What's in your Home Theater?

[kalexander]

Scroll down a little

[hugh]

I have built a dedicated room for my home theater

Wow, some great equipment and your own home theater. Perhaps when set up you can show us some pics.

Would also be interested in knowing how you researched building your own home theater.

[sleemo]

Current HT:
Sony Wega KV-36FV27 36" Television
Panasonic DVD-CV5CA-K 5 disc DVD Player
Technics RS-BX606 Cassette Deck
Technics SA-DA10 Receiver
Toshiba VC-761 VCR
BEV 5100 Receiver

The left, right and center speakers are Studio Lab. I don't know the model number, they were a gift a couple of years ago. They're tall, thin and loud anyway.

The surrounds are a couple of old Studio Lab monitors from the 1970s. They're huge and still sound nice. I had to use them for something when I got my new speakers.

The subwoofer is a Sony SA-WM40.

Old Stuff:
Toshiba 3108 DVD Player (will be hooking up to old TV)
Sony SLV-920HF VCR (will be hooking up to old TV)
The old TV is a 27" Panasonic GAOO (10yrs old). I have an older (6yrs) Technics receiver I may hook up to the old TV setup if I find a small inexpensive speaker set.

[kalexander]

Human

I do have some pics of my equipment scanned and saved, most shots are just ok. It was an experiment with a cheap camera but they are viewable. I have yet to buy the screen, so there are no screen shots.As for researching for my home theater I looked into various resources such as dealers and retail stores, magazines-( AV interiors, Stereophile Guide to Home Theater and Home Theater). The internet I found had lots of info with manufacturer websites, home theater forums like this one(being a Canadian site helps!) And also individual websites where you can check out other peoples set up, design and equipment. I got most of my ideas from the individual web sites and magazines.

[Psyklops]

Here's mine:

TV - Toshiba 50H81 50" 16:9 HD-RPTV
DVD - Toshiba SD2800 (non-progressive)
VCR - Sharp (some model, doesn't really matter)
Receiver - JVC 8010-VBK DTS/5.1
Speakers - JVC Labrynth Bookshelf (Mains), JVC Surround set for rears and centers

I just got the TV less about a month ago so and the receiver replaced my bookshelf console that came with the JVC speakers. So my next purchase is investing in something better for the speakers, although these do a great job. I was looking at going with the Athena S2/P2's for mains, S1's for rears and C1/P1 for Center.

[dcgapg]

Psyklops,

How do you like your JVC receiver? I have the same one and I'm in the process of getting speakers in the next couple of weeks. I went to FS today an auditioned some Athena speakers. I loved them. They sounded great. I'm thinking of getting the Athena AS-F1 for fronts, AS-C1 center and either the AS-B1 or AS-B2 for rears. Still haven't decided on the rears. I think I'll probably go with the AS-B1's. Now I just have to decide on a sub. Any suggestions?? I auditioned some JBL, Polk and Cerwin-Vegas also but I like the Athena's the best.

[kalexander]

Here is what I have put together so far

- Pioneer Elite VSX 36TX THX Ultra reciever 5.1,7.1
- Pioneer Elite DV-C36 5 disc dvd player
- Panamax Max 5100 line conditioner
- Scott 5 disc cd player (12yrs old)
- Plus Piano DLP projector
- Draper Luma M1300 106 inch 16:9 screen
- home made ceiling mount for the projector

- Ultralink Videophile high definition component cable 10m
- Ultralink Videophile high definition composite cables 1m & 6m
- Ultralink Competition audio interconnect cable 1m
- Ultralink Subsonix stereo powered subwoofer Y cable 6m

- StudioLab Image 7s for the front speakers
dual 5.25'' woofers
1'' aluminum dome Vifa tweeter
poly propylene capacitors & large guage air coils
2nd Order crossover with impedance equalization 2.3KHz
lower 6'' of cabnet filled with sand for added weight and stabillity
gold plated bi-wire termanals
6.5'' W x 9'' D x 36'' H oak cabnets

- StudioLab Image 6 for the center channel
identical as above but 17'' W x 9'' D x 6.5'' H oak cabnet

- StudioLab Image 5s for the surruonds
single 5.25'' woofer
3/4'' aluminum dome vifa tweeter
poly propylene capacitors & large guage air coils
2nd Order crossover with impedance equalization 2.9KHz
gold plated bi-wire termanals
6.5'' W x 9'' D x 11'' H oak cabnets

- StudioLab Digital series 250 watt powered subwoofer
single 12'' woofer
ported cabnet design 21'' W x 21'' D x 18'' H black vineer

[goverias]

TV: Philips 32" PW9616
Dvd:Harman Kardon DVD-1
Laserdisc:Pioneer 925
Amp: Denon AVC-A1 SR
Front B&W 640i
Center MS 905c
Surround B&W 604 S1
Back Surround B&W 602 S3
Rel Storm

CD:Sony CDP-XA 3ES on Audioquest Sorbothanes
Tuner: Onkyo T-4970
Minidisc: Sony
Tape Deck: Sony 835S
VCR: Sony

Cables: All Monster

[Psyklops]

Originally Posted by dcgapg

Psyklops,

How do you like your JVC receiver? I have the same one and I'm in the process of getting speakers in the next couple of weeks. I went to FS today an auditioned some Athena speakers. I loved them. They sounded great. I'm thinking of getting the Athena AS-F1 for fronts, AS-C1 center and either the AS-B1 or AS-B2 for rears. Still haven't decided on the rears. I think I'll probably go with the AS-B1's. Now I just have to decide on a sub. Any suggestions?? I auditioned some JBL, Polk and Cerwin-Vegas also but I like the Athena's the best.

I love my receiver. I got it last October for about $570 CAD which was a fantastic deal for a receiver with the options that it has. Most others with the same features cost $100-$200 more. I read a lot of reviews on it and everyone was favorable. The only thing is that the USB feature is more of a gimmick than a real feature. As it's only really useful if you don't have a sound card in your PC. Plus USB has a much small max. cable length than audio cable which would be the preferable way to hook up your PC to the receiver if you have a sound card.

Those Athena's are their basic line (Audition Series). I haven't heard them yet, the ones I was looking at are their professional line (SCT series), but they aren't available at Future Shop. I went to Visions here in Alberta to demo them and was fairly impressed. They are a considerable jump in price from the Audition series, but the thing I liked about them was that they were modular in design. Meaning that you could buy your fronts (S1, S2 or S3) and then you could later on buy a subwoofer for each speaker (P1, P2 or P3) to extend the bass for each channel. Then you can do the same for your rears and even the Center speaker (C1) has the ability to connect with a P1 subwoofer to give you bass response on your centers. That's all in addition to the subwoofer connected to your sub out on the receiver.

I did notice that Athena has just released an AS-P400 subwoofer for the Audition line that you were looking at. You should check that one out if you plan on going with the Athena speakers. You can check their website at www.athenaspeakers.ca to find a dealer that carries all their products nearest you.

[GlenL]

HDTV: PIONEER ELITE PRO-610HD 58" WIDE
RECIEVER : PIONEER ELITE VSX36TX
DVD PLAYERS: PIONEER DV444 ELITE DV-45A
FRONT SPEAKERS: PARADIGM REF STUDIO 40
CENTER SPEAKER :" " " " " CENTER
REAR SPEAKERS : " " " " " STUDIO ADP
SUB FRONT: " " " " " SERVO 15"
SUB REAR " CLEMENT STUDIO 10"
SAT SYSTEM MAIN : EXPRESSVU 6000 HDTV
SYSTEM CONTROL : PRONTO TSU2000
WIRE: ULTRA VIOLET THE GOOD STUFF

[Wayner]

T.V. Old 52" RCA soon to be Tosh 57HDX
Rec. Denon 3802
Amp Adcom GFA 7400 5 x 100W
DVD Tosh 2108 Will go progressive with HDTV arrives
Laser Pioneer 501?
VCR Proscan
Mains Definitive Tech BP-10's
Centre Def-tech CLR 2002
Side surrounds Def-tech BP2X
Rear surrounds RFT moniters
Sub SVS 20-39 powered by a 250W old Yammy amp
Wire & cables IXOS
All in a 16' x 14' dedicated basement theatre with approx. 120 DVD's & 35 Laserdiscs

P.S This is a great site,keep up the good work

[Dave Boswell]

HDTV: Toshiba 50H81
Receiver: Harman/Kardon AVR 310
DVD: Panasonic RP-82
LD: Sony MDP-455
CD: Sony CDP CE-515
VCR: Mitsubishi U-62 SVHS
STB: SA 3100HD
Turntable: Dual CS-5000
Phone Preamp: NAD 7020e
Sub Equalizer: Behringher Feedback Destroyer DSP-1000
Left/Centre/Right/Surrounds: Castle Durhams
Subwoofer: Mirage 10" Active

Next month:
Replace HDTV with Sony HS-10/Epson TW-100 projector w/ 92" wide screen
Add Home Theatre PC to the mix
Never see the light of day again :-)

[beerme1]

To all the new people welcome and Wayner on behalf of DHC thank you!
I dont want to steer this thread to go off topic so forgive me but,
dboswell what the hell are these things? :lol:
Phone Preamp: NAD 7020e
Sub Equalizer: Behringher Feedback Destroyer DSP-1000

[57]

Beringer Destroyer

A phono preamp is used for "boosting" moving coil cartridge signals for a moving magnet phono input, or for boosting signals to a receiver without a phono input. (probably the latter, since the AVR310 doesn't have a phono in.)

I found the speaker choice interesting. Haven't seen Castle much on this side of the pond.

[Dave Boswell]

Beerme1

As 57 says, I use the NAD receiver (my first receiver from 13 years ago - still works and looks great!) to boost the phono output level to match standard line levels as my H/K receiver has no phono input.

The BFD DSP-1000 is a great inexpensive (like around $200 Cdn) digital parametric equalizer that can flatten out a boomy bass response from room modes - particularly in smallish rooms. It makes a HUGE difference to the depth and smoothness of the bass without having to crank it up to headache levels once it's tweaked.

Dave