In the news —

Microsoft will be shutting down their Xbox Entertainment Studios. Original shows and documentaries that were already in production will continue with the goal being to complete and release them, but after that, MS is getting off the original TV content bandwagon:

http://recode.net/2014/07/17/microsoft-to-shut-down-xbox-entertainment-studios/

AV Rant Listener Will —

found a place to rent a front projector at a reasonable price. ATS Rentals. Most other rental places seem to be charging anywhere between $200 – $400 for a weekend rental. Getting that price down to $116 including shipping makes it a little easier to pay for the rental rather than just buying a cheap or used projector outright!

http://www.atsrentals.com/epson-3010-hd-projector-rental.html

AV Rant Listener Michael M. —

talked about “bottoming out” a subwoofer, and he described an instance where his subwoofer started to sound like, “a bazooka being fired under water”.

Technically, that still isn’t “bottoming out”, which sounds like metal hitting metal, since that is literally what happens when a woofer “bottoms out”! But it does sound as though his subwoofer might have been “jumping the magnetic gap”.

To better understand what the “magnetic gap” is, this Wikipedia article on voice coils does a good job of explaining things:

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

AV Rant Listener Efrain —

let us know that http://www.2L.no actually provides a link to a Facebook photo album for every music album they record, and they provide images of the layout of the musicians and where the microphones were placed. Some of them do use 8 microphones (7.1). Have a look at some of their examples:

https://www.facebook.com/morten.lindberg.lyd/photos_albums

AV Rant Listener Efrain —

also let us know about the Geek Out USB Headphone Amp & High-res DAC. It’s available for pre-order at $200, though there’s a long wait list, apparently. If you really, really want 32-bit/384 kHz PCM and/or DSD128 support, this DAC will handle that. But we’re more excited about Efrain’s observation that it has an extremely low noise floor. Either way, have a look:

http://geek.lhlabs.com/geekout/

AV Rant Listener Carlos C. —

wanted us to list some of our favorite speakers at varying price points. This list is by no means comprehensive, but we had fun and put together this little album:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.926348234049273.1073741846.522979641052803&type=1&l=0b97ce1145

AV Rant Listener Jared M. —

wanted us to list some of our favorite demo material for showing off our home theaters. We came up with these off the tops of our heads. What discs or recordings do you reach for right away? Let us know in the comments!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.926858987331531.1073741847.522979641052803&type=1

AV Rant Listener Ashley S. —

asked our opinions on the f.lux software that dynamically alters your computer or iDevice screen’s color balance based on the time of day.

It’s free to try, so there’s no real reason not to see the results for yourself, but Tom and Rob are mostly just glad that you can turn it off for watching video and editing pictures and such:

https://justgetflux.com/

AV Rant Listener Al K. —

wanted to discuss isobaric subwoofers.

If you found the concept a little bit confusing, the Wikipedia article does a pretty good job in describing the design:

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

AV Rant Listener Jason A. —

found the Elite Screens VMAX 120″ motorized roll-down projection screen with matte white screen fabric at an incredibly low price.

The only possible concern is that the screen is not tensioned, which means it is possible for small waves or dimples to form in the screen fabric. But at this price point, it certainly makes it easy to forgive any minor imperfections. Check it out:

http://www.elitescreenshop.com/Elite-Screens-VMAX120XWH-Projector-Screen-p/vmax120xwh.htm

AV Rant Listener Raul R. —

is concerned about the possibility that he might be prone to seeing the “rainbow effect” when watching a DLP-based front projector.

We recommend simply watching a movie on the DLP projector in question. If you don’t spot any white images breaking up into red, green, and blue, then it might be best to avoid training yourself to see it!

But if you really want to test whether you’re ever going to be prone to seeing the “rainbow effect”, Raul did find this test pattern that you can display using a DLP projector:

http://www.ausmedia.com.au/rainbow_test.htm

AV Rant Listener Nick B. —

asked for a recommendation for some flat, paintable, self-adhesive speaker wire.

This can be an effective way to make your speaker wire runs “invisible” when it isn’t possible to run your wire inside your walls.

Sewell Ghost Wire should do the trick:

http://sewelldirect.com/Sewell-Super-Flat-Adhesive-Speaker-Wire-18-AWG-2-Conductor-50-ft-Spool-White.asp

Keep in mind that you’ll need a terminal block to transition from the flat wire back to regular speaker wire, though. Sewell sells their own terminal block, of course:

http://sewelldirect.com/Sewell-Ghost-Wire-Terminal-Block-14-16-and-18-AWG.asp