Since I’m an audio guy at heart I like to be able to relate concepts to their audio equivalent. Brightness and contrast are the bass and treble knobs of the video world. To get the most from your display device (tv, projector, plasma, etc.) you must properly set the video controls. The wrong settings will create silly-looking images that don’t seem real. The right settings will provide a natural picture that shows you what’s actually on the media you’re viewing. …Read the rest »
I’ll Be Back
Nov 16
You may have noticed that the frequency of my posts has dropped a bit. I do apologize for the lack of enjoyable reading, unfortunately my full-time job has become a bit more than full-time lately. I should be back at full speed in a week or two. In the meantime, enjoy this educational write-up on Plasma displays:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_display
My Next A/V Receiver
Nov 10
I need a new A/V Receiver, so I’m going to let you in on my thought process of searching for a new one.
My current unit is a refurbished Onkyo HT-R500. It does a great job, it’s just an old receiver (and a low-end one at that).
The things I like about it are:
- Configuration flexibility – It has many options for speaker level and EQ for its price. All those options are pretty standard now, but I like them.
- Power output – It can drive my speakers plenty loud without obvious distortion.
- Good range of inputs for its age – It has optical, coaxial, and analog multichannel inputs. I use all of them and I’ve appreciated the analog inputs since I was able to buy a Blu-ray player with HD (high-definition) audio decoding and pass the HD audio through the receiver.
- Price – I don’t remember how much I paid (it was at least 5 years ago), but it was pretty cheap.
So why do I want a new one? Here’s why: …Read the rest »
For many people the best knob on their A/V receiver is the one labeled “bass”. When I was a kid I loved to crank that thing all the way up on my dad’s shiny Denon receiver. I would also push in the “loudness” button for that extra kick.
As I got older I realized that the sound I was hearing when I did that was far from accurate. There is a purpose to the mid-range of the music and I was completely blasting it away with my knob-tweaking. So how do you figure out which way to turn the knobs? What’s the correct EQ (equalization) for your system? …Read the rest »
If you want to get the best performance from your audio system you need to change some settings in your A/V receiver. The stock out-of-the-box settings will certainly make sound come out, but your audio components won’t be working together as an optimized system. The basic settings that are listed here apply to how your receiver directs sound to the speakers. The size, crossover, delay, and level settings all give the receiver some helpful information so it can figure out how to best use your speakers to make accurate and smooth sound. Read through the guide below and then set up your system accordingly. …Read the rest »
To start the speaker placement process for your surround system you should first find the optimal seating position in your room. Check out the instructions in my last post for that procedure. Also scan through the notes on reflections since I won’t go over that again here.
Once you’ve got your display and seating in place you can properly position your speakers. We’ll start with the Center channel …Read the rest »
