Destroyed by fire

[Buckeye_Nut]

We had a lightning strike on the 4'th of July about 3 or 4 years ago.... hit the garage. Not so bad right???
Well... we have a propane tank that holds about 500 gallons right behind the garage. The tank is only 1 yard away from the back of the garage. The garage is 6 ft away from the house.
Not to mention, about 20 gallons of gasoline, 30 lbs of FFF black powder, chemicals, pesticides, and whatever else that could literally make a small bomb!

Funny thing is that NONE of it caught on fire. Had it... it seriously would have leveled the garage and house.

The lightning did kill a dead tree, a Mexican made RCA TV ( ) the spotlight on the tree, most everything in the garage (except the garage and the REALLY flammable materials... thank God for fire-retardant boxes) and a few other really small things in the house.

Now THAT is scary!! The funny thing is that when we got hit, it never really occured to me that we took a direct lightening hit. I knew it was obviously close.....but never guessed it was THAT close!! When the doorbell rang at 2am, I was like WTF...who can that be? I answered the door in my underwear to my neighbors wife standing on our porch in the rain. Strangely with the circumstances and all.... I never even really gave it the slightest thought that I was standing in front of her wearing nothing except my tighty whities.
HEH

The lightening literally struck directly over our heads above the master bedroom and exited the house in the back low along the foundation about 6 inches above ground level.
Even at that low height, it blew chunks of poured concrete literally 30-40 feet into the backyard!! You could see the exposed rebar the lightning used as the path to exit.....

Luckily....most of the damage was limited to the roof over the master bedroom and the master bedroom itself. Needless to say, I'm extremely thankful for our neighbor and that we all got out safely.

 

[yettitheman]

Now THAT is scary!! The funny thing is that when we got hit, it never really occured to me that we took a direct lightening hit. I knew it was obviously close.....but never guessed it was THAT close!! When the doorbell rang at 2am, I was like WTF...who can that be? I answered the door in my underwear to my neighbors wife standing on our porch in the rain. Strangely with the circumstances and all.... I never even really gave it the slightest thought that I was standing in front of her wearing nothing except my tighty whities.
HEH

The lightening literally struck directly over our heads above the master bedroom and exited the house in the back low along the foundation about 6 inches above ground level.
Even at that low height, it blew chunks of poured concrete literally 30-40 feet into the backyard!! You could see the exposed rebar the lightning used as the path to exit.....

Luckily....most of the damage was limited to the roof over the master bedroom and the master bedroom itself. Needless to say, I'm extremely thankful for our neighbor and that we all got out safely.

We had family from out of state visiting us during that storm, and the bang I thought was my grandmother falling down. Ever see a 19 year old fly down 15 steps in 2 seconds? It was more like jumping from one landing to the next.

I got downstairs, I was like "wtf... everyone is fine...," started looking outside and said "wow, it's raining so hard I can see fog." Then I heard banging from the door (turns out to be my dad who was sleeping in the camper due to the guests at the house).. get him inside..
me: "What's wrong?"
dad: "Is the house on fire?"
me: "Fire?? (thinks about the "fog" I saw eariler) OH ****... THAT'S THE GARAGE!"

Lightning hit the tree, went through the spotlight on the tree and went through the wiring into the garage, making fire.
It's a strange thing seeing the metal garage door bowed out from the heat... it looked like a cartoon almost.

 

[fired up]

Check this out:

Hi everyone,

I spoke with a local dealer several times over the last few days via phone and told him my budget was no more than $17K for everything.

When I got to his store today - the high end listening room was piled high with boxes. The system he tried to sell me with install cost in the mid $30K range. I was really disappointed. He had Thiel CS3.7 speakers hooked up to some exotic stuff - ANTHEM processor, etc. He did not listen to a thing I said prior on the phone.

I'm bummed out.

I'd like to issue a challenge. You know my budget. Design a great sounding A/V system for me and I will pick the winner and send him a great knife as a gift for the effort. I collect knives as a hobby.

PM me with trustworthy internet or phone order dealers who are known for being reputable and their discounting of price.

Does this sound like a fair challenge? I will post pics of the system once installed.

HT seating taken care of already by my wife. I have not seen what she purchased though. However, she has excellent taste and I'm sure it would beat whatever I would have chosen in seating.

Great Big Thanks!!!

Eddie

 

[pcefrog]

wow

that is a crazy story...glad to hear everyone was ok. i had a major flood . whole neighborhoods were wrecked. everything in my basement was destroyed..
my record collection was the saddest...of my 5000LPs...half were wrecked(M-Z).bottom shelves.
my kids had shown there friends the day before all our home movies on our video camera and left everything on the floor. lots of our videos, cds..photo albums.
a drum set...extra snares....etc all wrecked.....the crazy part was i came downstairs during the flood and saw the whole basement in 8-10" of water and the power bar for the tv/dvd player etc...was under water....but still lit up and didnt shut off.

 

[fired up]

Spoke with three dealers on phone today and have appointments set up for Saturday.

My wife is insisting that we visit the BOSE store in the local mall. Her co-worker has a 1-2-3 system and swears that it is outstanding. I doubt it very much. However, she is very supportive about the whole HT system set-up and i have to give in and go on the wasted time travel excursion.

Nicest dealer and most informative on phone is a LINN / ARCAM / REL dealer who said he can put together a great system within my budget.

I LOVE THE PIONEER KURO PLASMA TV!!! A grand Slam if there ever was one. I have seen both the 50" and 60" Elite and non-Elite versions. They are beautiful and my kids agree. Very Happy!

Things are looking up.

 

[fired up]

My wife read all the negative reviews about BOSE 123 and Lifestyle system and decided against purchasing BOSE.

Saturday my wife and twin sons went to a dealer to show her for the 1st time the Pioneer 50" KURO Plasma HDTV and to audition speakers. She loves the TV - so case closed that is our purchase.

The speakers that amazed us were the Audio Physic Tempo IV (STEREOPHILE CLASS B FULL RANGE RECOMMENDED COMPONENT) in a cherry finish. Just wonderful. Great low end response on Organ and Synth Bass, smooth vocals across the midrange. A warm inviting speaker that could be listened to for extended periods of time with no fatigue. They handled everything I threw at it. Vladimir Horowitz, Claudio Arrau, Earl Wild, Oscar Peterson, Monk all sounded perfect. Not as overly bright as the Theil's I had auditioned at another dealer that made me want to lower the volume or stop listening altogether. Great soundstaging on Concertos and Orchestral Pieces. No ice pick in the forehead sensation when listening to Danny Gatton on Harlem Nocturne with his aggressive Fender Telecaster. Really a great speaker for the money. I don't know if I'm allowed to post prices so PM me and we'll talk.

Two other speakers that cost considerably less were the REVEL F12 and F32. I could hear strange artifacts during a challenging collection of Bassoon pieces that bothered me. The dealer heard it too and said it was a dissonance in the frequency spectrum. Whatever jargon that is acoustically correct - the Bassoon did not really sound very much like a Bassoon. Back to the Audio Physic Tempo with the Bassoon Cd and - it is sublime. From the deepest register of the Contra-Bassoon to the highest notes on the Bassoon it was breathtaking.
Several other people wandered into this audition room to listen to the music. It sounded that good.

The source equipment for the demo was Classe CDP 102 and CAP 2100.

The system this dealer is thinking about putting together is BDI Lowboy furniture in cherry,
Marantz 6001 ( A WHAT HIFI WINNER), Rotel RSX1067, Sony BluRau Player 300 with version 3.7 software to fix prior slow loading problems, etc. We also talked about using the KEF Wireless surround setup for the rear surround speakers so no wires have to be run under carpet or through baseboard or through attic. It will cut down installation cost and I apply saving elsewhere. Oh, the sub is the B&W PV1 (another WHATHIFI WINNER). Wiring would be by Nordost. I don't know much about the Rotel product and am going to research it.

Anyway that was Saturday's excursion into a super laid back dealership. This is what I pictured going into a High End Dealer would be and feel like.

My kids sat down and listened to everything , behaved and said what sounded good and didn't. Martial Arts lessons pay off for discipline. They know when they are not allowed to act like children and basically stay very focused until I tell them everything's cool and they can act like themselves again - kids.

Thanks,

Eddie

 

[Davemcc]

I advise caution with what this dealer is selling you. I won't question the choice of speaker, just be aware that they are a 4 ohm speaker (89db sensitivity) and you should make sure that you are looking at amps/receivers that can drive a low impedance load. I don't see that the Marantz or the Rotel are rated into 4 ohms, while the Classe CAP2100 is rated at 200w @ 4 ohms. I think you would find a big difference between your Classe audition and the other receivers in your home with those speakers.

Another thing, the Rotel is HDMI 1.1 and the Marantz HDMI 1.2. With the new Blu-Ray player, you may want to consider looking at receivers that are HDMI 1.3a. Forget the Nordhost as well. Bluejeans or Monoprice will be just fine for your cabling needs. Also, I can't help thinking that for the cost of the B&W subwoofer, an SVS PB13-Ultra would destroy it, performance wise. Just my two cents. Enjoy the shopping.

 

[fired up]

Re: DESTROYED BY HOUSE FIRE!!!

Hello Fellow Forum Members,

Here is what I have planned so far:

Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-110FD 50" Plasma TV

SVS PB Ultra 13 Subwoofer

Integra DTC 9.8 Pre/Pro

Panasonic DMP-BD300 Blu-Ray Player or wait for spec 2 to come out in summer by Sony

Cables by BlueJeanCables

APC or Belkin Power Conditioners

Speakers?
Amps?
Furniture for TV and Components? I know someone gave me a link to check out here on this thread.

Universal Remote?

Forget HT seating. We hired a company to clean carpets and furniture of smoke smell from fire. Everything worked out amazingly well. No smell.

I want the option of being able to switch to just 2 channel stereo with sub for enjoying music only.

Please, Please, No Kidding - PLEASE - help fill in the missing pieces of my system. I am so close to completion I am psyched out.

Finally, I would like a SACD/CD/CDR player for my discs that I started buying again.

Thanks,

Eddie

 

[Davemcc]

Re: DESTROYED BY HOUSE FIRE!!!

Hello Fellow Forum Members,

Here is what I have planned so far:

Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-110FD 50" Plasma TV

SVS PB Ultra 13 Subwoofer

Integra DTC 9.8 Pre/Pro

Panasonic DMP-BD300 Blu-Ray Player or wait for spec 2 to come out in summer by Sony

Cables by BlueJeanCables

APC or Belkin Power Conditioners

Nice choices above. You're making me jealous...building my dream system. For an amplifier, I don' see how you could go wrong with the Emotiva XPA-5. The Harmony 659 is good solid universal remote that can be had for under $100.

With a system like you're building, you owe it to yourself to go listen to brands such as B&W, Focal.JMLabs, Dynaudio and others in that class. Audition, audition, audition.

 

[fired up]

Dave,

It is getting harder to get out and audition speakers for several reasons.

1. I got hurt more than I initially let on.
2. My kids have a Piano Recital at the end of the month and are goimg to the Music
Conservatory 3 times a week after school to practice on the Steinway.
3. I have a limited number of dealers in my immediate area and would literally have to
start planning day trips - which is hard with twin 7 year old boys to look after.
4. This weekend is out because my sons are entered in all 5 events at their Dojo's
Bi-Annual Tournament of Champions. They want to win a trophy each.
5. The physical pain factor is high and it hurts to drive/sit for long periods of time.

That is why I am asking the forum members to be my ears (I know-it's subjective) and find me the Make and Modell Numbers of a surround sound speaker system the errs on the side of forgiving/neutral of tough recordings instead of Ultra Revealing speakers that point out every flaw. I want smooth top end, sublime mid-range, decent bass and let the subs handle the low end.

So, now you know. I was the only one to get seriously hurt in the fire. I don't need pity or well wishes for my injuries. I'll heal. I DO need help finding speakers that most of the forum feel are well made, sound great, and err on the side of neutrality/forgiving of source components and CD/DVD/BluRay/SACD - whatever I'm utilizing at the moment.

Whew! Hope that all made sense.

Thanks,
Your Friend,
Eddie

 

[jostenmeat]

Speakers?
Amps?
Furniture for TV and Components? I know someone gave me a link to check out here on this thread.

Speakers then the amp. I like the Stands and Mounts site, you can narrow down choices by height, color, modular, etc, and they have a decent return policy (some others don't have one). Or call them for personaly assistance.

Universal Remote?

Pronto if you can hire someone to program it, or yourself if you are savvy or don't mind some headaches. Much easier, less flexible, a ton cheaper, Logitech Harmony.

I want the option of being able to switch to just 2 channel stereo with sub for enjoying music only.

Shouldn't be a problem.

Finally, I would like a SACD/CD/CDR player for my discs that I started buying again.

Can't help you there. And if i did, everyone here would jump me and beat me up. Even then, you could get an affordable Oppo transport, and hook up an external DAC... oops Audioholics are getting their pitchforks out!

It is getting harder to get out and audition speakers for several reasons....

That is why I am asking the forum members to be my ears (I know-it's subjective) and find me the Make and Modell Numbers of a surround sound speaker system the errs on the side of forgiving/neutral of tough recordings instead of Ultra Revealing speakers that point out every flaw. I want smooth top end, sublime mid-range, decent bass and let the subs handle the low end.

So, now you know. I was the only one to get seriously hurt in the fire. I don't need pity or well wishes for my injuries. I'll heal. I DO need help finding speakers that most of the forum feel are well made, sound great, and err on the side of neutrality/forgiving of source components and CD/DVD/BluRay/SACD - whatever I'm utilizing at the moment.

I saw your thread at AVS. I find it interesting that I concur with some of the posts. One being Pronto, the other being Dynaudio. One way to fit this into your budget is to get a better set of music mains by not spending as much on surrounds. My audition with the Contour line was extremely impressive. "smooth top end, sublime mid-range", but Dynaudio sometimes gets a knock on bass response. Well, when I listened to Dynaudio towers, they were mated with a JL F113, and the effect was just fantastic. Dave has already been helping you very much, but for your descriptions, I would stay away from Focal/Jm. I can see you being fine with the Chorus series, but the Profiles are very forward I find, and the BE tweeters are the most unforgiving I have ever heard, bar none. (I don't want to toss aside all of my older classical recordings...). Otoh, Dave got some Dynaudio's, and you can check out his thread for his comparisons.

So anyways, how about some Contour towers with lower lines of Dynaudio for surrounds (ie Focus, Audience). Check out Audiogon as well, here's one ad of several:
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1209070447

 

[Midcow2]

... I start to differ only a little w/ Gus on the tv's. Agreed Sony is best on LCD, and that's what I'd aim for if in the market for LCD. But the Samsungs are not too shabby, the 81/71 series. ...

What is you opinion on the Vizio LCDs ? They seem to have good PQ and are priced very good.

 

[gus6464]

If you loved the Audio Physic speakers why not buy them? You don't have to buy rest of the stuff from the dealer but the speakers and TV would get you a nice discount still. As far as receiver goes mate the Integra with the Emotiva XPA-5 and you will be fine.

 

[fired up]

gus6464,

Thank you for recommending the Emotiva XPA-5 to pair with Integra.

The nice guy dealer will not discount the TV. He told me to buy it online or at BestBuy. He also did not want to talk about discounting anything - even if I was to purchase the remainder of system from him. The AudioPhysic Tempos VI list for $4995.00 and that is his price. I thought a dealer would put together a synergestic system and offer a reasonable discount.

The third dealer is only interested in selling me LINN or NAIM or ARCAM equipment.

I need to find more dealers by widening my search and maybe travelling to NJ. The other option is to buy everything online and ask who the best online dealers are.

Whatever way I go - I will go there soon. I have a 1 month supply of Painkillers, just read that PLASMA is now dead and Pioneer will be exiting like Fujitsu did. The drive inside myself to buy my slice of heaven beckons exceedingly strong and I am growing impatient at my lack of the subject matter, dealer and product availability, etc.

The one thing I am is GRATEFUL to all you good folks who have championed my cause and spent so much effort guiding me in such a short period of time.

Thanks,

Eddie

 

[Davemcc]

Fired Up,
Sorry to hear about your injuries. I can see how that would make it hard to audition.

The sound you are describing is very much the description of Dynaudio's sound, smooth top end, sublime mid-range, decent bass (although a little light for my hard rocking subjective taste). The Dynaudio excel at classical insturmntal and voice reproduction. If you can appreciate the difference between a Steinway and a Samick, the Dynaudio may well be for you.

You should be able to put together a Focus series combo together for about the price of the other speakers you were looking at. A little over that budget would be using Focus 220 towers up front, Focus 140 surrounds and the Focus center. Right at or a little under budget would be to use 4 x Focus 140 and the Focus center. Using bookshelves up front isn't an issue since you will have a fine sub and the 140's have bass extension to about 42Hz, far below the normal 80Hz crossover.

Throw MSRP out the window with Dynaudio. I got my 140's in a Canadian authorized dealer after 14% tax right at the US MSRP, which probably represents a 30% discount or more.

Some people here might recommend Paradigm, but after listening to several models and even buying a set for my bedroom, I can't see that any but the highest line of Paradigm would satisfy the criteria you laid out. I'd also recommend the Focus series over the Focal.JMLabs Chorus 800 series. The Chorus would be a little more budget friendly, but lacking in the Dynaudio's clarity, detail and imaging. As far as the Era speakers that I love so much, I don't think they fit your criteria. They are a little more bass heavy and the mids are a little more subdued, not as openly presented as the mids on the Dynaudio.

 

[Warpdrv]

just read that PLASMA is now dead and Pioneer will be exiting like Fujitsu did.
Thanks,

Eddie

I would like a link for that info stating that Plasma is dead...

With the latest announcements at CES for the up an coming wicked credit card thick plasma's of the future coming up, I have a hard time believing anything like that being true...

Plasmas offer far better PQ over LCD... In my and many other people's opinions, Plasma's blow the pants off of LCD and will do so forever...

 

[Davemcc]

I would like a link for that info stating that Plasma is dead...

Here ya go...
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41900

 

[Warpdrv]

Well I'll be dipped in Sh*t....

That is aweful news, but Like others have said, I think Pioneer priced themselves out of the market... Thats too bad, but hopefully that doesn't mean the death of Plasma....

 

[fired up]

Should I purchase now or wait for prices to drop on Pioneer Elite KURO 1080p PRO-110FD?

This may be one of those damned if I do or damned if I don't scenarios. My wife thinks we should wait a few weeks and see what the market is at. I'm afraid if we do that then we risk not being able to purchase one because they will be sold out as consumers snap them up over the next few weeks.

Please PM me with any dealer links that sell product normally at a fantastic discount.

 

[gus6464]

Should I purchase now or wait for prices to drop on Pioneer Elite KURO 1080p PRO-110FD?

This may be one of those damned if I do or damned if I don't scenarios. My wife thinks we should wait a few weeks and see what the market is at. I'm afraid if we do that then we risk not being able to purchase one because they will be sold out as consumers snap them up over the next few weeks.

Please PM me with any dealer links that sell product normally at a fantastic discount.

I would wait a bit until the new Panasonic 800 and 850 series comes out. Some people that saw it at CES are saying that the black levels are so much better than last year's model and in Kuro league for less price.