Last Years Salary...

[gmoneyreece]

OK, HERE OF SOME PICS OF MY FINAL (ALMOST) SETUP. I ONLY NEED TO ADD THE REAR SURROUNDS. OTHER THAN THE EQUIPMENT ALSO SHOWN IS A CUSTOM BUILT (BY ME) OAK A/V RACK AND DVD SHELF, ALSO THE ART WORK BEHIND THE COUCH IS MY DOING...

ZONE 1
HITACHI 42" PLASMA
DENON 5805
DENON 5910
MONSTER AVS2000
MONSTER HTS5100MKII
HUGHES DIRECTV HD DVR
XBOX 360 (MEDIA CENTER EXTENDER TO MEDIA CENTER COMPUTER ON MY NETWORK)
PARADIGM CINEMA 330x3
PARADIGM ADP170x2 (I NEED 2 MORE!) (my mistake, these are 170s)
JBL NORTHRIDGE 10" SUB

ZONE 2 (BASEMENT)
MTX 15" 3 WAY FLOORSx2

ZONE 3 (BACK PORCH)
JBL NORTHRIDGE OUTDOORx2

OF COURSE ANY FEED BACK IS WELCOME...

 

[jaxvon]

Very nice system! I have two suggestions:

Lay off the capslock. It looks like you're screaming about audio.

Get a better sub! A sub is really important for movies and not a component to skimp on.

 

[gmoneyreece]

sorry about the caps

i am just use to using all caps at work...

i will get a paradigm ultracube when i can raise the money...
thanks for the feedback.

 

[jaxvon]

If you can, I'd take advantage of the ability to use stereo subs with your monster of a receiver. Stereo subs give you some amazine output. A member of this forum has a pair of Hsu VTF-3MKII subs and says they rock his room at volume level 3.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Nice setup. You're not kidding about last years salary.

So how does it sound?

 

[gmoneyreece]

i am still tweaking it, i ran through the aud. multieq. auto setup but was not happy with the sound so i am still making adjustments. it is hard to find time to tweak things becuase this is our family room and my wife likes to watch tv shows at night.

i will say that these paradigm 330s do have excellent response and range, so far i have not been disapointed.

really waiting for the firmware update for the 5805 so i can use the web based control. then i can use my laptop as a control panel from zones 2 and 3. (cheaper and more flexiable than a full blown crestron setup).

thanks for the feedbacks, i know the system is not perfect, but it is getting there...

 

[gmoneyreece]

New Subs on the way

After looking around this week (and really for the last month) i picked up a pair of HSU VTF-2 MKII subwoofers. I got them both for $840 shipped, not bad...Once i get these installed and a pair of Paradigm In-Wall for the rear surrounds i will post final pics and impressions.

current impressions:
Video Quality, the Denon 5910 is amazing! While i do see flaws in the video from my Direct TV HD DVR the Denon preforms flawless! This most likely is due to the hard drive buffer in the dvr that sometimes cannot "keep up" with the HD signal feeds. My 3 year old Hitachi plasma display looks better than ever before with the denon (FYI, all video is switched through the 5805 and i notice no degrading in the signal)

XBox 360, the XBox 360 video and audio are excellent. games are well mixed on the audio side and the included component video cables with the 360 seem to be very good. The media center extender audio really sucks! i don't know if my new receiver/speakers are that much better than my old HK JBL setup but i don't remember MP3s sounding this bad. the video through the extender functions of the 360 is acceptable other than it clips the top and sides off. there has to be a way to fix this, but i have yet to figure it out.

there will be more to come...

 

[jaxvon]

Hmm, that sounds like a good purchase. You may end up going for the VTF3 subs for the added extension and cone size (at least I would if I could afford it!). Either way, two VTF2 subs will rock your room.

 

[gmoneyreece]

OK, the system is complete, here are my final components:

ZONE 1
HITACHI 42" PLASMA 42HDT20

DENON 5805 w/ aud. eq. update

DENON 5910

MONSTER AVS2000

MONSTER HTS5100MKII

HUGHES DIRECTV HD DVR

XBOX 360 (MEDIA CENTER EXTENDER TO MEDIA CENTER COMPUTER ON MY NETWORK)

MAIN: PARADIGM CINEMA 330 x3

SURROUND: PARADIGM ADP170 x2

REAR SURROUND: PARADIGM CINEMA ADPs x2

SUBWOOFERS: HSU VTF-2 MKII x2

IR/RF Home Theater master MX-800 remote

ZONE 2 (outdoor deck)
JBL NORTHRIDGE OUTDOOR x2

I will post pictures of the final setup some time this weekend...

 

[thoward4444]

XBOX360 Audio

Sweet system. I am also using the Xbox 360 as a media center extender and on a nice system like yours, all the flaws in mp3s and wmas really come through. I have my media center rip all music at wma lossless. The difference is huge. Just try ripping your favorite song in lossless and compressed formats and you will notice how much more depth the lossless encoding has. The 360 rocks though!

 

[jaxvon]

How do you like the new subwoofers? Do they perform like you hoped they would?

 

[gmoneyreece]

i am still breaking in the subs but so far everything sounds great...

 

[gmoneyreece]

Cheaper system improvments???

Well, I need some cash for new furniture so i completly reconfigured my home theater setup! only 2 months after getting it going!

I was wanting your guys opinions on the changes. listed to the right of each component is approx. what i paid for it/sold it for.

previous system:
denon 5805 $4000/$3800
denon 5910 $2200/$2200
monster AVS2000 $600/$600
paradigm adp170 $400/$350
paradigm 330X3 $900/$750

total to invest in new system: $7700 less what i wanted to save.

new system:
denon 4306 $1400
rotel 1080 $675
pioneer elite 59avi $500
thiel cs3.6 $1650 pair
B&W 705 w/stands $1300 pair
B&W HTM7 w/stand $500

total cost of new system: $6025 or nearly $2000 less.

some carry overs from the the old system:

-Hitachi 42" plasma
-(2) HSU-VFT2 subs (i may sell 1 of these becuase the Thiels provide a good base line
-monster HTS-5100MKII, thought the AVS2000 was over kill but this need to stay.
-XBox 360, i don't play it that much but the media center functionality is used often.

i think that i actually have significantly improved my system from the previous setup and actually cut my costs, what do you think?

 

[jaxvon]

Sounds pretty good. How well to the Thiels match the B&Ws?

 

[gmoneyreece]

Sounds pretty good. How well to the Thiels match the B&Ws?

that's a good question, i have not hooked up the B&Ws yet (tomorrow) so i cannot say for sure. i do expect them to blend pretty well however based on the characteristics of the 2 manufactures.

 

[arnett52]

Cinema 330

Do you still have the cinema 330 speaker set?

OK, HERE OF SOME PICS OF MY FINAL (ALMOST) SETUP. I ONLY NEED TO ADD THE REAR SURROUNDS. OTHER THAN THE EQUIPMENT ALSO SHOWN IS A CUSTOM BUILT (BY ME) OAK A/V RACK AND DVD SHELF, ALSO THE ART WORK BEHIND THE COUCH IS MY DOING...

ZONE 1
HITACHI 42" PLASMA
DENON 5805
DENON 5910
MONSTER AVS2000
MONSTER HTS5100MKII
HUGHES DIRECTV HD DVR
XBOX 360 (MEDIA CENTER EXTENDER TO MEDIA CENTER COMPUTER ON MY NETWORK)
PARADIGM CINEMA 330x3
PARADIGM ADP170x2 (I NEED 2 MORE!) (my mistake, these are 170s)
JBL NORTHRIDGE 10" SUB

ZONE 2 (BASEMENT)
MTX 15" 3 WAY FLOORSx2

ZONE 3 (BACK PORCH)
JBL NORTHRIDGE OUTDOORx2

OF COURSE ANY FEED BACK IS WELCOME...

 

[croseiv]

Do you still have the cinema 330 speaker set?

Wow. This thread is over 4 years old.

 

[Davemcc]

Wow. This thread is over 4 years old.

We can usually hijack a thread within 4 hours. Four years...that's crazy.

 

[dkane360]

We can usually hijack a thread within 4 hours. Four years...that's crazy.

I was wondering why he sold his previous receiver for one that was still outdated.. but it all makes sense now

 

[Saner]

Nice Setup