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The Front Row

The Front Row

Written by: AVSForum.com
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 Welcome to The Front Row Podcast, where we dive into everything audio, video, and home entertainment with a mix of expert insight and real-world experience. Whether you're already invested into the AV space or just starting out, this show is here to break topics down and make the details easier to understand. Hosted by Erik Wesley and Ryan Charpentier, each episode covers topics like speaker specs, video formats and system calibration that will help you make sense of what you're seeing and reading online. We’ll have honest conversations with knowledgeable guests and share plenty of practical takeaways you can actually use in your own setup. Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Everyone Talks About Target Curves, But This Part Matters Most

    Everyone Talks About Target Curves, But This Part Matters Most
    Jan 23 2026
    On this episode of The Front Row Podcast, we’re joined by Chuck Back, Managing Partner of Trinnov Audio and Procella Audio US, for a conversation that digs into one of the most talked about and least clearly explained topics in calibration: target curves. With nearly 50 years in high end audio, Chuck has spent decades designing and tuning systems at the highest levels. He also spent more than 20 years as EVP and General Manager of M&K Sound, where he was an early advocate for home theater and worked closely with dealers, integrators, and technology partners like Dolby, DTS, and Lucasfilm. Target curves get mentioned constantly, but they’re often treated like a preset you pick and forget. Chuck slows things down and breaks apart what target curves actually are and what they’re trying to accomplish when tuning a system. We walk through some of the most commonly referenced curves, including the well known Harman curve and the classic B&K musical target curve, and talk about what each one is designed to do. More importantly, we discuss how these curves are meant to be used and why they should be treated as tools that guide decisions rather than rules that every system has to follow. In the second half of the episode, we switch gears and step into Audio over IP, with a focus on Dante. While this technology has been in the professional world for years, it’s starting to show up more often in residential systems. We talk about the problems Audio over IP is especially good at solving, and whether it makes sense to move away from traditional analog setups or go digital if you’re starting from scratch. If you’ve ever wondered why two systems calibrated “correctly” can sound completely different, or wanted a clearer understanding of how target curves shape what you hear, this episode is a great listen. We want to give a big thank you to our podcast sponsor, ⁠⁠⁠Paradigm Electronics⁠⁠⁠. At Paradigm, sound is not just heard, it’s felt. It’s audio that stirs emotion and is designed to move you. ⁠⁠⁠Paradigm - Authentically Canadian, Acoustically Brilliant.⁠⁠⁠ Listen to The Front Row Podcast on your favorite platform and be sure to follow and leave a review on Apple & Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠iHeartRadio⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Amazon Music⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Pandora
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    55 mins
  • What to Look For When You See Speaker Measurements

    What to Look For When You See Speaker Measurements
    Jan 8 2026
    On this episode of The Front Row Podcast, we’re kicking off the new year by sitting down with Adam Pelz, a name many of you already know, but one that’s worth properly introducing if you don’t. Adam is the Owner and President of Bespoke Cinemas, and he’s spent years designing, installing, and dialing in high performance home theaters. He’s ISF, THX, and ARCOS certified, an expert instructor with the Home Acoustics Alliance, and currently serves as Chairman of CEDIA Standards. This episode tackles a topic that gets mentioned all the time but rarely explained in plain language: Spinorama data. Adam walks us through what these speaker measurement graphs actually are, how they’re created, and why they matter when you’re evaluating a speaker. We talk about how these measurements are taken in an anechoic chamber, capturing a speaker’s output from all directions, and what parts of the graph are actually useful versus what people tend to misread or overemphasize. We spend a lot of time focusing on how to read these graphs in a practical way. Not to turn listeners into measurement experts, but to help them better understand what Spinorama data can and cannot tell you about how a speaker will behave in a real room. Adam does a great job of cutting through the noise and explaining what deserves your attention and what probably doesn’t. We also touch on CEDIA RP22 standards and he even gives us a glimpse at the upcoming RP1 standards and what they aim to address. We would love to do a part two with Adam, especially to dig into topics like speaker sensitivity, and how measurements translate into real-world performance. If there are questions or topics you want us to cover next time, drop them in the comments and we’ll make sure they make it into the follow-up. One quick heads-up before you hit play: toward the end of the episode, Ryan’s mic starts dropping out due to an internet issue that we didn’t catch until after the fact. We apologize for the hiccup. We want to give a big thank you to our podcast sponsor, ⁠⁠Paradigm Electronics⁠⁠. At Paradigm, sound is not just heard, it’s felt. It’s audio that stirs emotion and is designed to move you. ⁠⁠Paradigm - Authentically Canadian, Acoustically Brilliant.⁠⁠ Listen to The Front Row Podcast on your favorite platform and be sure to follow and leave a review on Apple & Spotify: ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ ⁠⁠iHeartRadio⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Amazon Music⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Pandora
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • The Real Reason Bass Is So Hard to Get Right

    The Real Reason Bass Is So Hard to Get Right
    Dec 16 2025
    On this episode of The Front Row Podcast, Peter Aylett from Officina Acustica and Cinema Bureau joins us once again to close out the year with a conversation about subwoofer placement and low frequency in a room. This episode feels like a natural continuation of our earlier discussions around room design, but this time we zoom in on the part of home theater that tends to cause the most head scratching once the system is powered on. We spend time talking about active room treatment, and why it may be one of the most important developments in audio over the last decade. We also revisit the long standing sealed vs ported subwoofer discussion and break down why neither option is inherently better than the other. Peter explains how each design plays a different role depending on the room, and the type of experience you are trying to create. Rather than treating it as a simple checklist decision, we talk about how subwoofer design choices tie back into room size, layout, and how bass actually behaves in someone’s space. Placement is a major focus of this episode, especially why putting a subwoofer in a convenient spot is rarely the best choice. We spend time talking about why measurements matter, and how room interactions can create peaks and nulls. Understanding what is happening at the listening position is key, and Peter does a great job of explaining how to approach this in a practical way without overcomplicating it. We touch on infrasonic subwoofers, when they make sense, and why you might consider them. This episode closes out the year and helps tie together many of the themes we have covered so far, from designing the room first to making informed equipment decisions and now dialing in low frequency performance. If you are planning a new build or looking ahead to improvements in the new year, this is a fitting way to wrap things up. We want to give a big thank you to our podcast sponsor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Martin Logan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. MartinLogan delivers high-performance audio that fuses cutting-edge technology with sleek, elegant design. Engineered for audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts alike, MartinLogan products bring every sound to life with incredible clarity and power. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MartinLogan – Bringing you truth in sound since 1983.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen to The Front Row Podcast on your favorite platform and be sure to follow and leave a review on Apple & Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠iHeartRadio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Music⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pandora
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    1 hr and 36 mins
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