I did a search and couldn’t find a related thread so I figured I’d start one. Either there’ll be enough interest to keep it alive or it’ll go down in flames The focus of this thread isn’t just on what I’m building but also for input from everyone here who’s wanting to discuss their system or individual components and also for people to ask questions and gain information.
ZDL, Thanks again for your help and for pointing me in the right direction to getting started down this path. I plan on referencing several internet direct companies and have absolutely no affiliation with them whatsoever but I do like to pass along sites & companies where I’ve had positive experiences and hope that others will as well, if this isn’t appropriate I will gladly remove the names and their web addresses.
So… my wife wants a baby and that means no boat next summer due to pregnancy and not alot of time to use it in the infant/toddler years consequently I’ve sold my boat The next one will be bigger & faster, go Schiada!
So after going to a buddy’s house and listening to his Onkyo HT system I was pretty impressed, not anymore after hearing alot more speakers. Not to say his HTIB (Home Theat In a Box) system wouldn’t please most people, as I’m sure it would, but I wanted to go bigger and have it sound better as I hate movie theaters and mostly the people behind me during the show. My wife and I are Netflix addicts and really like watching movies, especially in Blu-Ray, so why not take it to the next level?
I’ll start by saying I knew jack squat about home theater, audio/video and what it takes to make a good system a few weeks ago. Like the typical consumer I thought Bose was a good system due to their incredible marketing department, as it turns out nothing could be further from the truth. At this point in time I’ve read for days and hours upon hours of information relating to HT/AV stuff on Audioholics and the AVS forum and I feel fairly confident in the basics of what goes into a good system.
I’ll break this down into individual posts regarding each and every component of my system and why I chose to go the route I did. Not only does this make it easier for reading but in case anybody has a particular question on something I think it’ll make it easier to reference. This will also take up a bit of time… I have lots right now as I’m waiting to fly to NY on the 17th for my final interview with the owner of my soon to be new company.
Please post pictures of what you’re using and what led you to that particular component.
For about the past year and half we’ve been watching at a 50" Hitachi plasma which I’ve been very happy with. Learning to tweak the settings on your set can bring about a whole new level of enjoyment and I highly recommend trying it, write down your current settings first! I don’t have a whole lot to say about the set other than it’s always produced what we consider a great picture with the proper feed to it.
As I mentioned before we really enjoy watching movies and think Netflix is one of the greatest ideas ever, why didn’t I think it up?!?! Up until recently we were using a Panasonic DVD player connected with HDMI and running the set speakers as most people do.
After seeing 9 million advertisements about Blu-Ray on our standard DVDs we decided to make the switch which I’ll go into on the next post.
I’m currently finishing details on my third home theater system (probably not my last). The first was the “in a box” version and like you, at first I liked it. This new system includes Sony Bravia XBR9, Yamaha and Definitive Technology.
The reasons I picked those make sense to me… I have always liked Sony for TV’s and their newest XBR9 is excellent. Yamaha makes great audio equipment and I have used their receivers and CD players for years. The Definitive Technology speakers are outstanding. I had never heard of them, but got to listen to them in a store and read many great reviews.
I liked the 1st Transformers movie and since the 2nd one was coming out in Blu-Ray I decided to make the jump and wanted to educate myself a bit about the options. There are several very good players and there are indeed some really crappy ones as well. Among the AV community Oppo makes the best Blu-Ray players, period. However, you can’t stream Netflix with the Oppo and it’s a bit on the pricey side.
Netflix offers a streaming player called the Roku which is a pretty slick little device but doesn’t offer the best video quality. But rather than purchasing a Blu-Ray player and a Roku why not get something that will do both and more? Enter the LG 390.
After tons of reading & research I decided to go with the LG 390 Blu-Ray player. As a side note Best Buy will price match the best price on Amazon. The 390 has fast loading times and a very good digital upscaler to 1080p. It also boasts Netflix streaming via wireless or ethernet cable, I recommend the cable due to speeds & consistency. Netflix streaming is completely 100% free if you have an account with them! We are consistently getting movies and TV shows streaming in HD that beats out standard DVD quality, this is dependent on your internet speed. We really like the streaming feature, like movies on demand, as it supplements our Blu-Ray discs that are coming via snail mail. You also get access to YouTube, Vudu (similar to Netflix but you pay) and a few other things I can’t remember right now.
All in all I highly recommend the player and the Netflix streaming. The quality with YouTube is surprisingly good on the size of our display although I don’t think we’ll be using it that often. Another nice aspect of the ethernet hook up is updating the firmware on your player to the most current enhancements.
Thanks for joining in! I don’t want this to be just about me but I am going to detail what I’ve been doing the past couple of weeks in setting up my system, hopefully it’ll help others.
I’ve been doing alot of economy stimulating to say the least
We have a 50" samsung touch of red lcd, pany amp, bose 201s and a 12" powered sub. Works fine for us. My stereo is setup is a bit different, late 70s yamaha table, pany receiver, my old yamaha receiver output stage burned up… and infinity quantum jrs. It sounds great. The gear I use the most is down in the studio, that’s way off topic.
We are netflix junkies here too, we use a ps3 for blueray / dvd and playon to stream netflix and from other sites. Netflix just released a disc so you can stream directly with a ps3. I have one on the way, it will be interesting to see how it buffers.
We are very happy with the samsung, it was a top set about a year ago. I agree with cobra, the xbr is a top contender now.
Interesting thread. Hopefully it can become like the gear heads thread and be a master repository.
I go back and forth on this stuff myself. Mostly I’m too OCD to just buy something and leave it alone. I have to buy “the best” that I can afford and I have to tweak it… I haven’t had a decent system in years. The newer video games have me tempted though. I’d like to be able to hear the guys behind me, actually be behind me.
Anyone have a suggestion for a “in the box” that I can connect a couple of game systems and the TV to?
Tag for more info on HT’s. Going to get a 55" LCD for Black Friday and an OOB HT audio system. The TV i’m getting is the 55" Visio at Walmart and maybe a Sony HT system and I’m thinking of a Macmini for a HTPC. Any thoughts on a good HT audio system on a budget?
We definitely needed an upgraded AV stand to house all the crap I intended on buying. My point of view is that I want to buy quality and something that’s going to last for quite a few years. I also didn’t want cheap compressed fiberboard crap. I wanted solid hardwood furniture that was made in the USA if at all possible.
I found a few Canadian companies that made what I thought were really nice setups for HT & AV equipment online but couldn’t find anything I liked in local stores. Nothing against the Canucks but I prefer to spend my $ here in the States if at all possible so the search was on.
Throughout the system setup you’ll find that I’m going to be using Internet Direct or ID companies consistently. The reason for this is getting the most bang for my buck and with internet forums such as AVS you get enough positive & negative reviews of products to determine which one’s will fit your needs. ID companies cut out the middle man, reduce overhead for themselves, typically you don’t pay sales tax and generally offer a superior product than at retail stores. On average with speakers the typical numbers you read say an ID company that offers a $1k speaker will compare to a $2k speaker at a retail store due to how much they need to mark them up so everyone can maintain a certain profit margin. Along with that ID companies tend to be alot more passionate about what they’re doing in my opinion.
SD has incredible customer service! Their CS Mgr. Alan is available basically 24 hours a day through e-mail and typically responds within 30 minutes and on several occasions as late as 9pm.
The shipping was free to my house and Con-Way, the delivery service, showed up 2 hours late… On top of that they punctured the side of the box with a forklift and damaged the unit. It was 6pm when I contacted Alan to let him know I was refusing the order and within the hour I had an e-mail reflecting a new unit being sent to my house the next day with upgraded delivery service for free. Not only was he extremely apologetic about Con-Way but promised to ensure my happiness with their company in anyway possible, within reason obviously.
I’m expecting the unit to be here on Monday the 16th and will post pictures for anyone who’d like to see them.
On another note I forgot… I originally requested clear glass and with a little more thought decided to go for the grey glass. I contacted Alan the day it was shipping, oops!, and instsead of pulling the clear he just added the grey glass in another box at no charge with a note saying take our pick! I highly recommend this company.
Rob - I recommend checking out http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=109 for HTIB. I believe Onkyo makes some of the most well respected HTIB systems but look around there for a few minutes and you’ll find tons of info. Good luck!
Now on to the mothership We needed something to power all our new components & speakers with the ability to decode and process all the newest, latest & greatest digital formats for the best audio & video possible.
I set a budget of $1000 for an AV reciever and decided I would not go over this, I can’t say the same for my speaker budget. After perusing, researching and reading a ton of information I ended up buying the Onkyo 707 from www.newegg.com and would recommend them highly as well.
One of the major reasons I went with this AVR is the addition of preouts on it. Preouts are in case you want to add additional amplification at a later time and this was important to me as it adds some “future proofing” or not having to upgrade as soon. It has very good AV processing and has a great amount of HDMI inputs and outputs. Denon is the main competitor to Onkyo but in order to get everything you get with the Onkyo you would have to spend alot more money in the process. In everything I’ve researched that is currently on the market the Onkyo 707 is the absolute best mid-receiver you can buy and offers the most bang for the buck. So far I’ve only hooked it up to an old pair of JBL L100s and scared the shit out of the dog
The 707s MSRP is $900 and I got it from Newegg for $599 with no sales tax and free shipping! I was extremely happy with this deal but come to find out yesterday, I got mine a week ago, they were offering a free Onkyo iPod adaptor. I contacted Newegg and asked them about this, without a question they popped one in the mail to me and the UPS man delivered it today
Another ID company providing exceptional customer service and I highly recommend them. You can also get e-mails sent to you when a particular item goes on sale if you’re interested.
Onkyo is good stuff, I also really like Harmon Kardon. I have both by the Onkyo is currently in the closet while the HK is hooked up. Just don’t skimp on speakers. I made that mistake and will have to go back and get better ones here eventually.
My only complaint about the HK is the remote. IT SUCKS!
Denon and Yamaha are also very good as others have mentioned.
wow, i must be in the minority. i found no need for a huge HT system. i use a samsung 1080 TV, a PS3 for bluray discs, and a Bowers and Wilkins ipod stereo that doubles as TV speakers. minimalist, to say the least
my living room
i do love the sound of the B&W though. i’ve heard some of their other products, and it was very pleasant. my expertise is almost nil in this area, FWIW
Started off with a Pioneer Elite VSX-59TXi AV/Receiver, B&W 803D fronts, ASW855 sub, HTM2D center, SCMS surrounds. Kept the speakers and have been playing with various integrated and component pieces ever since. It is indeed another expensive hobby.
And as for the boat, get the kid in the boat and on the water sooner rather than later. My niece “skied” solo last summer at age 4. Kids ski vest with an old style ski belt wrapped around that and she floated like a cork. She had been skiing with my dad (who still skis at age 70 thank you very much) on his disk even before that.
Janitor… very clean room… reminds me of our kid’s place in cinti.
I should be getting the netflix/ps3 disk in a day or two. I’ll post how it performs compared to the playon software. the playon buffers and times out constantly, seems like every update it gets worse.
Irish, I’m not the biggest fan of bose either, but for the cost you may want to check out the 301s with a good decent sub. My son has the 301s with a harmon kardon 5.1 system w/powered sub. It sounds amazing.I do not like to push the sub with my 201s, just enough to cover the lows the bose lack.
use hdmi 2.0 and optic cables everywhere you can, it really makes a big difference.
My current setup.
Denon AVR-689 (I was on a budget at the time) to replace my NAD AV-716 that went tits up.
Paradigm Titan Monitors Left/Right Stage
Paradigm Mini Monitors Rear Stage
Paradigm CC-190 Center Stage
Energy ESW10 Powered Sub-woofer (Fake Plant Stand) :eek:
Samsung Up-converting DVD player (have not made the jump to Blue-Ray)
Vizio VP505 Plasma TV (CNet Editors Choice in 2008)
I’m very happy with the Denon (not my first choice), I will most likely upgrade to a NAD Receiver again in the future.
The Plasma TV is Fantastic.
I have been into home theater for many years, I have never had the cash to layout for the finest though.
My current “room” is ~12’x14’ and this system is more than adequate for me.
Photo…
Photo take with my D70 and a Nikkor 16mm F2.8D Fisheye lens.
Oh, in case you are wondering…YES, I’m a bachelor…
The focus of this thread isn’t just on what I’m building but also for input from everyone here who’s wanting to discuss their system or individual components and also for people to ask questions and gain information.
The next one will be bigger & faster, go Schiada! 
