Special Announcement: This week, May 7 – 14, is our Pledge Drive!

If you would like to Support AV Rant, May 7 – 14 is the time to do it! If we receive $100 in donations, Anonymous will match that, dollar for dollar. If we receive $200 in donations, James C. will kick in another $100. And if we get $300 in donations, Dipan will be our third $100 match donor! Thank you!

Our Listeners of the Week are Miguel and Chris for their donations, our 59 Patreon Patrons, Aidan for letting Rythmik know his second FV15HP subwoofer purchase was because of us, and Miguel for talking us up to Accessories4Less and Oppo.

In the news, the Onkyo TX-NR787 AV Receiver packs 9 amplifiers and DTS Play-Fi support into a $799 price point, but there are no speaker pre-outs, so 5.2.4 or 7.2.2 is the maximum configuration.

Nathan D. wrote to Dolby directly to ask if the Dolby Surround Upmixer might ever use Front Wide speakers. Lee V. suggests checking the RunPee app since there’s no pause button at movie theaters. And Robert L. approves of the Vanatoo Transparent One $500/pair self-powered speakers.

0:17:26 Earle B. asks which surge protector we recommend for subwoofers, so we mention the APC P8V, and we talk a bit about subwoofer “break in”.

0:21:05 Nick B. gets us to weigh in on his choice between having an equipment closet at the back of the room, or putting his gear in shelves at the front of his room below his screen.

0:24:04 Mark H. gets an explanation about HDR to SDR conversion and why 100 nits in SDR isn’t necessarily exactly the same thing as 100 nits in HDR. Plus we discuss HDR shadow detail.

0:33:25 Infinite Gary wants to know the ideal speaker placement for 6.1 soundtracks, and he also wants to know what tweeter breakup modes are and whether that spec is important.

0:41:56 Alvin C. achieved nearly uniform bass across his couch, but his wife would prefer her seat to have quieter bass, so we discuss the idea of intentionally creating non-uniform volume from seat to seat.

0:50:37 David S. is finding that he can localize one of his subwoofers in his new, smaller room, so we talk about what might be causing that and suggest a potential way to fix it.

0:56:37 Stefan V. recommended SVS to a colleague, but the SB-1000 subwoofer he bought rumbles faintly, even when nothing but power is plugged in. SVS customer support said it’s considered to be a normal noise floor, but we disagree.

1:01:33 Aidan C. wants to know if “ideal” mid-wall placement of his subwoofers is worth covering his equipment closet door. He also asks about putting subwoofers right up against walls. And we suggest SVS PC12-Plus, HSU VTF-3 MK5 HP, Rythmik FVX15, or Power Sound Audio 15V subwoofers for his larger Living Room.

1:07:57 Jeff K. didn’t wire his projector for battery backup, so we suggest the APC Back-UPS Pro 500 Lithium Ion as a compact unit he could mount to his ceiling. We warn him never to run a power extension cord inside wall conduit, as that is against code. And we let him know to look for HDMI High Speed Premium and 18 Gbps.

1:14:20 Shane T. asks if it would be better to install lights and HVAC in a soffit rather than putting any holes in his double drywall ceiling. We discuss full motion TV wall mounts and their impact on audio. And we make amplifier recommendations for his 11 speaker setup.

1:24:36 Dave B. is getting video drop outs, and we highly suspect it’s just a loose plug.

1:28:00 Tim D. gets a quick description of where passive radiator subs fall within the ported vs. sealed spectrum. Then we recommend the HSU ULS-15 MK2 or Power Sound Audio S1500, since he wants fairly compact cabinet dimensions, but if he can afford them, we like the cylinder SVS PC12-Plus even more.

1:34:15 Karl R. gives us a great laugh as we stroll down memory lane to learn about Leonard Nimoy’s Magnavision.

1:38:05 AJ gets us to weigh in on the TCL 6 Series vs. the Vizio P Series vs. the Sony X900E Series TVs, particularly for gaming.

1:40:41 Jonathan F. asks for our speculation about what sort of playback system Blu-ray audio mixing and mastering is anticipating. And we talk about the $180 Aftermaster Pro dynamic range compression and EQ device.

1:47:15 Chris T. completed installing his friend’s theater system. She’s very happy with the end results, but he found the AcousticPro UHD screen from Elite Screens to be a real pain to assemble and install. And back in his own theater, we make Atmos speaker placement suggestions, and tell him to get grey paint from the Sherwin Williams Gray Screen palette.

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