Post Your Home Theater Here!

[Clint DeBoer]

OK, here's your chance - we want to see what you have with respect to your home theater setups. Don't forget to include PICTURES.

POST AWAY!

[frostbyte]

So far I have:
Processor - Theta Casa Nova (Silver)
Amp - Still looking, but ATI AT1807 or AT2007 is looking pretty good
Speakers - 5 RBH 661-SE's
Subwoofers - 2 RBH 1010-SEP's
DVD - cheesy Sanyo (TV guardian bleeps swear words)
Power protection - Panamax

Video is undecided, but Samsung DLP with xhd3 sounds like a possible winner

[Mudcat]

Please see my thread below "My what a nice rack"

[hifilodo]

My system consists of the following:
Receiver: Denon AVR 1603
DVD Player: Panasonic DVD-CV52 5-DVD changer (5.1 music lover)
Speakers: Home Theater Direct Level 3 (4 towers, center and subwoofer)

The speakers were a budget gem!
Looking to add a music server.

[LeadTrac]

Receiver: Yamaha RX-V2400
Power amp: Adcom GFA 7605
DVD Changer: Sony DVR NC685V
DVD Recorder: Panasonic DMR-E30
VCR: JVC HR-J692U
Digital Cable Receiver: Scientific American Explorer 1850

Speakers
Center Speaker: JBL Northridge EC35
Front Speakers A: JBL E90 tower speakers
Surround Sound: JBL Northridge N26 II
Rear Surround Sound: JBL Northridge E20
Subwoofer: 1 JBL Northridge E250P
Subwoofer: 1 SVS 20-39pci

And still under construction

[Westrock2000]

This thread is useless without pics!

[Clint DeBoer]

Agreed. There is a button on the bottom for attaching pics - please use it!

[Rip Van Woofer]

Yo, I don't need no audiophile shizzle!

OK, here it is, really: old, cheap, and DIY. I was away from audio for many years so my system is still in a time warp. But I got plans...big plans! Hey, quit laughing! It sounds good!

Thorens TD160 turntable for my old vinyl (original owner)
Ancient Dynaco PAT-4 preamp (original owner)
Dynaco FM-5 tuner (ditto above)
Arcam Alpha 8 CD player (bought used)
old Pioneer CD changer for background music
Adcom GFA 545 II power amp (eBay)
DIY Linkwitz-designed dipole speakers (the fish make the midrange more "liquid", don't you know! )
Small passive dipole EQ circuit between pre and power amp (DIY)
Monster speaker switch for Radio Shack in-wall speakers in living room.

The sub you see holding up a plant is from my old stopgap Cambridge Ensemble 3's. Its not there anymore. And I added grilles for the tweets (cooling fan finger guards from the DigiKey catalog). Oh, and the plant died.

Plans are to get a good pre/pro and go to at least 5 channel, and to add a dipole bottom end to the current speakers for a lower-cost version of the Linkwitz "Orion", with fully active crossovers (DIY or maybe digital ones from a pro sound company) and tri-amped. Not sure a separate sub would be needed. Center speaker will be another one of the current speakers, possibly bi-amped with active crossovers. Rear speakers TBD; Linkwitz's site shows these funky DIY ones that are simply a 5-1/2" Vifa midbass driver atop a length of 4" PVC pipe, firing toward the ceiling! Purely for ambience, he says. Amps for all may be DIY based on one of the Rod Elliot plans. Strictly a music system. HT is not a priority.

A gallery with more than you probably want to know about my speaker project is on my Website.

EDIT 7/21: Ordered two circuit boards for the Rod Elliot 3A amps amps. There are two channels per board. Amps can be built to deliver 60 - 100 watts per channel. Plan now to add another 8" woofer/mid to speakers to make a bi-amped stereo pair (Linkwitz PMTM1 design, based on his Phoenix) - might be all I need for my mains in my small den - been thinking the Orion design might be overkill in this situation...

EDIT 7/27/04: After reading the wisdom of Gene and other Audioholics, I've concluded that the prepro section of a good receiver would do the trick at far less cost, and I'd have adequate amps for the surrounds and maybe even center (for now) built-in. So I've begun looking at used and factory-refurbed late models in the midprice range from the usual suspects: Denon, Sony, Yamaha, Harman/Kardon, etc. I want multi, I want it bad, and I want it soon! Oh, and my Elliot PCBs arrived!

Of course a "universal" DVD/CD/SACD player is a must. Maybe a Pioneer 563 as a stopgap or just get a Denon 2900 and be done with it...

Stay tuned for further adventures as Rip finally enters the modern audio era...on the cheap! Glad some people find it "entertaining"

EDIT 7/27/05: It's no longer a museum piece. Sold the Dynaco stuff just after the holidays & got a Harman Kardon DPR 1001. Also sold the Arcam CDP and replaced it with (heresy!) a humble used Pioneer DV563-A. Finally, I just got a Rotel RQ-970BX phono preamp so I can use my old Thorens again for my old vinyl. All this selling and buying was on eBay.

[dan_wilkinson]

lol, i felt quite embarrased about my system, but since i found Rip Van Woofer's write up of his system quite entertaining, i thought i would post my system just for your continued enjoyment
I thought i should firstly note that i am 16yrs young and i live in Australia. so.. here it is -
[IMG]myrig0.jpg[/IMG]
Yamaha RX - 360RS Stereo Reciever (my brother gave to me for free )
TEAC DV-2120 DVD Player ($110AU from the good guys)
TEAC 34cm CRT TV (inherited off my grandpa [not pictured])
The speakers are from a Phillips MC-500 micro hi-fi system i bought earlier from Big W for $300, lol.
[IMG]myrig1.jpg[/IMG]
^they are 2 way bass reflex speakers^, rated to handle upto 50W RMS each. speaker cable is already hard wired into speaker cabinet [IMG]myrig3.jpg[/IMG]
and incase you couldnt figure it out (please dont laugh too hard) they are mounted ontop of a pair of once homemade cd racks, now makeshift/makedo speaker stands, and perhaps even more comical but no less functional, is that i have used blobs of blu-tac to separate the speakers from the cd racks DIY isolation cones.

[IMG]myrig2.jpg[/IMG]
my room is also quite small at 3 x 3.5meters, being why i have them toed in considerably, i have noticed that this makes the soundstage sound slightly rounded (noticeable mainly with crosfaded sounds), but hey.. ill live with it.

i wont bother commenting on performance of these speakers, since not much can be expected, and i cannot compare them to the type of systems reviewed here, but what i can say is that my setup sounds incredibly better than my brothers $600 pair Aaron speakers, running off some Denon AV reciever, but i dare say that is because he has not taken any consideration of his listening environment/speaker placement.

[Polygon]

Even though I just posted this in my thread, mind as well here.

After seeing some in here mine seems pretty small. That's alright; it serves its purpose for now until I get into a bigger place.

Main rig:

Sony STR-AV580 stereo receiver.
BSQ EQ-3000 10 band equalizer.
Yamaha KX-500U tape deck.
Yamaha CDX-700U CD player.
Toshiba M755 6 head Hi-Fi VCR.
Toshiba SD2109 DVD player.
DBX Soundfield V (mains).
Wharfedale WH-2 (rears).
Wharfedale WH-2 (center).
Panasonic CT-20*24A 20" television.
Sony Playstation 1.
Sony Playstation 2.
Nintendo NES.
Nintendo SNES.
Nintendo 64.
Nintendo GameCube.
Microsoft X-Box.
Sega Genesis.
Sega Dreamcast.
Atari Jaguar.

Yeah, it would seem I spent a lot of money on the game consoles but I didn't. It is a pretty humble system and isn't even really surround sound being that the receiver is just a four channel stereo receiver. If any of you recognize some of these model numbers you will realize that most of my equipment is pretty old. I use this rig as my music and home theater rig. I does either just fine for the room it is in but I am looking into some new equipment.

Portable rig:

Pioneer SA-1060 stereo receiver.
Pioneer TX-1060 AM/FM tuner.
Pioneer PD-590 CD player.
BSR EQ-3000 10 band equalizer.
Sony TC-WR531 tape deck.
Technics SL-B3 turntable.
Custom 3-way speakers with Cerwin Vega 10" subwoofers (main).
KLH 687 (monitor speakers).

I mainly take some of this rig to parties or use it when I want to listen to some old vynil.

Some misc audio stuff:

Headphones:
Used for LAN parties and portable audio, nothing fancy.
Sennheiser HD-202.
Optimus LV-20.
Optimus Nova44.

Reel to reel:
Sounds much better than standard audio cassettes, just eats up a lot of tape.
Webcor 4-Track.

Computer speakers:
They do just fine for music; I don't watch movies on the computer.
Klipsch Pro Media 2.1

In the near future I am going to buy some new equipment for the main rig. I would like to find a good receiver that would allow me to use an equalizer for my analog components, but I can't find one that suites my needs, that or I'm not looking hard enough. I am looking to buy the following components very soon:

Denon AVR-1804 receiver.
Velodyne DD-15 subwoofer.
DBX Soundfield V loudspeakers (for my future 7.1 system).

I am looking at getting a new television, most likely a 36" or larger CRT tube and possibly a new DVD player because I wouldn't mind having DVD audio. I also need a whole slew of cables. Things are subject to change but I want to buy in the next week or two so if you have any suggestions shoot them my way.

The main rig:



The Consoles:



The Soundfield V's:



The Wharfedale's:





The portable rig:



The reel to reel:



The tape decks:



And the Pro Media's: