If you could change one of your purchases

[Rickster71]

I got a Pioneer Elite 50' Plasma a few years ago.
I bought too soon, and about two years later 1080P plasma screens came out.
Keep wondering how much better 1080p is than 720P

Rick

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I may have even gone with a used Sunfire Home Theater Grand IV to match my amp.

It's never too late.

Sunfire Amp + Pre-Pro sounds good to me.

Give it a few months and keep an eye on a Sunfire Pre-Pro.

You can either sell the Elite AVR on Craigslist.com (local) or eBay. I've sold around 18 items on eBay! It's pretty simple.

You could wait a while for Sunfire to come out with a HDMI 1.3/TrueHD/DTS-MA pre-pro or just get the current model and let your blu-ray player/dvd player do all the decoding.

And after you get your BD player, you can also sell your current DVD player if you want. Or not.

Oh wait, but the current model Sunfire pre-pro doesn't have all those nice features like the Elite, does it?

 

[speakerman39]

Nice thread Chris. Ummm lets see-oh I would not have purchased an Infinity Primus PC350 center channel speaker as it was really not much, if any, improvement over the Infinity C25. Oh well, the grass always looks greener, but this is a perfect example that is NOT always true. However, I am still amazed at just how good the Infinity Primus speakers are at that respective price-point.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Brian_the_King]

I really only have three regrets in all my audio purchases;

Signal Cable Ultra Speaker rather than Classic Speaker. $40 that could have bought three CD's.

My turntable and albums [only like 15-20]. I like vinyl and all, but it's just not worth it [degraded quality with each play, premium cost, hard to find, no ripping to computer..]

"Welcome to Earth" by Apoptygma Berzerk. One day a few years ago I had money for one more CD [I had what I wanted] and didn't know what to get. So I said to myself 'buy a cd you've never heard of'. So I found Welcome to Earth, with its sweet cover art, and purchased my least favorite CD. I, in fact, threw it away not long ago. The only music I've ever tossed. I even keep the few tapes I have, without a tape player to use them with.

 

[WmAx]

My turntable and albums [only like 15-20]. I like vinyl and all, but it's just not worth it [degraded quality with each play, premium cost, hard to find, no ripping to computer..]

Well, with an excellent TT and cartridge, you can get superb sound quality. With many new albums, the vinyl version may be superior to the CD, since the CD version is more likely to be super compressed/clipped with current CD mastering practices. As for record wear, it is incredibly slight, if you have everything set up properly.

However, I am not sure the Stanton TT you purchased qualifies. You could get a low priced vintage, but very high quality, TT on ebay(must research very carefully first) and pair it with the super linear Denon DL-110 cartridge, to get a very high quality TT set up on the cheap.

-Chris

 

[Brian_the_King]

Well, with an excellent TT and cartridge, you can get superb sound quality. With many new albums, the vinyl version may be superior to the CD, since the CD version is more likely to be super compressed/clipped with current CD mastering practices.

However, I am not sure the Stanton TT you purchased qualifies. You could get a low priced vintage, but very high quality, TT on ebay(must research very carefully first) and pair it with the super linear Denon DL-110 cartridge, to get a very high quality TT set up on the cheap.

-Chris

hah look you already have me rethinking myself..

 

[WmAx]

hah look you already have me rethinking myself..

If true, throw out some dollar amounts, and I would suggest some specific units. BTW, I won't recommend the usual entry level audiophile TTs, I am not all convinced these are good examples of engineering/quality. You can do much better(and cheaper) with vintage Japanese TTs. Or if your budget was in the 400 range, a new Japanese TT even(Technics SL-1200MKII - far far better piece of equipment than the comparably priced 'audiophile' tables).

-Chris

 

[Brian_the_King]

If true, throw out some dollar amounts, and I would suggest some specific units. BTW, I won't recommend the usual entry level audiophile TTs, I am not all convinced these are good examples of engineering/quality. You can do much better(and cheaper) with vintage Japanese TTs. Or if your budget was in the 400 range, a new Japanese TT even(Technics SL-1200MKII - far far better piece of equipment than the comparably priced 'audiophile' tables).

-Chris

Well I don't have any cash right now [freshman in college and I'm a good hundred miles from my stereo anyway] but I certainly know who to come to when I have money to spend If I ever ['when', I should say] look into new speakers I will talk to you about modding my 250's again first.

 

[Adam]

There is a sucker born every second on ebay.

Hey, I think that I resemble that remark!

If I could change one purchase? My IPS-1, hands down.

 

[jostenmeat]

I got a Pioneer Elite 50' Plasma a few years ago.
I bought too soon, and about two years later 1080P plasma screens came out.
Keep wondering how much better 1080p is than 720P

Rick

Rick, this is purely a function of viewing angle, or viewing distance. Check this graph out that ThA tRiXta made and posted for us here a while ago.

1080p is pretty over-rated for most displays. Front PJs are different, and I could actually use 1440, but anyways:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/tha_trixta/resolution2.png

and, btw, the last time you said "Not that there is anything wrong with that", was too much. I even thought about quoting you for a new "sig" . . .

 

[bandphan]

Other than the ts1000 pronto and the miles of MIT interconnects, dell's original wireless mouse and keyboard, a whooping 2' range.

 

[Davemcc]

I really wish I had gotten the Rotel RMB-1095 instead of the RMB-1075. Not that the 1075 doesn't do the job but you know how these things go. I'm OK with everthing else, given where I started, what I needed and what was available at the time. I still want to get into HDMI 1.3a, either with a high end Yamaha or the Integra.

 

[Rickster71]

Rick, this is purely a function of viewing angle, or viewing distance. Check this graph out that ThA tRiXta made and posted for us here a while ago.

1080p is pretty over-rated for most displays. Front PJs are different, and I could actually use 1440, but anyways:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/tha_trixta/resolution2.png

and, btw, the last time you said "Not that there is anything wrong with that", was too much. I even thought about quoting you for a new "sig" . . .

Thanks for the chart josten.
Guess I can stop beating myself up over that one.

 

[WmAx]

Well I don't have any cash right now [freshman in college and I'm a good hundred miles from my stereo anyway] but I certainly know who to come to when I have money to spend If I ever ['when', I should say] look into new speakers I will talk to you about modding my 250's again first.

Attention Brian: Do not use that turntable on ANY vinyl that you VALUE. Not even once. I just realized that turntable has a non-angled cartridge mount in respect to the arm. This means the needle is at a considerable tracking error in any case, causing substantial damage to your records. In addition, this must(there is no option) cause substantial distortion. This player was designed specifically for scratch DJs - where no concern for the record being played is present. Please sell this immediately(preferably to a scratch DJ) and do not use it again unless you wish to cause damage to the vinyl.

-Chris

 

[Midcow2]

I got a Pioneer Elite 50' Plasma a few years ago.
I bought too soon, and about two years later 1080P plasma screens came out.
Keep wondering how much better 1080p is than 720P

Rick

The early adopters take the arrows! Thanks for paving the way for the rest of us

 

[Midcow2]

Some speakers .....

901s, 501s, 301s, 101s, VSC10 !

 

[itschris]

I don't think I'd get a new Sunfire. 1) the asthestics are completely different now. I have the 19" amp that has the rounded corners and all the new stuff is standard 17" squared off. Not that it's a big deal, but the two 19" components atop each other look really nice. Also, the price difference is quite substantial. Whereas a Sunfire TG IV is about $1400 on ebay. I think if I did make a change, I'd get the Integra (about the same price as my Elite 94) but in reality, it pretty much a lateral move. I'd gain some things, lose others. I like the Home Media Gallery stuff with the Elite, but all of that would be replaced by an HTPC.

I don't know, I think the next move will be a rather substantial jump in levels. I've been eyeing the Platinum Series Monitor Audio P300's lately. I'm gonna try to find a place to see and hear them. I still need to get a BD player and an HTPC first. I think I'm at a fairly solid level in quality of equipment and true increases in performance will be much more incremental in nature. I'd easily double the total cost of my system, but gain only a couple of percent better performance. That's the nature of this game however.

I do think I should've went with the Integra... probably for more reasons not having to do with performance... more in my head kinda stuff.

It's never too late.

Sunfire Amp + Pre-Pro sounds good to me.

Give it a few months and keep an eye on a Sunfire Pre-Pro.

You can either sell the Elite AVR on Craigslist.com (local) or eBay. I've sold around 18 items on eBay! It's pretty simple.

You could wait a while for Sunfire to come out with a HDMI 1.3/TrueHD/DTS-MA pre-pro or just get the current model and let your blu-ray player/dvd player do all the decoding.

And after you get your BD player, you can also sell your current DVD player if you want. Or not.

Oh wait, but the current model Sunfire pre-pro doesn't have all those nice features like the Elite, does it?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I don't know, I think the next move will be a rather substantial jump in levels. I've been eyeing the Platinum Series Monitor Audio P300's lately.

What happened to B&W 802Ds?

Have you gotten a chance to listen to them yet?

Save the money and go for the ultimate!

BTW, I noticed that Monitor Audio did not give a tolerance to the frequency response of that PL300 speaker (28 Hz - 100 kHz +/- ?? dB). For all we know it could be 58 Hz - 20 kHz +/- 3dB!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

901s, 501s, 301s, 101s, VSC10 !

Yeah, I have a Bose system.

I kind of regret selling my NHT speaker system and PS3, though.
I should have saved those for my 2 daughters.

 

[GlocksRock]

Yeah, I have a Bose system.

I kind of regret selling my NHT speaker system and PS3, though.
I should have saved those for my 2 daughters.

You can pick up a PS3 for about $300 from www.overstockdealz.com I got my second one from them and so far it's been perfect, came packed just like it was brand new.