10 Ways to Improve Your Sound System

Achieving high fidelity sound reproduction requires proper gear and a good environment. Here are 10 tips to make your system sound sweet.

Improving the performance of your stereo or surround system is a process that requires time, knowledge, and in some cases, money. Here are 10 ideas to get you started on the path to audio nirvana.

1. Optimize speaker placement and seating position—it's free and highly effective. Pull your speakers a few feet out from the wall. Don't sit up against the back wall. Set speaker levels and distances based on your primary listening position. To fully appreciate a 2-channel rig, try listening while precisely centered between the speakers.

2. Improve room acoustics—the room is a part of your system. Use sound absorbing and diffusing materials to tune your listening space. Add a rug between your seat and the speakers. Hang drapes in front of large windows. Bass traps help tame the peaks and nulls known as room modes.

3. Add multiple subwoofers—for better bass, nothing beats using several subs. This is not a trivial upgrade; it can be quite pricey. Also, it's tricky to position, EQ, and time-align multiple subs. The reward is smooth, deep, and powerful bass sound throughout the room.

4. Use room correction and EQ—if your gear's got it, you might as well try it. Many AVRs and pre/pros—as well as standalone processors such as theminiDSP DDRC-88A with Dirac Live—have sophisticated bass management, EQ, and room correction built in. It's no substitute for proper room setup, but when combined with the previous three items in this list, the results can be compelling. 

5. Upgrade your speakers—not free, but speakers are the acknowledged bang-for-the-buck leaders when it comes to equipment upgrades. There are many styles of speakers out there; find out which ones suit your application best and try them out.

6. Add external amplification—modern AVRs are figurative powerhouses, but you can't beat dedicated amplification if you want to take full advantage of your speakers. This is especially true for speakers with low sensitivity and for surround systems in which the AVR has to spread it's limited power supply out over many channels. 

7. Lower the noise floor in your room—turn off fans, air conditioners, and anything else in the room that creates white noise. To further drop the noise floor, you can seal the door to the room, add sound insulation to ceilings and walls, and buy high-flow vents for the HVAC system.

8. Add a dedicated power line—if you have big amps, a dedicated power line can make sure those amps get the juice they need when you turn up the dial. 

9. Use cables that are up to the task—you don't need to spend a lot on speaker wires, but make sure they are of adequate gauge relative to length and maximum wattage. Analog interconnects should be well shielded. Avoid using HDMI cables over 25 feet in length—use an extender balun (HDMI to Cat5/6 or fiber-optic cable) for long runs. 

10. Get rid of the coffee table—if there's a coffee table sitting in between you and your system, this tip is free: Move it out of the way for critical listening.

source: avsforum.com

Most Americans stop listening to new music by age 33 (eng)

   When was the last time you listened to a new song? If you’re beyond the age of 33, new research suggests that it’s probably been a long time.

   According to a new survey published online at Skynet & Ebert, the average American music fan stops listening to new artists at the ripe age of 33.

   Ajay Kalia, who conducted the research, found that most Americans follow a similar trend when it comes to their music preferences. During their teenage years, people tend to be more hip and trendy, listening predominantly to mainstream music. As the teenage years fade into the 20s and 30s, people's musical tastes become more seasoned.

   “As users age out of their teens and into their 20s, their path takes them out of the center of the popularity circle,” wrote Kalia. “Until their early 30s, mainstream music represents a smaller and smaller proportion of their streaming. And for the average listener, by their mid-30s, their tastes have matured, and they are who they’re going to be.”

   The research, which was based on data from U.S. Spotify and The Echo Nest, identified two main reasons why adults move away from popular music: First, adults don’t come across new music like they did when they were teens, and second, adults are quite likely to return to the music that they enjoyed in their earlier years — even if it isn’t popular anymore.

   And most adults in their 30s will probably agree: There’s a certain nostalgia that comes when you hear songs from your youth.

   In an interview with Slate, Petr Janata, a psychologist at UC-Davis, said that music from one’s youth “gets consolidated into the especially emotional memories from our formative years.” Maybe that’s why your favorite songs from high school and college remain favorites throughout life; they strike a proverbial chord in your heart.

   For those who are aging and feel that they’re no longer part of the popular crowd, Kalia reassures you that once you have children, you’ll be right back in the mainstream music mix.

   “If you’re getting older and can’t find yourself staying as relevant as you're used to,” he wrote, “have no fear — just wait for your kids to become teenagers and you’ll get exposed to all the popular music of the day once again!”

sursa: national.deseretnews.com

Panasonic Goes OLED: New 65-inch 4K TV Unveiled

   Kicking off the hot AV news from what’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting IFA technology shows for years, Panasonic has announced today that it’s going to be launching its first ever OLED TV. And yes, I really do mean launching; we’re certainly not talking here about yet another OLED prototype you’ll never actually be able to buy.

   The model in question is the 4K/UHD-resolution TX-65CZ950. This boasts a curved 65-inch screen, and as you’d expect Panasonic is keen to make much of the way OLED technology lets every single pixel in its screen produce its own luminance level and colour tone to deliver unprecedented contrast and, potentially, colour resolution. Like Panasonic’s beloved old plasma technology, only better.

   With LG already having OLED TVs out there that also make much of this inherent OLED advantage, Panasonic is understandably also keen to highlight why it believes its OLED debutante goes further than any TV before in the pursuit of perfect pictures.

The Panasonic TX-65CZ950 OLED TV: Coming to a living room near you soon. If you’re very, very lucky.

   The key, it seems, is a combination of picture/panel processing power, and the close links Panasonic has forged with the Hollywood filmmaking community through its LA-based Hollywood Laboratory.

   The processing part of the equation comes courtesy of Panasonic’s 4K Pro technology, which applies techniques (such as advanced gradation controls and 3D colour lookup tables for red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow) previously only available on professional-grade monitors to deliver a level of control over each individual pixel that previous OLEDs have not being able to muster.

   Included within the 65CZ950’s movie-friendly processing features is support for the new high dynamic range (HDR) technology that’s now looking set to become a major feature of next-generation picture quality.

   The 4K Pro system we’ve seen previously on Panasonic’s top-end 2015 LCD TVs was itself born of the brand’s desire to try and reproduce films on your TV so that they look as close as possible to the vision of the directors/cinematographers/colourists who made them. But to underline the point that OLED technology appears inherently more capable than LCD of truly recreating the cinema experience in your living room, Panasonic has had the 65CZ950’s colours tuned by renowned Hollywood colourist Mike Sowa.

   Sowa, whose movie credits include Oblivion and Insurgent, says of his involvement with the 65CZ950: “Panasonic is proving their commitment to excellence by engineering their newest 4K Pro TV to satisfy my professional standard of zero compromise. My world of visual storytelling is based around colour accuracy and the need for a display that compliments the creative vision. Panasonic has engineered their newest 4K Pro OLED TV to a standard that I would only expect in professional displays.”

The Panasonic TX-65CZ950 OLED TV.

   The 65CZ950’s picture quality has also been certified by independent quality assurance group THX, making it the first 4K OLED TV to achieve this certification. Eric Gemmer, THX’s Director of Imaging Technologies, says this of THX’s experience with the 65CZ950: “OLED is a very promising display technology but getting an accurate picture from an OLED TV is quite challenging. THX put the CZ950 through over 400 laboratory tests working with Panasonic engineers to make certain each pixel’s performance is accurate to the source content. The result is a television capable of creating bright objects with excellent white uniformity that delivers native 4K and up-converted HD images with the contrast and clarity previously reserved for professional monitors.”

   Panasonic hasn’t yet discussed a potential price for the 65CZ950, though given that its promising specifications are joined by a rear panel that’s upholstered in Alcantara (!), my expectation is that it will likely cost more than LG’s equivalent OLED models.

source: forbes.com