AV RantAV Rant #449: Have You Triple Checked Your Speaker Wire?

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AV Rant #449: Have You Triple Checked Your Speaker Wire?

September 14th, 2015 Tom

Huge thanks to Lee Overstreet for stepping in once again on short notice while Tom is away sick! Feel better soon, Tom!

Our Listeners of the Week are: Jason, Kris, and Daniel for their generous donations; Daniel and Scott for letting SVS know they bought products because of our recommendations; and CoffeeManDave on Twitter for turning new Listeners onto the podcast! Thanks, guys!

James was first to tip us about SVS’ moving sale. Panasonic’s 65″ CZ950 OLED looks an awful lot like an LG. And Samsung’s UBD-K8500 UltraHD Blu-ray player arrives in early 2016 for $500.

Byron (the 1st) asks about subwoofer placement, using EMP Tek E3b for Height and Width speakers, and maybe using a MiniDSP to control a mid-bass module for some extra kick! Infinite Gary read about ELAC’s Omni-directional Super Tweeters, asks for some clarification on surround sound and immersive audio upmixing, and wonders if vintage quadraphonic headphones would be a good Atmos solution. And Byron (the 2nd) sent us CNET’s poll: Is 3D TV dead? Do you care?

Todd reminds us the Onkyo TX-NR818 is an even cheaper Audyssey MultEQ XT32 option…if you can find one. Nathan shared “A Brief Guide to Audio for the Skeptical Consumer“, and we couldn’t find a single thing to complain about! And Robert discovered what “speaker break in” is really all about (your brain), as well as the best excuse ever to get four subwoofers: a square room!

John moved his subwoofer and wants to know the exact reason for the big difference it made in his measurements. He also wants to more details on Pioneer MCACC and whether an SPL meter and some manual EQ are enough to “fix” it. Karl could either spend $30 or $1.80 for Y-Splitters, but he doesn’t need either of them. Setting his speakers to “small” is still giving him a moment’s pause. And since we mentioned leather curtains last week, he found some!

Jonathan’s setup is coming together nicely, but HDMI-CEC and ARC have brought up questions. He’s also back to sending us long articles to read; this one’s all about Sennheiser 3D – yet another immersive audio option! Clint asks about pressurizing a room and air-tight seals. Corey wants to make sure he isn’t overpaying for insulation. And Ryan is really missing his Surround speakers, so he’d like to know if some BIC HT-8C in-ceiling speakers might scratch that itch.

Kevin asks if a sealed SVS sub can pair up well with a ported SVS sub and how he should place them. Josh found a video saying “Expensive wine is for suckers” that applies nicely to audio, as well – especially the part at the end about our brains. And we close out the show with some topics from Lee, including the possibility of CableCARD being replaced by a simple app, and figuring out why his AV Receiver is randomly shutting down (have you noticed the title of this episode?) Thanks for listening. Now, don't forget to:

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