Scott Wilkinson

Legendary live-sound pioneer and microphone maker Bob Heil tells fascinating stories about his early days as a theater organist in St. Louis and his work as a live-sound engineer for groups such as the Grateful Dead, the Who, ZZ Top, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, and many others in the 1960s and '70s. He also talks about his involvement in the early days of satellite TV and his home-theater business, which he shuttered with the advent of cheap home-theater-in-a-box systems.

Run Time: 58:36

One of Home Theater Geeks' most requested return guests, Gene Dolgoff, talks about his invention of digital projection and its benefits over CRT, including much greater brightness and efficiency. He also explains his more recent work on advanced 3D compression algorithms that can transmit full 1080p resolution for each eye using the standard broadcast bandwidth and discusses the problems inherent with current 3D technology, ending with a tantalizing glance at the possibility of using holography for next-gen 3D displays.

Run Time: 1:00:19

In his second appearance on the podcast, our own Michael Fremer, audiophile extraordinaire and redoubtable raconteur, waxes rhapsodic about the dichotomy of the quality of physical media versus the convenience of streaming, then takes us on a tour of his listening room and his incredible collection of vinyl records. He also opines on the audible effect of different cables and demagnetizing black vinyl records (really!), objective versus subjective (what he calls "observational") listening, and comments and questions from the chat room.

Run Time: 51:14

Fred Maher, an audio engineer now working for DTS, talks about his career as a musician, recording engineer, and producer as well as the use and misuse of dynamic-range compression, the audible effect of lossy data compression, the art of mixing music for multichannel playback, DTS' new Neo:X algorithm that can upmix any smaller number of channels to 11.1, where to place 11 speakers, the benefit of 3D audio, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

Run Time: 1:01:11