Home > Podcast > AV Rant #375: Can You Hear It?

AV Rant #375: Can You Hear It?

March 28th, 2014

We don’t have time for a second podcast this week because REASONS so this one is extra-long. Rob and Tom tackle big subs and how to order them, thin bezels, Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 speakers, DIY sub kits, digital amps, and bad HDMI boards. Rob made a mistake and owns up to it. Jonathan wants to know why manufacturers cut corners, Niclas and Richard want to talk about high-rez audio files and whether you can tell the difference, and Gary wants to talk about “Immersive Audio” and the new Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D audio formats. Thanks for listening. Now, don't forget to:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Liked it? Take a second to support AV Rant on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

Categories: Podcast Tags:
  1. Rob H
    March 28th, 2014 at 14:12 | #1
    Reply | Quote

    From AV Rant Listener Andrew —

    Here’s a Gizmodo editorial where the body of the text really doesn’t even make a supporting argument for the click-bait headline. But nevertheless, it’s got some interesting musings about vinyl and how paying for music is now a choice:

    http://gizmodo.com/why-vinyl-is-the-only-worthwhile-way-to-own-music-1527750499

  2. Rob H
    March 28th, 2014 at 14:13 | #2
    Reply | Quote

    From AV Rant Listener Richard —

    Take a High Resolution Audio recording (96kHz/24-bit), run it through some filters to turn it into CD quality (44.1kHz/16-bit), and see if you can tell them apart any better than a coin flip. According to this article, you probably can’t:

    http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_emperors_new_sampling/

  3. Rob H
    March 28th, 2014 at 14:13 | #3
    Reply | Quote

    From AV Rant Listener Niclas —

    The Northwest Audio & Video Guy stirred up some controversy with his blog a couple of years ago. This entry is long and a bit of a stream of consciousness, but there are some interesting thoughts and arguments to ponder:

    http://nwavguy.blogspot.ca/2012/04/what-we-hear.html

  4. Rob H
    March 28th, 2014 at 14:14 | #4
    Reply | Quote

    Here’s a very informative video about the Mastered for iTunes process, and how the conversion from High Resolution Audio to 256kbps AAC can definitely degrade the audio quality, but not in the way you might think!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8HTmf–Wgs

  5. Rob H
    March 28th, 2014 at 14:14 | #5
    Reply | Quote

    From AV Rant Listener Gary —

    Auro 3D Audio is one of the formats vying to become a new standard for so-called “Immersive Audio” in theaters and our homes. This video is a great look at where Auro 3D Audio comes from:

    http://www.avforums.com/video/the-future-of-surround-sound-auro-3d.10116

  6. Rob H
    March 28th, 2014 at 14:14 | #6
    Reply | Quote

    Also from AV Rant Listener Gary —

    Immersive Audio is coming whether customers are asking for it or not. But theater owners, studios, and SMPTE all see the value in creating a single, open standard. Will the various competing formats be able to work together and agree? Tom and Rob have their doubts, but we can hope, right?

    http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/article/are-open-cinema-sound-standards-reach#.Uy2aN2dOWUk

Comments are closed.