Aaaaah, >stretches legs<
Well, I'm back. I see nothing's changed.
mtrycrafts is still doling out sage advice. Sheep is still, well sheep (
). And I bet MikeC probably has more subwoofers than God by now.
Feels rather nice to be back in the HT game; been a long time -- 5 years or so since I even posted here last and about that long since I altered anything.
Getting married and have two little boys I'm inheriting through my wonderful wife to be and they are about at that age where they will want their own rooms.
Alas, the dedicated game room (that I never used anyway) had to go.
The 65" 1st gen Mitsu rear projection HDTV that was in the bedroom -- gawd I loved that thing -- given to a friend for free so long as he helped me haul it away.
The 61" second gen Samsung DLP that was in the game room -- with hardly any hours on the lamp -- sold to a acquaintance for $100 along with a very nice matching stand.
This of course paved the way for some new equipment for the HT and a complete rearrangement of the bedroom set up.
First off, the bedroom system:
It inherited the 61" Samsung LED DLP 6189S that was in the HT. Also the XBox360 came over from the game room. I find it more relaxing to play games in the bedroom rather than in a dedicated gaming environment as I used to in the past.
Must be getting old I guess.
^ Not sure what's going on with all the orbs but I prolly should dust off the lens of that old camera next time I use it.
Also in the bedroom now is the Panny BD-30 blu-ray player as well as my trusty Denon 2910 DVD/SACD/CD transport for music playback.
^ Decoding and amplification courtesy of the Denon 3808CI that I was using as a pre/pro in the HT previously.
Lastly, these are my speakers from the game room: Def Tech 7002's for the mains, a Procenter (can't remember which model but it was a HTiB), a ProSub80 for the LFE, and a couple of small Def Tech monitors (again from a HTiB) that you can't see as I have them on Sanus stands along the axis of the back wall.
All in all a very potent system in the bedroom with the 3808CI driving them, turned down the sub so it didn't get too 'chuffy' and am running LFE+Mains for frequencies<80Hz.
Good bass management makes small rooms easy.
Now, onto the HT :evilgrin:
Picked up a Panasonic 65" VT50 for a display, although I have owned many HDTV's since the beginning this is my very first true flat panel. w00t!
Good God this thing has a beautiful display. Absolutely gorgeous.
^ Freeing the clr2500 from the tight constraints of my old tv stand has really set it's low frequency response loose so to speak. I was considering trying to find a clr3000 but they don't make them anymore and they don't seem to be coming up for sale too much recently. To be quite honest the clr2500 kicks ***. I dunno; if I actually find one I may drop the coin to get one.
The stand is a Bello and although it seemed a bit precarious to mount a tv this size on it, it is I assure you quite solid (and very attractive I might add).
Also, please disregard the too short HDMI cable that stretches across from the panel to the BD player, it was all I had. I have since ordered a new 15' cable from BJC and it should be here in a couple of days. I hate messy cables.
A view of the front three channels. For those who haven't visited this thread before they are Def Tech BP7000SC's for the mains and a Def Tech clr2500 for the center.
And I still love these damn things despite what others may say lol.
A view of the rear channels:
These are still they same BPVX/P's that I owned before and I still love them.
A view to a kill so to speak:
The subs are, big shocker here, the same Def Tech Supercube References I had before. There are two flanking the listening position on either side.
Bass response is quite smooth and earth shaking with gain on both set to less than half.
And now for the new meat and potatoes:
Picked up the new Oppo BD-105 as per the Audioholics review and it does everything Gene says it would. I use it to watch BD and DVD movies as well as play lossless music on CD and for those purposes it excels. Because of its wonderful analog performance as well as universal volume control I eliminated the Denon 3808CI as a pre/pro altogether and just run the analog outs directly into the Emotiva MPS-1. The amp is still performing nearly flawlessly, its only foible a finicky status LED on amp 3 which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
The amp always works so what do I care?
The view from behind:
Good clean wire management is a must.
If you might be wondering what the giant hole in the AV rack is going to be used for it will be used for...
...more amplification. I'm not sure why but I feel the need, the need for more amps.
The moment I post this thread I am going to order the new XPR-2 from Emotiva for the mains and see what 600 watts will do for the 7000SC's. My goal is not to go louder (they go plenty loud enough with 175 watts driven with the MPS-1), but rather to hear more definition and try to achieve greater linearity.
Also, as soon as it becomes available I will be ordering a new XMC-1 pre/pro from Emotiva as well. The Oppo will then occupy the vacant shelf below the center channel, freeing up the slot directly above the amps. I will then take advantage of the balanced outputs of the the XMC-1 to feed the balanced inputs of both the XPR-2 and the MPS-1; not to mention the support for dual subs and separate bass management for each.
All in all I am very excited for what's to come and thrilled at the performance of my latest upgrades.
Thanks for looking and I can't wait to start participating here again!
Warmest regards,
--chaz