Home Theatre Decisions---Please Help (1st Post)

[gnagel]

While beginning my research on reconfiguring my home theatre set-up, I just discovered this site. This first post is a long one (and I apologize for that), but I am hoping to get some input on the questions posed below. I'm thinking that this forum will provide me with objective responses (versus the answers that I am getting from people who are trying to sell me new equipment).

Background Information
I am converting a small (11' by 13') room into a home theatre. Of course, I am trying to salvage as much of my current equipment as possible, but I am willing to upgrade where necessary. I will have Comcast HD cable. I am interested in condensing the equipment as much as possible (i.e., eliminating any redundancies).

Current Equipment
I currently own a Hitachi Ultra-Vision projection TV. The television is nine years old, and I will be upgrading the television. I am deciding between three televisions---the Panasonic 50" Plasma; the Sony 50" WEGA LCD HDTV and teh Samsung 50" DLP Projection HDTV. Although I do not fully understand what it means---the Sony and Samsung are capable of displaying 1080P resolution.

My sound system consists of the following:
Yamaha RX-V795 receiver, Sony CD/DVD Player (DVP-S530), Anthony Gallo Nucleus Micro Satellite Speakers, Anthony Gallo Nucleus Micro Subwoofer, ASW1000 B&W subwoofer and Yamaha CD player (CDC-765).

Questions Regarding Elimination of Equipment

I am interested in your thoughts regarding these ideas to reduce some of the redundancies:

First, I am currently using two subwoofers! When I first purchased the speakers, the manual instructed me to connect the main (front) speakers first to the Gallo subwoofer and then to the receiver. However, I later purchased the powered B&W subwoofer, which I connected directly to the subwoofer port on the receiver. Everything seems be working OK, but I'm thinking that it would be most efficient to eliminate the Gallo subwoofer and connect the front speakers directly to the receiver. Is this correct?

Next, I would like to eliminate the CD player since it seems like I should be able to play CDs through my DVD player.

Questions Regarding Equipment Upgrades

First, my DVD player is nearly six years old. Is it necessary to upgrade this player in order to take advantage of my new HDTV? I'm beginning to hear more about progressive scan. What would you recommend?

One of the home theatre sales representatives told me that I should also upgrade my receiver. My Yamaha is about five years old---it supports 5.1 surround and DTS. He recommended going with one of the new Denon receivers (in the same approximate price range ($600 to $800). Does this make sense? I'm thinking about sticking with my receiver for now.

Second, I am assuming that some new cables will be required with the HDTV (both from the cable box to the TV and from the DVD player to the TV). Any thoughts on this?

Questions Regarding Speaker Placement

I've read the recommendations for speaker placement. The center and front speakers can be placed in the room as recommended. However, I have a small problem with the rear speakers.

The home theatre seating sits almost directly against the back wall. So, I am looking at two options for placing the two rear Gallo satellites. One is to use floor stands in the corners of the room. I'm concerned that this will move the rear speakers to a position more to the side than in back of the viewer. Another option is to mount to speakers to the wall. This would move the speakers back a few inches as compared to the floor stands. A final option is to place the speakers in the wall--Gallo offers matching in-wall mounts. Is this enough of an advantage to go with the wall mount rather than stands? Is the placement of the rear speakers that critical? Is it important to position the rear speakers towards the viewer? If so, that might be more difficult if they are placed in-wall.

Again, I apologize for the long first post. I would greatly appreciate a response to any (or all) of the above questions.

Thanks!

 

[jcPanny]

HT recs

Display:
For a dedicated light controlled room, you might consider a front projection system like the Panasonic AE900U or Sanyo Z4. You will get a much bigger screen for <$2K.

Speakers:
In your small room with your listening position, 5.1 would probably work fine. For 7.1, you need to move the couch away from the back wall. Your speakers are not hard core audiofile speakers, but they look good and should sound pretty good. Keep the biggest / best sub for the HT. Is either of them 10" or 12"?

Electronics:
For $6-800 check out the Denon 3805 and Yamaha RX-V2500 receivers. If the CD player is a changer and has a digital output, keep it. Otherwise, toss it and consider a DVD changer. Upgrade your DVD to an upconversion model like the $200 Oppo Digital, or wait for the PS4 w/ Blue Ray Disk player.

Cables:
Buy the cables that match your new equipment. Probably 1 HDMI calbe, a few component video, a few digital coax or optical audio cables, etc.

 

[gnagel]

Thank you for your response.

My reasoning for choosing the 50" television is that the seating is just eight feet from the screen. Having viewed these sets from that distance in the display area at my local store, the screen size seemed adequate.

I'm not sure if your question regarding the subwoofer is in regard to the dimensions (clearly I'm a novice with this). The dimension of the unit (the B&W subwoofer) measures 18 inches in height by 21 inches in width and 20 inches in depth. The actual speaker measures 12 inches across. I'm currently using both the Gallo and B&W subwoofers. I'm assuming it's safe to do away with the Gallo one.

I'm not yet convinced that I need to upgrade the receiver. This existing receiver fell within that price range. What benefit would I realize by replacing the receiver?

The CD player does have digital output. However, if I decide to upgrade to an upconversion DVD model (Oppo Digital), does it makes sense to keep it? I am really trying to reduce the number of components (and cables) in the system.

Thanks again...

 

[Mort Corey]

Keep the B&W sub in the mix and ditch the Gallo. With a 12" bass driver and small speakers you[ve got plenty of bass ( and headroom).

Decide on your display and run it first with the gear you have....you might be suprised. I'd skip the upconverting DVD players as they are an interim solution at best. If you're not satisfied using separate components for DVD and CD, Denon and Yamaha (among others) make decent progressive scan, multi disk players.

You didn't mention your turntable. How do you play your records

Mort

 

[gnagel]

Keep the B&W sub in the mix and ditch the Gallo.

I plan to do that immediately. The main (front) speakers are currently connected to the Gallo subwoofer and then to the receiver. I'll just connect the main speakers directly to the receiver.

Decide on your display and run it first with the gear you have....you might be suprised.

That sounds like a good plan. Based upon my hours of staring at the HDTV screens at Tweeter, I am leaning toward the Sony 50" WEGA SXRD HDTV (KDS-R50XBR1). The Panasonic Plasma and Samsung DLP are strong possibilities as well.

Once the TV arrives, I would like to try my existing equipment with it. When I upgrade to HDTV, I'm guessing that the change will be in the video signal and that my audio signal will be comparable to what I have now with digital cable. I'm confused about the connections, however. Currently, the digital cable signal (both audio and video) is first connected from the cable box to my receiver. I then use the "monitor out" to run a cable from the receiver to the TV. I don't think that my current receiver would be capable of "passing" the HDTV signal to my monitor.

I guess the alternative is to run an audio cable from the cable box to the receiver and then run the appropriate video cable from the cable box directly to the television.

If you're not satisfied using separate components for DVD and CD, Denon and Yamaha (among others) make decent progressive scan, multi disk players.

I'm considering keeping my DVD player for now and playing my CDs through it as well.

You didn't mention your turntable. How do you play your records

Believe it or not, I'm fairly proficient with my video iPod. I just haven't done anything with my surround sound system in the past five years or so (other than connect an iPod docking station to it).

Thanks for your help. The dialogue helps me to better understand how to proceed.

I feel like I'm investing a significant sum. The HDTV (with stand) will run about $4k and the home theatre seating set me back another $3k. Getting the room wired for stereo cable and lighting isn't cheap either. I just want to make sure it meets my expectations when it's all done.

 

[jcPanny]

Wiring.

If you only want 5.1 then stick with the current receiver as it has pleny of power for those speakers. Just make sure you wire for 7.1 (speaker wire to the surround backs) so that you can easily upgrade in the future.

 

[scooter6]

my 0.02 worth

I can really only speak to the TV options -

This past weekend I purchased the Samsung HL-R5067W 50" DLP and I too have Comcast HD cable w/DVR (Motorola DTC6412 Set-top box)

The picture is just awesome! I chose DLP for what I felt was the best solution given the size of my room, etc. and the lower maintenance and easier to use functions. I feel I made a very informed decision after all my research. I too am pretty new to all this stuff - but I am learning each day.

For the TV connections, the motorola 6412 comes with a DVI (no HDMI connection on the back of the 6412 I have) So, I bought a DVI-to-HDMI cable and run it directly from the motorola 6412 to the back of the TV.

My next connection was my DVD player using component video to the Sony receiver and the to the TV -

I think the mistake I made initially was I used analog audio interconnects to go from the STB to the receiver - doesn't bode well for hearing 5.1 or DTS
So, today at lunch I bought a digital audio coax cable that I'm gonna hook-up tonight and hope it sounds much better.

Good luck in what you decide - if you do like me, go slow, make the right choices and get as much info as you can from people and research and you should be fine - remind yourseld, as I had to, that Rome wasn't built in a day

Once the wife and I decided we were going to buy the 50" DLP as our xmas gift to ourselves, I wanted to run out and get it a month ago or more - ha

But, I took my time to make a better decision - and I think I made a good choice

Good luck again - keep us posted on your progress and your decisions

Scott

 

[gnagel]

remind yourseld, as I had to, that Rome wasn't built in a day

Thanks for your response.

I also have to keep reminding myself that Rome wasn't built in a day. If I take my time and carefully research each component before purchasing it, I will probably be much happier in the end.

I've spent a significant amount of time over the past two days just trying to learn more about home theatre systems. I feel like my confidence is building to the point that (with the proper research) I can make some quality equipment decisions and then set-up (wire and calibrate) the system myself--rather than hire someone to do it.

So far, I'm leaning toward the following:

1) Comcast HDTV service with DVR

2) Keeping my Gallo speakers (except for the subwoofer)
2a) Positioning the rear speakers on the side wall---I'll probably go with the stands for now just in case I decide to upgrade the speakers in a couple of years)

3) Keeping my B&W subwoofer

4) Keeping my Yamaha receiver--for now
4a) I will run HDMI cables directly from the cable box to the monitor and from the DVD player to the monitor so that I don't rely on my receiver to pass the HDTV signal through. My receiver is capable of accepting digital audio inputs as well as video composite signals. It seems to make sense to hold off on upgrading this component for a few years.

5) Replacing my DVD player & CD player with a progressive scan (possibly) upconverting DVD player

6) Replacing my current stereo audio connection cables with optical digital audio connections
6a) Buying my cables from Blue Jeans Cable rather than the Monster cables recommended by Tweeter

So, that's where I'm at so far. There's quite a bit more to learn and more decision to be made, but I think I'm off to a good start. This website has been invaluable in speeding my learning curve.

I would appreciate any input that anyone has on this topic.

Thanks again!