Q My question comes from your CEDIA show report--great report by the way! I noticed in the pictures the new rear speaker from Paradigm under the Signature line. I noticed that there appears to be another speaker in the front of that speaker, which is different from the strict dipole design of their earlier models. What I am wondering is if this new model is a monopole/dipole switchable design? Or possibly a tripole switchable design? Any idea if it is a switchable design? Also, any idea of the price point for this surround? I have been waiting for such as design from Paradigm for some time--looking for any info.

A Paradigm answers: It is a true dipole design with a woofer on the front crossed over low enough so that it doesn't call attention to itself. The advantage of this is that it will offer a better tonal match with the rest of the system. The final crossover point has not been set yet, as design is continuing, but what we can tell for sure is that it will play louder than our other ADP speakers.

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Q I want to set up a 6.1/7.1 system. Do the rear center surrounds, or for that matter the sides too, require the same amplifier power as the three front channels? Your answer will help determine my amp purchase, probably a five channel and a two channel.

A Rears and sides have full range sound now, but the only time you might need lots of power back there is for fly-overs and other special effects that have loud low frequencies. To be safe, I would suggest getting plenty of power in all channels (200 watts per channel), then if your finances restrict you, plenty of power in the front three channels, and less for the sides and rears. One way of getting around the problem of lower power is to select speakers that are efficient, i.e., at least 92 dB/w/m.

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Q I would like to know if I will still get hi-fi sound if I connect to the high-level inputs on my Velodyne CHT-15 subwoofer from the speaker terminals of my Arcam 8R amp? As the sub is now controlling the bass using its crossover, will it degrade the sound? I love my music and would not like the sound to be affected in any way. I hope you can help and put my mind at rest.

A Anytime you pass the signal through additional circuitry, including jacks and plugs, the signal is degraded at least a little bit. In your case, the speaker-level output has to pass through some passive crossover elements, such as inductors and capacitors. Unfortunately, the signal will be degraded. Whether or not you will be able to hear the loss, is dependent on your ears.

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Q  I am thinking of purchasing an XBox. I have a front projection TV (Zenith 900). Will playing games on it cause the images to be burned into the CRTs?

A Anytime you have a static image on a CRT for a long time, and at high contrast, the danger of burning the static part of the picture into the CRT is real. I would suggest using your system at as low a contrast setting as you can handle if you are going to use it for games. You can partially compensate for the lower contrast by turning down the brightness a bit too.

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Q I have a Denon AVR 3200 receiver, and have five speakers connected to it.  How do I connect two more pairs to this receiver?

A I assume you are referring to the 6.1 ES sound. If the receiver has DD decoding and a set of pre-outs for the left/right rear channels, you would need another decoder to separate out the center rear, which could be an old receiver. If you just mean adding more speakers to existing channels, wire them in series with your existing speakers. Do not wire them in parallel, as this lowers the impedance that the amplifier sees, and makes it harder for the amp to drive them.

However, we are assuming that your speakers in series with each other are identical. Otherwise, if they have different impedances, this would vary the ratio of the voltage drop (and power consumption) between the speakers at different frequencies, so as to alter the frequency response of both speakers in a haphazard manner, making them sound different from each other, even if they were relatively voice-matched to begin with. If that's the case, a parallel connection would be a better option in terms of sound quality, but with the limitations of lower playback levels.

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Q Does anybody sell progressively encoded DVDs? And if not, why not?

A It is mostly the processing and display where the progressive issue is resolved. The information from a film-based movie on a DVD is simply reassembled into a progressively displayed image, if you have a progressive scan DVD player and/or a digital TV.

However, there are a handful of 480p/30 DVDs available from DVD International. They are not films but digital images. The Sage deinterlacer has a problem with 480p/30 DVDs, and it will drop to video mode.

You are probably asking about film DVDs. "Okalahoma" and "Around the World in 80 Days" are produced at 480p/30. There are currently no DVDs that are encoded as 24 fps film and true progressive as you are asking. Some of the test patterns on Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up are optimized for 480p and not 480i. If you watch the focus pattern on 480i, you will see a lot of flicker, but it looks clean at 480p. The reason is because there is detail which exists as a single scan line in height. You do not see this with film DVDs because they all go through an anti-flicker filter (vertical low pass filter on luma) before being MPEG encoded. This reduces flicker on interlaced TVs and it makes compression easier because about 30% of the vertical resolution has been tossed out.

Digital Video Essentials will be optimized for progressive scan playback and will flicker like the dickens on an interlaced display.

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Q I now have three subs...M&K MX-125, ADS MS4U and a Klipsch KSW-15. What is the best way to set them all up in a HT room? Any recommendations on location and especially connection would be great.

A There is a white paper on this subject, which can be seen at http://www.harman.com/wp/pdf/Loudspeakers&RoomsPt3.pdf.

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Q I have a problem I cannot resolve. I own a Marantz AV-550 preamp and recently purchased a Panasonic CP-72 DVD/A changer. The DVD progressive outputs are connected directly to my JVC AV-56 RPTV. I use the optical digital output from the DVD player to my Marantz. I also have two analog connections from the DVD player to the CD inputs on the Marantz.

My problem is when I play CDs I get a signal to my powered subwoofer which is directly connected to the sub output of the Marantz. Pro Logic demonstration disks also are heard through the sub. When I play a DVD through the optical connection, I am getting no signal to my sub. I have no clue what is going on.

A This is a bass management issue. Your CD connections and Pro Logic are using analog signals, while the DVD player is using Dolby Digital or DTS, both of which are digital signals. Sometimes DVD players have bass management menus. Check to see it is set up properly if it has one. Secondly, go into the receiver bass menu and make sure your subwoofer option is set properly. You may have to experiment a bit. There may be a specific menu for DD and a different one for DTS.

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