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Al Griffin  |  Mar 19, 2015  |  1 comments
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I own a vintage 1974 Fisher solid-state stereo receiver. The left channel is fading in-and-out—at first weak, now almost totally dead.  Do you think the receiver is worth fixing, or should I just replace it? —Michael McCully

Al Griffin  |  Mar 17, 2015  |  1 comments
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Q I have a home theater system powered by an AV receiver for watching movies, but I also want to connect a turntable and separate stereo amp to the system’s front speakers for listening to music. If a speaker has biamp connections, can you connect two separate sources to it? I want to connect the stereo amp to the top jacks on my speakers and my AV receiver to the lower jacks. Will that work? Clint Yarborough / via e-mail

Al Griffin  |  Mar 12, 2015  |  5 comments
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Q I plan to purchase a new AV receiver and a set of 5.1 speakers. What strategy will deliver a better all-around experience: spending more on the speakers or on the receiver? Should I splurge on speakers, with the idea that my receiver can be upgraded in a few years, or vice-versa? Simon Bolster / via e-mail

Al Griffin  |  Mar 05, 2015  |  0 comments
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Q The 4k content I see on UHDTVs in stores looks awesome. But when I ask the salesperson to flip the feed to regular HD (from Direct TV), the picture doesn’t look nearly as good. It looks worse, in fact, than the same content shown on the standard HDTVs, and certainly worse than on my 10 year-old Sony SXRD.  My question is, if I buy a new UHDTV, how can I make the picture look as good as what I’m used to seeing on my Sony? There isn’t much 4K content yet, so what I’d mainly be watching is regular HD.—Ben Soave

Al Griffin  |  Feb 26, 2015  |  0 comments
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Q Will I damage a stereo amplifier by using it to amplify only one channel—in this case, my system’s center speaker?—Richard Regan

Al Griffin  |  Feb 19, 2015  |  0 comments
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I just signed up for Tidal music streaming and want to make sure I am getting the best sound quality from that service. My laptop is connected to my router with an Ethernet cable and then to my Onkyo pre/pro via an HDMI cable. I have the Tidal app’s settings set to HiFi.

My question is, as music streams from Tidal, does it pass through the laptop’s sound card first and then to the HDMI cable, or straight from the HDMI cable to the Onkyo pre/pro? I don’t know what sound card is equipped with the computer, and want to make sure that if streamed music does pass through, that the card isn’t detracting from the sound quality. —Andre Spits / Atlanta,GA

Al Griffin  |  Feb 11, 2015  |  3 comments
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Q I’m planning on buying an Epson 5030UB projector. My sofa will be 14.5 feet from the screen. The room has controllable dimmers, and there will be some room light when I watch games. What screen size and type would you recommend? — Lou Gutierrez / via e-mail

Al Griffin  |  Feb 05, 2015  |  1 comments
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Q Is it possible to mirror videos (YouTube or Netflix) from my iPad to my Panasonic Viera TV while simultaneously using Bluetooth to send the audio to my receiver? —John Geloso

Al Griffin  |  Jan 29, 2015  |  2 comments
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Q I have owned receivers from Onkyo, Pioneer and Yamaha. With each one, the sound always seemed muddy after I used the auto-calibration function for speaker setup. In my experience, I get much better sound when setting all speaker crossovers to 200 Hz, or the highest available setting. Expert opinions I’ve read on the subject say this is wrong, though I’ve adjusted two friends’ systems in this way and they agree with me that the sound is better. Am I correct? —David Bone

Al Griffin  |  Jan 22, 2015  |  0 comments
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Q Why can’t audio devices be daisy-chained via Bluetooth? I have a NAD Viso 1 speaker dock and a NAD 3020 integrated amp, both with Bluetooth. The units are located in different rooms. Why can’t I send the same signal from my iPhone to both units at the same time?—J. Alan Greer

Al Griffin  |  Jan 19, 2015  |  1 comments
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I have a fairly large collection of CDs, all of which have been ripped to lossless WMA format. I’ve come across plenty of discussion of DACs while researching music servers, but I’m confused about why I would need one since I can already listen to digital music files, either through my computer speakers or headphones. Doesn’t that mean what I’m hearing is already in analog form? If so, what need is there to convert it to anything else? —Bill Begg / via e-mail

Al Griffin  |  Jan 15, 2015  |  3 comments
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As I understand things, any motion on an LCD TV is accompanied by a loss in resolution. For example, 1080p isn’t really 1080p when the image is in motion. Here’s my question: Since OLED has a much faster response time than LCD, does resolution stay the same when the image contains motion? —Michael McGehee / Macon, Georgia

Al Griffin  |  Jan 05, 2015  |  2 comments
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q What processes what in the video chain? Say you have an Oppo Blu-ray player hooked up to a good AVR that’s hooked up to an Epson 5030 projector. Does each do its own thing? Or do you need to turn some types of processing off while leaving others enabled? Also, what is the meaning of life? —Jeff Riddick / via e-mail

Al Griffin  |  Dec 30, 2014  |  0 comments
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Q I am in the market for a new home theater receiver and have a dilemma. My wife is hearing impaired and has trouble hearing the TV sound. We have tried a few infrared wireless headphone solutions and have been very disappointed by the poor sound quality. I am looking for a system that will allow me to hook up a separate set of headphones to run simultaneously with the TV sound. Is this possible? —John Bott / via e-mail

Al Griffin  |  Dec 30, 2014  |  2 comments
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I am in the market for a new home theater receiver and have a dilemma. My wife is hearing impaired and has trouble hearing the TV sound. We have tried a few infrared wireless headphone solutions and have been very disappointed by the poor sound quality. I am looking for a system that will allow me to hook up a separate set of headphones to run simultaneously with the TV sound. Is this possible? —John Bott / via e-mail

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