Wired 1 Consulting

Sonos announced today that support for a number of their older products will end in May/20. This is not a big surprise as a number of their products are well beyond 10 years old. They are offering existing owners of these, soon to be obsolete products, a discount of 30% on the purchase of the equivalent replacement unit.

If you have a number of Sonos units in your home this is an attractive proposition, however, if you have maybe one or two Sonos products, it maybe time for an upgrade. Sonos will continue to only offer sound quality of compact discs, a wee bit antiquated by today’s technologies and competing products that offer high bit rate playback (24 bit, versus 16 bit from Sonos) and considerably better resolution (192kHz versus 44kHz). Whilst Sonos is recognising bluetooth connectivity as a desired feature on one of their products, Bluetooth audio has been widely adopted by most other competitive companies throughout their product offerings.

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We put the final touches on a great 4K system today. Featuring a 65″ Samsung QLED television, Paradigm’s new Millenia Trio sound bar, Paradigm Millenia Subwoofer and Paradigm Surround One’s. Powered by ANTHEM’s MRX-520 receiver! We calibrated using Anthem’s ARC (Anthem Room Correction) Genesis and the results we astounding!

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We did the pre wire this morning for a new 4K Dolby Atmos theater. It’s going to have a 120″ (10 foot) perforated theater screen, hiding 3 Paradigm in wall speakers. 4 Paradigm Surround Ones for the rear and 2 Paradigm Atmos effect speakers in the ceiling, with a Paradigm Defiance subwoofer. Still lots of work to do! This client will be blown away with the final results!!

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Lately I have seen a great deal of Facebook and Instagram posts with pictures of new speakers with 10+ year old amplifiers and receivers. Although these “retro” systems look pretty cool they could cause your speakers a world of hurt! At the heart of all amplifiers are extremely important components called capacitors. You can think of capacitors as storage batteries. When you plug into a wall outlet you are using AC (Alternating Current). Unfortunately AC power cannot be “stored” to be used later, so inside the amplifier this AC power is converted to DC (Direct Current) which can be stored in a battery type device like a capacitor! This stored power is then converted back to AC power to operate the speakers. Vintage capacitors generally were made 3 different ways, paper layer, polystyrene and metal film, with most electronics manufacturers using the lower priced paper layer or polystyrene type. Very few used the very expensive, and super long lasting metal film types, which have extreme longevity and work as specified right out of the box. Paper and polystyrene capacitor performance operate on what is called a performance bell curve. Brand new capacitors don’t store to spec, but after about 5 years the capacitors reach their designed storage and after 10 or so years they loose the ability to store power! When this condition occurs your speakers will not be getting their power from the capacitors, but directly from the voltage invertor, which can kill your speakers faster than you can turn down the volume! Tweeters will be the first to go, but there can be damage internally to the crossover. If you have this vintage amp/new speakers scenario keep the volume down and start saving for a new amp! Old amps and receivers should not be purchased on eBay or Kijiji (with very few exceptions… Macintosh, Krell, Conrad Johnson etc.) They should be taken to your local electronics recycling center.

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This week we put the finishing touches on this outstanding living room system featuring a 65″ Samsung QLED 4K TV, the amazing new slim Paradigm Millenia Trio passive three channel sound bar. Powered by an Anthem MRX-520 with the low end handled beautifully by Paradigm’s Millenia subwoofer (you can just see the edge of it at the bottom of the cabinet) and rear channel speakers are the new bipolar Paradigm Surround Ones. In addition to the SMART apps built into the TV a SONOS port and a Bell 4K receiver keep the party hopping! The painters still have touch ups to do and when the furniture arrives we’ll be back to professionally calibrate the audio using Anthem ARC Genesis.

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I recently installed a new 4K television on a reticulated wall mount for this client but his old Yamaha receiver was unable to pass a 4K signal, so he started “saving up”. Last week I installed a new DENON AVR-X1600 receiver and my client was delighted! Not only with the audio (using his existing BOSE 5.1 speaker system and calibrated with DENON’S built in Audyssey room analyzer, but his picture got better due to better video processing in the new DENON. Using the DENON’S ARC (Audio Return Channel) he can have the audio playback from all apps on the TV through his surround speakers from his SMART TV. Image below is from YouTube 4K.

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We put the Dolby Atmos system together today! Wall mounted 65″ Panasonic 4K UHD, Denon Dolby Atmos receiver, Panasonic UHD BDP900 media player, Furman UPS and Paradigm speaker system! IT IS INCREDIBLE!!

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Just released: The new Paradigm Millenia LP Trio. A 48″, 3 channel passive sound bar with the performance you expect from one of the world leaders in speaker performance and they are CANADIAN!! Measuring only 2 inches in depth it’s the perfect match with today’s slim line televisions. https://www.paradigm.com/en/lcr/millenia-lp-trio Get you orders in now!

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Some projects take considerably longer! In this case an existing wall and a wood stove had to be removed, new stud work and shelving for the equipment, FT4 14 gauge speaker wiring and HDMI cabling were installed in preparation for a 65″ OLED TV and Paradigm Dolby Atmos speaker system. The results are going to be stunning, both visually and audibly!!

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New 65″ Samsung QLED 4K UHD TV. With Android OS and connected to a new Denon audio video receiver this super system is ready for those long winter nights! Controlled by a Harmony Elite remote control system the entire system is at your command with a simple, easy to understand touch screen. Get yours today from Wired 1 Consulting.

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