AV Rant #460: You Hear with Your Brains
Tom is away, so Lee Overstreet joins us once again for a super-sized episode! This week, we thank Joshua and Sigmond for their donations, Toby for mentioning us to SVS, and James B. for his exemplary help with Tom’s computer situation and for saving Christmas! (for Rob’s niece) In the news, you can pre-order the SubPac S2 – a tactile transducer that you can strap to your seat…or your back! And Lee still has not triple checked his speaker wires! Ilango recommends the $200 HD Fury Integral 4K60 as a way to bypass HDCP 2.2 issues. And Ryan M. alerts us that Summit Hi-Fi is now a licenced Emotiva dealer in Canada. Karl R. pointed us to a Boing Boing summary of a Wired.com write up of the$17 Mrice E300 & E100 earphones, which seemingly bought into some forum hype big time. Karl also has his eye on the $800 Onkyo HT-S5800 Atmos HTiB, he wants to know how to find Reference Volume when the scale goes from 0-98dB, and he’d like a projection screen that can change aspect ratios: we suggest Screen Research, Seymour Screen Excellence TAM 4, Carada Masquerade, and especially Seymour AV’s manual panels. Brian R. loves his Ascend Acoustics HTM-200SE speakers, but notes other models are on sale, he’s curious about BetterCables.com, and we suggest the $100 Lepai LP7498E Class D amp for his workshop. Drew W. has a lone Vandersteen 2W subwoofer, and that means uneven bass from seat to seat; we suggest dual SVS SB-2000 subs, dual HSU ULS-15 Mk.2, or dual Rythmik F12. Josh S. caught the upgrade bug, and we think a Denon AVR-X3200W or Marantz SR5010 from Accessories4Less is the cure. Barney turned off all motion processing, but is still seeing “artificial looking” motion, and he wants our thoughts on the $1600 Yamaha YSP-5600 Atmos/DTS:X SoundBar. Mitch R. has concerns about the lens shift range on his projector and the gain of his screen, Gary wants to know if the specs of two different Center speakers explains their different sounds, and Jefferson B. discovered the complicated mess of trying to use the Dolby Surround Upmixer with DTS content since the DTS Neural:X Upmixer isn’t available yet. Rick F. “needs” a 1080p projector for under $1000 – we suggest the BenQ HT1075 (or the brand new $799 BenQ HT2050 that’s quieter and claims deeper black levels – thanks, jporter!) – he’s considering moving his cylinder subwoofer (he’ll need a bass sweep from AudioCheck.net), and he wants to know how a drop ceiling affects room volume calculations. Finally, Gary F. allows us to end this episode with an epic rant and discussion about cables and wires; Tom, we missed your presence big time on this one! Thanks for listening. Now, don't forget to:
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