Any home audio geeks out there?

[biju]

Hello Family2.0...

Priorities, priorities... First came the car audio project, and now I'm in preparation for the home audio project. I'm a self admitted car audio hobbyist, however, when it comes to home audio, I know very little...

The time has come to, *eh-hem*, 'invest' in some home audio. I want a very quality set up, but not too gadgety. Meaning, I just want a tad more than the basics. Music comes first, theater comes second. My ideal components? Plasma, solid all in one A/V receiver w/ front monitors (for the music) and complementing surround sound (for movies).

The HD plasma's a check. That's outta the way. Front monitors and sub are a check also (bought the Paradigm Monitor 9's w/ PDR-12 sub). I need help/input/opinions about the surround speakers and this 'all in one' A/V receiver I seek. Anybody have any good experience in this area, or own either that they'd like to share an opinion or recommend?

SURROUND SPEAKERS
They need to be small, as the room they're going in is not that big (Paradigm didn't have smaller speakers that I thought sounded like they should...) Budget 1,000

A/V RECEIVER
I'm thinking for my budget on this one (1,200) I really liked the Yamaha RX-V2600. However, I'm just not sure if that's 'too much' for what I'm looking for... or what their reputation is as a home audio company.

Thanks in advance for any and all input...

-biju.

[Triathlete]

Might check into in-wall type speakers for your surround...take up 0 space. Plus lend to a clean look in the room.

[nater]

I think you should reconsider on the Plasma. Since you live at altitude, as do I, your new plasma TV will likely have a high-pitched whine when on, as well as a shorter lifespan.

LCD panels do not suffer from these issues.

Plasmas in general consume large amounts of electricity; I've heard as much as $1 per hour by some estimates.

If you are dead-set on owning a Plasma, try to find one that is designed for high altitude (rumored to exist, but I have yet to see one).

As far as Home Theater in general, a lot of folks are building Home Theater PC's to serve as their media center. No DVD player or anything, the whole system consists of a high-end TV, high end receiver, a digital cable box, and a PC in a cool case. The PC can even control the cable box as a slave over the firewire:

http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/

As for speakers, there is no limit to how much you can spend. I have a set of polk RM6600's that cost about $1200 in 2000. They sound awesome hooked to a $200 Receiver. I also have a set of $229 JBL's downstairs hooked to a $300 Receiver that sound just as good:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

Frankly, I bought them just to prove to my wife that they wouldn't possibly sound as good as my Polk's. I was astonished at how much I like them, and am pretty smug about the price. I ended up keeping them and am quite happy with them. Basically, speakers are a matter of personal taste. My only advice is don't pay above your own taste.

If you are looking for a multi-DVD changer, there are a few 300 and 400 DVD changers on the market, some with serial ports that can hook to your PC for awesome control over the collection.

As far as Yamaha goes, their musical instruments are world famous. (Heck, their logo is three tuning forks!). I really like their electronics as well, but I'm sure you can find a few haters out there. I for one am extremely fussy about things like an easy to use remote and menus that make sense. I think I would be quite happy with the receiver you picked out.

Nate

[9tinyfingaz]

dont forget your "friendly associate" @ CompUsa. you find something on my website you like message me or email me and ill give you my price. Alot of margin on home entertainment. As far as a tv is concerned. love Zenith 50' magnificent and samsung 42 lcds beautiful.

[iamjacksadrenalgland]

i never knew about the altitude issue with plasmas, of course i've lived near sea level my whole life. regardless, my next investment in a big screen will definately be DLP, rather than plasma or LCD. i've been very impressed with the new 1080p chips.

as nater said, speakers are a matter of personal taste. after a lot of auditioning i've determined that i like dynaudio's audience series for music and klipsch's reference series for theater. though i admit that it's difficult to justify spending a lot more for a marginal difference in sound quality.

your observation that the smaller speakers don't sound 'like they should' is common among the audiophile crowd and seems pretty consistent regardless of the brand or model. if it were me, i'd just stick with paradigm and live with having larger speakers. i don't like to mix speaker brands within one system.

[Hotsauce]

Check my gallery for some serious audio stuff. I'm a hardcore 2 channel analog junky though. And it must be tubes.

This is my computer system...

http://members.aol.com/audiostorage2/CompterSystem.jpg





John C.

[MSHardeman]

I'll say it loud and proud....BANG & OLUFSEN!! I have a set up from 1978 that still looks better, and outperforms, anything being made today. Yeah, it's a little pricy, but WELL worth it. Go see Shea at the Cherry Creek North store, and he can educate the bejezuz out of you.
I sat in their theater room at the store and just about pee'd myself. UNBELIEVABLE sound and picture quality with the ability to blow the roof off of anything without your ears ringing. I'm listing to a pair of their headphones right now and you'd swear I was at the concert.

[WormGod]

Biju, with a budget like that, just get one of those full surround sound kits. They usually come with at least a 5.1DD/DTS reciever, a dvd player, and a full 6 speaker set. I have seen some pretty decent ones at even Best Buy. It is in my nature to knock those kind of kits since my audio/visual setup at home runs about $18k in total, but I have a buddy who spent $900 of a Yamaha kit at Best Buy and he grabbed a 40" LG LCD tellie for about $1400, and it nearly rivals mine! Simply amazing stuff out there that you DONT have to pay a lot for. Just keep that in mind.

I am thinking of giving my mom my 48" Mistubishi HD widescreen since her tv just popped and getting myself a 65" plasma finally. Can get my hands on one under $4k finally so it may be a fun purchase.

BTW, just to get the geek factor going strong.... we are having a custom 16 FOOT digital widescreen put in at work. Along with a 160 person theater seating for it. Isnt supposed to be ready until Xmas-next year, but man, if that isnt incentive to WANT to stay and work late nights, heh.

[Locomigo]

BTW, just to get the geek factor going strong.... we are having a custom 16 FOOT digital widescreen put in at work. Along with a 160 person theater seating for it. Isnt supposed to be ready until Xmas-next year, but man, if that isnt incentive to WANT to stay and work late nights, heh.

Yep, we installed a 25 FOOT (22'x11.5') HD front projection set up last year at Denali National Park for 150 seat theater.

That was AWESOME, and the HD player source we utilized was sweet. Fully automated with the black out shades, lights, start/stop, narration etc.

Crestron is your friend. That had about 15,000 Watts of power. Couple 15" driver towers for the L/R with a matched center. 10" drivers for the surrounds (12 in all), and dual 18" subs.

During testing we hit 145dB in the center of the seating area. It was loud, they are not even utilizing 30% of the available headroom on the system. The projector was pretty kickass, we had to turn it to 50% lamp power (dual lamp @ low poer setting).

Fun stuff we play with...

[Tobert]

BTW, just to get the geek factor going strong.... we are having a custom 16 FOOT digital widescreen put in at work. Along with a 160 person theater seating for it. Isnt supposed to be ready until Xmas-next year, but man, if that isnt incentive to WANT to stay and work late nights, heh.

I had a lot of fun helping design and install a 3x2 Clarity DLP wall at my current employer's campus for the IT command center. They got screwed on the video controller and ended up going with a PC with 3 Nvidia Quattro's instead. It would be great for video nights but they got weird about the idea and wouldn't let me set all the gear up. Oh well. Maybe I'll finish designing my controller idea anyways

There's some cool technology in that space if you're willing to deal with the bezels. It's only really useful in a commercial setting though.

[Locomigo]

I had a lot of fun helping design and install a 3x2 Clarity DLP wall at my current employer's campus for the IT command center. They got screwed on the video controller and ended up going with a PC with 3 Nvidia Quattro's instead. It would be great for video nights but they got weird about the idea and wouldn't let me set all the gear up. Oh well. Maybe I'll finish designing my controller idea anyways

There's some cool technology in that space if you're willing to deal with the bezels. It's only really useful in a commercial setting though.

What controller were they trying to use?
While the solution you ended up with isnt bad, it just has some limitations that a standard controller would not.

Did a 4x8 matrix wall a while back and that was pretty cool, albeit a lot of work 50" cubes, Yeah a full image was insane!

But anyway, we are getting off track, where IS Bill anyway?

[Tobert]

What controller were they trying to use?

It was a Jupiter 950 somebody got off the back of a truck, as far as I can tell. We even bought a warranty and had it to Jupiter and back and it STILL didn't work. Junk. I hear their more modern stuff is better, but I wouldn't buy another product from them.

While the solution you ended up with isnt bad, it just has some limitations that a standard controller would not.

Yeah, I know. I wanted to build something much more sophisticated (could handle full-screen video and arbitrary partitioning/positioning), but it would have taken me a couple months to build from scratch. Still, it would be MUCH cheaper to build than even the low-end controllers on the market cost.

Did a 4x8 matrix wall a while back and that was pretty cool, albeit a lot of work 50" cubes, Yeah a full image was insane!

I'm envious. This is just a medium-size company that was already over budget on the system. It'd be fun to work with a fully tricked out system.

But anyway, we are getting off track, where IS Bill anyway?

[Locomigo]

It was a Jupiter 950 somebody got off the back of a truck, as far as I can tell. We even bought a warranty and had it to Jupiter and back and it STILL didn't work. Junk. I hear their more modern stuff is better, but I wouldn't buy another product from them.

The Jupiters are the controller of choice for us, although Christie isnt a bad choice.

For the Jupiter, we have only had one out of 150+ that we've put in flake on us.
I am pretty happy with them and their support they provide.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, waiting for Bill to reply to some of the questions. etc I through out there.

I dont claim to be the be all end all to this stuff, but between car, residential and commercial, I have been in A/V for a long time and seen a lot of different things. Happy to help anyone.

[biju]

Hey fam2.0. Got an update. I did some reswizzling of funds, some further 'pondering' as to what I should do regarding surrounds - and here's what I came up with. I've decided to hold off on the surrounds until I'm absolutely certain the brand/model is what I want. There are some really good brands mentioned above, and until I can demo/hear them in person, I don't think I can make an informed decision quite yet. Kind of like when I heard the Monitor 9's - I knew without a doubt those were going to be the anchors to my front stage!! I want that same feeling when I decide to purchase surrounds...

So with that said, here's a breakdown thus far:

Dell 42" HD Plasma = Check.
Yamaha RX-V2600 = Check.
Paradigm Monitor 9 = Check.
Samsung DVD-HD860 = Check.
Paradigm PW-2100 (Upgraded from the PDR-12) = Check.
NAD C521BEE CD Player = Check.

There's a new addition to the list - that being the NAD CD player. I decided that the DVD player would probably suffice pulling double duty, but went for a dedicated unit that had better technology specifically intended for CD's.

Now for the monkey wrench!! (LOL - I said 'monkey'...) I've got a modest LP collection I started with 45's & 33.3's. The collection contains everything from old school Petshop Boys to Mogwai. I began the collection back when I inherited a cheap Pioneer setup from my grandfather who passed (the system is long gone/broke). Since I'm putting off the surrounds, maybe I could snatch up a decent turntable? By decent I mean under $400. Here are the brands I came up with:

Music Hall
Pro-Ject
Goldring

Anybody have an opinion/experience with these particular brands when it comes to vinyl? Or, better yet, know of another quality brand that has a table under $400?

-biju.

[WyrreJ]

Can you hear the difference in vinyl versus a CD? With your level of equipment, I would not expect you to be able to discern an improvement. In which case you would probably be better off skipping the turntable and spending the money on rebuying the CD versions.

Plus, a lot of classic albums have had new releases on CD recently that were completely remastered. Even if you can hear the difference between vinyl and CD, the remastered versions often blow away the original releases regardless of medium.