Podcast #1028: Level Up your Home Theater

On this week's show we take a look at a cool gift idea for your technophobe friends that want to stay connected with you and we " Level Up" your home theater. We also read your emails and discuss the week's news. Plus Braden goes on a rant about his Internet provider.

Cool Gift Idea

New Skylight Frame

I bought one of these for my mom and mother-in-law

From their website:

The Skylight Frame has a gorgeous, 10'' color touch screen that displays your photos with extraordinary clarity, color, and brilliance. It is the perfect size for a desk, mantel, coffee table, or kitchen. Skylight is a striking gift that will make an unforgettable impression the moment your loved one turns it on!

Skylight is a beautiful touch-screen, Wi-Fi connected digital photo frame that lets you email photos from your phone or computer directly onto your loved one's Skylight - from anywhere in the world!

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed. If you don't love your Skylight, we'll offer you a full refund.

PRODUCT DETAILS:

-Screen size: 10'' Diagonal

-Resolution: 1280x800 IPS display

-Dimensions: 12'' x 8.5'' x 0.9''

-Time required to receive photos: <60 seconds

-Accepted digital photo file formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF

-Storage space on device: 8GB (enough for 8000+ photos)

-100% Satisfaction Guaranteed: If you don't love your Skylight, we'll offer you a full refund.

Level Up Your Home Theater

Many of our listeners put new home theater gear on their holiday shopping list. Even though you have had a decent home theater for a few years now, you want to take it to the next level. What do you ask your family (or yourself) to spend their/your money on? Better speakers, an external amplifier, or some other device?

Case for the Amplifier

Actually this is more like the case against the external amplifier. Before you spend money on an external amplifier you need to consider your speakers. Do they need the extra power? If you had a modest home theater with mid level speakers the external amplifier will be overkill. A forklift that can pickup a ton will also pick up 500 pounds. But so will a forklift that can pick up a half a ton. If you never need to pick up more than 500 pounds a bigger forklift is a waste of money. An amplifier in this case is the one ton forklift. For most mid level speakers, the amplifiers in your receiver will do a good job providing power to your speakers.

Then there is the case where your mid level receiver most likely doesn't even have pre-outs to support an external amplifier. If you are going to go this route, make sure your receiver is up to the task.

With that said, an argument can be made if your receiver can process more channels like an Atmos configuration but does not have the required amplifiers. This is really the only argument for an external amplifier with the typical mid level home theater setup.

For argument's sake, let's say you have really nice speakers that can handle more power and furthermore you have a receiver that has preouts. Should you still add an external amplifier? This is where Ara may differ from some others. Instead of an external amplifier you may want to consider a higher tier receiver with more and better amplifiers. It simplifies the installation and in this tier of receivers you will have plenty of power. Marantz has two receivers that will support a 7.1.2 Atmos setup and one that will support a 7.2.4 Atmos setup. They are the SR6015 ($2000), SR7015 ($2800) and SR8015 ($3800) respectively.

Case for new Speakers

Good speakers will make or break your home theater. While they can't turn low end equipment into audiophile grade, they will get the most out of your gear. Likewise good speakers will quickly show you the limits of your gear. Good speakers don't need to break the bank either.

However, since we are "Leveling Up" it will take a bit of a financial commitment to get to the next level. A 5.1.2 CG25 System from RSL Speakers will run you $2650. Other companies have high quality 7.1 systems for $3000 and much much more. Budget $3,500 to $5,000. But serious improvement can be had for less than $1500 from companies like JBL, SVS, and others.

Some Other Device

This is a broad category. But other than new speakers, receivers, or amplifiers maybe a new projector and very large format screen is in order. That will make a big impact visually. If we had to roadmap the upgrade from a mid level home theater we would first upgrade speakers, which includes the subwoofer, then amplification whether that be separates or a powerful receiver, then we'd upgrade the TV/Projector. The speakers will last more or less forever. Once you have enough amplification that will last for quite some time as well. Maybe even forever now that we have 3D audio and 8K pass through. It's the TV/Projector that will change the most. Whatever you can't afford now will be a black friday doorbuster in a few years. Buy the new screen once you have your audio in order.