Home Theater View

Mini Review for a Mini Speaker: Scosche BoomCan MS

The Scosche BoomCan MS came in really handy yesterday when my flight was cancelled, and I needed to spend another night working on the road. This adorable little Bluetooth speaker attaches magnetically to recent iPhones where it acts as a kickstand and bounces audio off the table for a bit of added reverb. It's using the magnets just to attach, not connect or charge; it will connect to any Bluetooth source, not just iPhones.

It's tiny, so it's hardly the ultimate in fidelity, and it works better with show tunes and pop than Rock or Metal (Muse was more distorted than it's supposed to be). It charges over USB-C and should last several hours (Scosche says five). You can buy a pair and create stereo and I'm sure that's lovely but I strongly suspect most people will just buy one. It's $50, loud enough for hotel-room-writing-music, and so portable that I'm probably making it a permanent resident in my travel bag.

 

XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Launch Event

By Avi Greengart, reprinted with permission from Techsponential

XGIMI recently launched its latest smart projector, the MoGo 2 Pro (press release) in New York. The projector belongs to a relatively new category of home entertainment display that combines front projection, portability, and smart TV streaming capabilities over WiFi. As with previous display technology shifts, smart projectors are leading to new companies and brands.

XGIMI (pronounced, “ex-jimmy;” loosely translated from Chinese as, “excellence in square meters”) was founded nine years ago in Chengdu, China. IDC ranked it as China’s projector market share leader by 2018, and it has sold 4.5 million units since launch. XGIMI started selling its first portable 1080p projector, the MoGo Pro, in 2019. There are other notable Chinese competitors using the new category to grow, including Anker’s Nebula brand, but large consumer electronics brands like Samsung and HiSense are also competing (see Techsponential’s CES 2023 report).

All of XGIMI’s projectors use Android TV, which has full global reach (unlike Amazon Fire or Roku which are at least somewhat regional), and allows XGIMI to focus entirely on hardware rather than the content user interface, streaming capabilities, or apps. (Note: the Netflix app is not natively supported, so many people may still prefer to attach a streaming stick from Amazon or Roku.)

XGIMI expects that consumers’ primary entertainment display will be a flat panel TV, but that secondary displays can be well served by projectors so long that all is required is a blank wall. XGIMI also sells ultra short throw (UST) projectors that benefit from a fixed position and screen and can be used without as much light control. At the MoGo 2 Pro event in New York, XGIMI showed off the projector in different use cases: replacing a small bedroom TV with a 100” image, movie night in an eat-in kitchen, and even watching content in the bathroom.

The $599 MoGo 2 Pro is notable for some contrarian design decisions. In a category where portability is a core part of the value proposition, the MoGo 2 Pro is actually larger and heavier than the original. It’s still small and light (2.4lbs) enough to move from room to room, but the larger footprint provides more room for the light engine and larger speaker enclosures. As a result, it is almost twice as bright as its predecessor and audio is significantly louder. This addresses real pain points for a device that is frequently used in less than ideal lighting conditions and without the benefit of a soundbar.

That decision to prioritize performance over size also pays competitive dividends: while the MoGo 2 Pro does not use a laser light source like Anker’s inch-or-so slimmer Nebula Capsule 3 Laser, the MoGo 2 Pro is brighter (400 ISO lumens) and costs $200 less than the Nebula (which is spec’d at 300 ANSI Lumens). XGIMI set up the MoGo 2 Pro and Nebula Capsule 3 Laser side-by-side in the kitchen area of the Manhattan apartment it rented for the event. While the difference was not dramatic, the MoGo 2 Pro was indeed obviously brighter, louder, and faster at adjusting keystone correction and autofocus — all at a lower price point.

While the 1080p MoGo 2 Pro is not aimed at videophiles, it has been tuned to provide up to 90% DCI-P3 color coverage and the D65 Hollywood color temp. In a moderately light-controlled environment and screen sizes significantly below the stated maximum 200”, the MoGo 2 Pro should provide a satisfying picture for casual TV, streaming, sports, and movies. Combing through the specs page, I was surprised to discover that it will even support 3D, though active shutter glasses will cost you $29 each.

The rest of the tech specs are reasonable but not terribly exciting. Connectivity is only dual-band WiFi 5 (not 6 or 6E) plus Bluetooth 5.0, which is essential for headphones. There is a 3.5mm output jack for connecting better wired speakers. The MoGo 2 Pro’s Android TV 11.0 has Chromecast built-in, 16GB of storage, and is supplemented by a USB-C, USB-A, and HDMI 2.0 (not 2.1). The MoGo 2 Pro omits a battery entirely but it will run off of external USB-C battery packs, so you’ll need to invest in one of those or an extension cord if the 8’ power cable doesn’t reach where you place the unit.

Review: ifi Audio GO link

By Avi Greengart, Lead Analyst, Techsponential

Just because Apple decided that nobody needs a 3.5mm jack on what has become people's primary music device (and all of its competitors followed) doesn't make it true. If you have wired headphones, earbuds, or IEMs (in-ear monitors), you'll need an adapter. The thing is, phones output digitally now and when companies removed the headphone jack, they bypassed the DAC that the silicon typically provides. That means this is a more complicated adapter, as it needs to have its own DAC (digital to analog converter) embedded in there.

Apple started the problem, and it offered a solution: a $9 dongle that converts from Lightning to 3.5mm. That makes it one of Apple's least expensive products of all time, but does it sound any good, and how much do you need to spend to get something noticeably better? (Spoiler: the Apple adapter is actually a bargain for what it is, but if you have good headphones you absolutely can do better.)

A while back, ifi audio sent me their $329 GO bar, which is a great little DAC/headphone amp combo that has a plethora of features, but the one that caught my eye is a special mode to deal with sensitive IEMs. It sounds great, and I will happily recommend it in its category, but if all you're trying to do is connect wired headphones to your phone, it's crazy overkill. So when ifi audio announced a much simpler product, the GO link, for just $59, I had to get one in. The GO link absolutely nails the assignment of adding a good DAC to anything without a 3.5mm headphone jack at a price that makes it an impulse buy. It natively supports USB-C and ifi Audio includes little attachments for Lightning and USB-A (to use as a better DAC than the one in your PC). Unlike the GO bar, it lacks a case, but most people will leave it attached to their headphone cable so that's fine. And it isn't so simple that you can't use made up words to talk about it with your audiophile friends, according to the website, the GO link features a, "Discrete ESS Sabre Hyperstream DAC chipset with time domain jitter eliminator, discrete oscillator and 112dB dynamic range for discerning listeners."

I started my discerning listening with the iPhone 14 Pro and Drop HIFIMAN HE-X4 headphones (budget planar magnetic headphones that deserve their own review someday). The difference between Apple's dongle and the GO link was easy to hear: on the GO link, instruments had more separation and the noise floor was slightly lower. I found it easier to discern certain elements (a unique time signature on the drums, instrument tambre), and the music was more engaging overall. For $9, it's hard to complain about Apple's dongle. It's not bad! But if you are an active listener and have invested in high quality headphones, there is easily a significant enough difference to justify the expense of the GO link.

Next, I tested the ifi Audio GO link on a [embargoed upcoming Android phone] and compared it to Anker's $20 USB-C to 3.5mm dongle. On the relatively inefficient HIFIMAN headphones, the difference was stark: the GO link can play so much louder than the Anker that it isn't fair -- the Ankers are a poor fit for this application. Apple and Anker do not specify output power on their adapters, but ifi Audio marketing does: "power output of 70mW into 32 ohms, and a maximum voltage output of 2.05V into 600 ohms."

ifi Audio also claims that its S-Balanced circuit delivers better performance on IEMs, too, so I tested them with Ultimate Ear UE12 IEMs. These require minimum power to drive, so the Anker was much more competitive. The GO links still played louder, but on IEMs that's irrelevant unless you want to damage your hearing. At more reasonable volume levels, the GO link did sound a bit better than the Ankers -- I noticed that bass drum kicks were a bit fuller -- but it's subtle. Whatever DAC Anker is using does sound good and they are a third the price.

Overall, given the simplicity and versatility with both input (USB-C, USB-A, Lightning) and output (even on more demanding headphones) the ifi audio GO link is a no-brainer. Highly recommended.

Monster "UHD 8K Cobalt" HDMI Cable

Monster pioneered the premium audio accessories business, starting with thick, oxygen-free copper speaker wires before moving to more questionable interconnect cables and other accessories, eventually landing on headphones and Bluetooth speakers. The original speaker cables were genuinely (and demonstrably) better than the thinner wires due to a combination of physics and quality control. They sold well because Monster did a tremendous job on marketing at point of sale; in some years, they made up the majority of consumer electronics retailer profit (sell the TV and VCR at cost, make money on the cables). With the rise of the Internet and streaming media players, the market for premium branded cables took a big hit - Monoprice, Anker, and AmazonBasics can supply perfectly good cables for less, assuming that you even need to buy an audio or video cable at all.

Today, Monster is a licensing company, but it is not surprising that one of those licensees (DealRise, LLC) sells super-premium HDMI cables under the Monster brand. Their PR rep offered to send over an 8K cable in any size; I asked for 8', they sent 6'. The packaging is beautiful -- probably not fully necessary, given that Amazon is a primary retail channel, but still expected for the brand -- and the cable itself appears well constructed. I wasn't able to fully test it because TVs are so big now that a 6' cable is now too short to reach from my receiver to the TV input, and I don't have a full HDMI 2.1 electronics chain yet. The Xbox Series X from Microsoft is fully capable, but my flagship Denon receiver (AVR-X8500H) has not gotten the promised HDMI 2.1 update yet. Finally, while the fantastic 6-series TV that TCL sent over supports some advanced gaming functionality, it, too, lacks HDMI 2.1 inputs.

However, if you do have a fully HDMI 2.1 chain and want to take advantage of things like 8K or 4K/120Hz gaming, you will actually need cables rated for significantly higher bandwidth (48Gpbs) than even the best HDMI cables from just a year or two ago (18Gbps). Do you need a brand name like Monster 8K to achieve that? Not necessarily, and I can't vouch for Monster's performance yet. But the technical requirements are real. If you run into HDMI 2.1 equipment incompatibilities -- something we have seen with some early HDMI 2.1 A/V receivers -- it could be difficult to isolate that the problem is actually the interconnect cable, so it's worth buying something you trust will deliver the performance you'll need.

TCL's MTRO 200NC First Impressions

TCL is best known for its high-value televisions, but it is actually one of the largest consumer electronics conglomerates in the world. TCL runs its own factories and is investing $8 billion in its latest display panel fab. TCL's mobile division sells Alcatel and TCL branded featurephones, smartphones, and tablets, and the parent company also makes washing machines, refrigerators, consumer IoT devices, and more.

I have tested some of TCL's super-inexpensive in-ear headphones -- some as low as $10 -- and found them to be ridiculous values; they sound as good as products 10x the cost. So I was eager to get in TCL's on-ear MTRO headphones, now in a version with active noise cancellation, for just $79. Can they compete against products that are 4x - 6x more expensive from Sony, Bose, Apple (Beats), and others? In a word, no.

• The good: they sound good: the noise floor is low, the bass is well rounded without being bloated, and mid-range is just a bit lively, which sounds great on rock and pop. I also liked that there are physical buttons on the earcup; I'm not convinced that consumers can remember or properly execute swiping maneuvers on the go. 
• The bad: the MTRO 200NC's noise cancellation is really weak. A female Voice of God loudly informs you every time you turn noise canceling on or off, so there's no question whether it is engaged, but it just doesn’t do very much. Also, charging is via ancient microUSB, rather than USB-C, so you'll need to keep a dedicated charging cable on hand.
• And the ugly news: these look and feel like those $29 BEATZ or SUMSANG headphones you see at drugstores, not like a product from a company with a respected global brand, major sports sponsorships, and $11 billion in revenue last year. The flimsy cardboard and plastic packaging could not be cheaper, and it is not helped by the font choice and colors. The headphones themselves are no better: the plastic used on the headband and earcups feel rough and the buttons are toy-like. Even at $79, even if you are willing to look past the noise cancelation performance, aesthetics matter. If you can overlook the out of box experience (OOBE) and build quality, fine, but if you are giving them as a holiday gift, you should be aware that they don't look like they cost as much as they do.

Dolby, WB, AMC 20th Anniversary Re-release of The Matrix at Dolby Cinemas

To celebrate the 20^th anniversary of The Matrix, Dolby, AMC, and Warner Brothers are bringing the movie back to the big screen. It appears that they are taking the work that was done for the upgraded 4K Dolby Vision/Atmos disc and exhibiting it in Dolby Cinemas for a limited run. Last week, I attended a press screening of The Matrix at Dolby Cinema with two of my teenagers; one had not seen the film before, and he was positively jumping out of his seat at the end. I have the 4K disc, and I have a fairly advanced home theater with Dolby Vision and Atmos, but there is something to be said for watching this movie on a really large, really bright screen, in a dark venue with strangers, and dozens of speakers surrounding you and overhead.

The audio sees the biggest improvement from pre-Atmos mixes; the bass gets extra punch, the foley effects are even more directional, and, at key moments, the score completely fills the room in a way that the original mix did not. However, while The Matrix is strong Dolby Atmos reference material, it is not the best film to show off Dolby Vision. The additional contrast is both visible and welcome, but this is not a film where an extended color palette is used (for that, try Thor: Ragnarok). However, the engineers who remastered The Matrix for Dolby Vision deserve credit for doing no harm: key dark, grainy scenes (such as the opening, where cops holding flashlights approach Trinity) retain the film grain they started with.

With a new installment in The Matrix now planned to start production next year, it’s worth going out to the theater to see the original again. In my professional opinion, “whoa.”

Valerian review - and HDR10 vs Dolby Vision

My review of Valerian on 4K Blu-ray is up at Sound & Vision. TL;DR version: the movie is terrible, but the disc is great, and my review covers the differences in various formats.