Insteon Hub Giveaway – This is your last chance to send an email directly to Tom and let him know why you’d like a free Insteon Hub. June 30, 2018 is the cutoff date. Our thanks to Kris P. for providing an Insteon Hub for this giveaway!

Our Listeners of the Week are our 61 Patreon Patrons, including Niels.

In the news, AMC Stubs A-List is a subscription to AMC theaters in the USA that appears to be quite flexible and reasonably priced. And Blue Jeans Cable has added Series-3 Active HDMI Cables with 18 Gbps bandwidth in lengths from 20 to 50 feet.

Sushmit surprised us by letting us know his wife is the one pushing to add a wall and a door to close in their new basement home theater. Robert G. shared a link explaining the Audyssey Midrange Compensation dip. Tom K. thinks Surround Back speakers are very worthwhile, particularly for upmixing. And Don G. shared a short article about the original Marantz products from 1952 – 1963.

0:17:26 Aidan achieved pretty good bass uniformity across his two main seats strictly by experimenting with dual subwoofer placement in his small room. But one seat still has a null, so we suggest a GiK Scopus Tuned Membrane Bass Trap to potentially help.

0:26:01 Marlon E. double checks his sound system upgrade plans with us, and other than thinking he could save a bit of money and space by opting for RBH R-5E Bookshelf Fronts and RBH R-5 Surrounds, we’re very much on board with his choices of a Denon AVR-X3400H Receiver and dual SVS SB-1000 subwoofers.

0:34:15 Infinite Gary asks about carpet thickness and density options, and wonders if the statements in a video by music producer Bobby Owsinski about the floor covering being of little to no consequence in a studio render any concerns about carpet and rugs moot.

0:43:08 Earle B. had a failure in the amp of one of his SVS SB16-Ultra subwoofers, and he wants to know if using an APC P8V surge protector means he can eliminate his electrical circuit as a culprit. We encourage him to get in touch with Charlie Jones from SurgeX to enquire about diagnostics solutions.

0:50:51 Bob wants to know if using a VPN to access US Netflix from the Philippines is legal.

0:55:10 SuperOhioBros wants to run a 2.1.2 or 3.1.2 Atmos setup, also known as Dolby Atmos for Compact Entertainment Systems, and while we aren’t sure if the Sony Receiver he’s eyeing can do it, we know that Denon Receivers can.

1:03:11 Damien D. gets us to repeat our refrain to him that he should wait to find the house he intends to buy before spending any money on new home theater gear, although we mostly agree that Focal Little Birds are likely to work well as Atmos overhead speakers in almost any setup. Then we suggest a Rode SC6 dual microphone adapter and Rode smartLav+ Lavalier Microphones for recording two people on a smartphone.

1:15:18 Kris P. gets us to talk about the interesting effect of shining colored light onto a colored wall to make the wall appear gray or white to our eyes.

1:18:58 Dave gets our recommendation for an NVidia GeForce GTX 10-Series GPU with at least 3GB of RAM for upgrading his HTPC for cutting edge video and audio output.

1:20:47 Nick B. asks for our thoughts on the NAD T 777 v3 AV Receiver, which seems to have mostly drawn Nick’s attention by including Dirac Live LE room correction. We suggest adding Dirac externally with a miniDSP DDRC-88A.

1:29:00 Richard G. gets a split decision on a 55-inch HDR TV with Tom favoring the less expensive TCL 6-Series, and Rob willing to spend a bit more on a 2018 Vizio P-Series.

1:33:34 Niels B. asks for our take on Sonarworks True-Fi headphone equalization for Windows or Mac.

1:37:40 Brent W. confirms the differences between Denon’s X4300H and X4400H Receivers, and we give him our go-to suggestion for speaker stands: Sanus.

1:39:36 Will T. has a multiple subwoofer setup where we think his best approach for upgrading is replacement with dual SVS PC-2000 subwoofers rather than trying to augment what he already has.

1:44:05 Everything is Awesome gets our votes for the standard FlexiWhite Projection Screen Material from Carl’s Place as opposed to any gray screen material options.

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