Frugal Home A/V

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 of this entry »

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 of this entry »