OLED, QLED and other TVs - Recommendations and News

I was talking with Vodhanel via email and he said if you're looking for subs in the $1000 or under range, the two best to look at are probably Hsu Research and SVS. SVS isn't what it used to be 16 years ago in that I think they used to be crazy good bang-for-the-buck in terms of great performance for the price. Nowadays their prices have gone up as has their popularity in that segment. Even when I bought my SVS 16 years ago, I think I was trying to decide between Hsu and SVS. They both make some solid subs that's more than enough for the "common man". lol. Just make sure you aren't getting "too much" sub for your room. Yeah, I know -- "what is this 'too much sub'?"

BTW, you can also check out SVS b-stock on their site where they get rid of subs that may have scuff marks on the finish or some cosmetic defects. You can find some decent discounts there sometimes. Also make sure you know how much some of these things weigh. I think the PB-2000 Pro is under 80 lbs, but there are some subs people buy that you may need a forklift to get inside the house (or up the stairs). lol.

 

Thoughts on two 1000 pro vs single 2000 pro?

 

SVS is a good company that stands behind their product. I was researching extensively when I bought my sub. There were so many brands. HSU, the one you mention, Rhythmik, and I think a few more. I think Rhythmik is base in Austin. You can pick it up if you willing to drive to waive the delivery fee. My pb4000 was only 3 years old. I barely used it when the driver fail on me. I email SVS, and within a week I received a new driver with instructions on how to take out the old driver and put the new one in. From my understanding, it is very rare but it did happen. I'm glad SVS was quick to resolve the issue. It also has an app so I don't have to get up and tweak the settings of the subwoofer. The one thing is that the subwoofer is very heavy. I had to put down furniture sliders to move it around. Plus it takes a lot of space in your room. However, I recently started to face the subwoofer towards me. You can feel the air when the sub hits! It's incredible subwoofer. I think you have a lot of choices with your next subwoofer. Just do some research and pick one and enjoy it.

 

For me, it depends on the size of your room and how hard you plan on driving them. If you're planning on trying to blow the walls down and cranking up the gain, you may want 2, but if it's in a smaller room, I'm not sure you'll need it. What kind of subs do you have now and how big a room? I'm asking because, unless you can get a good deal on two or something, try with just one sub and see if it's enough. You can get less distortion/cleaner bass and possibly less localization with 2 subs, but for most people, it's usually overkill if they're turning them up to 1/4 gain in a smaller room. I have the one old 20-39PC Plus and I have that thing sitting on half-gain in a 20x20 family room that opens into a kitchen. I once tried to crank it to 3/4 gain and it had my windows literally rattling. Like I said, try it with one sub first before jumping on the dual-sub bandwagon. If, with one sub, you're like most people and say "sounds good to me" at half-gain or something, then put that extra money to use in other equipment or something else.

Generally speaking, for audiophiles, 2 subs is better than 1 if we're talking the same speaker. I don't follow the industry as much anymore, but I did look at the SVS lineup while I mulled a new sub a while back. From what I could gather, a lot of people thought that the PB 1000 Pro was a better bang-for-the-buck and that upgrading to the PB 2000 Pro, you'd get a better speaker, but not in terms of price difference. My guess would be that 2 PB 1000's would be the better deal if you plan on bumping up the gain. But again, it depends on room size, location, how nitpicky you are, etc. Email SVS support. They can help walk you through it. Send them your room dimensions, equipment description, etc. and see what they say (I'd be curious to know, too).

 

So I recently needed to replace a sub, and I narrowed it down to the SVS, Hsu, Rythmik trio. I ended up selecting Rythmik, and I couldn’t be happier. I will say that they seem…..a bit “young” in their development as a company, but I really like the product.

 

Note on burn-in, in the rare cases the TV suffers from it, if it's LG, they offer an unadvertised 1-time complimentary panel replacement, even out-of-warranty. It's usually the 7-series or older that they seem to deal with.

 

I will call them today.
It's an upstairs game room that I am using as the entertainment den. 17L x 15W x 11H.
The entire left side is pretty open, especially since thats where the stairs is.

 

No issues with the burn in for me.
Panel is LeGit

 

Rythmik is a great company and the current darling of a lot of sub/home theater fans. One of their 12's or 15's is definitely on my short list of subs for my next system. My current short-list with minimal research would probably be SVS, Rythmik, Hsu Research, and PSA. Of course, I won't be in the market for a completely new system for another 3 or so years, hopefully.

Yeah, that explains why some people seem to be able to get their tv's replaced for burn-in, I guess. I bought a plasma back in 2004 or 2005 and had to baby that thing kind of, so hopefully the newere OLEDs aren't any worse. lol.

It's different for different people. Some people want to feel the bass in their chest while others turn the gain down long before it gets to that level -- they just want to hear it. My family room is something like 20x20 and opens into the kitchen and the one 16-year old sub is plenty enough for me. LIke I said, I have it set to about half-gain and it still packs a wallop. You may be different. Like I said, I'd talk to them and ask them. If going with one, I'd go with a PB 2000-Pro, but if going with 2, 2 PB 1000-Pros may be enough for a room that size. You can solve the problem and just buy 2 PB 2000 Pros. If it were me, I'd just get 1 PB 2000-Pro, but that's just based on my listening habits and preferences. The guys at SVS would know better. BTW, I think Best Buy is selling SVS subs nowadays, if that helps you any. Good luck lugging those things upstairs. lol.

 

they told me to go with dual 1000s for that room size.
i have a 8" ported onkyo sub (150 watts) that's maxed out. it's not overpowering and blends in well when i play music and definitely "enough" for movies.
it does bottom out here and there (opening scene from edge of tomorrow is a good one to test).

maybe i will just start with 1 1000 pro and add a second one if needed.

 

I still have a 2007 plasma that with no burn in. ::Hearts::

 

Yeah good idea. Try to get one first. However I got one pb4000 and have the urge to add another one or maybe sale it and get two sb16 ultra as one ported sub already takes up a lot of space. They say always try to get two subwoofer. If I had to do it again I would choose two pb2000. Two smaller sub is better than one big subwoofer.

 

Are you looking at the PB 1000 Pro or the SB 1000 Pro?

If an 8" 150w Onkyo sub is enough for movies, then a PB-2000 Pro will blow your mind. lol. That 150w is probably peak RMS, isn't it? Sounds like it may be from an HTIB. But yeah, the latest trend is to go with 2 subs, but like I said, most "normal" people do fine with 1 sub. Based upon what you said, I would agree - go with 1 sub and add the second if you really think you need it. The PB 1000 Pro is a good sub and I'm willing to bet that it would be a good enough bump in performance based upon what you said.

 

PB.
sealed ones just dont go that low unless u get a bigger one. i heard the sb-1000 i think at best buy last year and wasn't impressed at the low low end.
looks like the PB 1000 pro is in stock at best buy.

the onkyo is from a HTIB. 150w dynamic it says. 27-150hz.

 

There's a difference between an old SB 1000 and the newer SB 1000 Pro, but the SB 1000 Pro and PB 1000 Pro are similar -- I think they use the same driver and amp. The PB is ported and the SB is sealed. The PB bass should hit deeper (sub 20 Hz) and into the range where you may be able to feel the bass that you can't hear. Hopefully it was the SB 1000 and not the SB 1000 Pro you heard. Or if it was the SB 1000 Pro, hopefully it was just how it was set up that was wrong. Good luck -- report back. I keep forgetting this is an OLED thread... oops. lol.

 

So, my LG C1 TV got delivered, but I haven't really watched much of anything on it. I wanted to get LOTR and The Hobbit Ultra HD Extended editions to break the tv in, but they haven't come down in price enough. lol. So I found The Martian on Amazon for about $10-$11, and I guess I'll watch that in the next day or two.

The instructions for hooking up apps and some of the setup was somewhat comical with the typos and jacked up English, but I made it through. Of course one of the settings basically gave them knowledge of my whereabouts at all times just so I can use apps on the tv, but wth... it's 2021 and we've freely given ourselves up to "the digital".

One thing I did like about the tv was I plugged my new Sony Ultra HD BluRay player into the receiver and hooked up my older Denon receiver to the tv, and they all worked and detected one another flawlessly. Even better, they worked using HDMI eARC which never worked correctly with my older Samsung despite the Denon and Samsung TV being made and bought at around the same time. I like the Magic remote on the LG except for the fact I don't think it has backlighting, but then I can use the cell phone app for most of the functionality, so no biggie.

I was also happy to find my 6 year old Denon AVR-X2200 had a firmware update that added Dolby Vision, so I can do HDR and Dolby Vision. At least I won't have to buy a new receiver anytime soon.... hopefully. I thought about changing the surround speakers to a 5.1.2 or 7.1.2 configuration from a 7.1 setup, but decided not to since I don't want to put too much money into home theater for this house when I'll hopefully be moving in the next 2 or 3 years. That, and I think a 7.1 setup probably sounds a bit better than a 5.1.2 setup. I could try a 7.1.2 by adding upfiring speakers, I guess, but that's less-than-optimal in an already less-than-optimal 7.1 configuration. So I guess this is "good enough" for now.

Also, I was afraid the 65" would be too big, but not really. It's pretty much "just right" to me. So that was a plus. I guess it's true what they say "find a size you think will be ok, and buy one size bigger." lol. If I wanted to wall-mount it, I probably would've gone for a 77" or something, but then the price jump made no sense. I'll hopefully get to test this puppy out for real in the next 2 or 3 days. I just need to get on AVSForum and find a decent setup/settings first.

 

If you bought an LG C1 or G1 with a manufacture date of September or later (maybe October or later) of this year, there's a good chance that you have a HDCP 2.2 bug that stops you from seeing 4k on anything hooked up to it. For example, I noticed it the other day when attempting to watch The Martian on my Ultra HD player, but all I seemed to be able to muster was 1080/60 or 1080/24. No bueno. I messed around with cables, connections, direct connections, etc. but still could only get 1080. So that's when I remembered reading about some HDCP issues I had read about in October some people were having while researching the tv.

LG has issued OTA updates to the TV software to fix this in Korea, UK, and Australia over the past few days. The US has gotten an update last night, but only a downloadable one. I'm assuming they'll push out the OTA update in the next few days. Make sure to manually apply it if you don't have automatic updates installed. Or just go to their site and download the update and follow the instructions to apply it to your tv.

The updated software is version 03.20.80. Most of us are probably running 03.20.65 currently (unless you never updated to the latest).

 

Samsung picking OLED?? oh no, QLED fans feel betrayed!

 

Yeah, we been had knownt this was coming. Samsung could only keep the marketing scheme up for so long before the inferior reviews finally caught up to them.

 

Good news for consumers. Samsung is a big player in display, and the added competition should drive down OLED TV pricing even faster. Now LG, move into small screen OLED display.