Rob H. asked the good folks over at the Entertainment 2.0 Podcast about comparing JRiver Media Center to Windows Media Center. They were kind enough to talk about it, look into it further, and even gave AV Rant a very, very nice shout out!

If you’re not already familiar with Entertainment 2.0, they are part of The Digital Media Zone, and they focus specifically on Microsoft entertainment products. So we’re more than happy to return the shout out, and you should definitely check them out if you’re interested at all in how Microsoft products can fit into your entertainment lifestyle:

http://thedigitalmediazone.com/podcasts/entertainment-20/

And check out all of The Digital Media Zone’s podcasts here:

http://thedigitalmediazone.com/podcasts/

Rob H. also wrote to Joey Esposito and Benjamin Bailey over at the Assemble After Dark Podcast. They focus mostly on comic books, but they also cover movies and TV, and pretty much all of pop culture.

This is one of Rob’s favourite podcasts, and they were also kind enough to give an extremely nice shout out to AV Rant!

So, once again, check them out, and let’s keep this mutual podcast love going

#Bailey4Godzilla

http://www.assembleafterdark.com/

AV Rant Listener Jack —

wanted to know which subwoofer would be the best choice to pair up with his Outlaw Audio LFM-1 (which is a discontinued model).

We talk about SVS all the time (hey, they’re officially our friends now, according to their Twitter account! haha). But Outlaw Audio also has some great subwoofers at great prices. Scroll down their product page a little ways and you’ll see their subwoofer offerings:

http://outlawaudio.com/products/index.html

For Jack specifically, the current LFM-1 Plus is about as close as you can possibly get to the original LFM-1: http://outlawaudio.com/products/lfm1plus.html

But we’ve also mentioned that Outlaw’s subwoofers were designed by Dr. Hsu, the same designer behind: http://hsuresearch.com/subwoofers.html

So they will also match very well, the current HSU VTF-2 MK4 being the most similar to the Outlaw LFM-1

AV Rant Listener Duane —

wanted some recommendations for a pair of Tower speakers in the $500/pair price range.

Tom and Rob both immediately wondered if he might be able to save up enough to bump that budget up to $700/pair, because if he can, then Duane could afford the…

EMP Tek Impression Series E55Ti Towers: http://emptek.com/e55ti.php

But we respect people’s budgets around here, and while the E55Ti are worth every penny in our opinion, there are some alternatives that will fit Duane’s budget.

First up, Rob feels strongly that the Pioneer SP-FS52 should not be overlooked:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Speakers/Home+Theater+Speakers/SP-FS52

Normally, paying more does tend to get you better performance when it comes to the speakers that we recommend. But the Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers honestly hit above their price class. So if nothing else, they’re worth a quick listen at your local Best Buy, for sure.

Next, Fluance has a number of very affordable Tower speaker offerings:

http://fluance.com/products/Floorstanding_Speakers.eng-2.html

Their XL7F are their biggest and best, but folks should be aware that they do dip pretty low in impedance at certain frequencies. So a fairly beefy amp to drive them is a good idea.

Boston Acoustics would be one of our top picks for a “brick and mortar” brand:

http://www.bostonacoustics.com/US/Product/Pages/subcategorylanding.aspx?CatId=HomeAudio%28BostonAcoustics_US%29&SubCatId=Floorstanding%28BostonAcoustics_US%29

At full MSRP, they won’t fit Duane’s budget. But check the next post on our page here for a great way to get a discount!

Finally, Rob is clearly a big fan of Ascend Acoustics. And their CMT-340 SE speakers are about as accurate as it gets:

http://ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cmt340m/cmt340m.html

While they’re technically not Towers, you can buy a matching pedestal stand that makes them look just like Towers. The speakers plus the stands pushes the price closer to $700/pair, though.

All in all, these should give Duane several solid options. We hope it helps!

AV Rant Listeners Lee & Duane —

are looking for home theater gear with a budget in mind. Lee wants a new AV Receiver. Duane wants new Tower speakers.

A fantastic website to look at when you’d like a discount, but you still want the full backing of the manufacturers is Accessories4Less.com

http://www.accessories4less.com/

Lee should be able to find a pretty high end AV Receiver within his $600 budget, such as this Denon AVR-X2000 that Rob recommended:

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/denavrx2000/denon-avr-x2000-7.1-ch-4k-ultra-hd-networking-receiver-w/airplay/1.html

And Duane could consider some Boston Acoustics Tower speakers, such as the A360, which would normally be above his $500/pair price target:

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/bosa360gb/boston-acoustics-a360-dual-6.5in-3-way-floor-standing-speaker-ea-blk/1.html

But check out A4L’s full catalogue of available products! There are some amazing deals on offer, so it’s well worth the time to browse their selection.

AV Rant Listener Efrain —

let us know that Room EQ Wizard (REW) from the Home Theater Shack Forum has some new Beta updates:

http://www.roomeqwizard.com/

One of the updates is the ability to directly program the 11-band parametric EQ in Emotiva’s UMC-200 Processor:

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/processors/products/umc200

Naturally, if we mention Room EQ Wizard, we’re also going to mention our good friend Herb over at Cross Spectrum Labs:

http://www.cross-spectrum.com/

REW requires a microphone, and there’s no better place to get a fully calibrated, extremely accurate mic than from Cross Spectrum Labs.

AV Rant Listener Efrain —

gave us a link to Head-fi.org’s review of Dr. Chesky’s Ultimate Headphone Demonstration Disc:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/715795/dr-cheskys-ultimate-headphone-demonstration-disc-head-fi-tv

The review includes a video that offers some samples of what’s on the disc, so you can listen to a little bit for free before deciding if you want to buy the disc!

Also be sure to take advantage of the discount code being offered by Head-Fi

AV Rant Listener Efrain —

also let us know about Razer Surround:

http://www.razerzone.com/surround

If you’re interested in using headphones with your Windows PC and being able to tailor a headphone surround sound experience to your personal taste, then Razer Surround is definitely worth a look. It’s also FREE until June 30th, although they are hoping you will donate with those funds going to charity, so it’s a good cause, to be sure.

AV Rant Listener Zach —

wanted to know all about Room Treatments and where he can look online to find more info.

Well, get ready for a flood of links below!

You can start with the article that started it all for Tom Andry:

http://www.audioholics.com/diy-audio/diy-absorbers-for-the-less-than-handy-man-part-1

After that, Rob’s number 1 resource for all things Room Treatments is GiK Acoustics:

http://www.gikacoustics.com/

GiK has every type of Room Treatment imaginable. Be sure to take advantage of their FREE Acoustical Advice service. And also check their education and video links for a ton of great info.

Another great resource is Auralex:

http://www.auralex.com/products.asp

Their Acoustic101 and Auralex University links are really informative.

Auralex also does Acoustical Analysis. There’s a free version and a paid version that Tom reviewed:

http://www.audioholics.com/acoustic-reviews/auralex-room-analysis-plus

If you’re interested in the DIY route, we forgot their website name during the recording, but a great place to go is Ready Acoustics:

https://www.readyacoustics.com/

You can get all of the materials you’ll need there.

You can also get DIY materials or fully built absorption panels from Acoustimac:

http://www.acoustimac.com/

Rob especially likes their patterned and printed fabric options that allow you to “hide” your absorption panels as decoration for really affordable prices!

If you’re OK with some slightly higher prices, RealTraps is another great company:

http://realtraps.com/

RealTraps has a ton of great educational info and links on their site, as well. And take special note of their “Test Tone CD”, which is FREE, and goes 1 Hz at a time so that you can really easily hear any problems in your bass frequencies:

http://realtraps.com/info.htm

Finally, we’ll mention Rives Audio:

http://www.rivesaudio.com/resources/links/frame.html

There’s a huge amount of information at Rives, too. And they also sell a test tone CD, which has a cool feature where there are test tones that are pre-calibrated to correct for the known inaccuracies of the popular Radio Shack SPL Meter:

http://www.rivesaudio.com/software/softframes.html

If all of those links don’t help you learn about Room Treatments, you can always just come back to AV Rant and ask! In case you can’t tell, we LOVE to talk about this stuff

AV Rant Listener Ray Coronado —

is good friends with Michael Chen. Michael is THE video calibration guru and THX Video Systems Instructor.

Michael’s own website has so many great resources and so much information about video calibration. But if you’re ever thinking of hiring a professional video calibrator, the “Calibration Knowledge Challenge” is one way to vet those professionals to see if they REALLY know their stuff.

Feel free to try it for yourself, too. But be warned: this is seriously technical stuff!

http://www.tlvexp.ca/calibration-knowledge-challenge/

We had a recommendation from an AV Rant Listener via Google Voice.

He didn’t leave his name, so we’re not sure whom to credit! But he recommended the MyAV Home Control Android App:

http://www.myav.co.uk/

Android users should check it out. It looks very cool and can control a ton of devices.