Our Listeners of the Week are Michael (Mitch), Spotlight (Andy), Rob, and Paco for their donations.

Lee Overstreet is our guest co-host this week.

In the News, Dolby AC-4 is officially a standard audio format for ATSC 3.0. Tony K. noticed Spotify testing lossless CD-quality streaming. The UHD Alliance has a Mobile HDR Premium logo. New Vizio E-Series adds HDR10 a larger screen sizes. Wesley M. and Nathan D. mentioned some acquisitions: Sound United bought D+M Group, and Control4 bought Triad Speakers. And our own Lee Overstreet has high hopes for YouTube TV.

Nathan W. shared some very helpful info for setting up your 4K HDR projector: Ryan Masciola offers 4K and HDR10 test pattern files for $25, Sony Ultra HD Blu-ray movies have “hidden” test patterns you can access by typing “7669” (SONY), and JVC has manual settings instructions for HDR10 on their projectors.

Daniel W. has no subwoofer output, so we recommend a Line Output Converter. We also go over level matching dual subwoofers. Anand wants to make sure he has the speaker impedance setting in his AV Receiver set correctly. And Jason P. gets our $200 headphone recommendations: Audio-Technica ATH-M50x, Sennheiser HD 598, and Sony MDR7506.

Infinite Gary asks if HDR will be used for live TV broadcasts, and why his Oppo Ultra HD Blu-ray player was able to play a scratched disc that other players couldn’t. Luke wonders if RBH is sacrificing performance or profits to make their Impression Series speakers beautiful. And Bobby K. wants to know if mismatched Surround Back speakers are a reasonable compromise, and we suggest Focal Little Bird on-walls for good sound in a small package.

Justin B. has a perfectly square room, but could open and insulate a closet. He also asks about the LeEco uMax85 status, non-Dolby Vision TV options, dedicated midrange drivers, on-wall speakers, and Philharmonic Audio’s Mini Monitors with RAAL ribbon tweeters. Alvin C. wants our thoughts on using two AV Receivers to expand from 5.1 to 7.2. Nick B. asks how projectors handle HDR tone mapping and how dynamic metadata might be implemented. And Mark O. saw the rave reviews of ELAC Uni-Fi speakers and wants to know if he should bust his budget to buy them.

Bill C. gets our confirmation on his projector choice, our recommendation for a Denon AVR-X3300W AV Receiver, and Crown XLS DriveCore or Behringer iNUKE amplifier suggestions to power his passive subwoofers. Ian E. suggested a Klipsch SoundBar to his friend, and we suggest the Yamaha YAS-203 as an alternative. And Ed needs some help sorting through some annoying issues using HDMI-CEC and ARC with his Vizio P-Series TV and Vizio SoundBar.

Manuel T. measured a dip in the upper bass region of his sound system using a Velodyne SMS-1 external subwoofer EQ. We suggest some culprits and methods to address it. Brian R. wants open-back headphone clarity, but with stronger bass. We suggest Sennheiser HD 598 CS, HiFi Man HE400S, and Sony MDR-1A. And Mitch R. wants to know if he should keep his acoustic panels on his front wall, and if so, whether he should put an acoustically transparent or a regular projection screen in front of them.

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

• Check out the AV Rant YouTube channel to watch our show videos.
• Download Tom’s FREE superhero-themed ebook Bob Moore: No Hero.
• If you like it, you can purchase the two full-length follow-ups -  Bob Moore: Desperate Times and Bob Moore: Hostile Territory.
• Check out AVGadgets.com where Tom is the new Editor-in-Chief!
• Download Tom's NEWEST book, Touch of Pain from Amazon now!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Liked it? Take a second to support AV Rant on Patreon!