Home > Podcast > AVRant #594: Three Sub’s a Crowd

AVRant #594: Three Sub’s a Crowd

June 8th, 2018

Our Listeners of the Week are Stephen, Jaremy, and Joseph for their donations, our 61 Patreon Patrons, Jason D. for telling SVS we were the reason for his PC-2000 subwoofer purchase, Kris P. for providing an Insteon Hub that we’ll be giving away, and James C. for offering to put Tom’s Fearless Mobile Climbing logo on some merch.

In the news, Audioholics reported that Dolby is mandating only the Dolby Surround Upmixer be used on Dolby signals. The Sony UBP-X700 Ultra HD Blu-ray player got its Dolby Vision update, but there’s no auto-detection. And tvOS 12 will add Dolby Atmos output to the AppleTV 4K.

David F. tried the Dr. HDMI device with his JVC projector, but it still did a new HDMI handshake every time his DirecTV box changed resolutions. And Roger J. sent us more detailed information about oversampling audio signals.

0:19:10 Luke wants to know why 1440p flat panel TVs and projectors aren’t widely available, why variable refresh rate isn’t being offered on projectors, and why large displays in general aren’t catering to gamers.

0:31:32 Nick B. forwarded a Secrets of Home Theater interview with Todd Welti about multiple subwoofers, and wanted our takes on the Double Bass Array and Todd’s Sound Field Management approach to bass optimization.

0:36:16 Curtis D. wants to know how we determine if a subwoofer is capable of playing down to 20Hz.

0:39:49 Andrew T. followed Audyssey’s onscreen instructions for setting the volume knob on his subwoofers to half-way before starting the automated test tones. The end result was too loud, so he wants to know why those are the given instructions.

0:42:36 Chris T. installed four Outdoor Speaker Depot MK650 in-ceiling speakers, but his auto-setup gave them a 200 Hz crossover, so we offer a theory for why that might have happened.

0:44:55 Kris P. wants to upgrade three subwoofers in his room. We really want him to start with two. But if he must have three, we suggest an alternative placement option, or warn that a JL Audio D110 might be the only sub small enough to fit the space he has that isn’t massively under-powered.

0:52:20 Earle B. asks about stacking subwoofers: how much more output he’ll get, how to wire them, and how auto-setup will handle them.

0:59:41 Steve W. gets our recommendations for a Seymour AV motorized screen, or an Elite Screens CineTension 2 if the budget is tight. We share thoughts on Sony vs. JVC projectors, and say to use a Receiver plus his existing 5-channel amp to expand to Atmos, or add an Emotiva A-700 if separates are set in stone. And we recommend Aperion in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, or RBH.

1:13:37 William G. found a Klipsch Reference Premiere 5.1 speaker package from a Canadian online retailer that is a fine choice for his room. But we suggest a Paradigm Monitor Series 5.0 speaker package with two SVS PC-2000 subwoofers, plus a Denon AVR-X3400H Receiver, and some absorption from Acoustic Panels Canada.

1:28:27 Karl R. gets our take on people saying Solo: A Star Wars Story looks too dim.

1:31:44 Everett L. wants to know if speaker levels, in addition to subwoofer levels, should be set with an SPL meter before running auto-setup.

1:33:28 Marc N. achieved some impressive results using three different subwoofers with the Multi-Sub Optimizer Software, so we go over his results and discuss what he’d need to do to improve any further.

1:38:49 Jaremy P. is turning his home gym into a dedicated theater. We go through his initial plans, suggest screen size and front speaker placement, and make some speaker brand and subwoofer recommendations.

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