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Weekend Roundtable: All About That Bass

Josh Zyber — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 16:00:16 +0000

For home theater fans who’ve invested a decent amount of money into a quality audio system, few things are as satisfying as listening to a movie soundtrack with deep, room-shaking bass. Our Roundtable this week calls out some of our favorite demo scenes on home video that will really get your subwoofer rocking. Jason Gorber...

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Making Better Bass, Part 3: The Failed Dual-Subwoofer Experiment

Josh Zyber — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 16:00:29 +0000

I recently went to a lot of trouble getting the best bass response from one subwoofer. In theory, adding a second subwoofer could improve my results even further. Not the way I did it, unfortunately. As I recounted in previous posts, I found the Room EQ Wizard software to be an invaluable tool for seeing...

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Poll: What Size Is Your Subwoofer?

Josh Zyber — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 12:00:53 +0000

In case you hadn’t noticed from recent posts here, I’ve had bass on my mind a lot lately. In previous polls, I asked how many subwoofers you have and what type they are. Let’s get right to the next obvious question: How big’s your sub? Subwoofer sizes are typically measured by the diameter of their...

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Poll: What Type of Subwoofer Do You Have?

Josh Zyber — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 12:00:24 +0000

As part of our recent focus on subwoofers and making better bass, we asked last week how many subwoofers you have in your home theater. Now I’d like to know what type of subs you use: sealed, ported, or cylinder? If you’re not familiar with the differences between these types of subwoofers, I unfortunately don’t...

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Making Better Bass, Part 2: Subwoofer Phase

Josh Zyber — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 12:00:43 +0000

In my quest to improve bass response in my home theater, first I had to move the location of my subwoofer. After that, I found myself doing something I’d never paid much attention to in the past: adjusting the subwoofer’s phase knob. Technically, it wasn’t a knob I used. The SVS SB-4000 doesn’t actually have...

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Making Better Bass, Part 1: The Inordinate Frustration of Subwoofer Placement

Josh Zyber — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 12:00:57 +0000

Achieving good bass response is by far the most difficult part of setting up any home theater audio system and the solution is rarely as simple as buying a big or powerful subwoofer. Finding the right spot in the room to put that subwoofer can make a world of difference. Ironically, a bigger sub may...

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Poll: How Many Subwoofers Do You Use?

Josh Zyber — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 16:00:28 +0000

Most home theaters, if they have surround sound at all, typically use a single subwoofer to reproduce bass frequencies. Many experts recommend at least two, and some bass fanatics really go crazy with multiple heavy-duty subs. What works in your home theater? Anyone who has struggled like I have to get good bass knows that...

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Upmixer Face-off: DSU vs. Neural:X vs. Auro-3D

Josh Zyber — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 12:00:27 +0000

As part of my testing of the flagship Denon AVR-X8500H A/V receiver, I finally have access to all three of the competing immersive sound upmixer formats and was able to run a comparison to see exactly how they each work on a normal movie soundtrack. My prior A/V receiver, the 2014 Denon AVR-X5200W, was a...

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Can Nothing in Home Theater Ever Be Easy?

Josh Zyber — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 12:00:03 +0000

As happens far too often, a recent change I made that was supposed to be a small, simple tweak to my home theater equipment wound up turning into a much more involved project and a major time-suck. At the end of it, I know a lot more about acoustical problems in my room, but I...

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Dolby Atmos Beyond 7.1.4 – Part 2

Josh Zyber — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 19:00:42 +0000

Having connected three home theater A/V receivers to expand my Dolby Atmos surround sound into a crazily convoluted 7.1.6 channel system, the next step was actually making it work. Sadly, that proved to have some unexpected challenges. Because consumer home theater hardware (the kind we humble 99-Percenters can afford, anyway) tops out at a speaker...

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Dolby Atmos Beyond 7.1.4 – Part 1

Josh Zyber — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 16:00:46 +0000

A little over a year ago, I began experimenting with ways to expand my Dolby Atmos surround sound system to beyond the 7.1.4 limitation of current consumer hardware. My continued quest to achieve the best Atmos experience at home has recently driven me to make additional upgrades. These days, my home theater is so crazily...

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Rattle and Hum

Josh Zyber — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 19:00:29 +0000

When it comes to complicated home theater electronic gear, sometimes the smallest things can cause the biggest problems – even, in some cases, literally the tiniest of objects. I learned that lesson the hard way recently when I ran into yet another major issue with my old subwoofer. Some of our readers may remember my...

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