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What's in your Home Theater?

306K views 498 replies 312 participants last post by  blue dragon 
#1 ·
I've always been interested in knowing what other people have to view movies or even regular TV. So I thought I'd ask everyone to post what components they have in their home theater.

I guess it's only fair that I start. :smile:

TV: Toshiba TW40X81 widescreen HDTV. (Recently ISF calibrated by JohnnyG)
Receiver: Kenwood VR-2080 DD/DTS
Speakers: PSB Stratus Silver mains and centre. Minis for surrounds.
Subwoofer: PSB Subzero (8")
DVD: Panasonic RP-91
LD: Pioneer CLD-D504
CD: Kenwood CD-323M 200-disc changer
VCR: JVC HR-VP670U
Satelite: ExpressVu Model 6000

Norm
 
#52 ·
The Martin Logans are electrostatic hybrids. Electrostatics are very accurate, but need to be extremely large to produce bass. They therefore went the hybrid route - electrostatic mid and upper frequencies with a conventional driver for the bass. They range in price from roughly $2k/pair to $30k/pair. I paid close to the bottom end for the mains. The cinema center is quite expensive for a center channel, but since I was getting the mains, I couldn't resist, especially since the center channel is the most important speaker of all.

The other reason I bought them is because they are beautiful and my wife liked the look of them - not just another box.

Here's a link to The Martin Logan Website
 
#53 ·
If I'm not mistaking, the Martin Logans are also required to be plugged in to an AC outlet, so they use up a bit of electricity. I've got a friend who has them (he's got the real expensive ones) and they're excellent speakers.

Nice system 57.
 
#54 ·
sleemo said:
Anyone know who else sells S-VHS tapes, preferrably Maxell or can anyone recommend a good tape?
bestbuy.com 2 maxell SVHS for $11.99
I don't know how much the tapes are up there, but maybe the new Best Buy stores sell them. If not, and you want to I will order them and send them to you. Pm me if that is what you want.
 
#56 ·
Nice system 57!
It’s probably a bit different from what you usually see because I have my components beside my chair. Three video connections (component, S-Video and composite video) run from the receiver to the TV.
Aside from having the components beside the seating position, anybody with a front projector would basically have the same arrangement. My equipment is all in the front of the room, with s-video and component video cables going to the projector on the coffee table.
 
#58 ·
Geoff, it's relatively simple. Here are the instructions I got from bolmsted.

If you are using Rogers you can upload to the personal web space that you can activate on Member Services. Once you have the web space activated you can use an FTP client to upload to members.rogers.com. Your web space will be at http://members.rogers.com/your_email_prefix

If you are using Sympatico, you can activate at E-Service and then use an FTP client to upload to www3.sympatico.ca. Your web space will be at http://www3.sympatico.ca/your_email_prefix

A good FTP client for windows is WS-FTP which has a sub panel on the left for your hard drive and another sub panel on the right for the remote computer (the service providers web/ftp server). Just search for FTP on downloads.com / tucows.com and you will find it within 2 minutes.


I actually had to activate a second personal email/web space on my Rogers account in order to upload the pictures because they only allow 10MB per mailbox, but you can have up to 70MB of space in total (but not contiguous) because you can have 7 email addresses. I forget what Sympatico's limits were before.

Any service provider should offer some personal web space, but if they don't you can use something like tripod.com, yahoo.com, etc to upload the pictures and then just link to them with a URL.
Rogers has "fetch" for the Mac available as FTP software and I got a copy of WS-FTP off tucows.com for Windows.

Rogers website is very helpful, providing instructions, software, etc.

Human is adding a "gallery" to this forum though, and you could wait for that, but having a webspace to put stuff is a good thing. Then you can put any file there and simply insert a "link" to that file, be it a picture or whatever.
 
#59 ·
Update: Decided on matched speakers afterall.

My wife gave me crap for doing half measures and then complaining about it ad infinitum, so I went ahead and got a modest set of speakers rather than trying to cobble yet another brand into my setup. I ended up with Polk RTi100 front, CSi30 centre, RTi38 rear, and although the RTi100 does have a small powered subwoofer in the base of each speaker, a PSW250 sub. Maybe not as fancy as some setups out there and everyone has their own opinion on brands etc, but its a step up for me. The RTi100's were down to $800 for a pair (from $1500, saw a few people on the web who had purchased for $1000 USD!) and I got a bit of a break on everything else - $225 for the sub, and the RTi38 for $399 (on sale this week at FS for $450). The RTi38's haven't come in yet, but should be ready today/tomorrow. Basically got them at the regular price of the RTi28's because those weren't currently available.

I wonder if the sub is more redundant than anything at the PSW250 level given the subs in the RTi100's, it might have made more sense to go for the 450 or even 650. Again, I'm not really well versed in audiophile measures and trying to figure out the bass management in my system is tough for me. Polk also has message boards for owners of Pold speakers quite similar to these ones, and I already tried their customer service via email, and got a response within the hour. Turns out the manuals that were shipped with my speakers incorrectly state impedance at 4 ohms, the online manuals correctly said 8, and they assured me the printed ones were in error.
 
#61 ·
The sub should certainly make a difference. Make sure you set you front speakers as 'Large' so they'll play full-frequency.

That brings up an interesting question actually. If you set the front speakers to large, the center and surrounds to small and the sub on, does the bass from the center and surrounds go to the fronts, to the sub, or both?
 
#62 ·
JohnnyG. Each receiver is different in the way it does bass management. For example, I can set my speakers (main, surround, each centre) to "Large" or "Small" and also change the LFE signal to send to "Sub Only", "Main only" or "Both". Some receivers allow changes in the crossover frequency for the LFE signal (usually somewhere from 80-120 Hz)

You have to check your receiver's owners manual, or the setup menu as to what it does.

It also depends on how you hook up your sub - with the LFE, or "on the way" to the main speakers, using the main speaker leads.

See --> .This article on bass management

Some receivers don't offer this flexibility, so it's pretty well receiver specific. Don't even get started about bass management with DVD-A and SACD, which is a real can of worms.

For more details, type "bass management" (with the quotation marks) into your favourite search engine. There are lots of articles there
 
#64 ·
I think I'm better off with the separate sub, but I'll still have to play with it a bit. I don't have the bass setting on the RTi100 set to the max either. The PSW250 doesn't have a separate LFE in, so I hooked it up the way it was in the store - LFE from the receiver to the left line level input. The speakers are run direct from the receiver as well. I could run speaker level to the psw and set sub to no on the receiver instead - I may just try this and see what difference it makes.
 
#65 ·
Here is my stuff.

I just upgraded my speakers from Paridigm Phantoms and Atoms to all Mirage (except forthe sub. The OM-10 don't need that much help)

TV: Toshiba 57H81 16:9 HDTV
Source: Star Choice HDTV
DVD: Toshiba SD-3750 Progressive Scan
Receiver: Pioneer 810S 6.1
Fronts: Mirage OM-10's
Center: Mirage OM-C3
Rear: Mirage FRX-Rear's
Back Center: Mirage AVS-150
Sub: 150 Watt Infinity
 
#66 ·
TV: JVC AV32D201 (with anamorphic squeeze on 16x9 DVDs)
Receiver: Technics SAAX710 (Sony STRDA777ES in need of repair)
DD/DTS Decoder: Technics SHAC500D
Speakers:
Paradigm Reference Studio/60 V.1 mains
Paradigm Reference Studio/20 V.1 rears
Paradigm Reference CC-450 centre
Subwoofer: Mission 700AS (1 in use, 1 in storage)
DVD: Malata N996, XBOX
CD/SACD: Sony SCDXE670
VCR: Samsung HiFi VR8857
Speaker cable: Ultralink Reference Series & Monster XP, 14 ga.
Interconnects: Ultralink Challenger Series, Acoustic Research, Radioshack
 
#67 ·
Electrohome Marquee 8000 with new tubes!
54 x 96" Screen Goo Screen (~2 gain)
HTPC (P4 1.6, Radeon 9000pro, Maudio Delta 410)
Pioneer 709s?
Home built speakers (2 Vifa based center channels, 1 above, 1 below screen)
Base shakers in riser and front couch
Dedicated room, 12x20
 
#68 ·
TV: Sony Wega 36 XBR450 with matching Stand
Receiver: Sony STR-DA1ES
Speakers: Sony SSLAC305ED LA Series Centre Speaker
Sony SSLA300ED LA Series Front and Surround with stands
Sony SAWD100S AMPLIFIED SUBWOOFER
DVD: Toshiba 3750
VCR: Can't remember, but it's there
Cable: Rogers, SA3100HD

I just started building the system back in April, except for the DVD and VCR which I already had. As you can see, I'm something of a Sony sicko too. It doesn't come close to many of the impressive systems I've read about here, but I'm still in heaven.

Some of my friends warned me not to buy Sony speakers, but after getting a demo of the ones I bought I was very pleased. They're aesthetically pleasing too, and look very sweet on the stands. I'm still not sure why they go to such a high frequency though (70kHz) which is well beyond our hearing capabilities. I figure it must be a marketing spec.



Cheers!
 
#70 ·
TV Hitachi: 57TWX20B
Receiver: Denon 3802
Speakers: Energy c-5's (front), cc-1 (center), cr-1's (rear surr), c-1's (side surr) and s10.2 (sub)
Monster HTS1100
Bev 6000
DVD: Denon 1600

Acoustic Research Master Series video cables
Monster speaker wires


Overall very happy!! (Need a better sub though)
 
#71 ·
Just got new speakers

I exchanged my speakers (Mirage 390is towers with PSB Alpha surrounds and center) with a set of 5 Mirage Ominisat speakers. Our family room is a bit odd-shaped (the rear surrounds have to be placed right beside the couch, which is along the back wall) and these funky little speakers work really well.

With my old speakers, there was a very small sweet spot - this is where I sat 8) With the Ominisats, the sweet spot is much larger - even my wife noticed! I would recommend checking these out if you have little room to work with for speaker placement.

http://www.miragespeakers.com

My current home theater:
Hitachi 57SWX20B RPTV
Yamaha RX-V620 Receiver
Panasonic RP82 DVD
Mirage Ominisat satellite speakers (5)
PSB subwoofer
Home Theater Master MX-500 remote
Xbox (with HDTV adapter) - for me
GameCube (with HDTV adaptor) - for my son
 
#72 ·
Brianmw, I am quite interested in the omnisats to be used as surrounds on either side.
Since my side walls do not allow symetric location of side surround speakers, I think that these little units just might be the ticket.
Would anybody know how they would match up (timbre-wise) with Paradigm's monitor series?

I have Paradigm Mini-Monitors up front, a CC-350 in the center and Titans in the rear, and I am contemplating the purchase of a Harmon-Kardon AVR 525, (upgrade for a Kenwood VR-309) but to justify the 7 channel amplifiers, I'll need 7 speakers...

...I love these dillemas...
 
#73 ·
Bent said:
Would anybody know how they would match up (timbre-wise) with Paradigm's monitor series?
To me, they sound quite unlike anything I've heard before - I'd recommend hearing them along with the Paradigm's before buying.

It might be hard to find a shop that carries both Paradigm and Mirage to hear them together - the store I bought from (Audio Centre in Ottawa) doesn't carry Paradigm.

However, if you can find a local dealer (see dealer locator at the Mirage site) that has them on display, you could probably bring in a couple of your speakers to see how they would work with the Omnisats.

You might even be able to borrow a couple of floor models overnight if you leave a deposit.
 
#75 ·
TV: Toshiba 34HF81 34" 16:9 direct view
Receiver: Marantz SR-8200 THX Select
DVD player: Toshiba SD-3750 (soon to change)
CD player: Marantz CC38 5-disc carousel
Main Speakers: Totem Sttafs
Centre and Rear Centre: Totem Mite-TCs
Surround Speakers: Totem Mites
Nintendo GameCube with component connection (480p) & analog audio
Sony PlayStation2 with S-Video connection & digital audio
SA-3100HD with Rogers Basic Cable & HDTV service
 
#76 ·
My home theatre consists of:

Receiver: Yamaha HTR5490
Satellite: Starchoice 401 & 201 Sidecar
CD Recorder: Harman Kardon CDR 20
DVD REcorder: Panasonic E30
DVD Players: Panasonic RP-91 Panasonic 310
VCR's: JVC 30000U D-VHS, JVC S-VHS
TV: Sony 32XBR450
Speakers: Bose
Subwoofer: Paradigm
LD Player: Pioneer 990

Sam
 
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