Big thanks to Tom for letting me join in as guest co-host this week! I highly encourage any listener who would like to give it a try to get in touch with Tom. If nothing else, buck up his spirits and let him know that we really want AVRant to continue!

No one can replace Dina, but I absolutely love Tom’s idea of finding a native Aussie to join him as the new, permanent co-host. Until he finds that lucky person though, it’s going to be up to us loyal listeners to make sure that Tom keeps pushing ahead and is able to continue recording episodes!

So get on it, folks! Otherwise, you might get stuck with me again in future weeks and we wouldn’t want to torture Tom too much with my Canadian accent, would we? lol

Totally looking forward to Leif joining Tom next week. With all of the hot, new front projector news coming out of CEDIA Expo right now, I can only imagine next week’s episode is going to be epic 😀

Rob, no offense but you’re just not Dina 😉 All in all I think this went well though I’d love to hear Dina come back. An Aussie replacement might be sufficient if you choose wisely Tom.

I’d love to participate in a podcast with you Tom!

Do we really need another calibration disc? It will sell because it’s Disney but I find that most people just don’t care about proper TV calibration. Maybe with a name like Disney it’ll go over better and the public will be more receptive to the whole process. Is it just a disc or does it come with any color filters?

Good luck Tom on finding a proper Aussie to host the show with you. I’m sure having the person in the room makes for better on air chemistry and just makes for a smoother show. Plus with the distance the liklihood for technical difficulties and syncing arise.

None taken, poisonpanik 🙂 I wholeheartedly agree that I’m no substitute for Dina! But I did figure that an episode with me is better than no episode at all 😮

If you’d like to be a guest co-host, definitely email Tom and see if you can work out your schedules. It’s a lot of fun and always interesting to hear a new perspective 🙂

As to the Disney calibration “WoW” disc: we certainly don’t need more calibration discs, but we do need for more people to start using them! Neither DVE nor Avia (nor Spears & Munsil or even the Monster disc or the Stereophile one or any other) is really all that well known to the mass market. None of them are really advertised and that is where I think Disney’s backing could be really beneficial. Then again, unless you’re using a spectrophotometer or, at the very least, a colorimeter, there is really no way to truly dial in your color and greyscale. Even with color filters you are still just “eyeballing” it.

However, if this “WoW” disc can get even a few more people to care at least somewhat about proper calibration, I will consider it a great addition! Perhaps a handful of people with oompa-loompa fleshtones and neon green grass will learn about calibration from Disney and that can only be a good thing 🙂

In addition to being an audio snob, I’m a sunglasses snob… Oakley truly is the Bose of sunglasses. After various pairs of Oakleys, Ray Bans and Revos (which are actually pretty good), my wife and I have become life-time customers of Maui Jims: they completely replaced one of my totaled glasses and the frames of two of our other pairs at not cost. As far as what glasses are actually for (SEEING), I think their polarized lenses are unmatched. Just like a “real” set of speakers, once you spend the money on a “real” set of sunglasses, you never go back.

But unlike a “real” set of speakers, you don’t need an closet full of expensive amps/procs/sources to “get-the-most” out of your sunglasses.

You just need some sun 😉

@TED… I was a manager for sunglass hut my first few years of college and couldn’t agree more with Maui Jims and Revos. I’ve always been extremely partial to Revo (now owned by Ray-ban) as they make an excellent set of glasses. I find that a good pair of revos will last you 7-10 years (6 years on my current set) where I was going through oakleys or another lesser brand every 6 months. Maybe it’s because they’re a 300 dollar pair of glasses and you just treat them better or maybe they are made better, but either way, you simply can’t beat a well crafted and r&d’d lense.

@Tom… whatever you need sent overseas let me know, I’d be more than happy to help!

@Leif: You are a man with a truly varied background. I completely believe that if you drop $300 on a pair of glasses, you’re much less likely to lose them or sit on them.

Revos are very nice. I didn’t know Ray Ban bought them. Hope they kept the quality up!

A few years ago, I need to get my Maui lenses resurfaced and popped for prescription lenses… which has been a revelation.

Here’s a brilliant idea… You should get Natalie Tran to take Dina’s place 🙂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Tran