Our Listeners of the Week are John and Jason for their donations, our new AVRant Patreon patrons, Dave for letting Accessories4Less know he heard about them from us, Terry for letting SVS know his Prime Satellite purchase was because of our recommendation, and Kris for offering to hook Tom up with a discount on a Motorola smartphone.

We are attempting to schedule a few interviews. So if you have any questions for RBH Sound, SurgeX power protection, or Brent Butterworth – former editor-in-chief of Home Theater Magazine – please email them to us (Question@AVRant.com).

In the news, 2016 Denon & Marantz AV Receivers now have access to the firmware update that adds Dolby Vision and HLG pass-through support. Denon UK and Marantz UK both posted notifications that 2015 models will receive the update in 2018. Google Play and Amazon lowered their 4K movie prices to compete with Apple. The new $70 Amazon Fire TV supports 4K, HDR10, Dolby Atmos, but not Dolby Vision. And Emotiva added the XPA-9 Gen3 and XPA-11 Gen3 amplifiers to their lineup using their new stereo amplifier “blades”.

Tom K. has a dedicated theater, but it has passive vents for air circulation, so he asks whether those make it more difficult to pressurize his room with bass. Damien D. wants to know which $500 or less subwoofer he should buy for an open concept space. We think the SVS PB-1000 would be his best option in terms of performance, but he’d prefer smaller and cheaper, so the RSL Speedwoofer 10S is also recommended. And Karl R. gets our thoughts on the Dreamscape Immersive virtual reality multiplex experiences being added to AMC theaters.

Dave asks what the RS-232 and Remote In & Out ports are for on the backs of some AV Receivers. Jaremy P. wants Dolby Vision pass-through right now, so we discuss his options for replacing his Marantz AV7702 MK2 pre-pro, with our top recommendation being a Denon AVR-X4300H. Michael I. gets some tips on how to conduct a fair listening comparison between a pair of KEF LS50 and Ascend Sierra-2 speakers. And Jason B. wants to construct a dedicated theater in his basement, so we begin the process by discussing the overall layout and orientation of the room, as well as some construction and code concerns that might require some professional assistance.

Marc found the Marseille mCable Series HDMI cables. There’s a Gaming Edition that adds anti-aliasing, and a Cinema Edition that scales any image to 4K and adds edge enhancement. We also discuss some speaker settings when using Room EQ Wizard to take measurements. Kris I. wants to connect both a home theater system and an Oculus Rift to his gaming PC, so we suggest using a Club3D Displayport to HDMI Adapter for one of those connections. Jeff G. gets some more input regarding his Top Middle speakers and what he should do to make them more noticeable overhead. And David B. stumps us by asking for Tower speakers with metal grills to thwart a cat. We question the scenario a little bit, but suggest some Klipsch Towers with their fabric grills removed.

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