We’re grateful to announce that Audio Advice has won three awards of local and national recognition. First, in the July issue of Metro magazine, we won the Standing Ovation (1st Place) Metro Bravo Award for Best Place to Buy a Home Media System. This is the 5th year in a row we have been recognized in this category. Also for the first time, Audio Advice has been recognized for our Home Security division by Metro magazine with the Metro Bravo award as Best Place to Buy a Home Security System. See the complete list of Metro Bravo winners online.
On August 23rd, we were extremely pleased to be recognized as one of five national winners of Dealerscope magazine’s 2010 Retail Excellence Awards. The Dealerscope editorial staff determines the winners.
Audio Advice was the only winner from the Southeast United States.
Selections were made by the editors of Dealerscope based on how companies “applied proven best practices and new strategies to reposition themselves and thrive in an incredibly difficult retail environment.” Practices emphasized included education, new product lines, expansion, and online initiatives. Read the complete article on us at the Dealerscope website.
We want to thank all of our clients for being the reason we’re able to receive these kinds of awards, and we greatly appreciate your continued support of your local audio/video retailer.
More
I’ve had my Runco LED projector for a few months and have put quite a few hours on it. As you many know, LED projectors are brand new to the marketplace. What amazes me (though I knew it would be true, but still…) is that the picture looks just as good as it did the day I hung the projector.
I did an earlier blog post that goes into more details on the technology. All past video technologies we have used have a gradual degradation of contrast as time passes. This is really noticeable when you replace the lamp in your DLP or LCD projector (either rear or front projection). Well, let me tell you, with LED that issue is just gone! Add to that fact that LED in a dark room has the best picture you can imagine, and it’s a real winner. (Leon)
More
As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, there are lots of new products and technologies available in the world of home entertainment and automation. In many construction trades, most of the people involved are unfamiliar with these audio. video, and automation products, and with the range of technologies outside of their areas of expertise.
Home Theater Specialists of America, or HTSA (Leon is the 2010 president), has prepared a great guide for helping you ask the right questions when it comes to building a new home or remodeling your current one. This Home Technology Planning Guide contains sections on the following areas: Home Control, Home Lighting, Wiring Your Home (Infrastructure), Networking, Home Theater, Mobile Device Integration, Stereo vs. Surround Sound, Whole-House Music, and Video & Video Distribution.
This guide is available for pickup at both the Raleigh and Pineville showrooms of Audio Advice. If you’d like to receive a digital copy by e- mail, just go to the Contact Us page of this website, or e-mail us at web@audioadvice.com. (Please mention HT Guide in your e-mail or header.) You can also find addresses and links to our Google map pages on that page.
More
An inside look at our Reference Theater design process by Audio Advice chairman Leon Shaw:
In Sept. of 2009, after we signed the lease for our new store in Charlotte, I started mapping out how to remodel the space. The one room I wanted to be perfect was our Reference Theater room. Every time I drive to our Charlotte store, one of the first things I do is sit down in our Reference Theater, start up a new Blu-ray movie in the changer, and grin ear to ear. The combination of the B&W speakers, Classe processor, and Rotel amps is magical. The sound and picture are just flat jaw dropping! I don’t think a single person has come out of a demo without having a similar reaction. When there are dynamic effects, they sound incredibly realistic. You can hear every nuance of emotion in the voices of the actors and actresses. The level at which this theater came out has me all excited to redo our big theater here in Raleigh. Keep reading, and I think you will find it useful and have fun learning about the ways we went about deciding what gear to use, how we designed the acoustics, and our installation and room calibration process.
Presenting the latest video technology for home theater was a big goal. We want you to see how the wide screen viewing experience you have in a commercial theater can now be created in the home. Most blockbuster movies are shot in much a wider ratio than the usual HDTV image. (HDTV has a 1:78 ratio, where most popular films have a ratio of 2:35.) To create the 2:35 image for both home and commercial cinema, an anamorphic lens is needed. It slides in front of the projector’s primary lens. The projector electronically stretches the picture from top to bottom, and the lens stretches it left to right, creating the 2:35 presentation. The anamorphic lens causes the picture to have a slight barreling effect, which is eliminated with a curved film screen (another requirement for our room).
Charlotte Reference theater curved film screen
There were audio goals we wanted to reach as well. In commercial theaters, the center channel speaker is always behind the screen. This helps create the effect of the dialog track matching the picture. We wanted to make sure to accomplish this in our reference theater. We also wanted the front three speakers to be identical, to perfectly match sounds panning across the front sound stage.
Matched B&W speakers and subs behind front theater wall
Another audio item on our checklist was great dynamic range. This is the measurement of the difference in sound between the softest part of the movie and the loudest part. The best theaters have tremendous dynamic range. If you start with a room having a very low noise level, then by default you have greater dynamic range. Take a room with a low noise level, design it for great low frequency impact and add very efficient speakers, and you will get the best possible outcome.
We knew our theater would have seating for 7-8 people, so we wanted every seat to provide a great viewing and listening experience, with the goal of hiding every speaker and piece of equipment. The only thing we want the viewer to see is the movie screen!
Reference Theater seating arrangement
Meeting all of these goals was a challenge for me, but also lots of fun. The planning started from the outside in. Only one dimension (the width) needed to be fixed, so I played with the ceiling height and room length, creating dimensions that worked well acoustically. Since the room was going to be a rectangle (in which you can actually predict acoustics to a high degree of accuracy), and we had free reign on two of the three dimensions, we were able to plan a space with the right dimensions
The next step was about half luck. The room directly behind the back theater wall was a space we planned to use for rack building. Instead, we decided to take advantage of the space and make our Reference Theater just like a real movie theater, where the projector and equipment (which all make noise) are in a separate space. We designed this smaller area to hold the projector and theater gear, and used projection booth glass to totally isolate the two spaces.
The building HVAC system makes quite a bit of noise, so we applied acoustic dampening treatment to the ceiling above the theater. Seating was mapped out for the best acoustic spots in the room. Then the correct ratio of seating distance to screen was calculated to get the ideal screen size for the room.
Close up look at acoustic treatment panels
Gerry Lemay of Quest Acoustics and I spent many hours working on the next step in design: getting the acoustic treatment to match speaker and seating placement. We determined to get the acoustic treatments exactly right to make the Reference Theater an example of how good things can sound with proper planning for acoustic treatment. In my opinion this can ultimately make a much bigger difference in the performance of a room than the components. The end result has just been spectacular.
B&W Custom Theater CT7.3 LCRS Speaker
Next, the real fun began, picking out the gear! The simplest thing would have been to pick the top of the line from our best vendors, write a big check and be off to the races. However, outfitting an all-new store meant we needed to watch our dollars just like anyone else. Fortunately, B&W had recently introduced a new line of Custom Theater speakers having an incredible value. We chose B&W CT7.3 speakers for left, center, and right. These are priced at a very reasonable $1500 each. CT Series SW15 subwoofers from the same series were picked as well. To get really dynamic bass, we elected to use four of these: two in the front and two in the back. All of these CT Series speakers are less than 12” deep, making them easy to hide behind a screen wall. For surround and rear speakers, we used top of the line B&W in-wall speakers.
For the picture, we chose an acoustically transparent Stewart curved film screen with masking for HDTV content. This let us put the center channel behind the screen and we flanked the sides of the screen with left and right speakers. Digital Projection has had a close connection with the film industry for many years, so we chose to use their Titan projector with their anamorphic lens.
Classe SSP-800 Processor
We also chose the top of the line Classé SSP-800 processor. This is an amazing surround sound processor, the best sounding one we have ever had by far, yet at $9000 it costs less than many of its competitors. To balance our splurge in processor spending we picked Rotel amplifiers to drive all of the speakers. (The Rotel amps are just a great value- I have them in my own home theater along with the Classé processor.) The Kaleidescape movie management system and a Sony BluRay changer are our source components.
The last step was choosing the look of the room. Everything finally came together from a design standpoint. We wanted it to be tasteful, but our focus was performance and not an extravagant décor. We decided to use cherry molding trim and a simple fabric wall covering, even making columns from wrapped fabric material to keep things simple. United Leather makes a great value line of theater seats, and was our seating choice.
Building the Reference Theater
Then it was time to build it all! We wanted to have great speaker cables connecting the gear, so before the sheetrock was up we ran Transparent speaker cables all over the room. Then sheetrock went up and was ready for the acoustic treatments. After our great Charlotte team installed the equipment, the acoustic treatments went in. All that was left was calibration and control, with a basic Universal remote being used to control the theater room.
There is nothing like it our Reference Theater any store in Charlotte or, for that matter, probably within 300 miles. The viewing and listening experience you will receive from this theater is simply stunning. If you live in the Charlotte area and are into home theater at all, you owe it to yourself to experience our Reference Theater. Heck, if you live within 200 miles, it’s worth the drive!
Watch for more news as we begin our Raleigh theater renovation this summer. We hope you’ll come experience just how good home cinema can be, and learn how you can do all or part of it in your own home. We’d love to help design your home theater!
Another view of the Reference Theater screen
More
As most of you know, the world of home theater is one of my true passions. Nothing (except for friends and family) puts a smile on my face like watching a great movie or concert video on a high performance theater. So I’ve watched with great anticipation the evolution of the latest light source technology: LED (light-emitting diode). We first saw LED replacement light bulbs that last 30,000 hours. Then we saw back-lit LED flat panels provide stunning performance. Now, some top manufacturers of front projectors (SIM2, Runco, and Digital Projection) have at last introduced the LED front projector!
LED will probably revolutionize the world of lighting and could be the Holy Grail in home theater, keeping in mind a couple of requirements. The first thing needed is a true home theater with full control of the lighting so you can keep it really dark. The next thing required is the right screen size. The LED light engine output is less than most current front projectors, so a 144” screen won’t work with LED. However, if you meet these two requirements, the experience is just incredible!
LED projectors provide several advantages. The first is operating cost. Most front projectors need replacement lamps every 1500-2500 hours. This is a cost of $250-$1200 per replacement (not to mention the extra space these lamps take up in our landfills). The LED engine only consumes about 25% of the power of a typical LCD or DLP projector and promises to last 60,000 hours! WOW, that’s a long time. (Plus, it’s very quiet.)
Then there is the picture. The image produced by the LED engine is very different from a DLP or LCD image. With LED, there are no motion artifacts at all: they are gone! Black levels (which have been a special LCD weak point, and DLP to some extent), are totally there, and all shades of color are easily revealed.
Runco Quantum Color LED Projector
Colors take on a different character as well. To the human eye, the colors produced by the LED engine seem much more saturated, like Super Technicolor. For a great animated film like “UP,” the saturated colors look fantastic. It’s a whole new experience. For this kind of movie, this is extremely appealing. For other movies, though, you may think that this look is not natural. Well, I was lucky enough to get one of the first Runco LED projectors to take home and play with. After talking with Runco techs, I learned that the LED engine is extremely flexible in how you can set it up. They showed me how to get into the service menu and change saturation levels. After playing with the levels, I got the color saturation to a point that did look natural. But what’s really a bonus is that you can set up different memories. For regular film you can leave your setting at the natural level. For animated movies like “UP” to really pop, just move back to the more saturated memory level and you are set!
SIM2 Mico 50
We’ve had demos in of the new SIM2 Mico 50 LED projector and the new DPI LED model. Each of these companies and Runco get LED light engines from the same supplier, a small company from Boston named Luminus. That’s where the similarities stop though, with each manufacturer adding its own technical spin. I must say, right out of the gate, the SIM2 is by far the best looking from both an external chassis standpoint with its sexy Italian design, and it also seems to have the best and brightest image. Its price point is also at the top price point of 22k, with the Runco at 15k and the DPI at 16K. The DPI is the most compact and quietest of the bunch.
Digital Projection M-Vision Cine LED
If you are considering a new home theater or upgrading your current projector, there is no question that you should take a close look at this new technology. In my opinion, all of these projectors are bargains just considering how great the picture is. Then add the fact you will not be buying lamps for the next twenty years: that in itself pays for the projector! By then, I am sure we will be designing theaters for holograms!
More
I’ll never forget an experience at CEDIA many years ago. I was in the B&W booth and they showed me a prototype of this new home theater speaker they were developing called the CT8 series. It was physically huge, required 3 amplifiers per speaker, had tremendous dynamic ability, and had the great sound we have learned to love from B&W. The system received wonderful press, but the only drawback was its price, about 200K for the complete package.
Well in typical B&W fashion, a few years passed and a new series was introduced, called the CT7 series. For over 40 years B&W has taken the approach of doing a “no holds barred” project, then taking what they learn and making a line that many more people can afford. The first models in the CT 7 series were speakers designed to mount on the screen wall, being only 10.5” deep for all speakers. We got in the first model they shipped, the 7.5 and set it up in one of our theater rooms. The 7.5’s are only $600 each. I remember to this day the first time I played it. I put in a very old Sheffield Labs instrumental CD and my jaw hit the floor. This system made music so dynamic, yet so natural sounding, I could not believe it!
A few weeks later the CT7.3 started to ship (the largest model in this series). We installed a system in a customer’s home and I went out to calibrate the theater. The new 7.3 was even more of a shocker than the smaller models. This system sounded far better than many more expensive systems we had done. It became really clear that B&W had a huge success on their hands.
Part of what makes the CT system so appealing is that all of the speakers are 10.5” deep, including the subs. And speaking of the subs: to save space, the sub amp is a separate component. This gives you the advantage of having all of the adjustments at your fingertips rather than at the back of the sub. To say these subs are great is a big understatement. They are so fast, yet go so deep, it’s purely incredible. I liked them so much I put two of them in my own theater. (And I think I am going to add two more for even more bass impact!). They come in 10”, 12” and 15” models.
The only thing lacking in this great CT line up was something to address the in wall and in ceiling needs of many people. Well, lo and behold, at the last CEDIA show, B&W presented the new in ceiling and in wall versions of every single model! They have developed a unique, patented way to get these into a wall and have great performance. They have a folding back box to fit into the wall! (A back box is a real must have if you want to have consistent performance from your speakers.) The new CT in wall and in ceiling speakers are shipping now. We will feature a system with these in our new Charlotte location.
I cannot express in words how much fun it is to own a great home theater system. It’s just a totally different experience than most people get when watching a movie. You can understand the ultra important dialog track with ease. As a matter of fact, on a great system you can even hear subtle nuances of emotion in the performers voices that transport you further into the movie. A properly calibrated system with good subwoofers gives you bass impact that sweeps you away. And of course, the front, surround and rear speakers envelop you with great sound. One final great fact is the efficiency of these new speakers. This has two advantages: the first being they are dynamic as all get out. The second is, you do not need a monster stack of amps to really get them going (of course that can make them even better, but is not necessary). The new CT series from B&W brings a truly immersive home theater experience to a much wider audience with enormous value for its price.
We invite you to our Raleigh or Charlotte showrooms to experience the difference. In each store we have a basic system set up using the entry level 7.5 speakers and a bigger one with the 7.3 series. I am 100% positive you will be 110% impressed with how much great sound you can get for the money!
More
Outstanding New Products from Great Companies
1) B&W
The Custom Theater CT series is the hot thing at Audio Advice, but we can’t overlook the new CM9 floor standing speaker. This very slim tower delivers amazing performance at $3000 a pair. We’ve received more positive customer comments on this speaker than almost anything in the last ten years. It’s an outstanding design, and is set up with Rotel components in our Raleigh B&W Group room and our Charlotte store for you to listen to.
Visit us to hear the new floorstanding CM-9 from B&W
2) Ayre
The QB-9 USB DAC is the darling of the review press right now. If you use your computer to store your audio files, the QB-9 is a great way to extract them for maximum performance. It seems like every person who borrows this digital to analog converter overnight winds up keeping it. At $2500 it’s a fantastic value in USB DACs!
Digital music comes alive with the Ayre QB-9 DAC
3) Wilson Audio
What happens when you take an already great product and make it better and less expensive? The new Wilson Audio Sasha W/P speaker shows you. Right after Brandon set these up, I gave them a listen and my jaw hit the floor. Wilson has done it again with the Sasha. The Sasha incorporates many concepts from the MAXX 3, yet is slightly less expensive than the Watt/Puppy 8 it replaces. Come in with your favorite CDs or digital music and we’ll give your ears a listening thrill!
Wilson's amazing new Sasha W/P loudspeakers
More
Reworking Raleigh Theater Two (Earsay Fall 2009) by Leon Shaw
The new Rotel RSP-1570 Processor and RMB-1575 Power Amplifier
Over the summer, we set up Raleigh showroom Theater Two to demonstrate a killer level of performance. The room highlights the latest products from some of our favorite vendors. The speaker system features the new B&W Custom Theater CT 7 series. The front three channels are top of the line model CT 7.3 LCRS, at $1500 each. Two CT12 subwoofers complete the front speaker array. For side speakers, we have the B&W DS6 dipole surround speakers. From Rotel’s new 15 Series, the system processor is the RSP-1570, priced at $2199, with power from their RMB-1575 five-channel power amplifier. (I played with the RSP-1570 at home, and it’s awesome for the money!) The source component is Pioneer Elite’s latest reference Blu-ray player, the incredible BDP-09, with the best Blu-ray picture we have seen. A new SIM2 Domino D80i projector, coupled with a Schneider anamorphic lens provides the picture on a Stewart Firehawk filmscreen with 2:35 aspect ratio. Everything is controlled with the MX-980, our favorite remote control from Universal. The saying “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” is true for this theater. It completely rocks! The B&W CT speakers are ultra-efficient, so you hear all the dynamic contrasts of the latest movie soundtracks. If you’re considering an upgrade to any part of your own theater, there is probably something here for you. If you are considering a high performance theater investment, we can think of no better combination that what we have in Theater Two. You have to visit us and experience it!
More
Our custom team was met with a new challenge this week. We had a client who had purchased one of the new Samsung backlit LED TV’s and the awesome new B&W Panorama speaker from us, who wanted it all to mount on swing out arm. Normally this would be no problem as there are a variety of adaptors for brackets to make this work. However with the Panorama being so new, and its very cool curvy back shape, we could not find anything we felt would look right. Jeff Jerina, our lead installer on this project headed off to the hardware store and created a bracket that turned out to be an ideal solution. The new Samsung TV’s come to a point at the bottom, so it was critical to get everything just perfect for this solution to look right. Jeff did such a good job that where the point on the bottom of the TV meets the top of the Panorama, you can barely slide a piece of paper in the space. Keegan, the sales consultant on the project said the customer was thrilled with our great custom solution. Hats off to Jeff and our creative custom team!
-
-
Jeff’s Bracket Design
-
-
Side View of Bracket
-
-
Finished Product on Swivel Mount
More
It used to be a home theater or surround sound system took 6 remote controls and pages of instructions on how to turn everything on, select what you wanted to watch, and control it. Only could the very wealthy afford the multi-thousand dollar remote controls that could handle this complexity. In the last few years, Universal Remote (yes, that’s actually their company name), had made tremendous strides in producing affordable remotes we can program to make your life really simple.
There has also been an evolution in the way we use our systems. The advent of DVR’s, and DVD menus have taken us to a spot where we use the up/down/left/right/enter keys for almost 95% of what we do with our systems. The “wand” type of remote is in most cases best suited for this type of use and we know of no other manufacturer who has a better variety to choose from in this category than Universal!
We can customize a Universal Remote to perfectly fit your system, making everything extremely simple. Not only can this type of remote control your home theater components, new advances have made it pretty simple for the remote to control your theater lighting as well. Universal and Lutron have teamed up to produce a dimmer the remote can directly control. This allows us to do some pretty cool stuff, like making the lights come up to a dim level when you press the pause button on your DVD player!
Universal has developed new RF technology that makes things even better. It used to be, if we wanted to hide your gear, we mounted a small IR pickup device that gathered in the IR signal from remote controls and transmitted this down a wire, back to a device that sent the signal out to all of the gear. This worked fine until flat panel TV’s were introduced. Flat panel TV’s spray out an IR interference pattern that made this type of pickup pretty unreliable. We now can put in a Universal RF base station that will pick up signals from the remote and transfer them to your gear, while we have the remote send IR only to the TV. This is simply the best of both worlds and what we highly recommend.
Our most popular Universal remotes are the MX900, MX880, and MX980. The MX980 has a great color display and comes with a docking/recharging station. Our professionals can program them to perfectly match your system.
When you think about the money that can be spent on a complete home theater system, we feel a good programmable remote is the best possible investment. It truly is your constant point of interfacing to the system. Get it done right, and your system should provide you with great pleasure; try to cut costs by using the factory remotes usually results in quite a bit of frustration or just one person in the family who can figure out how to use and enjoy the system!
More
