Any home audio geeks out there?

[MZ-N10]

this really doestn add anything to teh original topic but since so many ppl want new tvs, theres a panasonic 56" DLP lcd projector at frys for 1499. not sure how good it is but i picked one up for my parents

[TechnoPope]

A good cd player!!?
http://www.highdefforum.com/showthread.php?t=25018

[Locomigo]

Good luck with the Yamaha. I hope it lasts.

Yes, Arcam is pricy, but the HDMI... well I just dont know that is the be all end all, and I perfectly happy going optical/coaxial on the audio and component on video. With that situation, the Arcam model I referenced would have worked out for you. Not to mention that I do have a LOT of connections and may have been able to work something out for ya.

No worries though. I am sure the Yamaha will be an acceptable choice, not the one I would have selected due to quality issues i have experienced, but not bad.

You shouldnt have any issue getting surrounds, CD Player (do you really need one? Does the DVD player not function appropriately? :P), and accessories (read my previous post RE: cables. if you pay for monster, even with the homeboy hookup, you need your head examined. If you want to just throw money away, I will gladly accept it. )

Good luck.

BTW, you freakin guys ever gonna come out wheelin or what????

Sorry, I am in a bit of a cantankerous mood today.

[biju]

So for anybody paying attention, if you have anything less than the Yamaha RX-V2600 for a receiver you have equipment that's 'unacceptable'. LOL...

Just jarin' with ya...

Good point. The Samsung could pull double duty as the CD player. Never really gave that any thought until now... strange. If that's the case, then I'd like to use the money saved for an upgraded sub. The PDR-12 is Paradigm's bottom of the line sub... And I do love me some crisp, clean, low bass...! Have any good hookups for Paradigm? Preferably the PW-2100! If you do, then I'll talk to the rep about a return as it's (the pdr) still brand new in the box~!

-biju.

[etlsport]

i put low powered (25w) bass shakers in all the couches in my living room.. doesnt add any sound, but you really feel the movies, i love it! it was cheap too, i think 40 bucks/ sofa (2 in each)... thatll help out with your 'low end' sub haha

[Andrey]

Well, I am having setup for several years Sony pre-amp and amp TAN9000ES and TAE9000ES, 9000ED DVD player, NEC 50MP1 plasma, 2 PV-HD1000 hdtv d-vhs vcrs, TU-DST50/51 hdtv tuners. Bose acoustimass 10 III. JVC 30000 d-vhs vcr. I am very happy with everything I have... I just need more time to enjoy it as for the most of its life it was sitting not doing anything

PS check out avsforum.com lotsa good advice and knowledge there.....

[Locomigo]

So for anybody paying attention, if you have anything less than the Yamaha RX-V2600 for a receiver you have equipment that's 'unacceptable'. LOL...

-biju.

You got it. Anything else (not at that 'minimum standard') SUCKS! >; -)~

Um, not sure, I will have to look and see about Paradigm, but in the meantime check out.


www.velodyne.com
Freakin AMAZING subwoofers that ROCK! Only thing I like ALMOST as much as B&W speakers...and Arcam receivers.
DLS-4000R is a great choice.
VRP-1200 is not bad.
DPS-12 is somewhat better.

If money were no object, the DD-12 is the BOMB!

www.sunfire.com are also great subs but pricey!



For the surrounds, did you look at the:
Boston Acoustics - VR-MX?
EAW (Eastern Acoustic Works)?
KEF Audio?
Wharfedale?

Some of these came to mind after the other recommendations I provided.

[Hotsauce]

The rest of the main system:



Tweaked Wadia 20, my CD transport.


Audio Note 3.1X signature DA Canverter



Canary dual mono preamp.



Marchand tubed active crossover.

Magnum Dynalab MD-102 tuner

Sunfire Signature sub

Several RGPC power conditioners

Lots of silly wires.

John C.

[WyrreJ]

Bass Shakers are AWESOME. Nothing special for music, but for movies they are great - especially if you live in a condo/apartment/duplex instead of a detached because you will get to really feel the bass in those scenes with explosions and dinosaur stomps but your neighbors will never even notice.

You can buy them from here: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=299-028

You will need an amp to drive them, but no need for anything fancy, just get the cheapest thing you can find that has enough juice.

Meanwhile don't bother even looking at a Paradigm sub. Unlike speakers - where you want them all to be from the same "family" so that you get atleast semi-consistent timbre across all of them (particularly noticeable in pans) - subs don't share many frequencies in common with regular speakers so there is no issue of timbre matching.

For subs it is always best to go with companies that specialize in sub-woofers - the speaker companies usually treat their sub-woofers as a check-list item so that consumers can "feel good" that they bought all dem noise-makers from the same company. Some brands with a reputation for good bang-for-the-buck are Hsu, Velodyne and SVS.

[WormGod]

Not to go off note, but simply to plug some zesty Pioneer video info....

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/11363/...rs-Nationwide/

Pretty slick.... yet pricey.

[AnalogVX]

Damn Hotsuace, you got me drooling! Dared has some really nice stuff. I like my VP-16 integrated, but it has devoloped a hum in the left channel So I am forced to have to listen to my Marantz 8B. Oh the agony!

[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.

[Hotsauce]

Vinyl is the original high definition format. Digital symply doesn't have the dynamic range that a record does. Digital is a jagged edge that approximates an analog waveform. It doesn't have the secondary harmonics that a real analog recording has.

Its the same difference between a poor quality MP3 recording and a CD, ecxept a record doesn't have a sampling rate, its a real analog waveform.

Biju: I think the choice of turntable wil not be as much difference as the cart you use on it, and those 2 not as signifigant as what phono pre you use. A $20 garage sale turntable and a tubed phono stage will kill $1000 table/cart combo fed into a solid state pre.

Remastered usually means ruined. In most cases there is less background noise, but all dynamics are gone because of the compression used to supress noise. The wort 2 examples I can think of are Billy Joel - Glass Houses, and Jethro Tull - Aqualung. probably the worst 2 CD's ever made vs the record.

This link may help you understand.

http://www.xanga.com/sonickGQ/501878133/item.html

John C.

[WyrreJ]

You are talking about first gen masterings to CD which were often crap. I'm talking about double and triple dipping by the record labels where they RE-master from the original studio tapes and have FINALLY got it right. Just because a recording is on CD does not mean it must be over-compressed.

The record labels are pursuing this route because they can't sell their new artists to anyone who is not brainwashed by MTV, so in order to keep milking that market segment they keep releasing the same albums again and again. Except for artists like Jimi Hendrix who are constantly recording new tracks from beyond the grave, the only thing they can offer to convince people to rebuy CDs that they already have is with improved sound quality.

For example, just about the entire Rolling Stones catalog has been remastered (for SACD, but the same masters were used to make the CD layers on the same discs that only golden ears with solid-silver cables can distinguish from the DSD versions). Similarly most of Yes, Rush, Sabbath (Ozzy Years), Steely Dan, AC/DC, CSN(Y), Simon & Garfunkel, Dylan, etc name almost any great group from before the 80s and their stuff is getting remastered the right way. Even the Tull catalog has received a make-over, yet somehow they still can't get Aqualung right - at least not mainstream CD releases - DCC did a good job, just about indistinguishable from their vinyl edition.

So, for those albums, the difference is no longer equivalent to a poor-quality MP3 vs a CD, it is more like a high-quality MP3 - say 220Kbps VBR Joint-Stereo and the CD it was ripped from. Which is to stay, indistinguishable for 99% of the population.

And to take it one step further - there are plenty of crap-quality vinyl pressings - 'fixing' them is how boutiques like DCC and MoFi got started. Unless you've got an audiophile label pressing or an expectionally well engineered mainstream release, the correctly (re)mastered CD versions won't just equal it, it will greatly surpass it. Super-22Khz harmonics just don't mean jack when the base frequencies are lo-fi - and for those frequencies a properly mastered CD does not just approximate a waveform it exactly reproduces it. Nyquist's theorem is for all practical purposes an indisputable law of nature, just like the laws of gravity and electromagnetism.