I’ll cut straight to the chase with introducing my small but very loud JBL home cinema.
The Marantz amplifiers, and the item placed to the right side of it, believe it or not, is a monaural Panasonic VCR, now all VCR’s have a built in audio limiter, now I have simply re-plugged the whole sound system with this in mind, this unit controls the JBL Control 5 Centre channel, it has been very beneficial it has given me flexibility and control over the amount of high dynamic range output from laserdiscs or DVD.
In simple words I can still run the sound system just as loud as before, but without it going too far over the top, the highest peak level I have calibrated the Marantz 1050 and the EQ’s and the pre-amplifier that drives it which is the Yamaha DSP-100, this is an old Dolby Surround decoder that I have adapted for use in the home cinema, the wiring and re-plugging of it will confuse most, but believe me it in know way compromises the sound performance.
The Kenwood KRF-9050D THX select AVR is mostly the heart of all the Dolby Stereo Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts 5.1 decoding, with Lucasfilm THX electronic circuitry to re-EQ the fronts surrounds and a whole lot more, some of which most would now understand.
All the RCA pre-outputs from the Kenwood KRF-X9050D THX select, goes to different parts of audio electronics for special audio processing, that makes this home cinema, well not to special, but it’s all in the mix I say, and with very carefully listening I can take the fronts one step further with very little cost!
The Yamaha DSR-70Pro is a Dolby Surround Pro-Logic matrix processor, which I have adapted for use of the front left and right, that means the left and right outputs from the Kenwood, goes into the DSR-70Pro, and then output to the Ferguson Videostar, Hi-Fi VCR, which has an onboard audio limiter, now like I explained with the first audio limiter the Panasonic, which is used for the centre channel, well the Ferguson, just simply does the left and right stereo.
With all levels set to (0db) on the Kenwood, and via running it at 0db reference level, and via setting the volume on the amplifies and very careful adjustment of the EQ’s, where I aim for an optimum peak level of 85dbA in the centre of the room, not all films tend to peak at 85dbA which is around the mid high to high frequency range!
But sometimes it does peak slightly over at around 88dbA this is acceptable seeing it it’s only for about 1 second, if the levels should exceed this for more than a few seconds, and the sound of the high frequencies becomes too much for taking, then I will make the necessary modifications to the sound system, so far it’s been running like a treat!
The Laserdisc and DVD players, I know the image isn’t all that clear, but starting from top and working it’s way down is.
Cello DR-810 DVD-RW reorder, this mostly use for transferring laserdiscs to DVD-RW for my own personal use.
The SONY DVP-S336 is used with certain DVD feature films and the odd few of DVD-RW optical discs.
The Pioneer DV-525 is mostly used for playing most of the DVD feature films and some of the DVD-RW optical discs.
The Pioneer CLD-1750 Laserdisc player is mostly used at the moment, when needed that is, so laserdisc is still quite alive around here, it’s all in the original Dolby film mixes, where some DVD feature films have been compromised, I bet you didn’t know that! Never sale the laserdiscs!
The Pioneer CLD-2950 Laserdisc player is off line at the present moment pending a new part that supports the Laserdisc securely to the (spindle motor) its a little part very easy to install. Other than that she’s fine.
The Furguson videostar, HI-Fi Stereo VCR, well this is no longer used has a VCR for playback, everything is done via optical disc now! So I have used it for a good general purpose, and that is the onboard audio limiter that she has, this runs the left and right front JBL Control 5. It’s been very careful set-up so that when the levels get really high, I mean really high, doesn’t matter if the level is played at -10dbon the master fader on the Kenwood, what it does mean, it prevents (audio masking) which can really drown out the centre channel, or vice versa, if the left and right are playing softly, and the centre level goes to high in dynamic range, it will never peak over the 0db threshold level.
There is a very good balance of sound presentation around here, and you would really never be able to tell the difference, except you’ll here more of what you didn’t hear before!
The sub bass that you see placed on top of her, is the Eltax A-12R, this used for extending the lowest frequencies from the fronts and the surrounds or split-surrounds. The levels are balanced via the Realistic audio mixer, with certain low pass outputs from the Yamaha DSR-70Pro the Yamaha DSP-100 the Pioneer VSP-200 which is also used for controlling the surrounds, whether I’m running monaural-surrounds split-surrounds or centre back surround with height surround overhead!
This is a rather tight angle image showing the back surrounds and the height surrounds.
