CEDIA —

Plenty of news from this year’s CEDIA Expo, of course. But to be honest, not quite as many new product announcements as we might have expected.

Audioholics has you covered on the biggest stories from the show floor:

http://www.audioholics.com/trade-shows/cedia-2014-expo-show-coverage

And CNET and the Reference Home Theater Blog have great wrap-ups, too:

CNET: http://www.cnet.com/news/cedia-expo-home-theater-roundup-oled-lasers-atmos-and-more/

Ref HT: http://referencehometheater.com/2014/commentary/cedia-2014-wrap/

Dolby Atmos was probably the biggest story with over a dozen different demonstrations. Meanwhile, Auro 3D Audio had one demo. Never-the-less, for the moment, they’re still considered rival “immersive audio” formats, and it’s worth checking out this comparison of the demos: http://www.audioholics.com/editorials/cedia-2014-show-report

Other topics that caught our attention were the new subwoofers from JL Audio, the proliferation of DTS Play-Fi, and the lack of new front projectors other than Epson’s exciting announcement of a new reflective LCD panel technology that works with (frickin’) lasers!

All of those topics and more are covered well in the articles above. Feel free to let us know what got your attention from the big show!

AV Rant Listener Andy E. —

shared a link to the videos from the Southeastern Michigan Woofer and Tweeter Marching Society (SMWTMS). Andy says the presentations and discussions might be a little bit dry sometimes, but they’re also very enlightening and coming from some of the smartest people in the audio industry. He particularly liked the presentation on the KEF LS50 bookshelf speaker. So check ’em out:

SMWTMS Web Page: http://home.provide.net/~djcarlst/smwtms.htm

YouTube Video Page: https://www.youtube.com/user/SMWTMS

AV Rant Listener Barney —

tipped us that Trinnov has updated their website with a bunch of new marketing and info for their Altitude 32 Processor:

http://www.trinnov.com/products/high-end/altitude32/introduction-altitude32/introduction-4/

AV Rant Listener Gary —

found episode #178 of the Home Theater Geeks podcast very interesting when guest Anthony Grimani from MSR Acoustics said that the “subwoofer crawl” doesn’t really work very well.

You can watch his explanation for yourself in the video below.

http://youtu.be/i_DQWB0mAOo?t=1h7m58s

AV Rant Listener Gary —

also sent us links to Grimani Systems. Their new (very expensive) all inclusive speaker packages have some interesting design choices, but the price tag and the use of proprietary connections and setup make this a hard sell for us, personally.

Website: http://www.grimanisystems.com/grimani-systems-products/

Details PDF: http://www.grimanisystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/14-98LatestSpecSheet.pdf

Press Release: http://www.cepro.com/article/audio_experts_launch_grimani_systems_at_cedia_with_turnkey_13-speaker_activ/D1/

AV Rant Listener Gary —

had one more question this week regarding this article about setting up an “ultra widescreen” 2.35:1 aspect ratio viewing experience.

As far as we can tell, this is just a quick explanation that leaves out plenty of details and is just attempting to give people an idea of what’s involved and to advocate for considering the wider screen format:

http://www.cedia.org/blog/ultimate-movie-watching-going-ultra-wide

AV Rant Listener Michael M. —

came across a situation where the bass being produced by vinyl records was very weak and “thin”.

This sounds like a case of needing a proper phono pre-amp, and we can recommend Emotiva’s XPS-1 for the job:

http://emotiva.com/products/pres-and-pros/xps-1

AV Rant Listener Sim —

is helping a friend plan out the construction of his home theater. During episode #400, we discussed his plans and made a few suggestions. The link below takes you to the sketches we were looking at. They’re hand drawn and measurements are in millimeters. We focused mostly on the proposed speaker placements, and we suggested going with two subwoofers in diagonally opposite corners.

Have a look: http://1drv.ms/1v8hwA6

So the title of AV Rant Episode #400 was “Bronie” because Tom likes to make fun of Rob, and because Rob enjoys trolling everyone and embarrassing himself :p

Never-the-less, Rob stands by his recommendation of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” as being a kids’ show that adults can also enjoy.

And since most people reading this have never ever thought of looking at a show called “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, here’s a link to the best episode out of the handful that Rob has seen. It’s called “Sonic Rainboom”, and it’s cute, it’s funny, and it’s better written and a more complete story than half the crap that’s on during prime time.

Enjoy!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11ar9e_my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-season-1-episode-16-sonic-rainboom_tv