AV Rant #576: Retirement is not Death
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Our Listeners of the Week are our 53 Patreon Patrons, including Patrick P., and also Heath B. for letting Soundproofing Company know he heard about them from us, Robert G. for talking about us in person with SVS President & CEO Gary Yacoubian, and Justin L. for tweeting with SVS to let them know his SB-4000 subwoofer purchase was an AVRant recommendation.
In the news, via Steve the Geek on Twitter, the first Denon AVR-X8500H owners have discovered the Dolby Surround Upmixer still cannot use Front Wide speakers, despite what was misprinted in the manual. The Apple TV OS 11.3 Beta firmware gets Dolby Vision working on Sony X1 Extreme TVs, and Oppo says they’re working on a Sony Dolby Vision fix. And Nintendo Labo cardboard peripherals are either a fun new toy, or the ultimate, easily destroyed add-on.
Dan has decided to try some alternatives to the expensive Revel C10 Center speaker we suggested for his TV mounted above his fireplace. And Patrick went with our open-back Sennheiser HD559 suggestion, and he added the Avantree Clipper Pro Bluetooth adapter to make them wireless.
Josh C. gets our thoughts on high efficiency speakers and whether they inherently improve dynamics and tactile sensation. Vince H. asks if Front Wide speakers need to be aimed at the primary listening position. And Chris T. gives us a choice between two Samsung TVs, where we’d opt for the MU6100 Series out of the two, but we’d choose the TCL 55P605, or the Vizio M55-E0 over either Samsung option. And we also address Chris’ questions about 7.1.6 Atmos Receivers.
Roy B. needs a new disc player, so we recommend the Sony UBP-X800 if he wants a universal disc player, or a Sony S3700 or S6700 if he just needs the basics. Ted M. tried our suggestion to experiment with a makeshift, temporary baffle wall, but the results were inconclusive, so we have a few last ditch ideas for him to try before he does anything drastic. And Infinite Gary gets our input on using a cassette adapter for his old car stereo, as well as our thoughts on how the OLED Light settings option ought to be adjusted.
Mike G. needs some help troubleshooting why his NVidia Shield TV is his only source device that refused to pass through his Yamaha AV Receiver to his Samsung 4K TV. NevadaDealers on Twitter gets our recommendations for HT Design Seating from HT Market, Fusion Collection Seating, Continental Seating, and Elite Home Theater Seating. And Earle B. wants to know the best way to connect two XLR stereo sources to his single pair of XLR inputs, so we recommend simply using RCA for one of the sources, but offer the suggestion of a pair of Sescom Passive XLR Switches if he’s only willing to use XLR.
Karl R. wants to know when we think the HDMI 2.1 hardware update will be available for the Denon AVR-X8500H Receiver. We also go over the HDR settings for JVC projectors, as well as the output options for Oppo’s Ultra HD Blu-ray players. And we discuss dynamic metadata for projectors, the likelihood of huge, rollable flat panels replacing projection setups, the best audio output settings for the Apple TV 4K, and what we think about 70mm film presentations. And Mike M. wants to retain Dolby Vision and Atmos in his Main Zone while playing the same source on a less capable TV in Zone 2, so we talk about the HD Fury Linker, using an inexpensive Receiver like the Yamaha RX-V383, and using Monoprice Fiber Optic HDMI Cables, or Monoprice DynamicView Active HDMI Cables for his long HDMI run.
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