Our Listeners of the Week are Robert, who donated twice, and our awesome Patreon Patrons, as well as Byron S. for talking us up to SVS, and Tony K. for mentioning us to Accessories4Less and SVS.

And shout outs to Mark over at Accessories4Less, and Mike, once again, for supplying Tom with his new Denon AVR-X4300H AV Receiver, and the fine folks over at Oppo Digital, and Nathan D., for supplying Rob with an Oppo UDP-203 Ultra HD Blu-ray player. We share our early impressions of both pieces of gear, and in both cases, we have some thoughts and experiences that you might not expect.

We will be interviewing a rep from SurgeX on Oct. 26, so please send in any questions you might have about power protection to Question@AVRant.com

In the news, Disney greatly expanded their Movies Anywhere service to include movies from most other studios across four major download services. rent4K.com is a new place to rent Ultra HD Blu-rays by mail, although unlike 3D Blu-ray Rental, they only send one disc at a time on a pay-per-rental basis for now. And to experience the pinnacle of video game design, you can check out Ennuigi, in which you can “spend some time with a depressed, laconic Luigi as he chain smokes and wanders through a crumbling Mushroom Kingdom”.

Dave B. recommends the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack for some “spine-crushing bass”. Karl R. shared some articles covering: HDMI 2.1 features, connecting the new Apple TV 4K, and whether 4K DLP projectors are genuinely 4K. Byron S. sorted out his 12V trigger situation and loves his extendable TV mount. And Mitch R. shared his completed home theater setup.

Infinite Gary prods us to describe scenarios in which we’d approve of ButtKickers or bass shakers, he asks why most home theater recliners have high seat backs, he asks why the Dolby Audio logo appears on movies that use a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and he’d like to know why his Denon DVD-A1 Blu-ray player cannot play many Blu-ray bonus features. Michael L. wants to know if using the TT Dynamic Range Meterand the Dynamic Range Database are good ways to find new audition tracks, why some unlikely-sounding tracks have the highest dynamic range, and what movies and songs Tom and Rob use for auditions. And Ryan L. wants to gradually build an immersive audio system, so we discuss starting with 2.1 vs. 3.1, Towers vs. bookshelf speakers, and some internet-direct speaker brands to audition and compare, including: Aperion Audio, SVS, and Ascend Acoustics.

Jim B. wants to adjust the subwoofer output level from his Denon AVR-X3300W, but there are multiple settings menus, so he wants to know which one to use. Biv asks how to connect his headphone amplifier to his AV Receiver, and how to connect his iPhone to his analogue integrated amplifier, which we say can be done in simple fashion with a 3.5mm to RCA adapter cable. And Gavin W. wants an affordable 55-inch TV with all the bells and whistles, so we suggest either the TCL 55P607 or a Vizio M-Series.

Bill W. has already built two previous dedicated home theaters, but now he’s building an entire house, and his theater plans are a blank slate. We discuss ideal room dimensions, acoustically transparent screens, screens sizes and seating distances, Atmos speaker configurations, soundproofing, airlock-style doors, including a lobby outside the theater, and several other planning and construction details. Kris I. gets us to go over his audio output settings for his gaming PC. And Kevin A. found some previous flagship Yamaha Towers at a thrift shop, but he can’t understand the 4-way crossover design choices, and wants to know what we think of his modifications.

Ted M. gets our thoughts on the AluminyzeSound SoundWall. Tony K. has us list a bunch of older amplifier brands that he could keep an eye out for when searching for good, used gear. And Dave asks, what is the best type of connection for a subwoofer.

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