Insteon Hub Give Away: Listener Kris P. sent us an Insteon Hub to give away. If you would like it, email Tom directly (if you don’t already know his email address, we say it during the podcast intro every week. And if you email a different address about this giveaway, we’ll know you weren’t listening! 😉 ) by June 30.

Our Listeners of the Week are Josh L. for his donation, our 61 Patreon Patrons, Josh S. for talking us up on Reddit, Kris P. for the Insteon Hub giveaway, and everyone who alerted us about our website getting hacked!

In the news, Oppo released beta firmware for their 203 and 205 Ultra HD Blu-ray players that adds support for sending Dolby Vision to Sony TVs. And Amazon released the Fire TV Cube.

Axiom isn’t selling their extremely flat speaker wire anymore, but Sewell Ghost Wire is just as flat, and a whole lot less expensive. Lee V. warns that PC-2000 cylinder subs make for terrible speaker stands, since they vibrate on their isolation feet so much. Michael M. says a Sound United rep insists that Dolby’s new upmixing mandate won’t be retroactively applied to older products. Roger J. provided an excellent link to comprehensive information about oversampling. And Nathan & J. spotted new Monoprice Monolith 9 and 11-channel amplifier models in a recent coupon exclusion list.

0:20:28 Chad B. is figuring out how many overhead speakers to wire for in advance, and we say he should spend a minimum on new amplifiers by either getting an AudioSource AMP100, or skipping straight to getting a new Receiver right away.

0:29:13 Joseph S. is trying to sort through his HTPC settings to get 4K playing smoothly on his B7 OLED. We suggest using an NVidia Shield. And we point to the Asus BW-16D1HT as the best “UHD-friendly” disc drive.

0:36:07 Mark H. wants to know how to determine if his bass could be further improved, and whether a miniDSP would be necessary.

0:43:22 J. wants to know if buying used M&K speakers is a good idea, and we suggest Ascend Acoustics SE Series instead if they’re cheaper. We also discuss Audyssey Dynamic EQ not boosting overhead speakers. And we suggest either a complex DIY 12 Volt trigger box, or the Emotiva ET-3 plus a remote control wall outlet for gaining manual control over sending 12 Volt trigger signals.

0:53:11 Terry G. has a Dolby Vision TV, but an older Receiver, so we recommend an HDMI audio extractor with HDCP 2.2, or an HDMI switch with audio extractor.

0:56:27 Heath B. has had four SVS SB-4000 subwoofer amplifiers die on him. SVS support has been excellent, but nobody can figure out what keeps killing his amps. We offer our speculation, but we’re just as stumped.

1:01:43 Travis D. is considering a Receiver upgrade in order to get better room correction, but since he likes his existing sound, we think he’d benefit more from manual EQ using a miniDSP 2×4, or stepping up to a miniDSP with Dirac.

1:08:04 Monty’s brother would like “budget” picks for a Dolby Vision TV under $600, and the least expensive Dolby Vision Ultra HD Blu-ray player, so we point him to the TCL 55R615 and LG UBK90.

1:10:25 Infinite Gary gets us talking about using a miniDSP to create a crossover for adding subwoofers to self-powered speakers. We recommend the Sony UBP-X800 for universal disc playback. And we discuss where to put acoustic spot treatments and what we do with all of our shipping boxes.

1:18:39 Mark T. is speculating about a new Receiver. We’d understand pouncing on a Denon X3300W or X4300H if he finds one at a great price. But otherwise, we think he should wait until he’s moved into his new place.

1:22:22 Tim T. gets our advice about how to layout his bonus room, and we suggest where he should put absorption panels, and recommend going with an SVS 2000 Series subwoofer.

1:33:26 Josh L. gets our take on the “perfect” shape and size for a dedicated home theater room. And we mention using the Room Mode Calculator.

1:37:49 Earle B. gets our suggestion to try using the Multi-Sub Optimization Software with his existing gear before considering the addition of a miniDSP or Dirac to his subwoofer setup.

• Check out the AV Rant YouTube channel to watch our show videos.
• Download Tom’s FREE superhero-themed ebook Bob Moore: No Hero.
• Visit Tom's website for download links as well as links for the two full-length follow-ups -  Bob Moore: Desperate Times and Bob Moore: Hostile Territory.
• Check out AVGadgets.com where Tom is the new Editor-in-Chief!
• Download Tom's NEWEST book, Touch of Pain from Amazon now!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Liked it? Take a second to support AV Rant on Patreon!