Wired 1 Consulting

A new client had had his home renovated with new floors, countertops and cabinets. In one room of his home he had his surround sound home theater. The problem that arose, and that prompted him to contact us, was that the flooring contractor had neglected to run one of his rear channel speaker wires for his system! New ceilings had been installed in the floor below the system so there was no way to get a new wire across the floor without making a large mess. Our solution for him was to install a wireless transmitter that sends the rear channels from the receiver to an amplified receiver that we hid behind his couch and atta ched the rear speakers to it.

This worked great, however, the client also uses an Apple TV for his streaming media (Netflix etc.) that is using a Wi Fi (wireless connection) and when he tried to use it his picture froze on the TV. He contacted us quite distressed that his family couldn’t watch Netflix! The problem was his wireless router! He was using a 10 year old internet wireless router that had been supplied by his internet provider. He replaced the router with a new, up to date model and – per our recommendation – the problem disapeared and everything worked properly!

The problem is bandwidth – even though these wireless systems work through the airwaves there is a limitation to how much information can be transmitted through the home without starting to interfere with each other. The best solution to all this is to have direct wiring for your equipment, but if you have to “go wireless”, make sure that you have up to date transmitters and routers to hopefully enjoy trouble free signals in your home.

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How often do you update your computer? Hopefully you update on at least a monthly basis. Some computer programs even post messages telling you that an update is available. These updates allow your computer to function properly with the ongoing changes in the digital domain. Without these updates your computer system will eventually stop operating the way it should.
Consumer electronics are no different. Most of them are in fact controlled by an internal computer. It is now important to check on a regular basis to see if an update is needed. With most of today’s devices there is a connection port to the internet or a wireless internet modem built in to the unit. TVs, blu-ray players, game consoles, audio video receivers, satellite receivers and cable boxes all require updates. Some will update automatically (satellite and cable boxes) with the rest you have to check periodically to see if there is an update available and this requires a connection to home network and to the internet.
I have many clients that complained that a lot of discs were not playing on their blu- ray player. A simple update via the web and voila!, those discs started playing again. There is also a great deal of content available to these devices from the internet like Netflix, YouTube, Facebook etc. that require a constant connection to the World Wide Web.
At Wired 1 we are solution providers first and foremost. If you have a problem, we can solve it. If you have a question we have the answers!

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An amplifier, or receiver(an amplifier with a radio tuner) ideally should not affect the sound quality at all, it should just make the sound louder. This is unfortunately theoretically impossible but it is the ideal that amplifier designers and engineers have been striving for ever since the first recorded audio. The reason that this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will never be found is a nasty thing called distortion. The electronic devices that are used to increase the volume have distortion and the cheaper the device the more distortion they are going to create. There are two ways that a designer can combat these distortions. You can continue to use inexpensive components in the amplifier and employ another small amplifier called a negative feedback amplifier that injects a reverse wave of the distortion element into the signal and the 2 waves cancel each other out. This would work great if we all didn’t have to deal with a little constant called time. Even though we are dealing with the speed of electricity in wires there is still a time shift that happens when negative feedback is used and the distortions (inter modulation distortion) that this creates is much more annoying to our ears than the original distortion that it was designed to lessen.

The best way to combat distortion is to use the best quality components in the design of your amplifier. A small amount of harmonic distortion can be tolerated a lot easier by the human ear than the same amount of intermodulation distortion. Tube electronics generate a very natural distortion called even order harmonic distortion. This is actually a distortion that the human ear perceives as tolerable, this type of distortion occurs naturally in our every day lives, from a dog barking to a barbershop quartet, they all contain even order harmonics to create the sound we hear. Transistors on the other hand create odd order harmonics. These harmonics do not occur naturally and so our ears are much more intolerant to these sounds. Although distortion can’t be eliminated transistors can be tested and manufactured to a very close tolerance to lessen the percentage of distortion that they contain. Integrated circuits (the kind of device found in almost all inexpensive audio systems (from an ipod to a home theater in a box) can not be controlled by manufacturers tolerances and as such have to use a lot of negative feedback to negate the whopping amounts of distortion that they create. But, they are CHEAP! So, to the uneducated consumer these devices look like the deal of the century! Wow, a thousand watts of power for $299! Smoke and mirrors people! Any specification can be fudged to make it seem to the consumer that the laws of inflation and economics does not apply to the consumer electronics industry! How much did that Volkswagen Golf cost 15 years ago versus today… you get my drift.

Now, there have been a lot of developments in manufacturing that have reduced the costs of making an amplifier today. Things like computer controlled design and manufacturing (CADCAM) have vastly reduced the assembly line costs of all companies and this has also helped the fit and finish of these products but not to the degree that some of the manufacturers are asking you to believe!

So, in a nutshell, when you are looking for a good sounding surround sound system get one with discrete transistors and you will be well on your way to a longer lasting and better sounding system or give us a shout and we will make sure you do!

Happy listening!

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Here’s a great alternative to getting sound outdoors! The OUTCAST from Soundcast will connect up to your existing music system whether it’s a conventional audio system, computer system or IPod/IPhone. At Wired 1 we affectionately call this The Diaper Pail!

It can be plugged in or run on the included rechargeable battery that  has an 8 hour run time on a full charge and allows you to take your music anywhere within 350 feet of your music system – and it kicks out the jams! A built in 8″ subwoofer gives you outstanding base. We have a client with teens that take the outcast out to the street for their basketball sessions! (They have understanding neighbours!). It’s totally weatherproof and can be splashed and rained on with no ill effect. It has a built in carrying handle for easy moves to any location and a built in, switch-able accent light to give you a little illumination.

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With the new flat panel televisions and high definition sources the recommended size of televisions have gone up dramatically!

In the bedroom, 26-32″ was the usual bedroom television size 5 or 6 years ago. With the new super slim sets that average size has gone up dramatically. We recently replaced a 46″ with a 70″ in a clients bedroom. Let me tell you, there is no problem seeing the puck now! The new TV is shallower than the old TV by about 4″ when mounted on the wall so you pick up a little viewing distance.

Who says size doesn't matter?!

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