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Audio

Audio Advice – Free HT Room Setup Tools All Image Credit: Audio Advice Audio Advice is a Raleigh, NC based home technology specialist and integrator retailer that has created a pair of free tools to help with the positioning of many of your home theater components. Both tools are based […]

Audio Advice – Free HT Room Setup Tools

October 9, 2022 in Audio / News tagged Audio Advice / Home Theater Designer / HT Room Configuration / Projector Positioning / Projector Throw Distance / Room Design / Room Layout by fromvinyltoplastic

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DSD Audio – An Introduction So with Mobile Fidelity now encoding all their analog audio material into the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) audio format I though that a quick recap of the format would be in keeping. So what is DSD and how does it differ to other digital formats […]

DSD Audio – An Introduction

August 17, 2022 in Audio / Technical Posts tagged Direct Stream Digital / DSD / Mobile Fidelity / MoFi / PCM / SACD by fromvinyltoplastic

Analog Amplifiers. Are You Sure? — Valves Or Tubes To You – An Introduction Just like vinyl, valve or tube amplifiers rapidly went out of fashion as solid state semiconductors, CD’s and streaming became the new, lower cost norm. In reality all that happened was that vinyl and tube amplifiers took a back seat for a […]

Valves Or Tubes To You – An Introduction

May 23, 2022 in Audio / General Posts / Technical Posts tagged Beam Tetrode / Diode / Pentode / Tetrode / Triode / Tubes / Valves by fromvinyltoplastic

Audio Return Channel (ARC/eARC) – Explained So what exactly does HDMI ARC do, how is it used, and do we need it? Read on. A Little Background The High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connection was forced upon us over 15 years ago. Over time many of its technical problems have […]

Audio Return Channel (ARC/eARC) – Explained

December 24, 2021 in Audio / General Posts tagged ARC / Audio Return Channel / eARC / Enhanced Audio Return Channel by fromvinyltoplastic

2.1 To 11.1.8 What Does It All Mean? – A Refresher Thru the years sound reproduction has really ratchet itself up. From the good old days of mono, on to stereo and now the skies the limit for the number of speakers that your want to surround yourself with to […]

2.1 To 11.1.8 What Does It All Mean? – A Refresher

December 1, 2021 in Audio tagged Audio Formats / Auro 3D / Dolby / Dolby Atmos / Dolby Vision / DTS / DTS:X / Immersive Configurations / Video Formats by fromvinyltoplastic

Lentek Head Amplifier Upgrade Designed by Peter Baxandall for use with the Lentek Entre moving coil cartridge, this little gem has a lot to offer when paired with other moving coil cartridges and a high quality phono pre-amp like the MX-VYNL. With +28dB of gain and a low nose figure the […]

Lentek Head Amplifier Upgrade

July 12, 2020 in Audio / Equipment Rebuilds and Upgrades tagged Adjustable Cartridge Loading / Head Amplifier / Lentek / Moving Coil / Moving Coil Cartridge by fromvinyltoplastic

lentek head amp — MX-VYNL & Lentek Head Amp Introduction. So after being very happy with my MX-VYNL and Hana pairing for a while now, I decided to modify my rebuilt Lentek head amp to correctly load the Hana and see how it would sound when paired to the MX-VYNL running in unbalanced moving […]

MX-VYNL & Lentek Head Amp

May 31, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / Equipment Rebuilds and Upgrades / Reviews tagged Head Amplifier / Lentek / MX-VYNL / Phono Pre-Amplifier by fromvinyltoplastic

Network Cables & Switches - Myths & BS — Network Cables & Switches – Myths & BS Introduction I have worked at the pointed or origination end of audio and video all my professional life (40+ years) from professional recording studios to professional radio and TV broadcast and production. So I couldn’t let the following comments evaporate into the […]

Network Cables & Switches – Myths & BS

May 10, 2020 in Audio / Personal Views & Comments / Technical Posts / Video tagged Audio / COTS / Data / Denon Link / Digital / Jitter / Pioneer PQLS / Video by fromvinyltoplastic

Rane ME30B Equalizer Use — Rane ME30B Equalizer Use After many attempts at equalizing my system with Audyssey MultEQ XT32 using numerous different Audyssey mic positions, plus the Audyssey Pro kit and edit functions, I could not sufficiently reduce the equalized over bright/hard upper mid-range to a level that I was comfortable with. That was […]

Rane ME30B Equalizer Use

February 9, 2020 in Audio / Equipment / Reviews tagged Equalizers / ME30B / Rane by fromvinyltoplastic

Room Equalization Technologies 101 – Part 2 Introduction In the last post introducing this topic we saw that virtually all AV receiver and sound processor manufacturers now include automated equalization or room correction in most of their products even those costing as little a $500.00. The good news is that […]

Room Equalization Technologies 101 – Part 2

January 18, 2020 in Acoustics / Audio tagged Audio / Audyssey / Equilization / MultEQ / MultEQ Pro / REW / Room Equalization / SMS-1 / Velodyne Acoustics / XT / XT32 by fromvinyltoplastic

Analog Amplifiers. Are You Sure? — Analog Amplifiers. Are You Sure? A Pause for Thought You wanted an all analog signal chain for stereo or even multi-channel sound……well think again! When you buy your new ‘analog’ amplifier or home theater receiver, ask yourself, how analog is it? In order to build cost-effective amplifiers and receivers manufacturers […]

Analog Amplifiers. Are You Sure?

January 12, 2020 in Audio / Personal Views & Comments tagged Analog / Audio / Audio Amplifiers / AV Receiver / Digital / Potentiometer / Receiver / Switch / Switched Mode Power Supply / Volume Control by fromvinyltoplastic

Room Equalization Technologies 101 – Part 1 Introduction You have done your best at treating your rooms acoustics with all those broadband absorber panels, diffusers and bass absorbers so what’s next? Very few rooms even if professionally designed for commercial use provide a frequency and time response that can be […]

Room Equalization Technologies 101 – Part 1

December 30, 2019 in Acoustics / Audio tagged Analog / Audio / Digital / Equilization / Room Correction / Room Equalization by fromvinyltoplastic

Tonearms 101 - An Introduction — Tonearms 101 – An Introduction This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here. Introduction Unless your turntable comes with its manufacturers own tonearm you will need to select an arm to suit the turntable and carry your proposed cartridge. The problem for the newcomer is the huge selection […]

Tonearms 101 – An Introduction

November 20, 2019 in Audio / Technical Posts tagged Gimbal / Magnetic / Parallel / Tonearms / Unipivot by fromvinyltoplastic

Vinyl Turntable Drive Techniques — Vinyl Turntable Drive Techniques Over the years there have been several motor coupling techniques used to rotate the turntable platter. This is a brief overview of each method along with their advantages and disadvantages. There are three basic types of motor drive, the second two of which have various methods […]

Vinyl Turntable Drive Techniques

November 2, 2019 in Audio tagged Belt Drive / Direct Drive / Idler Drive / Rim Drive / Turntables by fromvinyltoplastic

Acoustics 101-Designing Porous, Resonant and Reflective Sound Treatments — Loudspeaker Basics 101 – Part 3 In Loudspeaker Basics 101 part 3, this final post in the series, we examine where your stereo/satellite speakers should be placed, and in particular the optimum locations for your sub-woofers. Introduction Life was so much easier years ago when we just had monophonic reproduction […]

Loudspeaker Basics 101 – Part 3

October 18, 2019 in Audio / Technical Posts tagged Atmos / Auro 3D / DTS:X / Immersive Sound / Loudspeaker Basics 101 / Multi-Channel Audio / Satellite Speakers / Stereo / Sub Placement / Subwoofers by fromvinyltoplastic