AV Rant #626: RBH or Ascend
Our Listeners of the Week are Joseph S. for his donation, our 79 Patreon Patrons, including Tapan T., and Brian Z. for telling Accessories4Less that his Denon X3400H purchase was thanks to us, Luke H. for telling SVS that his PC-4000 purchase was because of our recommendation, and Jonathan for suggesting we try Teleprompt.me.
In the news, Panasonic’s GZ2000 OLED is the first TV to officially support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Vizio’s full 2019 LCD TV lineup features quantum dots and more local dimming zones. TCL is pursuing mini-LED backlighting. Hisense showed a dual layer LCDdisplay for 2 million zones of local dimming. HDMI 2.1 has arrived with an official 48 Gbps cable name of Ultra High Speed. Ryan T. alerted us that the Chromecast Audio has been discontinued. And Trinnov will have the first Processor with DTS:X Pro.
0:15:07 Tom K. let us know that automatic color space switching is now available on the NVidia Shield. You must unlock Developer Mode and activate the HDMI Colorimetry setting within the Developer Options.
0:19:38 Mark R. gets confirmation about how many absorption panels are recommended for his room, and to keep the price down, we recommend using Tom’s DIY Absorbers for the Less Than Handy Man (Part 2) and Rob W.’s Movie Poster Panels articles.
0:30:21 Chad M. gets some clarification about why we so often recommend dual subwoofers, and we confirm that a single SVS SB-1000 could handle his small, enclosed room if he really only cares about one seat.
0:35:35 John D. has a family member who wants something impossible: a small subwoofer that can handle an open space for under $200. We mention several inexpensive subs: Monoprice 9723, BIC Venturi V1220; or, our top choices: Dayton SUB-1200 or BIC Formula F12. But the winner might be the low profile Monoprice SSW-10 or Dayton SUB-1000L tucked under a couch.
0:42:34 Damien D. wants to know if it’s ok to use the largest Center in a speaker Series with smaller bookshelf Mains.
0:44:21 Alvin C. asks if speaker grills should be removed for critical listening.
0:46:42 Tapan T. is completing a basement room. We make some suggestions for screen size and seating distance, recommend SeymourAV DIY screen material, point him to AV Science to get a JVC projector, recommend either Ascend Acoustics CMT-340SE and HTM-200SE or RBH Impression Elite and Ultra-1 speakers, mention Aperion and Outdoor Speaker Depot ACE650 in-ceiling speakers, highly recommend dual SVS PC-2000 subwoofers placed at the mid-points of his side walls, and recommend waiting a bit before getting an Outlaw Model 5000 amplifier.
1:06:54 Bastian B. finds out why it doesn’t matter which direction a subwoofer faces.
1:12:44 Steve gets the exact same shopping list as Tapan T. above, only with the additional suggestions of a Denon X4400H
1:21:23 Samuel C. gets the pros and cons of selling his Oppo 203 Ultra HD Blu-ray player and using his Xbox One X instead while he waits to see if the Sony X800M2 is worth it.
1:23:46 Monty N. gets confirmation that we like the Sanus Steel Series speaker stands, and we suggest using some QuakeHOLD Museum Putty to hold his speakers on top even more securely.
1:25:31 Bill C. found out how expensive Sonance in-wall speakers are, so we give a thumbs up to Aperion in-walls instead, and let him know exactly where to place them.
1:27:38 Infinite Gary asks about 5G, pixel density vs. resolution, and IMAX Enhanced.
1:36:05 Michael M. is moving to a smaller room, so we talk a bit about subwoofer size and whether there’s such a thing as overkill, and we recommend a 120″ Silver Ticket projection screen to him.
1:39:42 Kevin S. gets our recommendation to contact Simply Speakers and the manufacturer about finding replacement woofers for his older Jamo speakers, and we suggest the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, reaching out to speaker designer David Fabrikant from Ascend, and tentatively mention the DIY Audio Forum.
1:48:22 Greg L. asks what differences exist between the JVC RS520 (aka X770) and RS540 (aka X790).
1:49:17 Jason S. upgraded his TV, so now he wants a Receiver upgrade for under $600. We mention the Denon X3400H for 7 speakers max, Marantz SR6012 for 9-11 speakers, or the Onkyo TX-NR787 for 9 speakers max, or Onkyo TX-RZ730 for the least expensive 11 speaker option. Then we talk a bit about dialogue intelligibility.
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