Our Listeners of the Week are James D. Gary, Jonathan, Nathan, Edward, and Trent. Thank you all so much for supporting AV Rant Podcast with your generous donations!

In the news, AV Rant Listener Antoine sent the link to Definitive Technology’s new BP9000 Series of bi-pole, Atmos-ready speakers.

Infinite Gary shared an article in which Paramount describes the “Laborious Process Behind Ultra HD Blu-rays“. And Nelson W. shared a superb example of why you should always double check your speaker wire connection at both ends!

Nathan D. asks about the lack of fanfare for the new Aperion Verus II Grand Series of speakers and whether Tom will review them. He also asks about network-controllable battery backup power supplies such as the APC S20 or its clone, the Crestron CEN-UPS1250, which offer more advanced controls than our go-to recommendation: the APC J35B. TiVo customer service confirmed that the new TiVo OTA 1TB can accept IR remote commands as well as RF, and we talk a bit about using a Harmony Hub with rack-mounted gear. And we touch upon genuine 4K panel projectors vs. models that “wobble” a 1080p panel.

Johnny D.’s brother-in-law has a simple request: he wants to play one HDMI source in his living room in 5.1 while playing a second HDMI source in Zone 2 in stereo. Sadly, it’s much more complicated than it should be! A Yamaha Zone B Receiver can only play one source at a time. Denon’s AVR-X3100W requires 2.0 PCM output from the source, as does the Monoprice Blackbird 4×2 Matrix Switch. Tom K. wants to make sure his Marantz SR7010 purchase was the right move. He also asks about overhead speaker orientation, and gets some clarification on bitstream vs. PCM audio signals. And Jonathan F. gets us to dive further into full-array local-dimming and static vs. dynamic HDR metadata, as well as our suggestions for “tiny” speakers such as Orb Audio or our top recommendation, the Focal Little Bird.

Bill R. asks for $5,000/pair Tower speaker recommendations on behalf of a friend. In addition to the Ascend Acoustics Sierra Tower w/ RAAL, and Salk SongTower Supercharged already being considered, we mention the Legacy Audio Classic HD and GoldenEar Triton Series. Justin B. almost certainly has a defective Audyssey microphone. He also gets our comments on DTS Headphone X and the Out of Your Head Software, or recommendations of GIK Acoustics Bass Traps and Acoustimac Bass Traps, our complete lack of knowledge of when Emotiva’s new speakers are arriving, our confirmation that Ascend Sierra-1 speakers can be upgraded to Sierra-2s, and our thoughts on the Dayton Wireless Subwoofer System.

Infinite Gary is getting an LG B6 OLED TV and asks about resolution, using its Smart TV services without an Audio Return Channel connection, and future Ultra HD connection paths. And we finish with Trent G. who asks about speaker positioning below a projection screen, speaker efficiency concerns, elevating Surround Back speakers, acoustic panel priority, bass trapping, and his own experience with “Wobble K”!

Thanks for listening. Now, don't forget to:

• Check out the AV Rant YouTube channel to watch our show videos.
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