My home cinema

[andyblackcat]

There is another JBL control 12SR in the bedroom so total is x12, 12SR.

Pre checking the stage to see if the 20kg each 12SR hold up! Wow made this stage quick and fast some years ago and amazed it can hold 120kg and two cats when they figure out how to jump up onto it?

The 12SR was brought very cheaply with fair to reasonable wear of use and typical drilled holes in the boxes due to troublesome in removing the grill but all the holes have been filled in with liquid nails while testing with repeated frequency sweep and listening for air leaks and any resonate noises that can lower the SPL db level down.

The remaining 12SR some don't have bass drivers JBL G-125 due to badly damaged but they have the JBL 2371 HF horn with 2214H all working well. The 12th, 12SR box sits in the bedroom.

 

[andyblackcat]

My cat Sooty doesn't sit on the JBL cat climbing tree. Magic however does every night after sitting on the kitchen window seal he comes in the room and settles down.

 

[andyblackcat]

Even thou the passive crossovers won't be used for the five-screen I did a pre check with REW to see how the passive crossover looks and sounds and feels. Its going to work out fine once finished. The two inner left-centre right-centre not wired up yet I was swapping centre low end wire around attached to each of two inner channels one at a time to test them as I had to order 100 meters of speaker cable and x16 RCA cable leads for the matched Yamaha DSR70Pro decoders to make the five-screen matrix work.

 

[andyblackcat]

Installing day of five-screen took 10 hours during a hot heatwave with many breaks between and nearly 3 liters of fruit squash drank during the day.

All passive crossovers was disconnected wired up and connected to the Lucasfilm ltd THX sound system 3417 crossover/monitor (temporally) as the outer left/right and centre is running on the Behringer DCX2496 with a few more DCX2496 installing soon...

Lowered down the Dolby CP45 in the rack to make a little rack space for the x2 DRS70Pro then I can start on connecting up the RCA cables and patching them into a 30 channel patch-bay that is mounted on the rear of the racks so I can swap cables around a bit easier.

 

[andyblackcat]

After long 10 hours installing and checking speakers are all receiving pink noise in the correct screen channel locations I went to bed left it for next day to have a listen.

I tried Hollow Man (2000) released in Dolby digital and SDDS 8 channel. The inner channels of effects and dialouge panning moved smoothly across the width of the room music also thou complex listening had a nice musical opening with Jerry Goldsmith score flowing side to side and between.

With multiple playing's of Hollow Man I think 3 showings in one afternoon. I placed some quick and simple cardboard stripes that I cut and placed between the speakers a kinder pre baffle wall as the plasterboard is cheap and its last on my list for things to do.

The cardboard between the speakers really makes a great improvement from preventing the sound passing between and behind the speakers that creates and odd sound or simply sounds like a void when standing close to the speakers and listening to pink noise or a film or music. There are few gaps but I keep them open for now until I finalize it all with proper plasterboard from floor to ceiling. My cats like to sneak behind and cat nap.

 

[andyblackcat]

Later in the evening I tried Star Wars 1977-1997-2004 DVD a I can't bare the bluray version thou I was tempered to run the 1997 Dolby AC-3 that is way different than DVD version. The DVD was okay wow the sound spread across the five with final battle on the death star with sound sound between the left-centre, right-centre and exploding x-wings on far left of the room with nice discrete in the centre for effects music and dialouge even a few dialouge pans panned from left to left-centre to centre. "The tracks go off in this direction".

Thou Star Wars 70mm was exhibited with duel sub bass channels on the left-centre right-centre during its theatrical run in selected 70mm houses. I have in mind to wire up an extra sound format using one of the extra Dolby CP65 which is running or preamp-ing the inner channels along with matched EQ.

The two CP65 are also wired together for 12 channels and connected to a Dolby remote fader so I can adjust volume simultaneously.

Five-screen will bring fear to the galaxy.

 

[andyblackcat]

Neutrik speakON for upgrading of amplifiers starting first with a Behringer inuke 3000 for the subs early next week then inuke 1000 for the screen channels and multi surround zones.

These speakON I'm sort of new with it. First it looks like a garden hose pipe fitting and wasn't sure if I ordered the wrong item. Oh so that's how the new fittings work on the amps for the inputs the common XLR or TRS lead fits in the centre hole while the shape of the round hole allows for the XLR pins to make connection. These twist-and-turn speaker connectors oh I see with screw terminals in the plug, right... that's a sort of neat idea. No more fiddling with terminal binders on the back of amplifiers.

 

[andyblackcat]

Behringer 1202 12 Input 2 Bus Mixer a little smaller and lighter-weight than the Realistic mixer I have been using for many years.

I like it I hope it can last decades like the Realistic 6ch mixer has and still does.

I use the mixer for phantom power for the Behringer ECM8000 which is bit cheaper as the MIC100 are like £40 + each the mixer was like £62.00 plus OI like the British EQ controls low pass cut button, low, mid and high. phantom power 48volts gain levels for pre amp main fader.

 

[andyblackcat]

I liked the Behringer 1202 mixer I bought the Behringer pro RX1202FX 12 channel, same day arrived next day with x3 more Berhringer ECM8000 calibration microphones and more to soon for a 12 or more multiplex microphones to fine tune the room sound, manually EQ.

Even if I wanted to use the Audyssey multiXT I would have all the mics channeled into the AVR and see how it turns out?

x3 extra XLR cables for the microphones that arrive on Sunday. Extra boom stands I have to look for the cheapest ones that are tall enough as some most booms I've had the die-cast metal is so brittle and can easily shatter or break or I could use wood and cable ties to attach the mics.

 

[andyblackcat]

Panasonic DMP-U900 THX 4k source UHD player. Wow what a mouthful of words for a single player. Sure Panasonic forgot about adding the kitchen sink as well.

bluray was okay on it on the 4K tv. Total Recall (2012)

 

[andyblackcat]

Won a cheap original THX poster stuck to the door but get a picture frame for it soon as these don't usual go for under £40.00 most think its like worth $500 which is insane as I can get the real THX crossover system for under £100.00.

Removed one of the Dolby digital signs to make way for the THX poster. The door needs a repainting a different colour?

 

[andyblackcat]

Installed a second Dolby Stereo CP65 early in the year that came with a remote fader that was ideal for what I had in mind to wire up two CP65 together for 12 channels while the remote fader wired to both of them controls the volume simultaneously.

This usually how they are sold may look like a lot to do but its simple undoing all the cables and starting over fresh.

It even came with real Dolby SR cards cat-350.

One of the three screen channel EQ B-chain cards.

Remote fader with mute, local and sound format switching buttons.

 

[andyblackcat]

Preparing for the extra x3 ECM8000 arriving today.

Fixed one extra boom mic stands with other boom parts and extended the height of another boom stand that was a bit shorter in height. So I only need another basic x2 microphone boom stands for the five-screen and x4 more for use for the surround channels.

 

[andyblackcat]

The other x3 ECM8000 microphones arrived lunchtime and Magic discovered another new box!

 

[andyblackcat]

With all x3 mics aimed at each of the three screen channels the other x2 mics don't have mic booms for them yet thou may make a temporary boom stand later in the afternoon and order x2 boom stands and wait for them.

The resolution of the frequency response appears a lot better with arrays of microphones. I can more less see a true and false between each channel and the arrays of mics picking up the wide-band pink noise displayed on the RTA screen. So I guess I can minimize the EQ-ing.

My lovely sweetie, Sooty snoozing on the floor amongst all the mic boom stands and cables.

 

[snakeeyes]

Sooty looks a lot like my tomcat, Mosby. We have 3 cats and 2 dogs. Mosby has one white paw though.

 

[andyblackcat]

I like cats with distinct colour features thou like my tuxedo Magic. Sooty is brown mink body with black head and small faint features of black that appears black under artificial light, natural light I can see every 50 shades of his coat.

 

[andyblackcat]

A second Sony SDDS DFP-D3000. Its password will need resetting once I get another windows XP2000 as the remote software on current XP the RS232 seems to be not working for several years and will need another second-hand working one so I can reset the Sony to default. It all works but the AUX 1 and 2 will have to configured via remote software like the present one being used. These SDDS processors sale really cheap today a must for SDDS fans even if its used as paperweight still nice to have one.

Only took few minutes to undo the D leads on other SDDS and slip the other one into the rack and connect it up. I could have connected the NS (none sync) but guessing the gain levels and EQ settings will still be saved and would have to be all reset.

 

[andyblackcat]

William Somerset: [discovering what's inside the package] California, tell your people to stay away. Stay away now, don't - don't come in here. Whatever you hear, stay away! John Doe has the upper hand!

Magic: [curiously sniffs the boxes] What's inside the box?

Behringer inuke3000. I been reading watching others buy these over the few years and oh now it seems Behringer have some new models that soon go on release NX Series. The inukes are affordable and wow how is it possible 3kw? Not that I be bridging it for 3kw or even thinking about using that amount of power. It sounds okay at moderate SPL on the SW with Dolby stereo films thou not tried it yer with a discrete mix with LFE.1 as I still have to wire up the rear JBL sub to new amplifier. The other amplifiers will be put to other use as I like to keep x31 amplifiers thou now its x33 amplifiers with more inukes coming.

I like the lightweight of it I wonder what sort of transformer it has for being so lightweight? Its like a featherweight vs a heavyweight. My Alesis RA300 weigh about maybe 2 or 3 times more than the inuke3000.

The fan is running cool on it.

Fan noise about 58db at standing height away of 2.5 feet SPL close to the amp with mic off axis so the wind doesn't blow directly into the mic its about 65db. Not sure of the frequency peak of the fan noise I have to check that later tonight when all the traffic noise fades down.

Manual programmable settings can be done on the front panel with buttons on right for scrolling up and down and push in knob button that also rotates to dial in the desired settings.

A USB lead plugs into the front that can be attached to an APPS or PC computer XP2000 or later.

Currently JBL 18" sub at 100Hz but I'll see what the amp can and can't do later in the day but for now its okay.

 

[andyblackcat]

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Dolby 5.1 / with five-screen matrix / Lucasfilm Ltd THX Sound System / JBL professional

MGM 1998 out of print region 1 DVD has the directional dialouge panning. (The later versions on DVD HD-DVD and bluray do not) The first release on consumer 5.1 was on Laserdisc Dolby AC-3 of same I guess since the Laserdisc pressing was released 1997 and the R1 DVD 1998.

The later versions have nearly all the directional dialouge remixed down to the centre channel.

Chapter 7 I can watch and listen to several times over as it sounds so natural with voices sounding at left-centre, right-centre or bit wider to left and right depending on the panning as well a firm centre.

There is a 2001 again on 4k but I just don't trust hollywood mixers no longer even if they say there will be an 70mm original six-track mix just which version? As the 1998 version has had the monaural discrete surround remixed and there is an LFE.1 which wouldn't have existed in 1968 not until 1977 with Star Wars 70mm.

Then again if I want the surrounds on this pressing not to be in stereo I need only patch the stereo surrounds into an outboard device and switch it to MONO and switch the LFE.1 OFF since its very little used only towards near the end of the "stargate scene" and the bass is satisfactory across the screen channels and some of the surrounds.
Its shame all this technology with Atmos AVR's and non can do five screen discrete output so that the soundtracks can be preserved and presented in the correct sound format codes.