” of 1993’s El Moodio.

Swamp Dogg: Gag a Maggott (Alive Naturalsound)
Irma Thomas: In Between Tears (Alive Naturalsound)
Diggin’ those Swamp Dogg reissues I told you about a while back? Here’s another one, from 1973. Song titles include “Choking to Death (from the Ties that Bind)” and “I Couldn’t Pay for What I Got Last Night.” The Thomas album, also from 1973, was produced by Swamp Dogg and features Duane Allman on two songs.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Vampire Modern photo

Review: Alpha Design Labs ADL H118

Michael Berk — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:03:49 GMT

A closed-back audiophile portable? The cable-and-connector specialists at ADL take on the challenge.

When Furutech launched their consumer-oriented Alpha Design Labs line in 2011 with the GT40 USB DAC/phono stage, it was clear that the company — which has long had a solid reputation among old-school audiophiles as a manufacturer of interconnects, power supply components, and connectors — was making a serious commitment to serving the new breed of personal-audio enthusiast, without abandoning the gear-and-gadgetry enthusiasts who'd been the company's core fans so far.

Last year, ADL upped the ante with the Esprit DAC/preamp, the Cruise and Stride portable DAC/headphone amps, and a passel of purple cables for portable devices; this year's shaping up to be even more exciting, with the feature-packed X1 USB/iOS portable DAC and headphone amp and, of course, the company's first headphone, the ADL H118 — which we've been spending a lot of time with lately.

The H118's a very interesting headphone; a lightweight folding portable with a high-end pedigree, with — so ADL claims — a voicing meant to be unabashedly audiophile. Is there room on the market for such a thing?

Setup

While here at S+V we've seen a wide variety of headphone designs, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, the H118 falls squarely in the middle of the road aesthetically, and that's not a bad thing. It's understated, with the main visual cues being the silvery alpha logo on each earcup and the triangular earcups. Overall it's reminiscent of an ATH-M50 that's been squeezed a bit — unpretentious and businesslike, so if you're looking for bling, this is not likely to be your headphone. Not a bad thing, in our opinion.

The unassuming H118 folds down into a substantial zippered travel case. While it doesn't pack as compactly as some other full-size over-the-ear portables (the Logitech/UE 6000 and V-Moda M-100, for instance), it's not unreasonably large. As you'd expect from a product with a Furutech pedigree, construction is solid, though those put off by predominantly plastic construction for whatever reason may not be impressed. But there's no legitimate reason to worry about the durability of plastic these days.

Ergonomics are not quite as mainstream as the look, and that's likely to be the only polarizing factor in choosing this headphone. Earcups are small — and I don't have Dumboesque earflaps by any stretch of the imagination. I started to feel pressure on the upper part of my ear after about an hour; it's of course difficult to generalize but I'd imagine those with larger ears might want to arrange a long audition before considering these. Brent Butterworth (whose ears are a bit larger than mine) also found the H118 difficult to tolerate for more than an hour or so. The H118 ear cups are quite tall as well — probably great for those with long, pointy ears (small-statured Vulcans, perhaps) — but it actually made it difficult for me to get a good seal at the base of my ear until I broke in the pads a bit. I'd say there's room for improvement here, for sure.

And that's good, since there's little to complain about otherwise. The earpieces themselves tilt and swivel sufficiently to accommodate a range of wearing positions, and if you can cram your pinnae into the H118 in the first place I suspect you'll be able to find a position that works.

The cable attaches on the left ear cup, via a locking mini-XLR connector (the arrangement will be familiar to AKG fans); the connection is solid and secure, and of course allows for replacement with exotic cables if that's your thing; ADL's own iHP-35 line is compatible; we got to check out the iHP-35x ($99), with silver conductors and various cryogenically treated components. It's a solidly built cable, and more flexible and easy to manage than the stock cable, though it does add considerably to the cost of the headphones.

I'll admit to being a bit of a skeptic on this front personally, but if you're into the idea of cable upgrades the cost of entry isn't so bad (and the common connector means that third parties should easily be able to whip up exotic replacements should the ADLs catch on), and the hardware is pretty nice on the iHP-35x. Both cables we tried were 3 meters long; perhaps a bit lengthy for active use, since even the stock cable is as substantial as you might expect from an ADL/Furutech product; a more ready-for-action 1.3-meter version is also available if you plan to take these on the road.

Performance

Is the H118 the audiophile piece ADL set out to produce? Yes, and no — though far as relatively inexpensive closed-back portables go, it gets pretty close, especially in reproduction of vocals. It puts out a lovely midrange, in the context of a bit of a U-shaped overall response; tilted a bit towards the higher frequencies, that may not be to everyone's taste. But if you dig detail, appreciate clean mids, and you're looking for something that you can cart around easily, the H118 might be worth an audition.

Figuring that ADL's designers had challenging acoustic music in mind, I plugged the ADLs into my Mac via the iFi iDAC and iCAN (look for a review soon; I also drove the cans from a FiiO E07K and E12, as well as an Apple iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note 2) and cued up Gonzalo Rubalcaba's take on "Giant Steps" (from The Blessing). Rubalcaba's piano is front, center, and bright, with every note of Rubalcaba's sheets-of-sound solo pretty clearly intelligible (no small feat given the tempo at which the trio takes the tune), with just a touch of stridency. It's bright, but doesn't rip your head off. Jack de Johnette's drums sound a bit dry, heads-and cymbals forward, but the ADL does capture the articulation pretty well. Brushwork is very upfront. Charlie Haden's bass is tight, if somewhat backgrounded here.

Solo piano really makes clear the brightness of the H118. I checked out Glenn Gould's 1982 take on the Goldberg Variations, and again, balance and detail are great — almost Gradolike, I'd say (so Grado fans looking for a closed-back portable alternative might be curious about these). Gould's command over dynamics and tone is clearly evident, though I'd say the piano sounds a little thin and the room a bit airless — Gould's trademark vocalizations are clearly in evidence however.

Jazz vocals are also clearly in the H118's bag; Billie Holiday's voice on "Love Me or Leave Me" (from Lady Sings the Blues) is very nicely presented here — the H118's excellent midrange presentation does the vocal justice; the texture of her voice clear over the orchestration.

Brent found that the H118 reminded him "...of some of the big orthodynamic 'phones we've heard. Even Donald Fagen's voice on 'Aja' (yeah, I know, way overmentioned on soundandvisionmag.com) sounds natural, not annoyingly thin as it does with a lot of headphones. I heard just a trace of sibilance on a few cuts, but barely anything worth mentioning."

Changing gears a bit with Talking Heads' "The Great Curve" (from Remain in Light) I found David Byrne's voice quite upfront and and free of strain; likewise midrange and treble instrumentation (like the dueling rhythm guitars) has plenty of presence, with clear attack and placement in the stereo field. I didn't love the bass here; Tina Weymouth's killer groove here sounded a little indistinct and boomy for my taste — not enough subsonic depth, just a tad too much upper-bass honk. But that's by comparison to headphones with seriously tight bass like the HiFiMan HE-500. And given that, the H118 acquitted itself admirably.

It was really only with more aggressive material that I felt the H118 wasn't quite up to snuff. "Cold World" (from GZA's Liquid Swords), the overall treble emphasis works well to maintain vocal clarity and to keep the sampled hi-hat groove moving; the low bass is mixed quite forward to begin with, and the the H118s don't get much more boomy or muddy than producer RZA probably intended, though there was some clearly audible distortion if I turned up the volume a bit. The tech-metal of Meshuggah's "Pravus" (from ObZen) suffered a bit on that end too; and the H118's mix of brightness coupled with a bit of fuzz in the low end made the track tiring to listen to. The ADL might not, I'd guess, be the best headphone for those into aggressive music. It's just not meant to give your eardrums a workout. But you should know better anyway, of course.

Measurements

To measure the performance of the ATH-AD900X, I used a G.R.A.S. 43AG ear/cheek simulator, a Clio FW audio analyzer, a laptop computer running TrueRTA software with an M-Audio MobilePre USB audio interface, and a Musical Fidelity V-Can headphone amplifier. Measurements were calibrated for ear reference point (ERP), roughly the point in space where your palm intersects with the axis of your ear canal when you press your hand against your ear. I experimented with the position of the earpads by moving them around slightly on the ear/cheek simulator, and settled on the positions that gave the best bass response and the most characteristic result overall.

The frequency response of the H118 shows a strong peak centered at 2.8 kHz (which one often finds in headphone response measurements) and a broad, strong boost between 6 and 10 kHz. Adding 70 ohms output impedance to the V-Can’s 5-ohm output impedance to simulate the effects of using a typical low-quality headphone amp has no significant effect on the headphone’s response.

Total harmonic distortion (THD) at 100 dBA is rather high in the bass, measuring 5 to 8%. You’d probably notice this if you play music with lots of bass at high volumes, so maybe this isn’t the best headphone for hip-hop or heavy rock fans.

Isolation is average, perhaps a tad less than average, for over-ear headphones: -4 dB at 1 kHz, and typically -20 dB at higher frequencies. Impedance runs about 72 ohms, while average sensitivity from 300 Hz to 6 kHz at the rated 68 ohms measures 104.3 dB. — Brent Butterworth

Bottom Line

For those with audiophile tastes who need a closed-back, reasonably affordable 'phone for use at the office or out and about (where, face it, Grados can make you unpopular), the H118's strenghts should outweigh its weaknesses (and a little extra low end comes in handy for commuters in noisy environments anyway. Mainstream pop and rock listeners will likely be happy as well — the ADL can deliver low-end thump and present vocalists in a good light, something that a lot of bass-forward cans have difficulty with. On the other hand I'd guess that metalheads (or those interested in any aggressive, heavy music with a lot of action in the low end — say serious hip hop heads or those into extreme electronics in general) aren't going to like it — there's just too much distortion in the lower registers, and the brightness makes the heavy stuff sound more cranky than angry. If you're tastes run in that direction and you want a closed-back portable, you might want to check out something like the V-Moda M-100 or Logitech/UE 6000.

But overall, the H118's bright tilt and well-mannered midrange means that the audiophiles the company had in mind will likely be quite pleased — and so may you.

Photo by: Michael Berk

ADL H118 with travel case

The ADL H118 with travel case and upgraded iHP-35x cable.

Review: Harman Kardon NC

Brent Butterworth — Sun, 12 May 2013 07:42:56 GMT

We travel halfway around the world with HK’s retro-look, radically designed noise-canceller

I’m not much of a businessman. (If I were, would I be writing audio reviews for a living?) Still, after years of experience in marketing and advertising, I can’t help but admire a good business strategy. That’s partly why I like the Harman Kardon NC.

Lots of audio companies would like to take a piece of the business Bose does with its industry-leading QC-15 noise-cancelling headphone. Their strategy for competing with the QC-15? Copy, copy, copy. I like Harman Kardon’s strategy better: Try to come up with something that looks cooler and works better.

There’s just no arguing that the Harman Kardon NC, while larger than the QC-15, is much more distinctive-looking. The retro rectangular earpieces fit into a springy metal band, and a soft leather headband supports most of the weight of the headphone.

Weirdly, you can’t adjust the length of the band as you can with almost all other headphones, but the NC does come with metal bands in two lengths. All of our West Coast headphone testers (including me) looked askance at this when we first saw it, but most of us were surprised to find that it worked quite well—although Lauren Dragan, our only female panelist on the West Coast, found that the NC drooped down on her relatively small head.

The detachable cable connects to a 2.5mm minijack on the left earpiece. There’s a noise cancellation on/off switch with an illuminated “NC” that tells you when it’s on. Unlike the Bose QC-15, the NC works even when the battery runs down (and as my measurements later showed, its sound quality doesn’t change much when the NC is off). Incidentally, the noise cancelling is digital, something we've seen previously only in the Sony MDR-1RNC.

Most noise-cancelling headphones with a rechargeable internal battery charge through a standard micro USB connector. If you lose the cable you can get another at any WalMart or Best Buy or RadioShack. The NC charges through its 2.5mm input using a special 2.5mm phono-to-USB cable; lose it and you’ll have to order a replacement. “For me, that’s a deal-killer,” Geoff Morrison said.

The earpieces fold flat for transportation, but they don’t collapse into the band as many do. HK provides a leatherette carrying case that’s fairly nice, but it measures about 8.25 by 8.25 by 2 inches; I found it somewhat large to pack into my computer case.

As luck would have it, I had the chance to take the NC not only on my usual trips on Los Angeles public transit, but also on a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo and some random wanderings on the Tokyo subway. I just know some of those Japanese kids wearing Beats (yep, they’re big across the Pacific, too) were checking out my ’phones wondering if they were missing out on the next trend.

Halfway ’round the world with HK

After turning down the QC-15s the flight attendant offered me, I settled in for hours of movies and music—and even some sleep, using the NC to isolate me from the plane’s cabin noise. Comfort-wise, I found the NC close to the QC-15, enough so that I needed to remote it for an “earlobe break” for only a few minutes every two or three hours.

I noticed right away that the NC has a mellow tonal balance. When I first use an unfamiliar set of headphones, I tend to turn the volume way down because so many of them have a big peak somewhere in the treble that I’ll find fatiguing. Not so with the NC. It just sounds smooth, smooth, smooth, no matter what you play. Even Rush’s “Red Barchetta”—which is, ya know, pretty trebly—didn’t sound as thin as it usually does. It’s not like Geddy Lee suddenly sounded like Michael Bublé, but that slight edge that’s usually in his voice wasn’t there. The bass—which is, ya know, pretty thin in most Rush tunes—was a little pumped-up, with Neil Peart’s kick drum sounding more prominent in the mix. The upside was that even after hours of listening, I experienced no ear fatigue at all. I seriously doubt anyone would ever say the NC grates on them.

The cymbals on “Sweet Georgia Bright” from jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd’s Rabo de Nube sounded clear but didn’t have a lot of ring to them, and I didn’t hear a whole lot of breath and spit in Lloyd’s sound. There does seem to be a narrow treble boost somewhere in there, though, because Frank Beard’s high hat really stood out in “Chartreuse” from ZZ Top’s La Futura.

That’s all with the NC on, of course. With noise cancelling off, the sound thins out some; the bass moves to the background and you can hear the details in the mids and treble better. But on the balance, I liked it better with the noise cancelling on, just ’cause of that extra kick in the bass.

Will Huff, one of our other West Coast panelists, totally disagreed with me. With noise cancelling off, he gave the NC five stars. “When I switched the noise cancelling off, Santana’s ‘BMW’ suddenly sounded like I was in a large club sitting second row center,” he said. “The sound is accurate in all octaves. I also noticed when I played A Tribe Called Quest that the snare drum really snapped. For me, this is an ideal headphone design. It also feels like a high-quality product.”

Although Lauren found the noise cancelling fairly effective, she couldn’t come to terms with the NC’s bass, which she found “flaccid” with noise cancelling off, and “muddy” with noise cancelling on. I can see her point, although I wonder how the poor fit she got affected the sound she heard.

For my return flight from Tokyo, I snagged a pair of the loaner QC-15s from the flight attendant and compared them with the NC. The noise cancellation wasn’t even a close contest—but it never is against the QC-15. The NC nicely reduced the low-frequency drone of the jet engines, but the QC-15 reduced it even more, and also cut out most of the noise from the cabin ventilation system and the other passengers’ chatter. I also found that I liked the QC-15’s tonal balance a little better. It wasn’t a radical difference—after all, no one would describe the QC-15 as bright-sounding—but I did appreciate that extra upper midrange and treble oomph and detail that the QC-15 offered.

Measurements

I measured the performance of the NC using a G.R.A.S. 43AG ear/cheek simulator, a Clio FW audio analyzer, a laptop computer running TrueRTA software with an M-Audio MobilePre USB audio interface, and a Musical Fidelity V-Can headphone amplifier. Measurements were calibrated for ear reference point (ERP), roughly the point in space where your palm intersects with the axis of your ear canal when you press your hand against your ear. I experimented with the position of the earpads by moving them around slightly on the ear/cheek simulator, and settled on the positions that gave the best bass response and the most characteristic result overall.

The frequency response measurements correspond well with many of the characteristics our panelists reported. There’s a bit of boost in the bass; in the left channel it was centered at 50 Hz in NC mode and 100 Hz with NC off. (Weirdly, I couldn’t measure a bass boost in the right channel.) The 3 kHz peak that’s present in so many headphones is very narrow here, as I suspected from my listening, and there’s an additional treble boost from 5 to 8 kHz. Other than the difference in bass response noted above, there’s little difference in measured frequency response whether NC is on or off. Adding 70 ohms output impedance to the V-Can’s 5-ohm output impedance to simulate the effects of using a typical low-quality headphone amp has no effect with NC on and no significant effect with NC off.

The spectral decay plot (a new and somewhat experimental feature of our headphone measurements) shows a lot of resonance/ringing in the low frequencies, below 500 Hz, but a clean response above that, with only a few very narrow and probably inaudible resonances.

Isolation is just a little bit impressive even with NC off, at about -18 dB at 1 kHz, dropping as low as -35 dB at higher frequencies. The noise-cancelling function is, again, just a little bit above average, adding an extra -18 dB of isolation at 140 Hz, and delivering significant reduction from 50 to 600 Hz. (A typical noise-cancelling headphone might add -10 dB of isolation between about 100 and 400 Hz.)

The one measurement I found way out of whack with the NC was total harmonic distortion (THD) at 100 dBA. With NC off, THD was extremely low, rising to just 1% at 20 Hz. (Trust a guy who measures subwoofer distortion on a regular basis—you cannot hear that.) But with NC on, the distortion rises abruptly in the bass, typically between 16 and 34%. I redid the measurement a few times, tried both left and right channels, and confirmed with a completely separate measurement session—and as always, I measured the NC at the same time as several other headphones, and none of the others had this problem. It wasn’t the measurement gear, either, because I could easily hear the distortion when I did the measurements. However, it’s worth noting that I didn’t notice this problem at the levels I like to listen at; you’ll hear it only in the bass and only at high volume.

Impedance measures dead flat at 41 ohms with NC on, and averages about 36 ohms with NC off. Average sensitivity from 300 Hz to 6 kHz at the rated 32 ohms is 104.9 dB with NC off, 105.5 dB with NC on.

Bottom line

Whether or not the Harman Kardon NC is right for you is very much a matter of taste. Will loved the sound, while I liked it. I preferred the sound of the QC-15, but I’ve talked with a couple of people who’ve heard both and prefer the NC. I like the looks of the NC better, but I know some people (Lauren, notably) who find it too bulky. One thing’s for sure: You won’t see everyone else on the plane wearing the same headphones you are.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

HKNC_main

Can Your Phone Do This?

Ken C. Pohlmann — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:21:28 GMT

Can your TV do this? Your receiver? Your speakers? Your turntable? I don’t think so.

Would you dunk your entertainment electronics toys in water? Probably not, unless you’re running some kind of insurance scam. Don’t worry. Most of my gear doesn’t like being underwater either. Trust me, if you try to play an LP record at the bottom of your pool, bad things happen. Really bad things. The jacuzzi isn’t good either.

The point is this: while everyone celebrates things like the small size and connectivity of smartphones, their relative immortality is often overlooked. Anyone who’s dropped their iPhone in the toilet (you know who you are) knows that immortality isn’t exactly the right word, but compared to traditional entertainment gear, phones are pretty damn rugged.

All of which brings us to the phone in the picture. This is a Sony Xperia Acro S. Please note that this is my own phone. It isn’t a loaner I-don’t-care-if-it-explodes press review sample. It’s my own phone that lives in my own pocket. And my pocket gets wet, hot, cold, sweaty, sandy, dirty, muddy - you name it. And that’s the reason why I have an Acro S in my pocket and not some other phone. As with a few other smartphone, it brings the meaning of electronics durability to a new level.

You can read reviews of the Acro S elsewhere, but let me make a few comments. The Xperia Acro S is a followup to the well-received Xperia S; they signalled Sony’s intent to do battle in the smartphone market. The new Xperia Z confirms that Sony really does mean business. But what’s interesting about the Acro S is how it successfully fills diverse design criteria, and in particular how its ruggedness challenges our perception of high-tech electronics.

The Acro S is a medium-sized, unlocked phone with all the features and specs you would expect. It has a HD screen to die for, HDMI and DLNA, and a 12MP camera (with dedicated shutter button) that is an incredible shooter. Of course, it can house your music collection or access it in the cloud. But, the reason why the Acro is in my pocket is because it is IP55/IP57 compliant. In particular, is protected against dust. More impressively it can be submerged in water to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes and can also be subjected to pressurized sprayed water from all sides. According to Sony, the Acro has a highest level of water resistance of any smartphone. Also, of course, the Acro’s display is scratch resistant, and unlike most touchscreens, permits wet-finger tracking (very handy when it’s raining). Another thing that I, as a rugged outdoor type, appreciated: the display is readable even in the brightest sunlight, while wearing sunglasses.

The phone isn’t perfect; by today’s standards it is a little thick (.47 inches), it lacks LTE, and its 3G won’t work on T-Mobile’s network. Its water and dust resistance come with a downside; its various ports and connectors are covered by flaps; this keeps out the bad things, but it also inhibits quick access. Wisely, knowing that it would be a hassle to pull a flap every time you charged the phone, Sony includes a cradle; just drop in the phone and voila.

This smartphone has specs that rival those corresponding to big audio/video gear. But unlike traditional gear, you can go swimming with it or grind it into a sandy beach. In the history of audio/video hardware and software, that is unprecedented. Moreover, because the phone won’t go belly up in a downpour, your precious media content tucked inside the 16GB internal memory won’t go belly up either. Protected hardware also protects the software.

Building a product with excellent feature performance, reasonably compact size, and ruggedness, is a terrifically difficult design challenge. Most engineering teams would ask you to pick any two of the three, but these engineers designed in all three. Bravo. Certainly there are many excellent smartphones on the market, but only a few can stand up against the slings and arrows of everyday life. After decades of babying electronic gear and media and constantly worrying about their well-being, that comes as a revelation to me. Yet another reason why smartphones are taking over the world.

And now you’ll have to excuse me. I’m going to swim a few laps, and make a few calls.

Disclaimer: Do not put your phone in water. Do not put it in sand. Ice cream - bad idea. Soda - not good either. Molten lava - very bad. Quick run through a lawn sprinkler - maybe okay. But don’t try that either.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Xperia Acro S in Water

Review: Klipsch Image One Bluetooth

Brent Butterworth — Fri, 10 May 2013 02:35:33 GMT

Klipsch’s Image One on-ear goes wireless.

It’s not so easy to convert a headphone to Bluetooth. You’ve got to find space for the amplifier, processing circuitry, radio transceiver, and battery—and all that stuff taking up space inside the earpieces can change the sound a lot. Plus you kinda have to have a cabled mode, because you can’t use Bluetooth on airplanes. And you probably want the cabled mode to work even when the battery runs down, and to sound more or less the same as Bluetooth mode, too. It’s a much tougher task than simply designing a set of passive headphones.

A glance at the spec sheet suggests Klipsch has handled the task well with the Image One Bluetooth. It looks much the same as the Image One, but with a bunch of controls on the right earpiece. There’s play/pause, forward and reverse track skip, power/mating and volume up/down. Unlike some Bluetooth headphones we’ve tried, the operation of the controls is totally intuitive, and it’s easy to manipulate them by feel.

You probably couldn’t expect more comfort from a set of on-ear headphones. I found I could easily wear the Image One Bluetooth for an hour and almost forget it was on. The fit wasn’t tight enough for jogging, but it was perfect for dog-walking. I was also happy to see that the Image One Bluetooth has a standard micro USB jack for charging.

Frequent West Coast headphone tester Will Huff agreed; he hates the way most on-ears feel but was completely happy with the way the Image One Bluetooth coddled his earlobes. He also loved the design, especially the V-shaped button on the right earpiece that controls power and Bluetooth mating.

So … looks, check. Styling, check. Ergonomics, check. Now let’s give a listen….

Bass in your face

To me, the Image One Bluetooth looks like it was designed for the 30+ set. It has an elegant-yet-techy look somewhat reminiscent of the Bose QC-15 and commonly seen on many other biztraveler-type ‘phones. That’s why I was so surprised to hear how bassy this headphone sounds.

In the mood for a ’70s binge during a recent dog walk, I cued up Yessongs on my Samsung Galaxy S III. You know the sound of classic Yes: Chris Squire’s trebly Rickenbacher 4001 bass and Bill Bruford’s intricate jazzy drumwork underlying dense layers of vocal harmony, guitar, and keyboards. Well, the sound of “Yours is No Disgrace” was totally dominated by the bass, although it sounded more like Fender Precision than a Rick. The vocals, in particular, were buried, almost as if I were listening to a 5.1 music mix with the center speaker disconnected.

Same held for “Trilogy” from the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s The Lost Trident Sessions. Bassist Rick Laird was something of a bit player in this band, holding down the bottom while guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist Jerry Goodman, and keyboardist Jan Hammer did what amounts to a triple-tempo modal jazz take on “Dueling Banjos.” Through the Image One Bluetooth, Laird became the band's most prominent player, and I heard not the articulation of his notes (he was a exceptionally clear and precise bassist for his time), but only the boom.

Although I didn’t share my opinion of the Image One Bluetooth with Will, he said almost exactly the same things. “There’s no high frequencies,” he said, “and the mids are mostly obscured. It’s all bass.” When I asked him to comment on the sound of the headphone in Bluetooth versus wired mode, he said, “I can’t. I didn’t hear a difference, but I couldn’t hear much of the midrange and treble in the first place, so I'm not sure I'd be able to tell, anyway.”

Measurements

I measured the performance of the Image One Bluetooth using a G.R.A.S. 43AG ear/cheek simulator, a Clio FW audio analyzer, a laptop computer running TrueRTA software with an M-Audio MobilePre USB audio interface, and a Musical Fidelity V-Can headphone amplifier. Measurements were calibrated for ear reference point (ERP), roughly the point in space where your palm intersects with the axis of your ear canal when you press your hand against your ear. I found I didn't have to use the 43AG’s clamping mechanism, which I usually have to with on-ears to ensure a good seal against the simulator’s fake rubber ear. I experimented with the position of the earpads by moving them around slightly on the ear/cheek simulator, and settled on the positions that gave the best bass response and the most characteristic result overall.

The frequency response curves correspond well with what we heard: There's a strong bass emphasis centered at 140 Hz. We also see peaks at 3 and 6 kHz, which is pretty typical voicing, but it's not enough to overcome the psychoacoustic masking of the pumped-up bass. The response in wired and Bluetooth modes is essentially the same, except for a mild bass roll-off below 50 Hz in Bluetooth mode. With the headphone in wired mode, I tried adding 70 ohms output impedance to the V-Can’s 5-ohm output impedance to simulate the effects of using a typical low-quality headphone amp, and found that there was no significant difference in response.

The spectral decay plot (a new and somewhat experimental feature of our headphone measurements) shows a slight resonance around 1.4 kHz, but a lot of apparent resonance below 1 kHz.

Due to the Clio's limitations, I could measure total harmonic distortion (THD) only with the headphone in wired mode. At 100 dBA, it's a little high in the bass, about 3.5% at 100 Hz and breaking the 10% barrier between 35 and 60 Hz.

Isolation is a little above-average for an on-ear, probably 'cause of those plush, comfy earpads. It’s only -7 dB at 1 kHz, but runs -20 to -29 dB from 2 to 15 kHz.

Impedance in wired mode averages about 40 ohms through most of the audio range, while average sensitivity in wired mode from 300 Hz to 6 kHz at the rated 32 ohms is 105.8 dB.

Bottom line

We’ve heard plenty of headphones voiced like this, including the JustBeats Solo, the Paradigm e3M (before they revoiced it), the Skullcandy Navigator (before they revoiced it), and another headphone you’ll see reviewed here later this week. Clearly somebody likes this sound. But for our taste, we’d rather see the Image One Bluetooth’s sophisticated, mature design married to a more sophisticated voicing.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Klipsch_Image_One_BT_main

The right earpiece on the Image One Bluetooth has buttons for forward and reverse track skip, play/pause, volume up/down, and power/pairing mode.

The Pyle BlueReach PBTR70 Bluetooth Adapter

Leslie Shapiro — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:36:55 GMT

Got an obsolete 30-pin speaker dock? Pyle comes to the rescue transforming that dock into a wireless Bluetooth speaker.

Dust off your recently-obsoleted 30-pin Apple docks – Pyle Audio has come to the rescue. Just when you thought you were reduced to connecting to your collection of Apple-ready speaker docks by a lowly audio cable, Pyle has released the BlueReach PBTR70, an adapter plugs into any 30-pin speaker dock to receive Bluetooth from any Bluetooth-enabled audio device.

Not only does this let you use your new Lightening-generation Apple products, it also makes it a breeze to connect Android phones and tablets via Bluetooth to previously Apple-only docks. Brilliant, right?

The day Apple announced their new Lightening connections, a collective cry of “Oh, crap” rose from the masses. Personally, I was crushed. After a long and extensive search, I had discovered the perfect dock for me - the LogitechS715i. It sounded great at home with excellent stereo imaging, it had an impressive battery life when I took it outdoors, and my 5th generation nano sat regally on the 30-pin connector. Then, I took my nano on a very, very, very rainy bike ride, destroyed it, and replaced it with a new 7th generation nano. With Lightening. Sadly, I was forced to use the headphone output of the nano to connect to the aux input of the Logitech. Nothing cool or regal about that in my book.

Thankfully, Pyle has come to my rescue. Well, my rescue and the millions of other people without an elegant way of connecting to their 30-pin speaker docks. My new nano has Bluetooth, the Logitech does not. For $66.99, I can plug the Pyle BlueReach onto the 30-pin connector on the Logitech, pair it up and off I go. A 3-colored LED makes pairing simple. In addition, you can plug in any device that uses a 3.5mm audio plug to stream your music via Bluetooth. The 3.5mm input allows for direct audio input into an Apple only 30-pin docking source. BlueReach supports A2DP V1.2, and is compatible with all devices enabled with A2DP stereo Bluetooth. It measures 2.15''H x 2.15''W x 0.45''D.

“We wanted to create a product that allows consumers to utilize their existing sound systems and easily convert them to Bluetooth capable music players,” says Abe Brach, President of Pyle Audio. “Instead of spending more money to update your entire system, we’ve provided a solution that’s affordable and easy.”

Thank you, Pyle for enabling me to pull my beloved 30-pin dock out of the trash pile.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Pyle PBTR70

Review: B&W Z2 AirPlay dock

Michael Trei — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:34:39 GMT

How does the Lightning-equipped little brother to the A7 sound?

Most of us who write about technology tend to become the go-to guy when friends and family seek gear recommendations. Last Christmas, my 16 year old niece wanted to know about speakers to use with her iPod Touch. When I asked whether she wanted a dock or something that used a cable to connect, the look she shot back told me that I might as well have asked if she wanted 8-Track or cassette.

With wireless connections rapidly becoming the hookup of choice, the notion of physically linking audio components now seems like a quaint relic from decades past. Still, those in the know will tell you that going wireless often comes with an audio performance penalty — unless you do it correctly, that is.

Bowers & Wilkins is one of the few truly high-end audio companies to have fully embraced the iDevice dock concept. Docks first showed up in its Zeppelin Series of all-one speaker systems. In 2012 B&W ditched the dock when introducing the A7 and A5 AirPlay speakers, but I’m happy to see it return in the new, lower-cost Z2. Apple’s switch from the long-standing 30-pin connector to the smaller Lightning connector with the iPhone 5 caught a lot of accessory makers napping, but B&W managed to stay ahead of the curve by introducing both the Z2 and an updated Lightning version of its Zeppelin Air just as many customers started to trade in their older iPhones for shiny new Lightning-equipped iPhone 5s.

The dock may seem a bit retro — and the included 3.5-mm analog input jack even more so — but the Z2 also lets you go wire-free via Apple’s excellent AirPlay technology. Unlike Bluetooth, AirPlay uses lossless compression to send wireless audio. B&W also points out that the $399 Z2 is likely to end up on a lot of bedside tables, so it makes sense to provide a convenient place to charge a phone overnight. As an iPhone owner, I can see B&W’s point.

Unlike the larger, more statement-making Zeppelin Air, the Z2 will blend in with any decor. It has an attractive, curvaceous form and is about the size of a slim, single-slice toaster. The dock itself sits neatly hidden in a sculpted recess in the top surface that’s barely noticeable unless you look for it. One downside to the design: Your iPad won’t fit.

Setup

Manuals often claim that a given product will be simple to setup and use, but the Z2 truly delivers on that promise. The booklet in the box simply tells you to download B&W’s AirPlay app, and then follow the onscreen instructions. I did exactly that and had no problem getting the Z2 up and running in a couple of minutes, although the more detailed online manual covered additional tips and tricks. Most functions are handled by B&W’s familiar pebble-shaped remote, with basic volume and input selection controls duplicated by switches on the unit itself — just in case the remote gets lost in your sofa cushions.

Performance

When I saw that the Z2 sports only a pair of 3.5-inch “full-range” drivers, I’ll admit that I did have a few concerns about its performance potential. Yet even without separate woofers and tweeters, the Z2 manages to sound impressively full and clear. I could fill my 13 x 17-foot room with moderately loud, if not party-level music, and I didn’t feel like I was pushing things until I was hitting 86-dB peaks from my seat eight feet away.

Other than having drivers angled apart by a few degrees, the Z2 doesn’t employ any fancy tricks to enhance its stereo effect. As a result, its sound doesn’t open up much beyond a single point in the room, but on the plus side it doesn’t have the phasey quality that often accompanies artificial stereo enhancement.

John Mellencamp’s stripped-down cover of Van Morrison’s “Wild Night” jumped from the Z2, with plenty of detail in the percussion, and a bass line that was tuneful and easy to follow. With a real bass torture-test like the Keith Richards track “Words of Wonder,” the Z2 came up short on a few of the deepest, most floor-shaking notes, but overall there was a truly satisfying tonal balance,with plenty of snap to drum rimshots.

Measurements

Frequency response
54 Hz to 20 kHz ±7.0 dB on-axis, ±4.3 dB to 16 kHz, ±8.3 dB avg 0-30°

Bass output (CEA-2010A standard)
• Ultra-low bass (20-31.5 Hz) average: NA
20 Hz NA
25 Hz NA
31.5 Hz 82.3 dB
• Low bass (40-63 Hz) average: 91.2 dB
40 Hz 85.9 dB
50 Hz 89.7 dB
63 Hz 95.3 dB

To measure the quasi-anechoic frequency response of the Z2, I set it atop a 2-meter stand and placed the microphone at a distance of 1 meter. (Quasi-anechoic measurements eliminate reflections from surrounding objects to simulate measuring in an anechoic chamber.) The microphone was placed on the same axis as the left tweeter, which is where I got the smoothest response. I then ran a ground-plane measurement at 1 meter to get the bass response. To create the graph shown here, I spliced the bass response to the 0° on-axis response (blue trace) of the left channel only, and to the average of quasi-anechoic measurements (green trace) of the left channel only taken at 0°, ±10°, ±20°, and ±30°. I used a Clio FW analyzer in MLS mode for the quasi-anechoic measurements and log chirp mode for ground plane, feeding test signals into the Z2’s 3.5mm line input. The quasi-anechoic measurements were smoothed to 1/12^th octave.

The Z2’s frequency response is a little unusual in that its averaged response has more high-frequency output than the on-axis response. Regardless, the response from 200 Hz to 15 kHz—i.e., almost the entire audio range—is quite smooth. There’s a strong treble roll-off above 15 kHz, but that’s inaudible or nearly inaudible to most of us. Off-axis response is excellent, with almost no variance in the on-axis and averaged responses below 12 kHz.

When I listened to the Z2, I didn’t hear enough bass output to warrant full CEA-2010 bass output measurement, but because I did them with the A7, I went ahead and did them for the Z2. I did the measurements at 1 meter because as with most personal audio products, the Z2’s output wasn’t strong enough to do them at the usual 3 meters. Averages are calculated in pascals per CEA-2010A procedure. Bottom line is that the Z2’s bass output is much less than the class-leading A7 produces: just 91.2 dB average from 40 to 63 Hz, versus the A7’s 105.2 dB.

My MCMäxxx™ test, in which I crank up Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart” until it sounds distorted then back it off one notch and measure the output at 1 meter, gave me a measurement of 91 dB, 6 dB short of the A7’s 97 dB.—Brent Butterworth

Bottom Line

B&W’s Z2 AirPlay Speaker manages to combine performance with simplicity and style. And while the included dock may seem a bit retro, it does make the Z2 the perfect bedside music system and overnight charging station for your new iPhone 5.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Z2_main_white

Tech Trends 2013: Video

Al Griffin & Geoffrey Morrison — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:29:57 GMT

S&V's video experts explain this season's hottest trends in TV

In this four-part article, Geoff Morrison examines the future of Ultra HD and OLED TV (below); Al Griffin looks at the latest developments in Smart TV; Geoff gives us an update on what's happening with plasma TV; and Al finishes with a discussion of the devices and technologies that will deliver 4K Ultra HD content to homes.

Ultra HD and OLED get real
High-res, high-tech TV coming this year

There is no question that the star of CES 2013 was Ultra HD, the resolution formally known as “4K.” In its high-rez shadow was Organic Light-Emitting Diode, a technology that has been lurking at the dreamy edges of our desires for years. Without question, these are our next-generation TVs. Fortunately, an Ultra HD OLED is already possible, so they’re not mutually exclusive. They are not, however, equally beneficial.

HDTV Quadrupled

First, the “what.” Ultra HD provides at least four times the resolution of 1080p. This means 3,840 x 2,160 pixels to your current TV’s 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. The first Ultra HD TV to ship was an 84-inch LG model in late 2012, followed by a Sony that shared the same size, specs, passive 3D capability — everything but the same model number. Priced at $20,000 and up, these TVs are not for the light of wallet. (However, the recent introduction of a stripped-down, 50-inch 4K TV from Seiki Digital suggests 4K prices may come down fast.)

On paper, 4K is an awesome improvement: Higher resolution means you can get a larger screen without seeing pixels, and you can sit much closer for the same reason. I’m willing to bet you sit about 9 feet from your TV, so if you’re planning on buying a 50- or 60-inch TV, Ultra HD has more resolution than your eye can process at that distance, so you’d need to sit as close as 5 to 6 feet away to derive any benefit.

If you really want Ultra HD, though, know that by the time you can afford it, there is likely to be content available. There was no 1080p content for years after 1080p TVs arrived, and the situation is likely to be the same with Ultra HD. It’s a common misconception that 1080p HD is somehow a “maximum” resolution. True, if a TV show or movie is shot at 1080p, that’s the most you’re ever going to get. Many movies (past and present) are shot on film, a medium with much higher resolution potential. Some new movies are shot on 4K video. Movie studios are already transferring older films to 4K. How we’ll get these 4K movies into the home, though, remains up in the air. Sony has announced a download service, while Netflix has demo’d 4K streaming. (See sidebar "What's on Ultra TV?" on page 4 for more info.) Will we see 100-GB Blu-ray discs with 4K video? Who knows? We’ll certainly hear more about these and other offerings in the coming year(s).

A bigger issue is that the new Ultra HD TVs only adhere to the current standard for HDTV video. For that matter, an HDMI 1.4 connection can only handle Ultra HD resolution up to 24 frames per second (fps), which precludes 4K 3D as well as higher frame rates (like 4K video games or content shot at 30 or 60 fps). This limitation will likely be solved by the HDMI 2.0 spec that’s due out this year, but it’s unclear if any of the shipping/pending Ultra HD TVs can be upgraded to work with 2.0. This won’t be a firmware change; it will have to be a hardware change.

OLED Allure

OLED, on the other hand, is an entirely new television technology, slotting in above both plasma and LCD in terms of picture quality. In an OLED display, current flows to an organic (i.e., containing carbon) material that glows a certain wavelength. Thanks to decades of research, materials have been found that glow the exact wavelengths needed to create a TV picture: red, green, and blue. You can turn off the current to create a pixel that’s actually, absolutely, black, and do so on a pixel-by-pixel basis. You can’t do this at all with LCD, and even with plasma, the pixel still glows slightly when it’s supposed to be black. What this means for OLED is a truly infinite contrast ratio, for the best image you’ve ever seen on a TV. It also means that TVs can be thinner (a few millimeters) and draw even less current than an LED-backlit LCD (reputedly less power than a light bulb requires).

However, as with any new technology, there have been issues to overcome. The biggest was figuring out how to manufacture large OLED screens cheaply enough that anyone could buy them. They’re heading toward that point. LG’s 55EM9700 should be shipping by the time you read this for the low, low price of … $12,000. This is also known as a “Nissan Versa 1.6” or “House Down Payment.” Those with long memories will recall that this is actually cheaper than the first plasma HDTVs, which were both smaller and a huge step backward in picture quality compared with the CRTs and RPTVs of the era. OLED is at least a leap forward in picture quality, and as they make more of them, they’ll figure out how to make them cheap enough that we hoi polloi can afford them.

The Goods

LG displayed its second-gen 55EA8800 model at CES, but it wasn’t the only company showing off OLED. Samsung showed its F9500, a 55-inch set that uses red, green, and blue OLEDs. (This contrasts with LG’s method of using a white OLED “sandwich” with red, green, blue, and white filters.) We’ll be interested to see if there are any performance differences between the two methods when Samsung’s OLED eventually ships. Even more interesting, the F9500 has a Multi-View feature that allows two 1080p programs to run onscreen at the same time. Specific active-shutter glasses (like you’d use for 3D) filter the images so that you only see your chosen program, and they also have built-in headphones so that you can also filter the sound. LG has a version of this in some of its LCD TVs, but because those are based on passive 3D technology, resolution is only 1,920 x 540 for each viewer.

Sony and Panasonic, less than a year off their deal to co-develop OLED TVs, each showed 56-inch Ultra HD OLEDs. These were certainly pretty, though they were roped off at a distance that precluded up-close-and-personal nose-to-screen scrutiny.

Except for that one Sony/Panasonic presumed sibling, all the other Ultra HD displays were LCDs. We can assume, then, that they will have all the strengths of LCD, like light output and relatively low energy consumption, along with its weaknesses, like poor native contrast ratio, poor off-axis viewing angle, motion blur, and the rest. So while increasing resolution is cool, it is not the only picture-quality factor.

The myriad models on the floor at CES ranged from 110-inchers from Westinghouse and Hisense to 50-inch models from the same companies, with multiple sizes in between. Sharp talked about a 60-inch due out this summer that features “Integrated Cognitive Creation” technology, using upconversion and other video processing to make the image more realistic. Not content with 4K, it showed an 85-inch 8K LCD at their booth. Sharp is one of the leading developers of IGZO, or Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide, a new material for the thin-film transistors in all LCD TVs. One of IGZO’s main benefits is that it allows smaller pixels, potentially making the higher resolutions of 4K and 8K easier to manufacture.

Toshiba discussed 58-, 65-, and 84-inch models, all containing a beefy-sounding CEVO 4K Hex Core Processor. Processing is an important aspect, as upconverting 1080p to 2160p is not easy.

Sony, having already released an 84-inch Ultra HD, announced 55- and 65-inch models. The X900A series also features “Triluminos” backlighting, which is a traditional LED backlight with quantum dots creating red and green light. (The LED itself creates the blue.) Potentially, this could mean more realistic color compared with a regular LED LCD. This new technology will also be found in the high-end-but-1080p-rez W900A series. All should be available by the time you read this.

Then there was Samsung’s UN85S9, an 85-inch Ultra HD with a unique easel-looking stand. The TV’s speakers are built into the stand, and even though Samsung claims the big TV is wall-mountable, the easel isn’t detachable. (It folds “flat” around the TV.) Samsung says the 85S9 will come out this year.

So while Ultra HD is going to get the lion’s share of marketing hype, OLED is the tech to keep an eye on. Ultra HD will make some content look a little better if you’re sitting close to the TV or if the TV itself is massive. OLED will make all content look better. And that wall-size TV you’ve always dreamed of? It’s going to happen, it will probably be a 4K OLED, and it’s not too far off.

The future of TV tech is finally looking exciting again. —Geoff Morrison

Smart TVs get smarter

The Smart TVs that Sound & Vision tested in 2012 came with everything from voice and gesture control to QWERTY remotes and Web-trolling video search engines. But in practice all of these features proved half-baked — more of a hassle than a help. In general, the only “Smart” features that could be relied on were movie/TV streaming apps like Netflix, Vudu, and Hulu, and those more often than not ended up buried in a cluttered, cumbersome interface.

Clearly, there was nowhere to go but up. And the new offerings at CES 2013 made it apparent that the Smart features on top-of-the line TVs, most of which now harbor a dual-core processor at minimum, were going to be an advancement over those found in last year’s sets. It’s hard to say just how much better they’ll be until we get our hands on them, but preliminary signs indicate that things are looking good.

TV Guide

The most encouraging development is the radical changes to be seen in most manufacturers’ Smart TV graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Screen interfaces now sport multiple panels and “personalization” capabilities to make them more useful and less cluttered. Panasonic’s new My Home Screen, for example, lets multiple users create a personal “dashboard” containing favorite apps and windows with program guide info, weather, and news. The layout can be spread over multiple pages, and high-end models that provide a built-in camera like the company’s VT60 series plasmas and WT60 series LCDs also have face recognition to automatically call up the right home screen when it spots your smiling mug.

Samsung’s changes to its Smart Hub interface include a streamlined multipanel layout with tabs for apps, program info, pictures, and social media. The various screens can be “swiped” through in a tablet-like manner with the TV’s remote control. As with Panasonic’s TVs, a key improvement to Samsung’s Hub for 2013 is the incorporation of program guide data from your TV service provider. Samsung’s Smart TVs also have a new recommendation engine that tracks your past viewing and displays thumbnail images of upcoming programs it thinks you’ll like in the Hub’s On TV panel.

LG’s updated Home Dashboard interface for its Smart TVs includes a similar feature called On Now that can scour both live listings and streaming sources for content it thinks you — or, more accurately, your data profile — will approve of. And another new Home Dashboard feature, My Interest Cards,provides a comprehensive way for you to spread apps, news feeds, and other data across multiple, scrollable screens.

His Master’s Voice

Along with sleeker, smarter GUIs, select new TVs from Samsung, Panasonic, and LG provide voice and/or gesture control. Our experience with these features on last year’s Samsung models involved plenty of yelling and swiping, only to have the TV ignore us. But this year we’re told that the tech has been improved to the point where you might want to use those features in place of a standard-issue remote.

Samsung TVs with gesture control for 2013 come with higher-resolution built-in cams that should more accurately track motion. As for voice recognition, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic TVs with that feature now respond to more natural speech commands: “Switch to ESPN,” for example, or “Search for a James Bond film starring Sean Connery and not that other guy whose name I forget.”

It’s way too soon for TV makers to abandon traditional remote controls, though new Smart models for 2013 will come with interesting ones. LG’s third-gen Magic Remote features the same built-in mike for voice command and gyroscope for point-and-click menu navigation found in previous versions, but the new one also incorporates gesture control, a feature that lets you do things like write a number in the air and have the TV tune to that channel. Useful? Maybe. Cool? Sure. Remotes that will come with select sets from Samsung and Panasonic also provide voice control as well as touchpads to make Web browsing and menu navigation more user-friendly.

Second Screens

Hardware remote controls might still be a necessity, but other new developments are helping to chip away at their primacy. Plenty of TV makers provide apps that let you control their sets with a smartphone or tablet. But it appears that more than just remote control functions are migrating over to the “second screen.”

One example of this trend is Sony’s SideView app, which runs on your iPad or other tablet and provides a full EPG with your TV provider’s offerings. You can select programs to watch or record via the EPG grid, and the corresponding IR commands get sent out to your DVR to make things happen. SideView also lets you dig deeper into listings by displaying related program info (synopsis, cast, etc.), and it also has a social media component — something that seems to be migrating away from the TV and onto second screens. (Does anyone view Twitter or Facebook feeds on their TV? The numbers apparently indicate no.)

Content Throwing

Another new development to look for in this year’s crop of Smart TVs is content throwing, a.k.a. wireless network sharing. This subset of wireless tech, which includes MiraCast and NFC tagging, allows for instantaneous content transfer, be it a video, photo, or Web page, from a smartphone or tablet to the TV. Miracast, which is supported by new TVs from LG and Philips and smartphones from LG and Samsung, uses Wi-Fi Direct to make wireless content transfers. At present, it’s Android-only. (Don’t fret, Apple users. You can always use AirPlay to send audio/video/photos from an iOS device or computer to an Apple TV receiver.)

NFC (near field communication) tagging involves making “contact” between an NFC-enabled smartphone and a compatible TV. Like Bluetooth, NFC is only meant to convey data over short distances. Unlike Bluetooth, NFC doesn’t involve a device pairing process or other setup steps. NFC-enabled TVs were shown at CES by Sony and LG. Panasonic, meanwhile, launched version 2.0 of Swipe&Share, an iOS/Android app that lets you easily and wirelessly transfer videos and photos to and from one of the company’s Smart TVs.

Premium Streaming

Generations of viewers have become used to having a set-top box connected to their TV, but Smart interfaces on new sets are finally starting to provide a hardware-free method to stream premium content. In 2012, Samsung added the Verizon FiOS app to its Smart TV platform, along with HBO GO, an app that lets HBO subscribers stream programs to a TV or tablet. In 2013, LG will join the list of TV makers to incorporate the Verizon app. If you’re a DirecTV subscriber, another way to get premium content to a TV sans receiver is via RVU, a protocol that enables both program-guide data and video to be streamed directly from the company’s Genie DVR over an Ethernet connection. (See our review of the Genie on page 056.) You can even use your TV’s own remote rather than a separate one from DirecTV. RVU-enabled TVs were only available from Samsung in 2012, but for 2013 Sony also plans to include the feature in its midrange KDL-R550A and KDL-R520A models.

Do you need a Smart TV? Even if the answer to that question is no, there’s a good chance that any new set you buy will be packed with at least some “Smart” features. The good news is that those features are getting more sophisticated, and they’re being accompanied by a range of options that make it easier to transfer content to and from the widening galaxy of portable devices. Even if you’ve avoided the new world of Smart TV thus far, its networked tendrils may grab you yet. —Al Griffin

Plasma: So not dead it’s funny

It’s shocking to me how many in the non-tech press, and even some enthusiasts, think plasma is somehow an “old” technology that’s going away or dying. After OLED, plasma demos had some of the best picture quality to be seen at the recent CES, and I’m including the Ultra HD ones.

Each of the three plasma manufacturers, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG, is introducing new sets for 2013. Panasonic, whose VT50 model won Sound & Vision’s Video Product of the Year award in 2012, consolidated its lines a bit, dropping the oddly situated GT series and adding a new, high-end ZT60 series. Since last year’s top-of-the-line VT50 was one of the best TV’s I’d seen in years, the promise of a model that’s significantly better is intriguing, to say the least.

At CES, Panasonic displayed the VT50 and ZT60 side by side showing the same content in a dark room. The two models were both allegedly “out of the box” and set to the Cinema picture mode, but I remember the VT50 I reviewed as having slightly a darker black level than what I saw in that booth. That said, the ZT60 was way darker than I ever remember seeing the VT50, and perhaps any plasma ever. Even up close, it barely looked like the ZT60 was even turned on when displaying a full black image. It also looked brighter than the VT50 with bright objects/scenes. Since the VT50 had one of the best contrast ratios I’ve ever measured in a flat-panel, this could mean that the ZT60 will leap into the “best ever” slot. We shall see.

But then there’s Samsung. The company says its new F8500 series is twice as bright as last year’s models. That’s a massive increase, and it’s also saying that black levels are improved. Unlike Panasonic, Samsung didn’t have a darkened room in its booth to compare the new and old sets side by side. But having the plasmas out on the brightly lit show floor ended up being almost as impressive. Plasma TV pictures usually suffer when forced to compete with intense lighting. However, the F500s not only held their own but looked bright. That’s a huge improvement.

LG seems to be the company that’s least enthusiastic about plasma for 2013. It cut its total number of plasma lines down to three and its total models down to five, and only one of them is 3D. We reviewed LG’s 50PM9700 last year and found it to be good but not great. This year’s “top of the line” is the 60-inch 60PH6700. Following LG’s model-number logic, this appears to be a mid-level model.

Given how much we expect plasma TVs to improve this year, the situation does raise a concern about OLED. True, OLEDs will be more energy efficient (though plasmas are no longer the energy hogs they used to be) and thinner (how thin a TV do you need?). But will OLED’s contrast ratio benefits be visible enough to consumers to justify the price difference? Which is to say, if plasma offers 80% of the picture quality of OLED for 20% of the price, won’t that slow the adoption of OLED? Don’t get me wrong, I love OLED, but with how much better plasmas seem to be getting this year (and presumably will continue to get in the future), the biggest benefit of OLED, picture quality, is becoming less and less of a factor.

It’s also possible that plasma TVs will get so good, and so inexpensive to manufacture, that there will be simply too few people willing to pay a premium for OLED. We’ve certainly seen this before. Pioneer’s Kuro plasma was the best TV you could buy, and you paid for it. At the time, Panasonic’s TVs cost a fraction of the price and offered “close enough” picture quality. Bye-bye, Kuro. While this direction would mean cheap, gorgeous plasma TVs, it would sadly kill off the promising OLED technology in its infancy.

For this year, though, we can’t wait to see the Panasonic ZT60 and Samsung F8500. If they’re even half as good as their respective manufacturers are saying, they’ll be impressive indeed. —G.M.

What’s on Ultra HDTV?

Announcements of forthcoming Ultra HD TVs at CES 2013 were plentiful, but info about content with sufficient pixels to fill those 4K-rez screens was in shorter supply. When the digital-TV transition got underway back in 1998, the arrival of the first HDTV sets in stores was timed to coincide with the first HDTV broadcasts. But Ultra HD broadcasting is still in the incubation stage, so those expensive new Ultra HD sets are going to require alternative sources of 4K content to fill their oversize screens. The Blu-ray Disc Association, a group responsible for setting technical standards for the format, is reportedly investigating the feasibility of 4K Blu-ray — a process that should be made smoother by the recent approval of the next-gen High Efficiency Video Coding standard (H.265, or MPEG-5). HEVC is supposed to match the picture quality of the MPEG-4 standard — the one currently used to encode video for Blu-ray — while taking up 50% less bandwidth. While we wait for Ultra HD to go Blu, here are some other 4K sources in the pipeline or available now.

Sony Ultra HD Video Player

Not wanting to leave consumers who purchased its $25,000 XBR-84X900 Ultra HD TV in the lurch with no 4K movies to watch, Sony made its Ultra HD Video Player, a hard drive loaded with Sony Pictures movies, available as a very welcome accessory to the TV late last year. At CES, Sony announced that it would soon be up and running with a 4K distribution service that would allow users to download new content to the player. Specific details about the service were not available, but Sony is apparently on track to launch it this summer.

Redray 4K Cinema Player

Sony’s player isn’t going to be the only 4K game in town: Red, maker of the Red 4K cameras used for digital cinema production, also showed off its 4K Cinema Player at CES. The $1,450 player, which was made available for preorder in February, holds 4K-rez video encoded using the company’s proprietary .RED file format on a 1-TB drive. Video output formats include 3,840 x 2,160-format Ultra HD, 1080p, 720p, and up to 60 frames-per-second 4K-rez 3D. The player’s specs also indicate support for up to 12-bit color depth and 4:2:2 chroma subsampling.

You connect the Redray player to your Ultra HDTV (or regular HDTV) using its HDMI 1.4a output, while audio (7.1-channel 24-bit/48-kHz) is conveyed to a receiver via a second HDMI jack. There’s a regular IR remote control, though an iPad control app will also be available. Content? That will apparently come via downloads from the cloud-based Odemax service, which as of February 2013 was nothing more than a Web page listing an e-mail address.

Netflix 4K Streaming

In an obscure aisle of Samsung’s massive CES display, the company casually demo’d 4K streaming via Netflix to one of its new UHD TVs. I asked the attendant for more info but was basically told, “No comment.” Looking into the matter further, I learned that Netflix recently partnered up with a company called EyeIO, which makes the proprietary video encoders that Netflix is using to improve streaming efficiency to its growing customer base. And it turns out that EyeIO, which recently became the first THX-certified online video-encoding solution, also provides a product called StudioRes that, according to a release, “delivers UltraHD, studio-grade H.264 videos (10 bit, 4:2:2 video, xvYCC)... for both package media and Internet streaming delivery to bring no-compromise pictures to the next generation of 85-inch and larger UltraHD/4K screens.” The company also has an new technology called EyeIO.265 that incorporates the just-ratified HEVC standard. So, while Samsung had next to nothing to say about its Netflix/4K CES demo, the behind-the-scenes indicates that 4K video streaming from Netflix is in the works — and it just might be available sooner than you think. —A.G.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Samsung_S9

Samsung's S9-series Ultra HD TV

This Week in Music, May 7, 2013: Natalie Maines — ready to make rock?

Ken Richardson — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:41:14 GMT

Also: Lady Antebellum, Patty Griffin, She & Him, a genuine comeback by Rod Stewart, and more. Plus: a Doors app.

Natalie Maines: Mother

“Lots of albums by lead singers might just as well have been made by the band, but I think this is very different from anything the Dixie Chicks could make.” So says Natalie Maines about her debut solo album. It’s “a new direction,” her press release underscores. Most common translation I’ve seen to date: It’s “a rock album.”

Curious. “Very different from anything the Dixie Chicks could make”? Not entirely so, when you consider that two of the writers represented here — Gary Louris and Dan Wilson — have actually made songs with the trio. There’s also a track by Patty Griffin, whom the trio has often covered. And the other Chicks themselves, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, get a credit, too.

That last song, “Come Cryin’ to Me” (by Louris, Maines, Maguire, and Robison), is a Chicks-borne composition that was deemed “too rock” for Taking the Long Way, according to Maines. Still, its measured, bluesy beat isn’t that far afield. Nor is the other Louris-involved song here, “I’d Run Away,” co-written with Mark Olson for their band, the Jayhawks. Similarly, “Free Life,” the title track from Wilson’s 1997 solo album, isn’t a barnburner but, instead, the kind of mostly mellow, easy pop tune he has written ever since his days in Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic.

The title track of this album may be the Pink Floyd warhorse, and “Without You” may be an Eddie Vedder number. But as played here, the former is an acoustic/electric meditation that bears a resemblance to some current country ballads, and the latter — from Vedder’s Ukulele Songs — comes across like a Tom Petty tune that would’ve been right at home on, well, the Chicks’ Home (and, yes, Taking the Long Way).

Just who is doing the playing? Ben Harper has brought not only his slide guitar but also his Relentless7 bandmates: guitarist Jason Mozersky, bassist Jesse Ingalls, and drummer Jordan Richardson. Together, they’re the dominant foursome here. Makes sense, since Harper is also the album’s co-producer, with Maines. The sound of Mother, from both the playing and producing, is a detailed, heartland music that, while occasionally heating up, is careful to never actually boil over.

Yet, if this is supposedly a rock album, shouldn’t it occasionally rock out? The Griffin song, “Silver Bell” (an unreleased co-write with Adam Steinberg), does so, but it’s pretty close to what you can hear from a country-rock outfit like The Band Perry. For something more rock & roll, there’s Harper’s “Trained.” Conversely, the other two tracks written exclusively for Mother — “Vein in Vain” and “Take It on Faith” (both credited, in varying order, to Maines, Harper, Mozersky, and Ingalls) — are different-scale takes on The Big Rock Ballad. “Vein,” for one, comes across as if it could be cried into any roadhouse’s beer mug. Both tracks take their cue from the album’s 7-minute centerpiece, Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over.”

All of which is to say: If you’re a Dixie Chicks fan and you’re afraid of Maines taking “a new direction,” you don’t have to be very afraid at all. Summon, if you will, the midcareer heyday of Linda Ronstadt. Mother may not be the still country-inclined Heart Like a Wheel, but it sure ain’t a departure like Mad Love (despite Maines’s haircut). Think, more generally, along the lines of Prisoner in Disguise, Hasten Down the Wind, and Simple Dreams.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for references to “The Incident” (the uproar in some parts of the country after Maines’s 2003 remark about President George W. Bush), you can always read whatever you want into some of the borrowed lyrics here. (“Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls,” indeed.) Conceivably more relevant are the lyrics of “Come Cryin’ to Me,” which are not only original but actually from that era: “When the world’s on your shoulders . . . / The tables will turn, and they won’t even warn ya.”

Or you can just forget that and enjoy Maines’s singing. No Idol shrieking or idle Auto-Tuning here; this is the real thing. The Buckley track is her prime showcase, and she pulls it off quite well, investing multiple levels of heartache into the simple syllable “Oh.” Yet I admire her handling of the title track just as much, as she delivers the high vocals of the chorus in a perfect balance of power and restraint.

From the choice of material to the arrangements and performances, this is a high-quality affair. If you don’t feel completely knocked out by the end, maybe it’s because, for all her past assertiveness and confidence, Maines seems a tad tentative about this solo bow. Sometimes, the most troubling question any musician can ask herself is: “Do you think they’ll like the song?”

Lady Antebellum: Golden

New release (Capitol Nashville; tour dates)

Speaking of the Dixie Chicks (and The Band Perry), here’s another phenomenally successful country trio, chiefly of the pop persuasion. Lady Antebellum’s Golden follows 2011’s Own the Night and the 2012 Christmas album On This Winter’s Night. It also precedes the birth of lead singer Hillary Scott’s first child.

Scott has told Billboard that Golden took her back to the early days with her bandmates, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley: “When I first met the boys, we spent a lot of time around the piano at the house they lived in at the time. We didn’t really know each other at all, but there was still some magic, and then the harmonies. That’s how it all started: that blend of our voices, and that blend of our songwriting craft.”

Patty Griffin: American Kid

New release (New West; tour dates)
Photo by Cambria Harkey

Speaking of Patty Griffin (as I was at the top, citing her track for Natalie Maines), the singer/songwriter offers her first album of primarily new material since 2007’s Children Running Through. And according to her press release, it’s her first album “whose music sounds stylistically rooted in Americana.” Accompanists include Craig Ross (who co-produced the record with Griffin and who plays many instruments), brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson (guitarist and drummer from the North Mississippi Allstars), Doug Lancio (a longtime guitarist), and Robert Plant (who sings on three songs). Most of the album was motivated by the impending death of Griffin’s father.

Rod Stewart: Time

New release (Capitol; tour dates)
Photo by Penny Lancaster

He’s been singing the Great American Songbook (and Motown chestnuts, and “rock classics,” and Christmas tunes) since 2002. And before that, he contributed a total of only four original songs to Human (2001), When We Were the New Boys (1998), and A Spanner in the Works (1995). Which means that a Rod Stewart album hasn’t really been a Rod Stewart album since 1991’s Vagabond Heart. That’s 22 years ago.

Working on his autobiography in 2011, Stewart had not only his memories but his creative juices jostled, and now he’s got his muse back, big-Time. Eleven of the 12 tracks on this album were penned by Stewart (along with such longtime co-writers as Jim Cregan and Kevin Savigar), and he produced the whole thing.

Cue up the first track (and first single), “She Makes Me Happy,” and it sounds a bit like . . . Riverdance. But damn if it doesn’t also sound like the freshest thing Stewart has sung in not just two decades but possibly three.

A little worry creeps in quickly, though. The next track, “Can’t Stop Me Now,” is a customary look back at his early career, and it sounds a bit like a bigger version of . . . the first track. And though “It’s Over” is a surprisingly direct song about separation and divorce, “Brighton Beach” is a customary (if poignant) look back at young love. You start to wonder if Stewart is going to let things go slack.

But next comes a pretty remarkable string of eight songs, beginning with the undeniably upbeat “Beautiful Morning,” the “Maggie May”-suggesting “Live the Life,” the electric rocker “Finest Woman,” the soulful title track, and a well-chosen Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan cover, “Picture in a Frame.” By the time we reach “Sexual Religion,” we get a dance track, but it’s a wonderfully understated one, and it includes lines that neatly sum up the dilemma of Stewart’s entire history with both sex and love: “If there’s one thing I don’t understand / It’s the power of a woman and the weakness of a man.”

Then, buried way down near the bottom of the album, there’s “Make Love to Me Tonight,” a title that threatens to deliver a geriatric take on “Tonight’s the Night” or “Hot Legs.” But instead, we get a stirring folk strummer that seems like it’s a Gasoline Alley-cat. From there, the album closes with a grand piano ballad, “Pure Love.”

Don’t misunderstand: Time isn’t Gasoline Alley itself, or Every Picture Tells a Story. Those days are gone. But these days are good when a 68-year-old Rod Stewart — who’s still in fine vocal form, by the way — can reassume a rock-ish persona and wear it this well.

Other new releases

She & Him: Vol. 3 (Merge; photo above by Autumn de Wilde)
Him continues to be M. Ward. She continues to be Zooey Deschanel (who continues to be the star of Fox’s New Girl.) Among the 14 tracks on Vol. 3 are 11 Deschanel originals. Among the guests: Mike Watt, Tilly and the Wall, NRBQ co-founder Joey Spampinato, DeVotchKa’s Tom Hagerman, and Rilo Kiley’s Pierre de Reeder.

Deerhunter: Monomania (4AD)
Sixth album from the indie quintet. It is, according to lead vocalist Bradford Cox, “a very avant-garde rock & roll record.”

Dailey & Vincent: Brothers of the Highway (Rounder)
Sixth album from the bluegrass act.

Fitz and the Tantrums: More than Just a Dream (Elektra)
Sophomore set from the pop-soul act.

Savages: Silence Yourself (Matador)
Debut of buzzed-about U.K. postpunk quartet.

Karl Hyde: Edgeland (UMe/Universal)
Solo debut of Underworld member.

Joe Satriani: Unstoppable Momentum (Epic)
Can’t stop this guitarist.

dUg Pinnick: Naked (RockArmy/MVD)
Can’t stop this King’s X bassist.

Courtney Jaye: Love and Forgiveness (1-2-3-4-GO!)
According to her press release, the singer/songwriter delivers “an organic and rootsy album that recalls the classic ’70s-inspired pop of her heroes Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, and Fleetwood Mac.”

Straight No Chaser: Under the Influence (Atlantic)
Benedictines of Mary: Angels and Saints at Ephesus (Decca/De Montfort Music)
Crazy for a cappella? With SNC, you get 10 guys (joined by guests Sara Bareilles, Phil Collins, Elton John, Jason Mraz, Dolly Parton, Seal, Rob Thomas, and Stevie Wonder). With BoM, you get ±20 nuns (based in Missouri, singing 17 English and Latin pieces).

The Piano Guys: 2 (Portrait/Sony)
Crazy for the keyboard? Well, actually, you get only one piano guy here, together with a cellist. (Two other guys work behind the scenes in the studio and help make videos for their popular YouTube channel.) The album has more of their mash-up arrangements, including “Rockelbel’s Canon.”

Various Artists: The Great Gatsby (Interscope)
Crazier than Baz Luhrmann? Then you’ll want the soundtrack to his current film, with tracks from the likes of Jay-Z, will.i.am, Lana Del Rey, Florence + The Machine, the xx, Gotye, Jack White, and Beyoncé & André 3000.

The Doors: The Doors

Archival release (Rhino)

The band’s history — as told via a voluminous iPad app. Overseeing the project (along with the surviving band members) was Jac Holzman, who signed the Doors to Elektra in 1966. An interview with Holzman is included in a New York Times article available here. Much discussion of technology there. After all, this is Holzman in his “home studio” in 1956:

Holzman says more in Rhino’s press release: “The genesis of this project began with a desire to digitize the Doors’ boxed set, to use new technology to improve upon a much-loved fan experience. It made total sense to choose the Doors. They have always been ‘ahead of the curve’ artists, and their story is one of the great sagas in rock. Together with the band, we tell a compelling tale using materials from the Doors’ own archives and the Warner Music Group vault plus the hundreds of other sources we chased down — a wealth of treasures including previously unseen photos, fresh interviews, and behind-the-scenes insights and reflections. Delivered in a single download, this is a riveting approach to showcasing a band's entire career. I believe Warner Music has set the bar higher for future music apps . . . and that is a very good thing to do!”

Additional excerpts from the press release:

“The app is divided into several sections, with The Story leading to the true centerpiece, proving endlessly intriguing for both veteran fans and new initiates with hundreds of photos, videos, and interviews. All six albums recorded by the original Doors foursome, as well as the two albums recorded later by the Doors as a trio, are spotlighted here through essays from counterculture icons including Patti Smith and Hunter S. Thompson and Doors historians such as David Fricke, Greil Marcus, and archivist David Dutkowski, as well as pieces from the band and personal reminiscences shared by Holzman. The Story also highlights extensive technical notes detailing all the equipment used to create every studio album.

“Among the other centerpieces of The Story is a graphic novelization of the notorious Miami Incident, where Jim Morrison was falsely accused of exposing himself during a 1969 concert. The infamous episode comes to life here through drawings by award-winning comic book artist Dean Haspiel, words by Adam Holzman (son of Jac), and rare audio of Morrison recorded during the show. This section also includes the once-confidential FBI report, the arrest report, a portion of Morrison’s tongue-in-cheek testimony, his mug shot, and his posthumous pardon issued in 2010.

“Also featured are a comprehensive Timeline, a Cast of Characters (listing key people in the Doors’ universe), an interactive Map of L.A. that focuses on prime locations in the band’s history, a Gallery filled with rare and iconic images, all song lyrics, in-app links to social media and the iTunes Store, and a customizable Favorites area. All told, the app features over 500 images including band photos, album art, singles, international releases, and memorabilia (posters, ticket stubs, advertisements, press releases, contracts, and related correspondence). The app also includes 44 short-form videos and 60 audio segments. Holzman has referred to the Doors app as a ‘1,500-piece jigsaw puzzle in three dimensions, which arrives on your iPad, elegantly pre-assembled.’

“To coincide with the launch of the app, all of the Doors’ studio albums have been mastered for iTunes by their longtime producer Bruce Botnick and are now available exclusively on iTunes. Three new digital box sets —The Complete Studio Albums, Behind Closed Doors: The Rarities, and Strange Nights of Stone Vol. II: The Bright Midnight Archives Concerts — as well as two mastered-for-iTunes compilation albums (The Very Best Of and The Future Starts Here: The Essential Doors Hits) are also available now on iTunes.”

The app is available for the iPad for $4.99 from the App Store.

The official trailer can be seen here.

Other archival releases

The Modern Jazz Quartet: The Golden Age, Complete Atlantic Recordings, 1956-60 (Enlightenment)
Four-CD box honoring the artistry of John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, and Connie Kay.

Various Artists: Cotillion Records: Soul 45s, 1968-1970 (Rhino)
A box of 7-inch vinyl singles, 10 of ’em, from the Atlantic subsidiary. Artists: the Dynamics, Darrell Banks, Otis Clay, the Blendells, C and the Shells, Lou Johnson, Baby Washington, Walter Jackson, Hollywood Spectrum, and Moses Smith. Just 500 boxes are available in the U.S., at independent record stores only.

Captain Beyond: Sufficiently Breathless (Cleopatra)
Vinyl reissue. This album, the relatively weak 1973 follow-up to the band’s stunning 1972 debut, still has some tracks to recommend it.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor

Maines Mother photo

Review: Stellé Audio Couture Pillar

Leslie Shapiro — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:17:00 GMT

Can a speaker marketed to women blur the line between home decor and home audio?

To cut through the clutter of Bluetooth-enabled wireless speakers on the market these days, one would need a stiletto. Or at least a pair of stiletto heels. The Stellé Audio Couture Pillar is making its way through the crowd with a difference. The Pillar (in fact, the entire Stellé Audio Couture product line) is being targeted and marketed to women, with a sense of style and fashion blended with good quality products.

In addition to the Pillar, Stellé Audio Couture also has a speaker line encased inside a fashionable clutch – “purse” for the unfashionable reader. I had seen both of these products at CES, but I finally have a chance to listen to the Pillar and see how it stacks up. Let’s see if the Stellé Pillar can live up to its stellar name.

The Pillar ($349.99 MSRP) is available in four attractive finishes to match any high-end office, living room or bedroom – High Gloss White, Brushed Aluminum, Matte Black and Pewter. They’re all so neutral that they’ll blend into any decor. This is awesome, because the Pillar can be used completely wirelessly wherever its looks or sound is needed. While this makes it very portable, the lack of a handle, water-resistance or any outdoor ruggedness makes it more apt to be used where wires would be an eyesore; poolside, sure, but probably not as a boom box on the beach. At three pounds, it’s also not likely to be something to toss into your backpack. However, it would be extremely attractive poolside. It measures 12-inches high and 4.5-inches across.

The Pillar has Bluetooth connectivity. Pairing was simple with the touch of a button, aided by lovely female voice commands – I do believe she has an Australian accent. Fabulous! Simply press the pairing button and locate the Pillar on your playback device. The lovely voice confirms that it’s paired. There is a built-in Lithium-ion battery that claims up to 15 hours of playback on a single charge. It comes with the most attractive wall-wart power supply I’ve seen recently - sleek, rounded and white, along with a plethora of adapter plugs to make this a global device. There is also a USB jack; when the Pillar is plugged into AC power, the USB jack can be used to charge other devices. It’s disabled when the Pillar is running off its battery. If your playback device lacks Bluetooth, the Pillar has a 3.5mm audio input jack and is supplied with a good quality cable to connect to the output of your music player. One gripe I have with this and many other similar products: if you have a USB jack, why not allow audio to be played through there? That data stream has to be better than what comes out of the headphone jack, and it eliminates the need for both the USB and 3.5mm audio cable when using and simultaneously charging a non-Bluetooth device.

The top of the speaker grill on top of the cylinder houses all of the controls – volume, Bluetooth pairing, speakerphone button, and charging indicator: amber for charging, white for fully charged. Near the bottom of the Pillar are the USB port, the aux input, AC input, and the power switch. I wonder if putting the power button on the top by the other controls might have made more sense.

The Pillar is a single tower speaker, touted as a 2.1 system. It has two 1.5” drivers mounted at slightly opposing angles inside the top of the cylinder, while a 3” downward-firing speaker is vented out the bottom of the tube. I listened to a variety of songs, and could detect a very small, narrow stereo image. It wasn’t a completely mono sound; there’s what I can only describe as a “bloom” of sound around the top of the speaker. Not a pin-point mono speaker, but it would be hard-pressed to call it a discrete stereo system, especially when listening to it from a few feet away. The speakers point up, out of the cylinder, and most people will be listening from the side. Whatever stereo imaging might be audible listening to the top of the Pillar is lost when you sit across from it. However, what is impressive is the bass clarity. Using the tube design to its advantage, along with vents along the outer edge of the base and a rubberized bottom, the Pillar delivers a tight, punch in the low-end. It’s only a 3-inch speaker, so the really deep notes are gone, but the bass that is there sounds quite acceptable. I checked it out with Flo Rida’s “Good Feeling.” This great track features vocals by none other than Etta James. Her voice stands out with really great clarity and detail, and the Pillar kept the heavy bass lines from blurring or masking the vocals.

Let me get this off my feminine chest. I really wish the Pillar wasn’t pigeonholed as a woman’s product. It’s a stylish speaker tower that would enhance many decors, be they male or female. Most households have a mix – don’t make a man feel less than manly if he wants one too. I also hate to think that this product was designed with smaller, more delicate speakers because the company was afraid of making the Pillar too big or beefy. Women like big, beefy sound. Really, they do. Still, this is a far cry from the pink-it-and-shrink-it mindset. The Stellé Audio Couture Pillar is something anyone would be proud to display in their home or office. It’s a clean, simple design with voice-commands giving it a high-end edge in an already crowded scene. For style-conscious consumers, be they male or female, the Pillar has a place in any discerning designer’s portfolio.

Photo by: Sound and Vision Magazine Editor