Any home audio geeks out there?

[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 fam:

Just haven't had the time today at the salt mine to respond. I'm crazy busy today... I'll be on tonight tho. Sounds like a good opportunity to use the chat room?!!!

-biju.

[Locomigo]

nope.. wont be around....