Our Listeners of the Week are Ilango, Brandon, and Fred for their donations, as well as Jason for letting Accessories4Less know our recommendation led to his Yamaha RX-A760 Receiver purchase from them, Byron for letting Herb from Cross-Spectrum Labs know that he heard about their calibrated UMIK-1 measurement microphones from us, and a huge thank you to Herb from Cross-Spectrum Labs for donating a calibrated UMIK-1 to our Producer Austen for use in our upcoming dual subwoofer setup video.

In the news, the very well reviewed TCL P-Series will only be available in its 55-inch size; the planned 50 and 65-inch models have been scuttled. And Apple has budgeted $1 billion for its own original TV shows.

Lee V. suggests using window tint to darken home theater windows. Kris P. shared a link to the $129 LoFelt Basslet tactile transducer for your wrist. Michael I. found a useful ABX listening test for lossy vs. lossless audio. And Byron S. shares the story of his latest upgrades to 5.4.4 Atmos and his plans to make use of Andy C.’s Multi-Sub Optimizer Software.

Craig L. double checks his plan to audition SVS Ultra and Aperion Audio Verus II Grand speakers along with dual SVS PC-2000 cylinder subwoofers. Then he asks about acoustic treatments, sealed vs. ported subwoofers, reducing the rattling of a picture frame, and upward-firing vs. rear-firing ports. Jay has speakers with powered bass woofers in them, and he wants to know if he can use them in conjunction with one external subwoofer while still getting the benefits of multiple subs. And Jay C. asks about using SVS Prime Elevation speakers for Atmos, where to position them, what to label them, and also gets our recommendation for Sanus SF34 speaker stands to hold his Surround speakers.

Brad P. has a very tall and open theater area, but a limit of $800 to spend on a subwoofer, so we suggest the SVS PC-2000, or an HSU VTF-3 MK5 HP. Dave noticed that Blade Runner is getting an Ultra HD Blu-ray release, and he wants to know how a film that old can deliver HDR. And Ron W. gets our recommendations for Belden speaker wire, GLS Audio Locking Banana Plugs or Sewell Strike Banana Plugs, Monoprice Cabernet in-wall rated HDMI Cable, Visual Apex All-in-one Projector Ceiling Mount, using a white projector screen no larger than 150 inches, projector zoom range settings, and output settings for his Samsung Ultra HD Blu-ray player.

Chris A. has recurring noise and signal loss that we think warrants the purchase of some new speaker wire. Infinite Gary gets us to discuss a new feature proposed for Oppo’s Ultra HD Blu-ray players that would place black bars on all four sides of 16:9 content for use with 2.35:1 constant image height setups. And Ryan F. wants to know if it’s ok for his Top Rear Atmos speakers to be farther behind his seats than his Surround speakers.

Luke H. gets some advice about dual subwoofer placement and setup, along with a DIY subwoofer combination suggestion that includes a Dayton 12-inch Ultimax driver, DIY Sound Group sealed cabinet, and Dayton SPA500 Plate Amplifier. Terry G. wants to use HDMI ARC, but it isn’t nearly as easy to setup as it ought to be, and he wants to know why, as well as why it’s necessary for HDMI-CEC to be active in order for ARC to work. And Monty wants some inexpensive headphones for his kids, preferably wireless and with volume limiting. We mention the WireCutter’s top recommendation of the Puro BT2200, although they cost $100, so we also mention the Koss Porta Pro for their good sound quality, low price, and lifetime warranty.

Andrew asks if it’s worth upgrading from a 55-inch to a 65-inch TV given his 12 foot seating distance. Tom K. wonders whether he should wait a bit or buy a 4K-compatible, HDR projector right now. And Jeremy P. wants to know if his dad should buy NAD separates to power his Magnepan speakers, to which we respond that a Denon AVR-X3300W paired with a Monoprice Monolith amplifier will perform extremely well and cost far less.

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