Special Thank You: We did it! Our AV Rant Podcast YouTube channel has more than 1,000 subscribers, and it’s all thanks to you! It is humbling and heartwarming to have received so much support, and we are so grateful. THANK YOU!

Our Listeners of the Week are our 53 Patreon Patrons, as well as Alex P. for mentioning us to Accessories4Less, SVS, Silver Ticket, and Acoustimac when he went on his recent shopping spree.

Tom is away this week, so Lee Overstreet makes his first appearance in 2018 as guest co-host. We chat a bit about his project to capture and archive his videotape collection using a Matrox MX02 Mini desktop capture device, and we share a laugh at the hilarious Techmoan review of the RokBlok record player.

In the news, Marc let us know about the Poptheatr, a black bag with a bluetooth speaker and an elastic band to hold your phone over your face for what we’re sure would be the ultimate cinematic experience. We can’t believe it didn’t reach its Kickstarter funding goal.

David F. discovered a software glitch when using PowerDVD to play 3D Blu-ray discs on a Windows 10 PC. The audio defaults to stereo, but he found a way to get it to send full, lossless bitstreams the way it ought to. Michael M. shared a very detailed video by Grobi TV about the Denon AVR-X8500H and 13.1-channel Auro-3D that includes news about future updates and upgrades. Jack R. found out that Sony’s demo TVs at Best Buy revert back to “torch mode” automatically within seconds of adjusting any settings. Rich W. recommends the second episode of the TV show “Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams” as a subwoofer demo. And Roger J. says there’s more to the ELAC Adante “interport-coupled cavity” design than we first described. Differences in air pressure between the two different cavity sizes might give it some similarity to the H-PAS port design.

0:30:08 Roy B. bought the Sony UBP-X800 Ultra HD Blu-ray player we recommended, but he wants to know if lip sync might be an issue when using both of its HDMI outputs.

0:33:13 Jack R. gets our thoughts on how effective different ceiling construction options will be for his basement.

0:40:20 John wants to know what we think about Wharfedale speakers.

0:42:47 Alex P. (DUDE) bought a whole bunch of stuff, but needs some finishing touches. We recommend buying a single KEF Q100 as his Center speaker, suggest skimping a bit on his overhead speakers unless he wants to splurge on KEF E301s, and use the viewing distance calculator to adjust his seating position.

0:55:12 Kenny J. wants a portable display for his SNES Classic, so we recommend the Axess TVD-1801since it has an HDMI input.

0:59:20 Karl R. shares an opinion with Scott Wilkinson and Roger J. that the 4K HDR coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics looks spectacular, so we discuss the 24 hour broadcast delay for 4K, and speculate about the 2020 Summer Olympics coverage.

1:03:51 Alvin C. wants to know if having two identical subwoofers will be a significant upgrade or provide a better timbre match than two merely similar subwoofers.

1:07:13 Jason S. already has a nice theater, but he’s itching to upgrade something. We discuss his projector, suggest upgrading his Pre-Pro to a Denon AVR-X4400H Receiver, endorse his idea of upgrading his Front speakers to Ascend Acoustics Sierra Horizon RAAL while repurposing his current speakers, and highly recommend buying a calibrated measurement microphone from Cross-Spectrum Labs to help him determine if he could benefit from any further changes.

1:20:24 Infinite Gary asks some questions about DTS-ES 6.1, gets our lists of products announced for 2018 that excite or intrigue us, and shares his listening experience with a concert DVD while asking if we’ve heard similar differences between various audio tracks on the same disc.

1:30:05 Josh S. wants to clear up some confusion about HEOS, including whether any other Receivers can use HEOS speakers as wireless Surrounds like the HEOS AVR can. And he also gets our thoughts on eARC and whether TVs will replace AV Receivers as the “hub” of our home theater systems because of it.

1:38:52 Boshko asks a whole bunch of questions. We delve into what “balanced” connections and cables actually mean and what benefits they provide; tackle a general description of the differences between analogue and digital; get more specific about how the analogue inputs on his Onkyo Receiver might differ from an “analogue-only” Receiver; explain why we’d likely recommend a B-stock Denon AVR-X4300H for $900 CAN over pretty much any other Receiver; talk a bit about the Monoprice 25 Watt Hybrid Tube Amp with Bluetooth; discuss which audio and video formats can be stored and played back from a USB hard drive; and, explain the differences between the SVS PB12-NSD and the PB-2000.

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