Hello, one and all. I have some interesting things going on in my life. I have lived in this one bedroom apartment for ten years. I will soon be moving into my fiance's two bedroom town house.
Her living room was the classic tough room with the whole focus on the fireplace, and nowhere suitable to put the Panny 42" Plasma. Although my fav audioholic, TLSGuy strongly advises against a TV over the fireplace, that is precisely what I am doing at my new digs. I read everything I could find on line. The temperature issue is fine as I never got a reading above 80 degrees above her vented gas fireplace. We even watched a movie with my plasma hung temporarily to see if it would be too high. We don't really watch much TV, and watch one or two movies per month. The height is fine. Frankly, my TV acts more as a monitor for my Music Server and my BluRay player with streaming capabilities. I am much more about the music than the movies
I have sold my large Canton floorstanders and replaced them with the amazingly beautiful looking and sounding Quad 12L active monitors. I hooked them up temporarily in their new home and they did not dissappoint. I will be doing a 2.0 setup for the near future, and will supplement with a sub(s) to go 2.1 or 2.2 later.....
My fiance's home is currently running a Pioneer A35r integrated, a tuner, cd player, and the speaker B is output to a Monster 4 speaker selector that runs audio to the rest of the house. She loves this gift I gave her and listens to her beloved NPR in the morning whole house, and music in the evening....
My dilemma is this...........
I have two options to hook up my active speakers. The Onkyo 706 receiver that is almost brand new, or the Lexicon DC1 which is long in the tooth, but works like a champ.
The Onkyo is probably the easier softer way. It has the tuner built in and my wife2b uses the radio often. Zone 2 is easy to use as well. The 706 will run an HDMI to the TV through the wire chase pictured. It will also have the amps on board if I ever decide to go back to surround sound......but it is a modern receiver and I secretly abhor all the gobbeldy gook that is loaded into the box, things that I never use and really don't care about.........I find the new codecs mildly interesting but frankly the movies I watch are rarely about the sound.
The Lexicon is simple to use. It also hooks up my active monitors the way they are supposed to be..........ampless. I love this unit and how simple it is. It will, however mean running more wires to the TV for osd's. It will require more boxes, too. A two channel amp for zone 2 which is more complicated than the Onkyo's zone 2. A tuner will be added as well. I should add the Lexi was upgraded with the Shawn Fogg analog bypass update should I wish to use this as a true 5.1 pre pro down the road.
So, the final rig will run FM radio throughout the townhouse to 4 pairs of various garage sale small bookshelf (a pair of Infinity, JBL, Toshiba, and Mission 707s) type speakers through a Monster speaker selector, plus the main zone. The sources will be a Samsung BD2550 and an Escient Fireball SE80 both connected to the internet via a Cat5e cable connected to a router in the office- these will stream Pandora, Netflix, and the Gracenote music artwork software to upload the art when putting cds on the se80's harddrive. The TV is a Panasonic Viera 42" Plasma. A Parasound 75 watt two channel amp would handle zone two on the Lexicon. This rig is 90% music and 10% movies and TV. I am using a Heywood Wakefield coffee table whose wood matches the Quad 12Ls to set the components on.
Any thoughts on which box I should use, the Onkyo 706, and the Lexicon DC1, and why, would be appreciated. David TwoTrees
ps. here is a link to the style of mantle surround I will build from scractch using urban lumber sawn locally- click on the photo with the overmantle and television.
http://www.designthespace.com/Products/American-Collection-Mantels/Bridgewater-Wood-Fireplace-Mantel