Tag: reviews

Vitamix Ascent X2 Review: The Ferrari of Blenders

[ad_1]

I’ve never really been a blender person. Why would I be, when I have a food processor and an immersion blender that can ably handle my basic puree and emulsification needs? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe I’ve never been a blender person because I never had a good blender.

As a longtime recipe developer and tester who works from my home kitchen, I have to say there is nothing like professional-strength tools. They really are harder, better, faster, and stronger. The downside to using pro kitchen tools, though, is that they’re usually a lot bigger too. They’re generally intended to manage higher volumes than most home cooks will ever see, and settling for a more compact appliance usually means a sacrifice in power. Definitely not the case here—this puppy packs a whopping 2.2 horsepower.

In testing the new Vitamix Ascent X2, I mainly wanted to find out if the much-lauded Vitamix is worth the hype (and hefty price tag). If I’m going to invest $550 in a new appliance, I also want to make sure it’s worth the real estate on my counter. My Breville Air Fryer Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is large, but I use it every day, so it’s worth the loss of counter space. The Vitamix doesn’t take up a huge footprint, but it is substantial—it weighs more than 13 pounds, and its 17 inches in height makes for a pretty commanding presence in the kitchen. Fortunately, it’s an attractive machine, especially in midnight blue.

Hey, Good Lookin’

As mentioned, she’s a good-looking appliance, with a matte finish on the body and a shiny front panel with a programmable timer. There’s a little platform for the tamper stand, but it’s kind of flimsy. (The cup that holds the tamper is easy to remove for cleaning, but that makes it a bit wobbly.) A retractable cord would be a nice touch, but there is a little space under the unit where you can wrap the cord when it’s not in use.

Photograph: Heather Arndt Anderson

Turning it on (there’s an on/off switch on the underside in addition to power and pulse switches on the front), I first noticed how smoothly the knob turned while still being haptic enough to feel like it’s “real.” (I don’t need everything to be analog, but it bugs me when displays and controls are entirely digital, and folks with impaired vision may agree.) The knob and switches are tactile and straightforward; the single knob has timed settings for cleaning, smoothies, soups, and frozen desserts on the left, and a smooth variable speed control on the right. The digital time display is in the center. Sleek and simple.

[ad_2]

Source link

December 4, 2024
Samsung QN90D QLED TV Review: Dazzling Highs, Solid Lows

[ad_1]

The same goes for its off-axis viewing, which takes a step back from last year’s QN90C due to Samsung’s choice to once again change LCD panel types year-over-year. It’s far from the worst I’ve tested this year, and better than Sony’s Bravia 7 (7/10, WIRED Recommends), staying mostly accurate from a moderate angle. You may not notice a change until you get far off to the side, where light bleed is accentuated and colors fade.

Those points notwithstanding, I was pleased by the QN90D’s excellent screen uniformity, mostly eschewing the “dirty screen effect” that plagues cheaper LED TVs, and its fantastic motion handling. Jerky motion and blur were both kept to a minimum in even my toughest test scenes, without the need for artificial motion smoothing.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

More or Less

The QN90D’s excellent motion handling is complemented by loads of features, making it a great gaming TV. You’ll get ALLM (auto low latency mode) and VRR (variable refresh rate) at up to 144 Hz across all four HDMI ports, a dedicated Game Bar for quick adjustments, and Samsung’s Game Hub to stream from services like Amazon Luna and Xbox Game Pass.

Other notable QN90D features include built-in voice control for Amazon Alexa or Samsung Bixby, extras like Samsung Health content, and exclusives like Q-Symphony that lets the TV act as a speaker in concert with newer Samsung Soundbars. There’s also streaming over AirPlay, though Chromecast is not offered, nor is DTS audio decoding. Like all Samsung TVs, the QN90D also trades Dolby Vision HDR for HDR10+. This isn’t as big a deal as it sounds, as the TV defaults to regular HDR, but it means Dolby Vision scenes aren’t as finely tuned.

[ad_2]

Source link

December 4, 2024
Insta360 Ace Pro 2 Review: 8K Action Camera With a Leica Lens

[ad_1]

This sensor supports 13.5 stops of dynamic range, which is particularly nice for shooting in mixed sunlight and shade, and in low light scenarios. As with the first Ace Pro, the Pure Video mode is what you want for low-light videos. Insta360 has upped the max frame rate in Pure Video mode to 60 fps, which is nice for slowing things down in low light.

Low light is one place I think the Ace Pro 2 is better than anything else on the market. In reviewing test footage from both, I found the Ace Pro 2 did a slightly better job of preserving details than the DJI Osmo Action 5, which is otherwise very close. Both blow the GoPro Hero 13 Black out of the water. If you want to shoot at night, don’t get a GoPro.

Some of the impressive night and HDR capabilities may be due in part to the dual-chip processing architecture, which splits tasks between primary and secondary imaging chipsets. One of these chips is the same that was in the Ace Pro, but it’s now joined by a second chip, which can process denoising, dynamic range, and the like separately. Whatever is happening under the hood, the results are pretty good.

That said, Insta360 has upped the saturation considerably in the default settings, which makes it even worse than the last model. Perhaps I am the only one who doesn’t like oversaturated video, but to my eye, the default color saturation mode in the Ace Pro 2 has a hyperreal quality only Jean Baudrillard could love. Maybe that’s just me.

There are two new color modes to shoot in, though, and they are both nice—Leica Natural and Leica Vivid. When I wasn’t shooting in log I shot in Leica Natural, which is less saturated and produces a more realistic image, at least to my eye.

The Ace Pro 2 is, to my knowledge, the first action camera to do something I’ve done on my own for years—incorporate a windscreen over the microphone. Yes, I often put a bit of felt or even some spare “fur” from a dead cat over the mic input of my action camera. It’s not perfect, but it does help, especially on a lightly windy day. Well, the Ace Pro 2 includes a nice wind guard with a bit of foam to cover the mic and it works. Shocking I know. Audio Engineering 101 wasn’t lying. The advantage here is that you can leave off the digital wind-noise reduction, which never works that well in my experience, and still record decent audio in light winds.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 26, 2024
DJI Mic Mini Review: Tiny Wireless Microphones

[ad_1]

The Mic 2 supports internal recording, meaning it can save your audio as a backup directly to the transmitter’s internal storage, but this is not supported on the Mic Mini. Also, the Mic 2 is capable of 32-bit float internal recording, which gives you more headroom when you’re editing. Basically, you have more information to work with in case something goes wrong with the audio. This is also not supported on the Mic Mini. The Mic Mini doesn’t support a Lavalier microphone (no wires here!), and there’s no touchscreen display to interface with. (There is a dial just like on the Mic 2 to adjust the gain.)

But the Mic Mini does have some tricks up its sleeve. It supports automatic limiting to prevent audio clipping, meaning it will reduce the signal’s volume if you’re approaching those limits. To test this, I intentionally maxed out the gain on the receiver and spoke loudly into both the Mic 2 and Mic Mini. The latter sounded fine, but the Mic 2’s audio was distorted and clipped in a few places. Yay!

Also, in general, you will get far better battery life with the Mic Mini. Despite its small size, the lack of internal recording enables it to hit 48 hours of operating time, whereas the Mic 2 is limited to 18 hours.

As for the microphone quality, I found it largely similar to the Mic 2, barring the slight differences in noise canceling. Watch my video above to see how it fares compared to the built-in mics on the iPhone 16 Pro—the amount of ambient sound these mics eliminate never ceases to impress me.

All in all, the Mic Mini is a simple, affordable, and effective wireless microphone system, and I think it’s suitable for most people getting started and upgrading from their phone’s built-in audio (or the mic on the EarPods). Keep in mind that you also can buy the DJI Mic 2 in parts—the transmitter alone is $99, and there are reasons why you may want it over the Mini. But while it can be harder to finagle with because of its small size, the Mic Mini is so much more discreet and nicer to have on a shirt, and that makes me want to use it even more.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 26, 2024
Novation Launchkey MK4 Review: A Great Cheap MIDI Keyboard

[ad_1]

The world of budget MIDI keyboards is competitive to say the least. There are countless companies cranking out keyboards under $300, ranging in size from 25 keys to 88 keys. There are mini controllers for tossing into a bag. Controllers with tightly integrated software for simplifying sound design. Keyboards with MPC-style drum pads. Honestly, it’s kinda hard to go wrong picking any of them—they’ll all get the job done.

Still there are a few, depending on your particular needs, that rise to the top. If you’re a user of Arturia or Native Instrument plugins, your best bets are their respective KeyLab Essential and Komplete Kontrol A series. But if you’re not locked into a particular company’s ecosystem, or if your DAW (digital audio workstation) of choice is Ableton Live, then Novation’s Launchkey series is a clear standout. And, with the new MK4 revisions, it makes a solid case for best budget MIDI controller period.

Photograph: Terrence O’Brien

Hardware

There aren’t really any surprises on the hardware front. The LaunchKey MK4 is a budget MIDI controller through and through. The larger 49- and 61-key models have semi-weighted keybeds that are decent, but not great. (The 37- and 25-key models have synth-action keybeds that are even more meh.) It’s mostly plastic. And connectivity options are basic but adequate: just a USB-C port, sustain jack, and five-pin MIDI out.

There are a wealth of hands-on controls. Nine faders (on the larger models), eight endless encoders, 16 pads, and countless buttons. The faders and pads are pretty mediocre. The faders feel a little cheap and loose, and the pads just can’t compete with those on Akai controllers. They’re fine for launching clips, but I wouldn’t want to finger drum on them. The buttons are pleasantly clicky, though, and the move from potentiometers to encoders means you don’t have to deal with the chaos of parameters unexpectedly jumping around as you turn knobs.

Photograph: Terrence O’Brien

[ad_2]

Source link

November 25, 2024
Roland Aira P-6 Sampler Review: Great Sound, Complicated Interface

[ad_1]

In addition to crunching your samples into digital oblivion, you can process them with a ton of different effects like reverb, delay, a multi-mode filter, and most importantly, a vinyl simulator for that true 404 flavor. The six sample pads across the front aren’t velocity-sensitive, but they’re large and responsive enough to do some basic finger drumming.

Unfortunately, chopping a sample spreads it across the smaller keyboard on the bottom, rather than the larger sample pads. Those keys are tiny, mushy, and unpleasant to play. Still, if you want something small for tossing together lo-fi or boom-bap beats on the go, the P-6 isn’t a bad choice.

A Tiny Tool Kit

When building a beat, you’ve got quite a lot of tools at your disposal. You can place steps manually using the step sequencer, or play them in live to keep things off the grid. You’ve got 64 steps to work with, plus probability, sub-steps, micro-timing, and motion recording to add complexity and variety.

Then, once your loop is ready, you can use a handful of effects to create on-the-fly builds, breakdowns, and fills. Most notably there are Scatter, Step Loop, and the DJFX Looper borrowed from the SP-404.

Scatter is divisive, to say the least. It adds stutter and glitch effects based on preprogrammed patterns. It can sound OK when used sparingly and with the right settings, but it is anything but subtle and can turn more complex and melodic beats into unlistenable chaos.

Step Loop simply loops the steps you hold down on the sequencer. It’s a more flexible and interesting take on the sort of beat repeat effects you can find on other devices like the Teenage Engineering PO-133. It’s great for creating live fills and variations while jamming. It’s truly one of my favorite performance features on any piece of music gear, and I’d love to see it on more stuff.

Photograph: Terrence O’Brien

[ad_2]

Source link

November 24, 2024
Lomography Lomo’Instant Wide Glass Review: The Best Instax Camera

[ad_1]

Fujifilm’s Instax cameras and printers have kept instant film alive in our digital world, but it isn’t just Fujifilm making Instax cameras, in fact, some of the best instant cameras you can buy come from Lomography, like the company’s new Lomo’Instant Wide Glass.

As the name suggests, the Lomo’Instax Wide Glass shoots Instax wide prints and has a glass lens. At $279, it’s not cheap, but the quality of images coming out of this camera is the best I’ve seen in any Instax camera I’ve tested.

Glass Completely Full

Lomography has long made the Lomo’Instax Wide film, which, like Fujifilm’s recently updated Instax Wide 400, prints Instax wide images shot through a plastic lens. Plastic lenses are the norm in Instax cameras. Sticking with plastic keeps the camera in the more palatable sub-$150 range. Plastic lenses like the one in Fujifilm’s popular Mini 12 are fine for most casual, snapshot scenarios. I own two plastic-lens Instax cameras and am perfectly happy with them most of the time.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

That said, glass lenses produce unquestionably better results, which is where the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass comes in. The images I made with this camera are far and away the best I’ve made with any Instax camera. They’re sharper and have better, more accurate color rendition.

The first thing to know about the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass is that it’s a big camera—7.3 inches wide and 4.6 inches high and deep. It looks and handles like some 6×9 film cameras I’ve used in the past (Fujifilm’s GW series cameras come to mind), which makes sense because the film area of an Instax wide print is pretty close to a 6×9 negative. It’s tough to get around the laws of physics. The good news is that while it’s a tad bulky, the Glass isn’t unwieldy and would feel right at home as an extra camera during a studio portrait shoot, which seems to be where Lomography is positioning it.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 24, 2024
Sonos Arc Ultra Soundbar Review: Big Bar, Better App

[ad_1]

Nothing cures a slump like a big win. That’s exactly what Sonos needed from the new Arc Ultra. Built on the bones of the already great Sonos Arc (9/10, WIRED Recommends), the Ultra is slimmer, clearer, bassier, and more immersive for just $100 more, and it is the first product launched in what Sonos claims is a bug-free app-mosphere.

Software bugs have plagued the Sonos app since the company revamped it alongside the release of its first headphones, the Ace (8/10, WIRED Recommends), earlier this year. This is the bug that keeps on giving. In my review period I found another issue where the bar disappeared from the app after linking the new Sub 4 and a pair of Era 300 speakers (9/10, WIRED Recommends) in a surround system.

Thankfully, the woes finally seem to be resolved. After a simple power cycle, I’ve experienced over a week of error-free operation which, when combined with a lack of similar reports online, leads me to cautiously call my troubles settled. The Ultra is now stable and responsive for me, while its sonic skills place it among the best soundbars I’ve tested all year.

Subtly Slimmed Down

Sonos has always provided a luxe unboxing experience, and the Arc Ultra abides. Minimalist packaging gives way to a sleek, perforated matte tube of hulking proportions that looks strikingly familiar to the original Arc.

There are some telltale tweaks, including a shorter 3-inch height to sit more comfortably below TVs, and a wider stance that stretches to over 46 inches across. A plate at the backside hosts venting for the amplifiers and Sonos’ latest touch controls, including play/pause, song skip, voice control, and a granular volume slider to match the in-app version. Like all Sonos speakers, the Ultra comes in traditional black or white.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Within the cylindrical shell are 14 individually powered drivers (three more than the Arc), including seven tweeters, six midrange drivers, and a new “Sound Motion” woofer for bass. You’ll get support for all major Dolby audio formats, including lossless Dolby Atmos, and support for DTS surround (Sonos says it’s not a “licensed decoder”), but no DTS:X, the 3D Atmos rival.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 23, 2024
Evercade Alpha Review: Epic Retro Home-Gaming

[ad_1]

One neat new system-level feature unique to the Alpha is Demo Mode. Leave the Alpha untouched for two minutes, and it will start running one of the installed games’ “attract modes” from the actual arcade machines back in the day—those captivating bursts of gameplay that would lure players over, tempting them to part with their coins by showcasing the flashiest, most exciting parts of the games. Is it meaningful? Does it “do” anything? No, but it’s another loving nod to gaming history.

And that’s Evercade’s secret weapon—it’s not just a way to play older games, it’s a celebration of them and your experiences with them. Like other consoles in the hardware ecosystem, Alpha is an equal part virtual museum, each game coming with a little vignette about why it was important, what ground it broke, why it was beloved (or sometimes why it wasn’t). A library menu logs which games you have access to, expanding with each Evercade cart you slot in, and your play time and stats are logged per title. It’s a treasure trove that expands the more you put into it.

Universal Appeal

That trove is Evercade’s other secret weapon, as every game cartridge is compatible with all its hardware (almost—the Namco Museum collections aren’t compatible with the TV-based Evercade VS or VS-R consoles).

Given how much of the Evercade library consists of arcade collections, that makes for an abundance of retro riches. From Atari classics dating to the earliest days of the arcade to scrolling shooters made famous by the likes of Irem’s R-Type, or niche fighters like Dragon Master, the Alpha is a phenomenal way to revisit them—or encounter them for the first time.

There is one caveat, though, regarding some of Evercade’s more recent releases from its console collections, chiefly the Legacy of Kain and Tomb Raider releases. Both of these carts—collecting the original PlayStation versions of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and the first three Lara Croft games, respectively—are technically compatible with the Alpha, but only insofar as the cabinet will run them. The six-button layout of the Alpha replicates the A, B, X, Y, L1, and R1 buttons of the standard Evercade controllers, but lacks any L2/R2 inputs. Given these games required those buttons back on PS1, they can’t properly be controlled here without plugging in an external controller (or an Evercade handheld console to use as such).

However, in our experience, both of these collections froze up when an external controller—a wired Xbox pad—was connected, requiring a system reboot to clear. That’s somewhat frustrating, of course, yet not really a deal-breaker for the Alpha. Those games were never intended for an arcade anyway—it would just be a nice gimmick to be able to try to play them that way. Still, it’s something to be aware of for anyone with an expansive Evercade collection.

That almost feels like quibbling, though. For an at-home arcade offering, there’s very little to fault the Alpha. Short of full-size original cabinets or arcade boards, it’s one of the best ways to experience a significant chunk of gaming’s legacy in the most legitimate way possible.

With its fantastic design, brilliant screen, and a strong collection of games included on both models, this is Evercade in its finest form.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 23, 2024
Carv 2 Digital Ski Coach Review: Cheaper, Easier, Better

[ad_1]

Despite this gaping hole in the metrics, the team behind Carv claim the new insole-free system, one that leans heavily on machine learning, is actually around 6 percent more accurate than before. It’s also cheaper, can now track different types of terrain, not just groomed slopes, and the app offers more training and tuition modes.

And yes, it does sound too good to be true. When asked about it, founder and CEO Jamie Grant admitted he was as surprised by the improvements, and had initially expected the sensor’s accuracy to take a hit. They were prepared to lose a few percent because the boost in usability from not having insoles was worth the sacrifice.

What they discovered, however, was that, despite now measuring 10 skiing metrics instead of 13, and losing the ability to track pressure, their new Motion AI algorithm was able to gather different data from your carving. Instead of pressure, the sensor can track early forward movement and mid-turn balance much more accurately, while a completely new metric is now able to measure vertical acceleration at transition, and, importantly, can adapt its findings across different terrain including powder conditions.

As you ski, every turn is logged and compared to the brand’s now significant data set. As well as using the half-a-billion turns they’ve already logged, along with the new machine learning algorithm, they have a series of professional ski instructors who have trawled through more than 11,000 videos of Carv skiers (something you can contribute to with a friend using the app), to double check that Ski:IQ levels correspond to actual ability.

Learn to Turn

As someone returning to skiing after a lengthy hiatus, the original Carv was a revelation. My technique improved incredibly quickly thanks to the combination of my own pig-headedness, and the app’s ability to get me to focus on key areas. It actually made me like skiing, and, as a lifelong snowboarder, this feeling did not come naturally.

Carv 2.0 continues to offer the same excellent levels of tuition. If you ski for a minimum of eight turns the system logs your performance, and when you stop it will give you your Ski:IQ for that section. You’ll then get coaching advice when it senses you’re on the ski lift, which is still a standout feature, even if the AI voices remain oddly robotic.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 22, 2024