Our Listeners of the Week are Justin B. and Nathan D. for their donations, along with our 62 Patreon Patrons, and Kris P. for providing the Insteon Hub that we will give away next week!

Tom is away on vacation in Puerto Rico, so Lee Overstreet joins Rob H. as our guest co-host this week.

Justin B. is hoping someone might be interested in purchasing the 10 foot wide stage and proscenium he is selling along with  a 2.35:1 acoustically transparent screen for $999. Andrew T. suggested searching US Audio Mart for Paradigm speakers, since they often cross-list items with Canuck Audio Mart. And Roger J. recalls how wool used to be a better choice than synthetic materials for acoustic batting, but things have changed over the years. Read more…

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Insteon Hub Giveaway – This is your last chance to send an email directly to Tom and let him know why you’d like a free Insteon Hub. June 30, 2018 is the cutoff date. Our thanks to Kris P. for providing an Insteon Hub for this giveaway!

Our Listeners of the Week are our 61 Patreon Patrons, including Niels.

In the news, AMC Stubs A-List is a subscription to AMC theaters in the USA that appears to be quite flexible and reasonably priced. And Blue Jeans Cable has added Series-3 Active HDMI Cables with 18 Gbps bandwidth in lengths from 20 to 50 feet.

Sushmit surprised us by letting us know his wife is the one pushing to add a wall and a door to close in their new basement home theater. Robert G. shared a link explaining the Audyssey Midrange Compensation dip. Tom K. thinks Surround Back speakers are very worthwhile, particularly for upmixing. And Don G. shared a short article about the original Marantz products from 1952 – 1963.

0:17:26 Aidan achieved pretty good bass uniformity across his two main seats strictly by experimenting with dual subwoofer placement in his small room. But one seat still has a null, so we suggest a GiK Scopus Tuned Membrane Bass Trap to potentially help.

0:26:01 Marlon E. double checks his sound system upgrade plans with us, and other than thinking he could save a bit of money and space by opting for RBH R-5E Bookshelf Fronts and RBH R-5 Surrounds, we’re very much on board with his choices of a Denon AVR-X3400H Receiver and dual SVS SB-1000 subwoofers.

0:34:15 Infinite Gary asks about carpet thickness and density options, and wonders if the statements in a video by music producer Bobby Owsinski about the floor covering being of little to no consequence in a studio render any concerns about carpet and rugs moot.

0:43:08 Earle B. had a failure in the amp of one of his SVS SB16-Ultra subwoofers, and he wants to know if using an APC P8V surge protector means he can eliminate his electrical circuit as a culprit. We encourage him to get in touch with Charlie Jones from SurgeX to enquire about diagnostics solutions.

0:50:51 Bob wants to know if using a VPN to access US Netflix from the Philippines is legal.

0:55:10 SuperOhioBros wants to run a 2.1.2 or 3.1.2 Atmos setup, also known as Dolby Atmos for Compact Entertainment Systems, and while we aren’t sure if the Sony Receiver he’s eyeing can do it, we know that Denon Receivers can.

1:03:11 Damien D. gets us to repeat our refrain to him that he should wait to find the house he intends to buy before spending any money on new home theater gear, although we mostly agree that Focal Little Birds are likely to work well as Atmos overhead speakers in almost any setup. Then we suggest a Rode SC6 dual microphone adapter and Rode smartLav+ Lavalier Microphones for recording two people on a smartphone.

1:15:18 Kris P. gets us to talk about the interesting effect of shining colored light onto a colored wall to make the wall appear gray or white to our eyes.

1:18:58 Dave gets our recommendation for an NVidia GeForce GTX 10-Series GPU with at least 3GB of RAM for upgrading his HTPC for cutting edge video and audio output.

1:20:47 Nick B. asks for our thoughts on the NAD T 777 v3 AV Receiver, which seems to have mostly drawn Nick’s attention by including Dirac Live LE room correction. We suggest adding Dirac externally with a miniDSP DDRC-88A.

1:29:00 Richard G. gets a split decision on a 55-inch HDR TV with Tom favoring the less expensive TCL 6-Series, and Rob willing to spend a bit more on a 2018 Vizio P-Series.

1:33:34 Niels B. asks for our take on Sonarworks True-Fi headphone equalization for Windows or Mac.

1:37:40 Brent W. confirms the differences between Denon’s X4300H and X4400H Receivers, and we give him our go-to suggestion for speaker stands: Sanus.

1:39:36 Will T. has a multiple subwoofer setup where we think his best approach for upgrading is replacement with dual SVS PC-2000 subwoofers rather than trying to augment what he already has.

1:44:05 Everything is Awesome gets our votes for the standard FlexiWhite Projection Screen Material from Carl’s Place as opposed to any gray screen material options.

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Insteon Hub Giveaway – email Tom directly by June 30, 2018, and let him know why you’d like to have an Insteon Hub. One lucky person will be selected. Our thanks to Kris P. for providing the Insteon Hub for this giveaway!

Our Listeners of the Week are Zachary for his donations, our 61 Patreon Patrons, Nathan W. for telling Power Sound Audio that he heard about them from us, and Jason D. for mentioning us in his SVS PC-2000 user review.

Tom kicks things off with his impressions of the DTS:X immersive audio soundtrack present on the Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Jurassic Park.

In the news, miniDSP introduced their EARS headphone measurement rig. And Odeon Cinemas in the UK have announced their plans to open seven Dolby Cinemas, joining the small group of countries outside of the USA and China to now have Dolby Cinemas.

Joseph H. let us know about a small, affordable 12 Volt timer delay circuit. Karl R. shared a podcast episode from Twenty Thousand Hertz that’s all about the THX Deep Note. David F. opened up his external USB Asus Blu-ray drive and found something very different from what he thought he had purchased. Kris B. was disappointed with an imperfection and the customer service of his Screen Innovations Black Diamond projection screen. And Heath B. wrote back with some more details about his dual SVS SB-4000 subwoofer setup that keeps blowing amplifiers.

0:25:47 Nick B. asks what to do to keep Front Wide speakers active if Dolby’s mandate to only ever use the Dolby Surround Upmixer with any Dolby signals goes into effect, and why Dolby treats Front Wides the way they do. Then he asks about using multiple measurement microphones all at the same time to potentially adjust for uniform bass in real time. That gets us to mention the discontinued Velodyne MIC-5 Kit, or the possibility of using several smartphones or tablets with their own measurement microphones, like the Dayton iMM-6, miniDSP PMIK-1, or MicW i436. Nick asks if the Oppo 203 Ultra HD Blu-ray player will live on in the form of the Cambridge Audio CXUHD. And we talk about how loud bass needs to be for pressurization.

0:46:26 Kris I. gets our recommendation for the Sony UBP-X800 Ultra HD Blu-ray player to use with his projector.

0:49:28 Christian S. saw the ultra-wide display that Bethesda used at their E3 press conference, and he wants to know how that’s done and how much it costs, so we mention Matrox multi-projector edge blending graphics cards.

0:53:03 David shared an example of the unwatchable level of macroblocking he’s seeing on his OLED TV, so we delve into possible culprits.

0:58:38 Infinite Gary asks us to clarify our acoustic treatment placement advice. And he isn’t enjoying the 4K HDR displays that he owns, and he wants to know if we feel the same way.

1:04:39 Joe K. wants to show two Xbox One feeds on a single 2.35:1 projection setup, so we talk a bit about video multiviewers and tilers, but our real advice is to buy a second projector, such as the BenQ HT2050A if 1080p is enough, or the ViewSonic PX727-4K if an affordable 4K unit is desired.

1:09:50 Sushmit G. just bought a house, and he’d like our advice on which section of his basement to use as his home theater and how to orient and position everything. And for his $1,500 budget, we recommend he buy blackout curtains, a BenQ HT2050A projector, a 92-inch Monoprice manual pull-down screen, acoustic ceiling tiles, some Acoustimac DIY Panel Kits, and Ascend Acoustics HTM-200SE or Focal Little Birds for his Surrounds.

1:23:59 Jim B. wants to know why some of his DVD backups are 480i resolution, while others are 480p.

1:26:05 Patrick P. is trying to track down the first 231 episodes of AVRant.

1:31:36 Greg wants to know if we think a $2,000 B-Stock JVC DLA-X570R projector would be a worthwhile upgrade over his older 1080p JVC model.

1:34:05 Lee gets our reassurance that he will love the new OLED TV he ordered, and we suggest either the 2018 Vizio E-Series or TCL S5 Series for his den, along with a Denon AVR-X3400H Receiver.

1:42:29 Joseph S. updates us on getting his HTPC to play 4K content smoothly on his OLED TV. Jim B. offers another settings suggestion. And we try to sort out why HDMI-ARC isn’t working with Joseph’s Yamaha Receiver.

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Insteon Hub Give Away: Listener Kris P. sent us an Insteon Hub to give away. If you would like it, email Tom directly (if you don’t already know his email address, we say it during the podcast intro every week. And if you email a different address about this giveaway, we’ll know you weren’t listening! 😉 ) by June 30.

Our Listeners of the Week are Josh L. for his donation, our 61 Patreon Patrons, Josh S. for talking us up on Reddit, Kris P. for the Insteon Hub giveaway, and everyone who alerted us about our website getting hacked!

In the news, Oppo released beta firmware for their 203 and 205 Ultra HD Blu-ray players that adds support for sending Dolby Vision to Sony TVs. And Amazon released the Fire TV Cube.

Axiom isn’t selling their extremely flat speaker wire anymore, but Sewell Ghost Wire is just as flat, and a whole lot less expensive. Lee V. warns that PC-2000 cylinder subs make for terrible speaker stands, since they vibrate on their isolation feet so much. Michael M. says a Sound United rep insists that Dolby’s new upmixing mandate won’t be retroactively applied to older products. Roger J. provided an excellent link to comprehensive information about oversampling. And Nathan & J. spotted new Monoprice Monolith 9 and 11-channel amplifier models in a recent coupon exclusion list.

0:20:28 Chad B. is figuring out how many overhead speakers to wire for in advance, and we say he should spend a minimum on new amplifiers by either getting an AudioSource AMP100, or skipping straight to getting a new Receiver right away.

0:29:13 Joseph S. is trying to sort through his HTPC settings to get 4K playing smoothly on his B7 OLED. We suggest using an NVidia Shield. And we point to the Asus BW-16D1HT as the best “UHD-friendly” disc drive.

0:36:07 Mark H. wants to know how to determine if his bass could be further improved, and whether a miniDSP would be necessary.

0:43:22 J. wants to know if buying used M&K speakers is a good idea, and we suggest Ascend Acoustics SE Series instead if they’re cheaper. We also discuss Audyssey Dynamic EQ not boosting overhead speakers. And we suggest either a complex DIY 12 Volt trigger box, or the Emotiva ET-3 plus a remote control wall outlet for gaining manual control over sending 12 Volt trigger signals.

0:53:11 Terry G. has a Dolby Vision TV, but an older Receiver, so we recommend an HDMI audio extractor with HDCP 2.2, or an HDMI switch with audio extractor.

0:56:27 Heath B. has had four SVS SB-4000 subwoofer amplifiers die on him. SVS support has been excellent, but nobody can figure out what keeps killing his amps. We offer our speculation, but we’re just as stumped.

1:01:43 Travis D. is considering a Receiver upgrade in order to get better room correction, but since he likes his existing sound, we think he’d benefit more from manual EQ using a miniDSP 2×4, or stepping up to a miniDSP with Dirac.

1:08:04 Monty’s brother would like “budget” picks for a Dolby Vision TV under $600, and the least expensive Dolby Vision Ultra HD Blu-ray player, so we point him to the TCL 55R615 and LG UBK90.

1:10:25 Infinite Gary gets us talking about using a miniDSP to create a crossover for adding subwoofers to self-powered speakers. We recommend the Sony UBP-X800 for universal disc playback. And we discuss where to put acoustic spot treatments and what we do with all of our shipping boxes.

1:18:39 Mark T. is speculating about a new Receiver. We’d understand pouncing on a Denon X3300W or X4300H if he finds one at a great price. But otherwise, we think he should wait until he’s moved into his new place.

1:22:22 Tim T. gets our advice about how to layout his bonus room, and we suggest where he should put absorption panels, and recommend going with an SVS 2000 Series subwoofer.

1:33:26 Josh L. gets our take on the “perfect” shape and size for a dedicated home theater room. And we mention using the Room Mode Calculator.

1:37:49 Earle B. gets our suggestion to try using the Multi-Sub Optimization Software with his existing gear before considering the addition of a miniDSP or Dirac to his subwoofer setup.

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Our Listeners of the Week are Stephen, Jaremy, and Joseph for their donations, our 61 Patreon Patrons, Jason D. for telling SVS we were the reason for his PC-2000 subwoofer purchase, Kris P. for providing an Insteon Hub that we’ll be giving away, and James C. for offering to put Tom’s Fearless Mobile Climbing logo on some merch.

In the news, Audioholics reported that Dolby is mandating only the Dolby Surround Upmixer be used on Dolby signals. The Sony UBP-X700 Ultra HD Blu-ray player got its Dolby Vision update, but there’s no auto-detection. And tvOS 12 will add Dolby Atmos output to the AppleTV 4K.

David F. tried the Dr. HDMI device with his JVC projector, but it still did a new HDMI handshake every time his DirecTV box changed resolutions. And Roger J. sent us more detailed information about oversampling audio signals.

0:19:10 Luke wants to know why 1440p flat panel TVs and projectors aren’t widely available, why variable refresh rate isn’t being offered on projectors, and why large displays in general aren’t catering to gamers.

0:31:32 Nick B. forwarded a Secrets of Home Theater interview with Todd Welti about multiple subwoofers, and wanted our takes on the Double Bass Array and Todd’s Sound Field Management approach to bass optimization.

0:36:16 Curtis D. wants to know how we determine if a subwoofer is capable of playing down to 20Hz.

0:39:49 Andrew T. followed Audyssey’s onscreen instructions for setting the volume knob on his subwoofers to half-way before starting the automated test tones. The end result was too loud, so he wants to know why those are the given instructions.

0:42:36 Chris T. installed four Outdoor Speaker Depot MK650 in-ceiling speakers, but his auto-setup gave them a 200 Hz crossover, so we offer a theory for why that might have happened.

0:44:55 Kris P. wants to upgrade three subwoofers in his room. We really want him to start with two. But if he must have three, we suggest an alternative placement option, or warn that a JL Audio D110 might be the only sub small enough to fit the space he has that isn’t massively under-powered.

0:52:20 Earle B. asks about stacking subwoofers: how much more output he’ll get, how to wire them, and how auto-setup will handle them.

0:59:41 Steve W. gets our recommendations for a Seymour AV motorized screen, or an Elite Screens CineTension 2 if the budget is tight. We share thoughts on Sony vs. JVC projectors, and say to use a Receiver plus his existing 5-channel amp to expand to Atmos, or add an Emotiva A-700 if separates are set in stone. And we recommend Aperion in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, or RBH.

1:13:37 William G. found a Klipsch Reference Premiere 5.1 speaker package from a Canadian online retailer that is a fine choice for his room. But we suggest a Paradigm Monitor Series 5.0 speaker package with two SVS PC-2000 subwoofers, plus a Denon AVR-X3400H Receiver, and some absorption from Acoustic Panels Canada.

1:28:27 Karl R. gets our take on people saying Solo: A Star Wars Story looks too dim.

1:31:44 Everett L. wants to know if speaker levels, in addition to subwoofer levels, should be set with an SPL meter before running auto-setup.

1:33:28 Marc N. achieved some impressive results using three different subwoofers with the Multi-Sub Optimizer Software, so we go over his results and discuss what he’d need to do to improve any further.

1:38:49 Jaremy P. is turning his home gym into a dedicated theater. We go through his initial plans, suggest screen size and front speaker placement, and make some speaker brand and subwoofer recommendations.

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