Paducah Home Theater

I typically have a constant fairly high tone. Sometimes though, this tone that is of about half the typical frequency will appear out of nowhere and is very loud. Typically I can put my finger in my ear for about 10 seconds and it goes away for some reason. And yeah I said finger/ear in a singular fashion, which also sucks because it isn't symmetrical. It's my left ear, which looking back is due to cell phone and compensated rifle use. I can hear good out of my right but in certain situations it is disorienting because it is not symmetrical.

I can confirm that when I drink too much it gets worse. Of course that usually means that I am more likely to watch the entire Metallica concert at high levels as well.

I ran Audessey as well as played around with crossover settings last night. One thing that irks me is that voices sound boomy when you cross them over lower than 80 hz. It is this way on both Reference and THX setups. Audessey tried to cross my center over at 40 hz. That's probably awesome for rock concerts but when I put in a movie the voices just wasn't right. Bump it up to 80 and it's much better. I felt that surround effects were clearer at 80 as well. Audessey put them on 60. Wasn't as huge of a deal as the center but when voices panneed around the room it was a little weird plus some effects had a little more zing at 80.

I live out in the middle of nowhere, my back yard is like a 300 acre field. My house is super insulated too plus all interior walls are insulated. Extremely quiet, much quieter than anyone in a subdivision or city is used to. If you walk inside my house and close the doors it feels like a sound isolation booth. It bothers me more in this situation. If I am just hanging out by myself in the house I have to turn on music or else I would go insane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subwoofer#Matterhorn I guess that's technically 40 subs though.

Maybe, but if it were me, I'd get one of those RCA cables with a ground loop isolator in them. Replace the cable that goes from your receiver to your sub with it. Just google "RCA ground loop isolator" or just go here: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_127SNI1/PAC-SNI-1.html?tp=61807&awkw=75640380625&awat=pla&awnw=g&awcr=47623509025&awdv=c http://www.walmart.com/ip/PAC-SNI-1-Ground-Loop-Signal-Isolator/21550471 These things work wonders and if nothing else they are nice to have for troubleshooting just to rule out a ground loop. I have an old one I could send to you if necessary but they're cheap enough already, worst case $15 with free shipping. Radio Shack used to stock them and even Wal-Mart has some although maybe not in stock. If it is a ground loop, it will stop. You can either dig in to your electrical at that point or simply continue to use this cable. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/metra-ground-loop-isolator/9855136.p?id=1218186610567&skuId=9855136&st=PAC%20RCA%20Ground%20Loop%20Noise%20Isolator&cp=1&lp=1 Those are in stock in tons of Best Buy stores.

Weird. I can't think of what would cause such a thing other than a ground loop, and moving wires around shouldn't fix that. Moving to a different OUTLET, sure.

This only happens when you shut off your receiver right? Or did I misunderstand?

Yeah I don't think its the cable, I don't see how an RCA cable could introduce significant humming, specifically during the shut-down cycle. It can complete a circuit that causes a ground loop and hum that way, but getting a better quality cable isn't going to fix that. The ones I see online have a three way toggle... off/on/auto. Try both on and auto. If it is on "auto" now and you turn it to "on" and it still does it while shutting down the receiver, I wouldn't think that it has anything to do with the sub amp doing weird stuff while in shut-down mode, since it isn't shutting down in the first place. If turning it to "on" fixes it, then yeah something is probably jacked up with the amp. Sounds like the receiver or something weird with your electrical supply but maybe not.

There is no way that subs being close to your mains is the cause of such a thing. I would unplug the RCA cable going from your receiver to the sub, then power down normally. If you still hear it then yeah something weird is going on with the sub or power supply but it almost sounds like your receiver is pumping out funky signals while shutting down and your sub is picking up on it. I have the old version of your receiver and it wouldn't surprise me that much. Most people leave these consumer friendly subs on and let it auto-power off, and if you're doing that, I don't see how it could be the sub amp doing it, its just amplifying what gets put into it. I've had significant trouble with ground loops before as well, having the receiver and sub plugged into different circuits and having a bad ground. I can't really reach that conclusion based on "umm womm wom wom" but if it is constant that might be an issue. See if you can borrow a different receiver, or just buy one at a big box store that has a good return policy and see if it still happens. Try plugging the receiver into the same outlet as the sub just for fun. Curious as to whether "ummm womm wom wom" means it is constant or pulsating. I have heard pro audio gear hum in a weird way when shutting down but it is constant. Have never heard consumer friendly gear do this.

Yeah holler at me any time, should be available on weekends if I'm not deer hunting. 270-556-8427. My understanding on dual vs. single subs is that duals can much more easily smooth out the frequency response and hot/dead spots in a room. The consensus seems to be to get two subs even if you have to get slightly smaller and lower end subs than one nice one. Even SVS will tell you this, they'll try to sell you on two PB-2000's rather than one PB-13 Ultra. Every room is different and the final location where it sounds optimal can't totally be predicted. Google "subwoofer crawl". There are general areas that typically sound good but the final resting spot where it is optimal all depends on your room and may take some experimenting. Always have it against a wall, so if 3' from your couch means in the middle of the floor, then no that won't sound the best. Otherwise, THX recommends one in the middle front with one, one in the front and one in the back with two, one in the middle of all four walls with four... down firing subs usually sound best in the corners... one local installer recommends opposing corners... my two sealed Ultimax's sounded better on the sides... my Klipsch 15's sound best behind the seats spread out a little... just really hard to predict.

Every time I demo a plasma nowadays, including the top of the line Samsung that is still on the market, there is this high speed flicker, which I realize plasma is supposed to cure that due to a 600 hz refresh rate, but it's still there. Box store employees must not know how to set them up either because there is always a slight dark green tint. OLED just looks like a framed picture, no flicker and the colors look really vivid, blacks are a true black and not a washed out gray.

If it would help, I have four subs of two different types sitting ten feet away from a living room that is around 9,000 cubic feet, and you are probably less than 3 hours away from me. Take a day or weekend trip to Kentucky Lake and come test drive some stuff along the way, I can easily move one or both of my Ultimax 18's and one or both of these Klipsch 15's in there, you can see for yourself exactly what it would take to fill up a large space to your liking.

For admittedly low volumes, personally I don't know why you'd want to go the DIY route except if you just like to tinker with crap, except your last sentence makes it obvious that you do not. These new Klipsch 15's will literally do everything you want. I've got two and am getting volumes that you would obviously shy away from. If it is in the audible frequency range then it comes through with authority. No fans to make noise either, perfectly silent, a truly plug and play solution. Your combination is easy. There's an old engineering adage: "good, fast, cheap - pick two". Specifying lower volume lets you "pick two" in my opinion. Personally I would get something that has high efficiency and is ported. I wouldn't choose the ultimax due to the very large ported design (you did specify there's no way you're getting two so I am assuming space is an issue) plus it takes a lot to get them going.

Might depend on the volume. Most high volume home theater guys will cross over even large speakers at 80 hz and send the rest to the subs. But, they typically have more than one sub when they do this. Personally I like floor toms, bass guitar, and double bass to come through my front speakers, and running full range helps with that, it is a more seamless sound plus the nuances are more accurate.

They alone don't do any good with rifle shots, the sound goes right through them and makes it worse by acting like a megaphone, plus a good cheek weld will often raise them up and break the seal. Pistol, yeah, doubling up and wearing both plugs and phones, yeah, but rifle is a different beast.

They are definitely sharp, blacks look amazing. The only affordable ones are the 55" though, plus they are curved.

Stonehenge is too small for the ultimax in a ported box, you need at least 8 cubic feet. I've damaged a living room before, but it took six ported Yamaha 18's in ported boxes powered by 4,000 watts in a fairly small space. Split the drywall open and crap started falling out of the ceiling. For even remotely normal volumes from one sub in a 6,500 cubic foot room, the worst you're going to do is rattle any loose light fixtures.

Nope. There are new experiments where some kind of therapy can reverse the tinnitus temporarily but it's not a permanent solution.

We watched that Hugo movie where the orphan kid builds that robot in the clock tower. The dark scenes are about as pleniful as Batman. I wasn't impressed, it was just tons of shades of light gray and I had trouble seeing what things were. It wasn't even all that big either, less than 100". Just seems like if somebody was going to spend $7,300 on a sub-100" setup, they'd just get a Sony XBR-79X900B and be done with it. I've seen one of these in person, they're amazing.

Just FYI, you guys watching gunshots at reference levels, your ears hate you. I caught a good case of tinnitus earlier this year, keeps getting worse. Was in a 3-gun competition and I couldn't get my ear plugs in real deep due to being humid. Thought it would still be ok but it wasn't. Audiologist confirmed that I damaged my hearing in the 2-4kHz range plus I hear this ringing non-stop in my left ear. Danged rifles. Anyway, please be careful, that is all.

I went swimming with Macho Man Randy Savage's brother "Leapin Lanny Savage", aka. Lanny Poffo, aka. "The Genius". He had a pair of speedos on. Except they were on his head. He gave my mom a back massage. True story.

There is an installer out of St. Louis who pushes JVC, basically $4,800 for a JVC 4910 4K Eshift projector and $2,500 for a screen innovations zero-edge screen. It is mostly 4K but not really, all the internals are 1080p then it upscales I think, it's not 4K all the way through. I'm not entirely sure if that's really worth it or not. I demo'ed one at his house but it was still hard to tell, sitting in a beige living room at 10 AM with no blackout curtains and light coming in from every window in the house, so it was still fairly washed out. He was bragging on the screen because it was so bright, which absolutely made no sense to me since it was fairly washed out and pale. It sounds like a $2,500 setup in a very dark room will do everything I need for it to do. His recommended solution is $7,300 plus shipping, nearly 3 times what the Sony and a fairly entry level screen is. I can't justify it when I still prefer the colors of a simple TV.

Hey and it's black too! Which is good, because I only work in black... and sometimes very, very dark gray.

Sorry, I took it as general advice for everything but I had to do the opposite.