Tips to Start Your Next Home Theater

[mealto]

Given that most users here are tech and PC savvy, thought I would start my first post with some tips for putting together a home theater.

 

Home theaters mean different things to different people. Some may only consider it a true home theater when there is a 120 inch projector screen and $10K worth of equipment to shake the house, crack drywall and flex the concrete in your foundation. These days, it's not unheard of to enjoy a very modest set up in your living room for games, movies, music and even cable TV. Let's get started.

 

IMPORTANT: Most people think home theaters mean high quality sound and audio. As someone who has been a long time hobbyist in the audio / video arena, I tend to associate home theater with a fun experience... for you and whoever gets to come and enjoy your setup.

 

Given that we are looking to achieve a fun experience, here is what I would do if I was to start to build a modest home theater.

 

1. Look to slowly add to your gear over time. Unless you have a big enough budget to pick up all your gear right away.
2. A home theater for movies, music and gaming, you will need a TV - personally, I stay away from 3D TV's as I don't enjoy it
3. You will need an A/V receiver to power your speakers, accept all input (probably HDMI these days) and send video signal to TV. Most of the brand names like Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer will do a similar job in the entry to mid level price range. I prefer Denon as I know their audio calibration system, audyssey, does a good job right out of the box.
4. If budget allows, I would start with a 5.1 setup ie. 5 speakers and 1 sub. If not, consider saving up enough for 2.1 (2 speakers + sub). Contrary to popular belief, 2.1 almost always beats out on 3 speakers for a starter system
5. Most people think floor standing speakers are better than bookshelves. This may or may not be true. A $500 pair of Paradigms may sound better than a $700-$900 pair of floor standing speakers (less the bass). But don't let the "less bass" fool you. That is where you .1 comes in. You want a good sub so your can dial your A/V receiver to dish out all low end bass to your sub. More on this later.
6. Center channel and sub woofer are the 2 most important speakers in your set up.
7. Speaker brands sound different to different people. Some may prefer the warmer / more neutral sound of Paradigms and others may prefer the crips high and sound stage of Klipsche horn speakers. Go listen and compare how you like each brand versus the price you have to pay.
8. Stay away from home theater in a box where possible. More often than not, most people with this will end up spending more money to upgrade at a later date.
9. Speakers is where you should spend most of your budget. Computers, servers, electronics, A/V receivers have a short life cycle when compared to a good set of speakers. Most home theater buffs will keep their good speakers for 10+ years and still enjoy them after that.
10. Save up as much money as possible for the sub. To enjoy movies and booming music with the family once a month, a $500 sub will be fun. To enjoy moves often, really feel the pipe organ rumble your sofa, you will need to spend $1000 (in Canada, less from the US). Unless you follow a specific retailer where they blow out a particular Klipsch sub for $299 but this is not the norm. To scare your house mates or family when they are not in the same room, and to feel the sub-sonic (not hear) frequencies between 10-20 Hz, you will need to spend $1500-$2000 (Canada and US). Beyond that, most enthusiast will run dual subs to even out the frequency response in a room. And anyone who runs more than 2 subs are just bass heads... we have love for you too! Funny how users who spend an enormous amount of money to get high fidelity music are called audiophiles where users who spend crazy money to feel sub sonic bass (less than 20 HZ) are called bass heads.
11. Once you have a good sub, you should crossover on your receiver to 80Hz. This will send the bass from your speakers to your sub. Even if you have floor standing, you may want to consider this. It will free up your receiver power to push clean power to your speakers and let the sub do the heavy lifting. It is VERY taxing on a receiver to output 60Hz of bass to your speakers.

The biggest take away is that the home theater should be fun. The more money you spend, normally the better the quality of gear and the more fun you will have. But, there is a diminishing rate of return. You will see a huge jump in fun factor from a $500 system to a $1000 system. Then another from $1000 to $2000. Then from $2000 - $3000. Anything beyond this, you are probably a hobbyist already.

 

Don't worry about needing $2K - $3K to build your theater. This is NOT a PC build where you need all the up front money now. Most users build their theaters over time.

 

This is off the top of my head. If you have any questions, just ask on this thread. Or, if you are a super enthusiast looking to re-model your basement to build a large scale home theater, still ask. If I can help, I will. If you want to see pics of how people crack their stairs and drywall from running 8+ subs in the theaters, then search that on the Internet

 

Edit: Thanks to @knight_40k for taking the time to write up some good tips. Initially, I was going to merge our posts but I have not heard back from our admins as to how I can edit his post. In addition, setting up a home theater is often times not black or white. In the hopes of helping as many people as possible, I have decided to not merge any tips provided in this thread. It's already clear that suggestions may differ and we should respect and debate the issues at hand. I see lots of good advice here already. keep them coming.

[knight_40k]

I will collaborate with you further for more in depth details if you are interested. I am a huge home theater enthusiast.

 

EDIT: I will be collaborating with Mealto to get more information across to people who are wanting to start building a Home Theater. The information below will be incorporated into his original post when he has time to do so. I will add more later on. Enjoy! Thanks to Mealto for starting this thread.

 

1. Look to slowly add to your gear over time. Unless you have a big enough budget to pick up all your gear right away.

 

1) Solid advice. The best way to avoid buyers remorse is to do it right the first time. Buy better quality stuff slowly, over time, rather than trying to put a whole system together on a set/tight budget. You will be glad you did.
 

2. A home theater for movies, music and gaming, you will need a TV - personally, I stay away from 3D TV's as I don't enjoy it

 

2) I don't really understand what you are trying to say. Obviously you will need a TV, but maybe recommend a size like 42"- 60" for the average user depending on room size? I also agree, stay away from 3D.

 

2a) TV vs projector - TV offers greater picture clarity however, projectors are still amazing and offer substantially larger screen sizes.

2b) Then there is LED, LCD, Plasma debate. (more on that later)

 

3. You will need an A/V receiver to power your speakers, accept all input (probably HDMI these days) and send video signal to TV. Most of the brand names like Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer will do a similar job in the entry to mid level price range. I prefer Denon as I know their audio calibration system, audyssey, does a good job right out of the box.

 

3) You don't NEED a receiver as their are other options like HTIB (home theater in box), but suggest that receivers are a better option and will offer more features, power and connectivity. Onkyo is also a popular brand you should list and also uses audyssey calibration, like Denon.
 

4. If budget allows, I would start with a 5.1 setup ie. 5 speakers and 1 sub. If not, consider saving up enough for 2.1 (2 speakers + sub). Contrary to popular belief, 2.1 almost always beats out on 3 speakers for a starter system

 

4) 5.1 is the most common and standard setup for home theaters. Along with point #1, going with a better quality 2.1 or 2.0 (if you cannot afford full 5.1 at the time) is the better way to go. Then later on you will want to add the center channel and a sub. Lastly add your surround speakers. IMPORTANT: NEVER MIX AND MATCH BRANDS/LINE of speaker if you can avoid it, stick with the same brand, and more specifically, the same line of speaker. While everything will still work mixing brands, you will not have a perfect timber/tonal match which may leave you unsatisfied over time. One exception to matching is when it comes to subs. Subs do not need to match the brand of speaker you own because low frequency is much less distinct to the human ear.

4a) Note that a well placed 5.1 system sounds much better than a poorly placed 7.1 does.

4b) Going beyond 7.1, to 9.1 or 11.1 (at this point in time) will require a "top tier" receiver in the $1200 price range (for 9.1) or $2500+ for full 11.1 and will also require, at additional cost, an external 2 channel amp to run the extra 2 speakers. Again, at this point in time, depending on 9.1 models some may require an external amp for 9.1 while others may have the 9 amps built in.

4c) Most 7.1 receivers these days have the Audyssey DSX and/or DTS NEO X listening modes which allow you to customize your traditional 7.1 setup. This gives you a lot more flexibility for speaker placement in awkward shaped rooms as well greatly increases the front sound stage. These modes give you the option to replace your "rear" speakers for either "height" or "wide", and as most movie content goes, the rears don't see a lot, so you gain more effect from the height/wide. If you have 9.1 you have even more options for speaker configuration such as height/wide, wide/rear or height/rear, and with full 11.1 you get it all.

 

5. Most people think floor standing speakers are better than bookshelves. This may or may not be true. A $500 pair of Paradigms may sound better than a $700-$900 pair of floor standing speakers (less the bass). But don't let the "less bass" fool you. That is where you .1 comes in. You want a good sub so your can dial your A/V receiver to dish out all low end bass to your sub. More on this later.

 

5) Bookshelf vs tower - go with what you can afford and what makes sense for your room aesthetically. Many people don't like large towers in their living space due to room size, the hazards of playing children and pets, or their wives (no offense ladies) do not like the look of beastly speakers in the living room, this is commonly known as "WAF" (Wife Acceptance Factor or Wife Approval Factor).

5a) Towers (usually) are louder and offer more frequency range than bookshelf due to larger cabinet/driver size, but this is heavily dependent on the quality of speaker you buy.

5b) Subs do not make up for lack of bass in your speakers. You want your speakers to be able to handle a wide range of frequency, both high and mid/low, let the subs handle the deep low end. An example of this is if you are using dinky satellite speakers (HTIB, Bose, etc), you are heavily lacking mid range and adding a bunch of subs will not make your speakers sound less hollow or add more depth.
 

6. Center channel and sub woofer are the 2 most important speakers in your set up.

 

6) Actually the front left, right and center are most important, because they receive the most content, however back to #5b, subs are equally important if you are going for true theater experience and/or if you like a lot/some bass. Home theaters do not NEED to include a sub as some people are perfectly happy with the amount of mid/low end their speakers provide. This of course is up to the individual.

 

6b) note that the horizontal layout of center channel speakers make them "compromise" speakers. They are marketed as center speakers because they are easy to place under the TV in a home environment. While a same line of speaker is using the same materials and are made to go together, they will carry slightly different characteristics in terms of sound due to the physical size/shape. The center channels main purpose is dialog, making it extremely vital to your system so why would you compromise this? So consider if you are building a 5.1 system using all bookshelf speakers, rather than buying a matching center channel speaker, consider buying a single bookshelf to use as a center channel. This is as close to perfection as it gets. If you are using towers as main speakers, TRY to incorporate a tower center. I know this is much harder to do but it is truly worth it. Not that it will sound bad using towers, bookshelf and center in a system, but in an ideal sound system you want the same exact speaker for every speaker in your system, unfortunately for the average person this is not an option. Do whatever makes sense for your situation.
 

7. Speaker brands sound different to different people. Some may prefer the warmer / more neutral sound of Paradigms and others may prefer the crips high and sound stage of Klipsche horn speakers. Go listen and compare how you like each brand versus the price you have to pay.

 

7) Very true, speakers are extremely subjective and sound different to everyone, you need to listen for yourself to see what sounds best to you.

7a) Klipsch doesn't have a "e" on the end

 

8. Stay away from home theater in a box where possible. More often than not, most people with this will end up spending more money to upgrade at a later date.

 

8) 100% correct, maybe link this in with #3.

 

------UNABLE TO ADD MORE QUOTES SO RED IS ORIGINAL POST------

9. Speakers is where you should spend most of your budget. Computers, servers, electronics, A/V receivers have a short life cycle when compared to a good set of speakers. Most home theater buffs will keep their good speakers for 10+ years and still enjoy them after that.

 

9) True, but usually you tend to keep your receiver longer than you would your computer, the life cycle is a little longer for most people I think.

 

10. Save up as much money as possible for the sub. To enjoy movies and booming music with the family once a month, a $500 sub will be fun. To enjoy moves often, really feel the pipe organ rumble your sofa, you will need to spend $1000 (in Canada, less from the US). Unless you follow a specific retailer where they blow out a particular Klipsch sub for $299 but this is not the norm. To scare your house mates or family when they are not in the same room, and to feel the sub-sonic (not hear) frequencies between 10-20 Hz, you will need to spend $1500-$2000 (Canada and US). Beyond that, most enthusiast will run dual subs to even out the frequency response in a room. And anyone who runs more than 2 subs are just bass heads... we have love for you too! Funny how users who spend an enormous amount of money to get high fidelity music are called audiophiles where users who spend crazy money to feel sub sonic bass (less than 20 HZ) are called bass heads.

 

10) Don't forget to mention that 8"-10" subs are used mostly for music, while 12" and larger are more for movies. That's not to say you can't use smaller subs for movies, depending on your living situation (condo, neighboring walls, etc) a 8"-10" will still add the extra umph without bothering others (too much) depending on volumes.

10a) Buying an ID sub (Internet Direct) is the best bang for buck vs buying a sub from a mainstream company. Recommended ID brands are SVS, HSU and Rythmik.

10b) Unless you are a bass head, 1 sub is usually enough, but sometimes with larger rooms you need 2 or more subs because 1 just won't cut it.

 

11. Once you have a good sub, you should crossover on your receiver to 80Hz. This will send the bass from your speakers to your sub. Even if you have floor standing, you may want to consider this. It will free up your receiver power to push clean power to your speakers and let the sub do the heavy lifting. It is VERY taxing on a receiver to output 60Hz of bass to your speakers.

 

11) True, but don't forget to add some subs have their own crossover dial on the back. You want to turn this slightly offset (either way) to 80Hz or whatever you set on your receiver to avoid any interference.
 

------------------------

 

topics to add (more to come)

- choosing a receiver - pick the feature set you that best suits your needs.

- Dont get sucked in to the 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 marketing. You can add multiple subs to any receiver with a RCA Y splitter.

- Room acoustics greatly affect how a system performs/sounds. Not all rooms are created equal, you may find yourself needing heavy sound dampening drapes, area rugs, or other acoustical treatments.

[mealto]

I will collaborate with you further for more in depth details if you are interested. I am a huge home theater enthusiast.

Nice, my goal to start this thread was to give back to the community that has helped me so much. The first 2 responses I get from @TheRuke and @CreepingMoth, both long time users here based on their post counts was that of utter disbelief. I read Linux welcome message and these responses were not what I was expecting given this is time I am donating back to the tech community.

[defunkt]

Nice, my goal to start this thread was to give back to the community that has helped me so much. The first 2 responses I get from @TheRuke and @CreepingMoth, both long time users here based on their post counts was that of utter disbelief. I read Linux welcome message and these responses were not what I was expecting given this is time I am donating back to the tech community.

I was peeved that you posted about your post... about five minutes later

[ejm_110]

Thank you for starting this. My questions:

 

1. What is 0 and 180 phase on my subwoofer, what is their purpose? I noticed that when it was on 0 the sound is very dull, I cannot clearly hear much the crispness of the guitar solo but when I turned it to 180, I noticed that only the low freq bass are being output in the sub. Explain please. 

 

2. In my sub woofer, there two speaker connector in the back... How, why and do i need to use it?

 

The HT system is from my father, it is old and the receiver is not even digital yet (no optical and hdmi inputs). Surround is virtual (dsp, pro logic yada yada). I am planning to buy a new receiver. Speakers are still superb. Again thank you for starting this, I am overwhelmed by other HT/Audiophile forums.

[mealto]

Hey ejm_110, not to worry too much about the phase setting on your sub yet. That is either the 0-180 switch (0 or 180) or the 0-180 dial (anywhere between 0-180). For now, set it to 0. This works more than 90% of the time.

 

What we need to determine now:

 

1. Sounds like you have a Dolby Pro Logic receiver, the last gen right before digital became popular. It should still have a sub out RCA port. Does it?
2. Does your sub have RCA in port(s) also known as line (or line level) input? Or only the speaker wire connectors (speaker input) or both?

What stage are you now? Trying to set it up? And how many speakers do you have? Best is to find your receiver manual online an post the link. That way, we can see what you are seeing.

 

In short, you need to tell your receiver how many speakers you have and you need to configure both the receiver and sub properly.

 

You are lucky to get some good speakers from your dad. Most can only dream of this.

[knight_40k]

1. What is 0 and 180 phase on my subwoofer, what is their purpose? I noticed that when it was on 0 the sound is very dull, I cannot clearly hear much the crispness of the guitar solo but when I turned it to 180, I noticed that only the low freq bass are being output in the sub. Explain please. 

 

2. In my sub woofer, there two speaker connector in the back... How, why and do i need to use it?

 

1) My understanding is you want to set the phase to whichever outputs the most bass. How do you find this? Simple, play a track you know has a lot of bass for a minute or two and flip the switch until you notice a difference. It may be very subtle in some cases, within 1-2db, but use whichever sounds best to you.

 

2) The speaker connectors in the back of the sub are used as a pass through. If your amp doesn't have a RCA "sub out", you couldn't send a signal to a sub so this way you could run speaker wire from the amp into the sub and then from the sub out to the speaker, but most of the time you don't use those connectors.

[mr moose]

I would also add that a cheap SPL meter can be a great investment for Home theatre.  With that you can tune in your system.  To do so, you simply set the SPL meter up in the listening position and set it to the 75dB range.  Most if not all new receivers have a function for playing pink noise through each speaker one at a time, and settings for adjusting the individual volume for each speaker until they all measure exactly the same.  Once this is done you'll notice a great difference in music and movies.

 

A tip for positioning the sub is to place the sub in the listening position (as best as possible) and while playing a 20, 30 or 40Hz sine wave move around the room until you find the place were the bass sounds the best (tightest and loudest) that is the postilion the sub will work the best (hopefully it is not in front of the screen or in the middle of the door :lol: ).

[mealto]

mr moose, an SPL works well. I assume you are suggesting this to the poster with the older receiver. To me, I would save the money on the SPL, if I didn't have one alread , and put that money towards a new receiver that has auto calibration (like Audyssey using the included microphone). Hard core users may not like Audyssey but for us average joes, it usually does a good job right out of the box. Come on, the receiver has technology to equalize your room based on it's frequency response. Use it!

[mr moose]

mr moose, an SPL works well. I assume you are suggesting this to the poster with the older receiver. To me, I would save the money on the SPL, if I didn't have one alread , and put that money towards a new receiver that has auto calibration (like Audyssey using the included microphone). Hard core users may not like Audyssey but for us average joes, it usually does a good job right out of the box. Come on, the receiver has technology to equalize your room based on it's frequency response. Use it!

I wasn't really aiming it at anyone just throwing the info out there into the mix.

 

But I guess depends how much the Audessey receiver is where people are,  a suitable SPL mater can be had for $30.  Which to me is very worthwhile when people are spending upward of $300 on their amps.   Plus an SPL can be used if people decide to go the component route and have several 2 channel amps instead of a one receiver amp.

 

Admittedly I am biased toward this approach because I measure rooms and install P.A on the side.  Nothing speaks to me louder than a waterfall graph of a room.

[mealto]

Admittedly I am biased toward this approach because I measure rooms and install P.A on the side.  Nothing speaks to me louder than a waterfall graph of a room.

Yes, love the waterfall graphs. And no pro installer I have spoken to likes Audyssey. Not sure if it's because they really think it does a crappy job or it replaces their job. Probably a bit of both?

 

For me, since Audyssey, the SPL has never been used after I confirmed that Audyssey calibrated pretty darn close to what the SPL shows. I am not a pro-calibrator so before auto calibration, I would spend hours on end tweaking and testing channel volume and mostly sub volume to try and get the best sound. With current Audyssey technology, I spend less than 1 hour testing and doing a quick manual override afterwards on some settings and get to use my time to enjoy movies instead of re-calibrating again and again lol

[mr moose]

Yes, love the waterfall graphs. And no pro installer I have spoken to likes Audyssey. Not sure if it's because they really think it does a crappy job or it replaces their job. Probably a bit of both?

 

For me, since Audyssey, the SPL has never been used after I confirmed that Audyssey calibrated pretty darn close to what the SPL shows. I am not a pro-calibrator so before auto calibration, I would spend hours on end tweaking and testing channel volume and mostly sub volume to try and get the best sound. With current Audyssey technology, I spend less than 1 hour testing and doing a quick manual override afterwards on some settings and get to use my time to enjoy movies instead of re-calibrating again and again lol

I have no experience with Audyssey, so I can't comment on it, but I do live and breath room acoustics,  sometimes I don't even need the SPL meter or measurement software to tell me what's wrong.

[Guest]

Never cross over at 80Hz. That's smack bang in the middle of your kick drum. Why do you think on most mixers the low EQ pot is at 80Hz? 

 

Thank you for starting this. My questions:

 

1. What is 0 and 180 phase on my subwoofer, what is their purpose? I noticed that when it was on 0 the sound is very dull, I cannot clearly hear much the crispness of the guitar solo but when I turned it to 180, I noticed that only the low freq bass are being output in the sub. Explain please. 

 

2. In my sub woofer, there two speaker connector in the back... How, why and do i need to use it?

 

The HT system is from my father, it is old and the receiver is not even digital yet (no optical and hdmi inputs). Surround is virtual (dsp, pro logic yada yada). I am planning to buy a new receiver. Speakers are still superb. Again thank you for starting this, I am overwhelmed by other HT/Audiophile forums.

1. The phase control is to cancel out for sound waves being cancelled out. Sound works on the principal of vibration. If you've got two subwoofers firing at each other, you'll want to enable phase reverse on one of them. Otherwise if they're left both on the same phase firing at each other, the sound waves will cancel out. 

2. Probably fixed crossover outs. Pic? 

[iain]

If anyone is thinking they want a killer sub. i would recoment the SVS PC 13 Ultra. This Thing Will Blow Your Socks Off Or Your face . Also Onkyo Make very simple but good sounding av recivers. but if you are very series about music a good mixture between the 2 would be most things from parasound and Primare. Hope this help anyone also One of the best center speakers affter lots off testing is. http://www.definitivetech.com/products/c-l-r2002. The Crossover off your sub could be set to 80 hertz for THX but the crossover refears to how low your speakers can go before the sub takes over you can set this to what ever you want try them and decied what you like best some good home therater sence are in the first matrix. such as the lobby shootout and roof top heli crash. and the sence in the seccond film were neo fights loads of agents.

[mealto]

Never cross over at 80Hz. That's smack bang in the middle of your kick drum. Why do you think on most mixers the low EQ pot is at 80Hz?

Unless you have speakers that can truly handle low bass (probably will cost you $2000 and up a pair), it's best to set the crossover on the receiver to 80Hz. This will send bass below (rolling of course, not a sharp drop) 80Hz from all speaker channels to the sub. This means you have to have a decent sub that can handle it.

 

And if you have very small, say rear speakers, you may even need to set those to cross at 100 or even 120 Hz. Most newer receivers will be able to set crossover points for fronts, rears and center independently.

 

It's been well documented that 80Hz is a good set up for the majority of home theater enthusiasts.

[mr moose]

My crossovers are set at 50Hz, this is primarily due to the fact it sounds best there but also because my mains are good down to 40Hz, so the crossover is almost invisible.  My system is just not designed for a higher crossover point.

[iain]

80 hertz is THX standered and trusted live sound is compleatly different to home theater.

[iain]

And also I ment set 80 on the receiver.

[knight_40k]

Unless you are into 2 channel music without a sub, most people set their crossover to 80Hz in a home theater environment even if the speakers are capable of playing lower than 80Hz. This is of course up to the individual.

[mr moose]

Unless you are into 2 channel music without a sub, most people set their crossover to 80Hz in a home theater environment even if the speakers are capable of playing lower than 80Hz. This is of course up to the individual.

Without a sub you wouldn't have the crossover set at all would you?  Mine is dictated by the speakers and room acoustics.

[knight_40k]

Without a sub you wouldn't have the crossover set at all would you?  Mine is dictated by the speakers and room acoustics.

 

Correct, then the speaker dictates what frequencies its capable of playing. I have 2ch A-B speaker selection set through my preamp to choose between my towers and my higher end bookshelves, with or without a sub, depending what music I'm listening to. Or sometimes I listen in 7.1.

[gardening]

A tip for positioning the sub is to place the sub in the listening position (as best as possible) ....... (hopefully it is not in front of the screen or in the middle of the door :lol: ).

 

O mei, that is what happened me then thrice! I used the mentioned method, but:

best positions are

1. ~ in the middle of the room,

2. directly before the full glass terrace door, and

3. before a narrow ~ passageway.

After that it wasn't really that good to differ, so I started with this method: let's try that position... so we won't fall over the speaker or get 'eye-bleed' for/about the rooms appearance

Lot's of fun to find a RL acceptable position with a ~ 30kg speaker

 

Not up-to-date for todays best..., but at that time the B&W were the best 5er I could find for my ears (with a tad reduced sound levels) and the sub is a 9"-10" THX Teufel speaker with nice music abilities (not too over the top / obstrusive)

 

 

 

My 2ct:

the sounds of non electronic amplifier (I so hope the term is right) and electronic amplifier differ IMHO, so some ppl might enjoy to try to hear the differences.

But be aware: the amplifiers/receivers I know with non electronic amplifiers are rather 'old fashioned' equipped, as in e.g. no HDMI....

One old Stereo system is still in use (~ '78) and in the living room 'lives' a 5.1 - both Harman & Kardon non electronic amplifiers

[mr moose]

O mei, that is what happened me then thrice! I used the mentioned method, but:

best positions are

1. ~ in the middle of the room,

2. directly before the full glass terrace door, and

3. before a narrow ~ passageway.

After that it wasn't really that good to differ, so I started with this method: let's try that position... so we won't fall over the speaker or get 'eye-bleed' for/about the rooms appearance

Lot's of fun to find a RL acceptable position with a ~ 30kg speaker

 

Not up-to-date for todays best..., but at that time the B&W were the best 5er I could find for my ears (with a tad reduced sound levels) and the sub is a 9"-10" THX Teufel speaker with nice music abilities (not too over the top / obstrusive)

 

 

 

My 2ct:

the sounds of non electronic amplifier (I so hope the term is right) and electronic amplifier differ IMHO, so some ppl might enjoy to try to hear the differences.

But be aware: the amplifiers/receivers I know with non electronic amplifiers are rather 'old fashioned' equipped, as in e.g. no HDMI....

One old Stereo system is still in use (~ '78) and in the living room 'lives' a 5.1 - both Harman & Kardon non electronic amplifiers

I assume when you say non-electronic you mean valve or tube amp as opposed to solid state?  In which case I whole heatedly agree, different sound and one which is purely personal preference.

 

I personally am a solid state person, I do enjoy the sound of valves but only with instruments amps where it is more of an effect.

[stevv]

This is a nice thread, though a little bumpy in terms of where the placement and budget of home theater you're trying to convey. Some suggestions: (apologize ahead of time for not quoting all the references)

Maybe split it into a few sections

• Dedicated room home theater (more room and/or less aesthetic factor)
• Living room home theater where (where many more factors are considered)
• Bedroom/Desk home theater. (mid range and on the cheap )

Calibration
Not sure how far you plan to take the calibration work. I have never trekked into the theater certification accuracy, but just usually just try to make sure sounds are close to want they should be, and comfortable the user's ear.  

Therefore, alternatively, one can use a computer or smart phone with any free tuner software/app to calibrate (Sub freq, and SPL).  Sure not accurate to absolute numbers, having everything relatively balanced according to the user's ears is better than non.

 

System types
I notice mentions of 2.1, 5.1+, but I personally think a minimum is to go with at least 3.1, with the speakers of least 4"-6" actual cone diameter.  Remember Center and Sub is the trick to the "home theater" experience =).  A few kickers under the seat wouldn't harm either.  :lol:

Sound and Decoding equipment
I am trending towards sound cards instead of relying on the receiver to decode (if you plan on a HTPC)

why?

• With the multitude of decoding technologies, my own receiver have found it's limit to DTS 5.1.
• Games, though not much big gamer myself, require things like DDL (dobly digital live), and I love to be able to play it in it's full glory... not in stereo or headphones. Especially something like tomb raider. I can't wait for AMD's TrueAudio!
• Save money by purchasing a standard 5.1 system or just individual stereo amps like and audiosource AMP-100 or even a few Lepai LP-2020A+ (make sure to get efficient speakers 90+dB, e.g. polk 2-way floor standing units I had can be pretty loud even with just my 15watt trends... not saying people should do that but can barely power a couple 80dB efficent bookshelves).

how it would work

• method 1: Sound card(decodes source and encodes for amp/receiver) ==> single optical/coaxial cable ==> receiver ==> speakers/sub
• method 2: Sound card(decodes source and pre-amps to analog out) ==> individual analog cables ==> receiver with analog in OR individual small amps ==> speakers
•                                                                                                             ==> powered sub

Other thoughts

 

3D... dual projector on silver screen and polarized glasses is the only way to really enjoy it now.

I think the 7+ speakers would be nice when I get my Omni and VR (a little hacking to get sound to follow though hahaha).

 

 

[gardening]

I assume when you say non-electronic you mean valve or tube amp as opposed to solid state?  In which case I whole heatedly agree, different sound and one which is purely personal preference.

 

I personally am a solid state person, I do enjoy the sound of valves but only with instruments amps where it is more of an effect.

I meant the heavy olf fashioned copper string/wire wound thingies vs the electronical small and light modern version. Power amplifier? My receiver's weight is ~ 16kg.  The German term is Ringkerntrafo => dictionary offers a part translation = toroidal core something :wacko:???

 

Yep, totally personal preferences . Not 'right' or 'wrong', just 'other'.

Valve/tube... also an interesting sound! Those we have here in RL still in at least 2 guitar amps. Less difference between the 2 versions I meant.

 

I prefer the 'heavy' ones, when it is an amplifier / receiver that was then a 'good' one (not overdone, based on reality, but with 'depth')