AV Rant #615: Take Two
Our Listeners of the Week are our 75 Patreon Patrons, and Infinite Gary for letting Blue Jeans Cable know we often recommend their products when he bought some speaker wire from them.
Tom is away this week, so Rob H. is joined by guest co-host Lee Overstreet.
In the news, independent film streaming service FilmStruck is shutting down, and Criterion says they hope to find an alternative way to keep the Criterion Channel online. Sony announced all 20 games for the PlayStation Classic. And Rob was a guest on the Entertainment 2.0 Podcast this week to talk about Dolby Vision, IMAX Enhanced, HDR, and the HDR Gaming Interest Group.
Infinite Gary recommends Dolby’s Conversations with Sound Artists Podcast. And Andy recommends the $30 Acoustic Audio AA321W cube speakers as an inexpensive Atmos speaker option.
0:14:18 Steve H. asks about the Loudness Management and Dynamic Compression settings that apply to Dolby audio signal in Denon and Marantz Receivers.
0:20:57 Rob K. gets our final word on which SVS speakers we think he should use as Surrounds, and we suggest Monoprice Essentials Low Profile or Monoprice Universal Side-Clamping speaker mounts to mount and aim SVS Prime Satellites.
0:26:18 Jason G. shared a video of his self-resetting Samsung TV, then we recommend a 65-inch Vizio P-Series Quantum, LG C8 OLED, or Samsung Q8FN as a replacement, along with a Denon AVR-X6400H Receiver to power all 11 of his speakers by itself.
0:36:29 Marty S. wants more tactile bass in his open-concept room. We discuss what happens if he sets his speakers to Large, talk a bit about ButtKickers and less expensive tactile transducers, recommend a miniDSP 2×4 either way, and go over using his SPL meter as a measurement microphone with Room EQ Wizard.
0:51:35 Andrew L. is renovating his basement theater, so we discuss adding doors and other soundproofing concerns. And with his ceiling coming down, we talk about moving his equipment rack, adding more speakers, deciding between a flat panel or projector and the importance of deciding his seating position.
1:08:56 Nick B. gets an explanation of the unintuitive reason why “one sub, one seat” can work for subwoofer placement. Then we talk about HDR10+ on projectors, how new projectors are handling HDR, and why Rob mentioned using a screen size and projector combo that would result in only SDR light output levels.
1:27:35 Mike S. wants to know if he should be worried about having run speaker wire and power cords parallel to one another over a 10-foot distance.
1:32:01 Mark R. wants to improve the acoustics of his theater, so we go over how many absorption panels we think he needs from GiK Acoustics, Acoustimac, or possibly DIY with printed fabric from My Fabric Designs. Then we recommend dual SVS SB-2000 subwoofers. And finish with AV Receiver and projector options if he still has money left in his budget.
1:46:12 Jeff G. waited until after CEDIA to buy a new projector, and now he’s tempted by the genuine 4K models that were announced, so we weigh in.
1:52:20 Paul T. wants to improve his sound quality, but we talk about how his wide open room is his limiting factor. We warn him away from external DACs, suggest using an LG V30 phone for MQA if he refuses to believe us that MQA isn’t worth it, and assure him that his Onkyo Receiver can handle powering four speakers.
2:05:03 Boshko gets our recommendation for Amazon Basics Banana Plugs in Canada, says he needs a lot of electrical outlets, preferably with battery backup, so we recommend the APC J15, gets our suggestion to use RTings’ TV picture settings, but don’t expect them to equal professional color and greyscale calibration, and gets our speculation about SVS subwoofers going on sale for the holidays.
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