Considering the massive brain trust that is within Dolby and DTS, I am incredibly surprised that Dolby and DTS streams don't yet include metadata about the volume level the track was mixed at - at the very minimum...
Dolby Atmos introduced height channels to a lot of people’s home theatre setups. However, contrary to what many believe, height channels existed as far back as 1985! Find out more!
If I could design my own AVR, instead of taking one off the shelf, what would it be like?
Audyssey has introduced MultEQ-X, a PC based software program that connects to Marantz and Denon AVRs that currently support the Audyssey Mobile App. Here are its main features and my thoughts.
I wanted to give a bit of a helping hand for those that don't know how to configure Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume per input on their AVRs. Here are the settings I use...
It can be difficult to get Disney+ to sound great on big blockbuster movies. I give you some pointers for both Audyssey and Yamaha YPAO.
Should you turn Midrange Compensation on or off? How do you know if your speakers need it? Let's find out!
Surround speaker positioning is a complex subject. I aim to provide some common-sense guidance in this article.
Well, Audyssey can sound as great as Dirac Live, but it does require a lot more work. However, once you get it sounding great, you get the benefit of having proper Loudness Compensation (Dynamic EQ) and state of the art Dynamic Range Compression (Dynamic Volume), both of which Dirac Live lacks.
How does Dirac Live fair against Audyssey and YPAO? Find out in this post!
Audyssey is working on Pro installation software for PCs that will allow the use of a higher-quality microphone, more microphone positions and more configuration options than currently available. Find out more.
Not everyone is aware that they can control Yamaha receivers with a web browser. However, even fewer people know that there are TWO web interfaces on higher-end Yamaha receivers, with one geared towards installers. Find out more in this article.
Surround:AI uses current CinemaDSP modes and tries to dynamically switch between them and dynamically configure them based on what is happening in the soundtrack. Find out if I like it!
I have written about Loudness Compensation and its importance for home cinema in the context of Yamaha YPAO Volume. If you haven't checked out that article, I would recommend you do so. However, I wanted to cover Audyssey's version of loudness compensation (Dynamic EQ) and dynamic range compression (Dynamic Volume) in this article. Audyssey Dynamic... Continue Reading →
IMAX Enhanced is both a certification program - like THX was in the "good old days" - as well as additional sound processing overlaid over DTS and DTS:X soundtracks. Some of these soundtracks in fact will have a flag that will trip this additional sound processing. Let's see what the issues are then!
Simple Home Cinema 