Highland Theater

[adk highlander]

I've got some pics of my cleaned up wiring for my HT/Wholehouse system.

I recently finished getting my Integra MZA 4.7 installed into my bedroom zone so we can now watch any of our sources in our bedroom. I'm still having a bit of an issue with IR signal strength to the sat receivers but other than that it works well.

This first pic is the back of my Prepro. Almost 100% HDMI for sources. My Fireball uses component video and the second component cable is for a media port I'm going to install below the rack to hook up a Wii or any other portable source. One of the HDMI cables will also go to the media port.

Here are most of my sources The top is a HD Sat box, below that is a HD DVR, the BDP-83 and my fireball. All are run both HDMI/digital to the prepro and composite/analog stereo to the MZA 4.7.

On top here is the MZA 4.7 and below is my MPS-1. The MZA has all the IR keypad control coming in via cat 5 on the right side and the IR emitters are next to that. In the center are all the incoming sources and the 4 zone outputs. The MZA is cool in that I can either use it as a pre with an amp or use one if the internal 2x50w amps. For the multispeaker zone for inside and outside listening I use an Onkyo M282 amp. The other 2 zones are for my wife's treadmill and our bedroom.

I also have another DVD player that is off to the side where I keep the Onkyo amp and a power center for all the sources to go through. I have 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits for the rack so I don't have to worry.

I have a couple of pics of the front. Sorry they are a bit blurry.

We recently carpeted the room and I have also just finished installing my Snell sub into the front wall. Wmax game me direction on the foam and other good info. For now I am running both subs without a DCX which I will get later to work bass response.

I still have to finish the grill cover and then I will post pics on that and the rest of the room. Next is a new couch which will have to wait until after Christmas.

 

[nibhaz]

Sweet setup!

Looking great Craig! Awesome cable management.

For all its faults, HDMI is still great in my book.

 

[adk highlander]

Looking great Craig! Awesome cable management.

For all its faults, HDMI is still great in my book.

Thanks. I want to get some more velcro so I can move things without replacing the zip ties. It is more that I think nice wiring looks cool than the idea that I am being a neat freak.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

What is behind the cabinet in the wall?

Can you post some more pictures of your sub in the wall?

Nice clean wire management.

Talk to me more about the fireball. I may want to add a better server for my music.

 

[adk highlander]

What is behind the cabinet in the wall?

The cabinet goes back into a small room that has my furnace, storage, breaker panel, etc. Is that what you mean?

Can you post some more pictures of your sub in the wall??

I will. I'm kind of an idiot not taking pics of the build process but I was so focused to get in done that I forgot. The cab is made from 3/4 ply that is lined with high density latex foam that Chris helped me find. It is not attached to the wall or anything to lessen the chances of it vibrating the wall. So far it seems to work well. I was watching Star Trek and I went back there during one of the space battle scences and the vibrations from the cab were minimal.

Nice clean wire management.?

Thank you.

Talk to me more about the fireball. I may want to add a better server for my music.

I have the SE-80 which is their base model. Dave also has one so if he is around he can get me on anything I get wrong or miss.

The good:

• Good looking user interface with album art and different sort orders.
• Will play/store most formats including flac. But will not play apple lossless
• all ouputs are active (both analog and digital)
• Has a 3.5mm IR input so no flasher neccessary.
• Uses gracenote to get album art.

The not so good:

• Only 80GB and you cannot put a bigger hard drive in it. It will use a pc as a source but if I have to turn on the computer as well it kind of defeats the purpose. It will not use a NAS device.
• setting up playlists and changing to and from shuffle is kind of a pain.
• It is not super quiet. The fan runs even when in standby so it may be a power sink.
• If you have songs that import incorrectly using a remote to edit is a pain.
• Cannot rip and listen to music at the same time.

They make other models that have larger drives but can really get expensive. I went with this because I grabbed it on ebay for less than 400 bucks. I would really like something from their vision series to play video as well but then you are looking at several grand.

I will say this I love it compared to having to deal with a computer interface. I always have music on in the house if I'm hanging out. To be able to walk up to my keypad and easily pick an album is easy and it really impresses your friends.

Here is a pick of my main keypad with the speaker selector and mini LCD I put in to view the fireball. I can use any source (dvd etc.) but who would want to watch TV on a 7" screen.

 

[jostenmeat]

I am very impressed! The rack looks great! I didn't know cable mgmt could be so impressive! The automation is very impressive too. Again, I am very impressed, thanks for sharing.

 

[rmk]

Great job on the room ADK, good equipment choices and you have me feeling ashamed of my sloppy cable work.

 

[adk highlander]

I am very impressed! The rack looks great! I didn't know cable mgmt could be so impressive! The automation is very impressive too. Again, I am very impressed, thanks for sharing.

Thanks josten I really appreciate it. I'll be bugging you soon. I've been doing my best to tweak my projector but I still think it can be better. I need to spend another hour or two with the Spears & Munsil disk so I can ask the correct questions.

Great job on the room ADK, good equipment choices and you have me feeling ashamed of my sloppy cable work.

Thanks RMK. Well you don't see any of your gear so I don't think it matters as much. I look forward to hearing your impressions if you get the height channels. I've decided to wait on the processor for a few months and get my seating and some pannels after Christmas.

 

[jostenmeat]

Thanks josten I really appreciate it. I'll be bugging you soon. I've been doing my best to tweak my projector but I still think it can be better. I need to spend another hour or two with the Spears & Munsil disk so I can ask the correct questions.

I would love to help you as much as I can, however, I don't know jack about calibrating. I will research your PJ some later, when time permits, and that I remember to.

I would look towards those who actually calibrate for a living, or at least have calibrated many displays. I think perhaps of bandphan, majorloser, others. Maybe HiHo, PhilTaylor. Um. BMX might be worth a shot. Er. Probably not me though.

How about this, gimme a head start, and let me know the ballpark that the question(s) might fall into.

 

[jostenmeat]

adk, I looked around a bit regarding calibration settings for your unit. While I'll link a couple of settings that people got, of course the best is to do it for your own room, screen type, screen size, etc, (which of course you're doing already) but maybe they can serve as a reference.

First of all, if you are having troubles, though it's something you probably know more about than I do, it's been said to calibrate with the auto-iris OFF. Then after calibration, turn it back on if you want it.

Here is one very interested consumer's settings, probably the most involved at the AVS owner's thread, but he uses a DaLite High Power which is a very particular animal. His settings.

ProjectorReviews settings, but high lamp. I think someone mentioned that they might also have low lamp setting suggestions, but I did not immediately notice them. High Lamp Settings.

 

[adk highlander]

adk, I looked around a bit regarding calibration settings for your unit. While I'll link a couple of settings that people got, of course the best is to do it for your own room, screen type, screen size, etc, (which of course you're doing already) but maybe they can serve as a reference.

First of all, if you are having troubles, though it's something you probably know more about than I do, it's been said to calibrate with the auto-iris OFF. Then after calibration, turn it back on if you want it.

Here is one very interested consumer's settings, probably the most involved at the AVS owner's thread, but he uses a DaLite High Power which is a very particular animal. His settings.

ProjectorReviews settings, but high lamp. I think someone mentioned that they might also have low lamp setting suggestions, but I did not immediately notice them. High Lamp Settings.

Thanks so much Josten! The AVS guy is the one I have been corresponding with and using his settings just do not work well with my screen. He is a really nice guy and very helpful. I have to go back and find what my gain is for my screen. I was sure it is 1.1 but I am questioning myself now.

I think part of my problem may be I dont' know what a properly calibrated projector looks like. It may be that I will just have to breakdown and get my not so local pro to come out. Or if any of they pro's from here ski I can put them up for the weekend in trade.

 

[Davemcc]

I have the SE-80 which is their base model. Dave also has one so if he is around he can get me on anything I get wrong or miss.

The good:

• Good looking user interface with album art and different sort orders.
• Will play/store most formats including flac. But will not play apple lossless
• all ouputs are active (both analog and digital)
• Has a 3.5mm IR input so no flasher neccessary.
• Uses gracenote to get album art.

*Very high WAF. My wife has already claimed the Fireball in the event of a divorce.
*Only 80g but very efficient storage. I've got almost 500 CDs loaded at 192 bit rate and still have about half the memory left.
*Outstanding customer service...perhaps the best I've encountered anywhere.
*automatic updates on-line

The not so good:

• Only 80GB and you cannot put a bigger hard drive in it. It will use a pc as a source but if I have to turn on the computer as well it kind of defeats the purpose. It will not use a NAS device.
• setting up playlists and changing to and from shuffle is kind of a pain.
• It is not super quiet. The fan runs even when in standby so it may be a power sink.
• If you have songs that import incorrectly using a remote to edit is a pain.
• Cannot rip and listen to music at the same time.

*Well, changing to and from shuffle mode is as easy as toggling the "mode" button on the remote.
*I never hear my fan running unless I am leaning in close to the unit.
*The PS3 can't use it as a server because the PS3 can't read the proprietary file format.

PS...awesome wire management.

 

[jostenmeat]

Thanks so much Josten! The AVS guy is the one I have been corresponding with and using his settings just do not work well with my screen. He is a really nice guy and very helpful. I have to go back and find what my gain is for my screen. I was sure it is 1.1 but I am questioning myself now.

You're welcome, adk. I am familiar with some of his posting history, and I agree that he is nice, helpful, and yet at the same time he calls it like he sees it. I have an issue to bring up, being that there IS unit to unit variation with projectors. For instance, arguably the most popular brand right now, Epson, was stated as perhaps having the most unit to unit variation among popular models, at least with their previous generations, such as the 1080UB. Jason Turk basically stated that using others' calibrations was pointless with that model. That detracts very little, if anything at all, from its calibrated performance.

*Very high WAF. My wife has already claimed the Fireball in the event of a divorce.
*Only 80g but very efficient storage. I've got almost 500 CDs loaded at 192 bit rate and still have about half the memory left.
*Outstanding customer service...perhaps the best I've encountered anywhere.
*automatic updates on-line
*Well, changing to and from shuffle mode is as easy as toggling the "mode" button on the remote.
*I never hear my fan running unless I am leaning in close to the unit.
*The PS3 can't use it as a server because the PS3 can't read the proprietary file format.

PS...awesome wire management.

Will you two tell me more about this? I think I want to join the 21st century. I am guessing that I have about 600 cd's. I know absolutely nothing about modern media playback.

It would be ideal if there was a nice touch screen display/remote to find titles. I hope it's not something that must be displayed on a TV, because there isn't any TV coupled to my stereo.

This unit is ID only? $999? What is a leading contender to this unit (if there is any at all?). Anything else I should know?

Oh, Dave, how long did it take to load 300 cd's? You guys back this up on some other hard drive (so that the work doesn't have to be repeated)?. I listen to about 99% classical, and I would probably opt to load the stuff at the highest possible bitrate I imagine.

Thank you very much.

 

[Davemcc]

We spent a couple of marathon sessions over the first couple of weeks loading in the first few hundred CDs. The rest have been added in over time. I'm not really sure about how to back up for the Escient itself. I don't think we've done that. On the other hand, I don't think the Escient is susceptible to failure the way a normal computer is (I hope).

One good thing is that you can transfer files from the Fireball via ethernet into another computer. You have to convert them to MP3 or whatever after the file transfer, but we actually use the Fireball as the backup for our computers' libraries.

Small 13-15" LCD Tv's are cheap nowadays. You could pick one of them up to act as a display.

I didn't post in your other thread because I don't really know anything about other server options except that some of them are ungodly expensive.

 

[Rickster71]

Hi guys,
I have the MX-111 it's 160 GB and I've stored my Cd's in FLAC. Cd's take about 2.5 to 3 minutes each, to copy.
You can also leave out tracks you don't like. How much it holds depends on what format you copy them in.

One nice feature is that it can be networked and can use your PC as if it's another drive.
The 'Fireball-PC' software can be downloaded from the Escient site.

I unplug mine when not in use. Since it less wear and tear when the drive isn't spinning, and quiet.

Here's some info: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-m2jfg8v3gww/p_641MX111/Escient-FireBall-MX-111.html

 

[jostenmeat]

Thanks so much for the replies guys. I want to continue to pick your guys' brains, but because this is adk's build thread, I really don't want to do that here. I will quote your responses in my other thread, if that's ok. Thanks.

 

[adk highlander]

Thanks so much for the replies guys. I want to continue to pick your guys' brains, but because this is adk's build thread, I really don't want to do that here. I will quote your responses in my other thread, if that's ok. Thanks.

No problem Josten. I've found I only use some of the functions and Dave's post helped me figure out that I don't have to go as far into the menu system to change the shuffle controls.

Rick I didn't know you had a MX-111. Do you have a DVD changer or do you just use it as a music server?

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

In-Wall Cabinet

I like your in-wall shelves / rack. Is that all custom?


<img src="http://www.indianrockconsulting.com/documents/gearrack.jpg">

 

[adk highlander]

I like your in-wall shelves / rack. Is that all custom?


<img src="http://www.indianrockconsulting.com/documents/gearrack.jpg">

Thanks Ben. Yes it is. I built 2 2x4 walls that are sides of the rack and tied them into the main wall. I cut a hole in the existing drywall and then lined the cabinet with 1/4 inch material. I made my shelves from 3/4 inch ply and used some heavy duty shelf braces for the bottom to hold 250 lbs. I used lighter duty brackets for the upper shelves and veneered the front edge and painted it black.

The side 2x4 walls keep the wiring clean. The only negative I've found is that I did not set it up for adjustable shelves. I've left gaps and the back bottom and top that I am going to install fans to pull the hot air out of the rack.

 

[AVRat]

Nice setup! I also have the MX-111 and only use it as a music server. I loaded up 385 disks over 5 weekends.