My HT Quest

[agarwalro]

The back lighting looks great. The PQ looks great too...

 

[wilkenboy]

Finally, SUB!!!! SVS 20-39 PCi

Received the sub yesterday, after months of research and deal hunting I settled on the SVS 20-39 PCi. Here are some quotes from my wife, and my first impressions.

Impressions:
- Yes, its big, very big, bigger than these pics indicate.
- Yes, it delivers 20HZ with authority... walls shake, couches shift position, knick-knacks in other parts of the house tremble in awe.
- Yes, I am very happy so far, even without proper integration or EQ.
- Yes, what you've read is true about this sub.
- In the Darla Tap scene from Finding Nemo the amount of bass actually startled me ... now I know what folks have been talking about!!!

Quotes from the wife:
- "is the sub smaller than the box it comes in?"
- "oh, if I had known how big this was I'm not sure I'd let you get it"
- when asked why the previous owner sold I said "to upgrade" to which she replied "to what, the Eiffel Tower?"
- then, as we watched the "Darla tapping" scene from Finding Nemo - "how do they DO that??"

Glee!

SVS: Boxes big enough to ship a 7-year old in.

SVS: A big upgrade, in many ways.

More to follow as I get settled in with it...

~Josh

 

[wilkenboy]

Sub impressions, a few days later

Ok, so I've had a few days with the sub, not a whole bunch more time, just a few hours. My wife actually wanted to go watch a movie "with the new sub", which turned out to be Pixar's "Cars" - great movie and some good use of bass throughout. Most noticably the intro race scenes pack more punch... and obviously the scene with the "teenage" cars at night was awesome, but I was expecting it in both of those locations. A few places where the experience was new and unexepcted was any scene with "Bessie"- these is a constant very low frequency rumble whenever she's onscreen. Another good one is the Harrier flyover of the piston cup in the last race scene- a very nice low frequency "whop" that was more or less non-existant with a my previous sub which would only hit the low 30s.

In general, if home theater is your thing and you watch any action movies having something that extends down to 20Hz should be on your "must" list. 30 Hz is great for music, and most movies, but you are missing a key visceral element without that bottom 10 Hz more often than you might think.

If that means saving a little extra cash or going just a little bigger than you originally planned, its worth it.

I made a CD of test tones between 10 Hz and 200Hz out of curiousity to see how low this puppy extends in room. With my reciever set at -15 I can start to feel the room shake at 15 Hz... at 18 Hz it is audible and much louder, and at 20 Hz the door to the room begins to rattle in the frame. I'll have to install a very small strip of foam to tame that... at 28 Hz the individual strips in the blinds rattle, not sure how I'm going to handle that one! So no room sweeps yet (not enough free time yet to drag the computer upstairs and fire up the Room EQ Wizard and Ratshack SPL meter), but I'm pretty confident based on my results that I'm getting 18 Hz in room.

So far so good. From some listening its apparent I still need to dial in the final location, integrate with my mains, and tame some of the room modes with a BFD, which I've already picked up. I figure sometime over the next two weeks I'll carve out a few hours to do that. When I do I'll post the before and after frequency response plots here.

~Josh

 

[wilkenboy]

Last night we had my brother in law and his wife over for dinner then to watch "Lady in the Water", but first I fired up the "Mines Exploding" and "Darla Tapping" scenes from Finding Nemo to show off the new Sub.

My brother-in law's wife actually let out a yelp during the "Mines Exploding" scene. My brother, who was sitting by the door, was laughing, yelling "oh man,the door is rattling in the frame!"

Overall "Lady in the Water" was pretty good, not as good as "the Village", but better than "Signs" in my opinion. One thing I noted was that the bass swells during intense scenes is much more effective when you can feel the air moving all around you as opposed to just hearing it.

~Josh

 

[Matt34]

Congrats Josh! Getting a new sub is always a fun experience.

 

[wilkenboy]

Oh man, Matt34, you ain't kiddin!

In the scheme of things that have really made a difference, I'd rate the components in the following way, with 10 being a major difference, 1 being relatively little impact:

27" TV to a 92" front projection system: 10
32 Hz capable sub to the SVS 20-39 Pci (18 Hz and great SPL): 9
"Universal" remote to a Harmony remote: 8 (but a 10 for my wife)
Satellite speakers to Bookshelf (Ascends): 7
Dolby Pro-Logic receiver to Yamaha RX-V2500: 5

By the way, how much longer are you in the sandbox?

~Josh

 

[Matt34]

That's about how I would rate my upgrades too. It's really a toss-up(for me) between the front projection and sub upgrades.

Less than 90 days.

 

[wilkenboy]

Room improvements - movie posters

So after a year of starting, stopping, re-thinking, my sister-in-law delivered the movie poster collages we've been planning to hang in the media room. Merry Christmas! They turned out MUCH better than I had envisioned, and since it took so long she went ahead and had them matted and very nicely framed. Very cool.

All in all there are 32 posters here, I was suprised how difficult it was to narrow it down to just 32... but these represent a good mix of what my wife and I enjoy and some were chosen over others because the design/color of the poster was cooler. In the end I ended up including all 3 LOTR and 3 original Star Wars posters... even though this takes up 6 of the 32 potential slots I just couldn't bring myself to eliminate any of these two trilogies.

I tried to take a picture this morning but managed to bungle it pretty good with the camera flash and reflections from a window behind me, but the following gives you an indication of the final product:

Originally I had just downloaded some of the DVD covers off of Amazon and other sites... she works for a newspaper and so had access to some higher res original posters and used those instead. Very happy! Now just to hang them...


~Josh

 

[daman4799]

Hi Josh,

I take it you really like the sub LOL! Please take good care of my baby I really hated to see it go. I told you it would be one of the biggest improvements to your HT. I'm really happy for you and (your wife LOL).

Take care my friend

Jim

Just seen the picture of the box. It did'nt look that bad when I shipped it. Dam UPS!

 

[wilkenboy]

Jim,

Man oh man it's worth it... I'll take good care of the "Velvet Elvis". I'm actually trying to figure out how you brought yourself to part with it!

~Josh

 

[wilkenboy]

System Costs so far

With the bulk of the electronics done I did a little sum the other day to see how I was doing vs. my original plans.

I had originally estimated between $3500-$4250 for a complete system with front projection and 5.1 surround utilizing an existing DVD player and pair of surrounds. In the end I ended up going a little more upscale on a few components than originally planned:

- Panny 900u vs 700u. (got a great deal via Audioholics at Visual Apex)
- Yamaha RX-V2500 vs. Pioneer 1015TX (refurb deal on Ubid)
- Ascend 340c in center duty vs 170. (via eBay and direct purchase from a previous owner over at AVS)
- SVS 20-39 PCi vs. a PB10 originally. (via Daman4799 right here on the forum)

The Grand Total came out to $3210, or $290 less than the low end of what I had budgeted. So I got more, spent less, had a LOT of fun in the research, discussions, and deal hunting along the way. Its been tremendously satisfying putting this system together.

At this point I'm going to take a break from the electronics / components end of things- certainly I could spend more- I would love to replace those Yamaha surrounds and bring in another two speakers for full 7.1, but that can wait a little bit.

For the next few months / year I'm going to focus on the aesthetics of the room and tweaking/integration of the sound. As of now:

- electronics are stacked on the floor
- the speakers are on some relatively ghetto MDF stands I knocked out using scraps
- the walls are in need of a more appropriate paint job
- a window needs covering
- the couches are the mismatched leftovers from almost 10 years ago
- there's a side-side flutter echo that I'd like to kill
- the mains and the sub need to be integrated and sub placement finalized, - basically I need to dial in the house curve.

So here's the plan:
1) Paint and window coverings: My wife and I have kicked this around a bit and decided on a chocolate tone- she gets creative licence on the window coverings. I'm estimating $150-$200.
2) Sub/main integration: I've been holding back here until I was done. I have a Ratchack Analog meter, a BFD, and a copy of Room EQ Wizard on my computer ready to go. I just need to find a free evening to tweak. Free!
3) Acoustic treatments: I'll go the DIY route, I'm estimating around $75-100 in materials, some sweat, sawdust.
4) Electronics / speaker stands: As mentioned previously here I'm planning on building a nice set of custom cabinets to house electronics and media as well as serve as a place to set my L, C, R speakers. I'll build this myself and save a couple thousand dollars, but as of now I'm still working on my basic shop equipment and skills to put this together the way I'd like. If I get this done by the end of 2007 I'll be happy.
5) Seating: this will be longer term. The reality is the family room / dining room furniture comes first, so for the foreseeable future the HT will be getting hand-me-downs.

I'd like to thank everyone here for the comments, suggestions, and general support along the journey so far. I've enjoyed documenting the progress here.

Next up: room gets some color and final frequency responses!

~Josh

 

[apatel25314]

you are really into this for my ht im just picking the equipment out and having some guy come in and install it, and then an interior decorator will do all the decoratiing work

 

[wilkenboy]

you are really into this for my ht im just picking the equipment out and having some guy come in and install it, and then an interior decorator will do all the decoratiing work

The sweat and research is both fun and saves a lot of money.

But I could see the merit in letting someone handling it all for you.

~Josh

 

[Sojourn]

Hey Josh, just read through all 14 pages here. What an amazing journey and brilliant outcome so far. I registered on the forum because I had to send props your way. Now, we'll have to trade invites for a test drive!

This is the first time I have seen the sub you ended up with. What a beast! As a a newbie to the 'hobby', I had no idea that people used subs that were larger than an an average 10 year old. But then your description of the experience makes it sound pretty compelling and worth the cost/space.

One final thing. Can you elaborate on how you have balanced the sound like you talked about. This is all virgin territory for me...

--Drew

 

[wilkenboy]

I had a fun weekend. I took Friday off and painted the media room, the color is Behr's "New Chestnut", which I refer to as "Sexual Chocolate" (an ode to Eddie Murphy). Looks nice in the room, and really complements the clean look of the screen and the two poster collages on either side. While the screen was off the wall I took the time to properly hang the rope lights, and now the light is uniform around the perimeter of the screen. I also buried the rope light power in the wall so its not hanging like a tail from the bottom of the screen.

I finally got done putting it all back together about 12:20 AM on Friday.

Saturday we had folks over for a baby shower for our next-door neighbors. Its the first time I'd shown off the media room to the guys in the neighborhood. I took them up there and gave them a 15 minute demo... then we all rejoined the party. Another 15 minutes later the wives all approached me and said "you have to show us this room our husbands have been talking about" - so I gave them the tour as well. Very fun to show off the toys.

So Sunday after church and an afternoon nap we get up and are poking through the Sunday paper. My wife finds an ad for the Haverty's outlet and the next thing I know she and I are up the in room taping out the dimensions of a sectional they have on sale. 40 minutes later we're on the show room floor and she is handing me a credit card. I'm not sure how that happened, as before we had been talking about doing the living room and using the couches from there as hand-me-downs for the media room. I guess she liked the paint job and got inspired. Who am I to question that!

The sectional is due to deliver Wednesday.

Last night we cracked a bottle of wine and caught up on Grey's Anatomy and Survivor, then caught the last half of a Dave Matthews concert in HD. What a great weekend!

 

[wilkenboy]

Hey Josh, just read through all 14 pages here. What an amazing journey and brilliant outcome so far. I registered on the forum because I had to send props your way. Now, we'll have to trade invites for a test drive!

This is the first time I have seen the sub you ended up with. What a beast! As a a newbie to the 'hobby', I had no idea that people used subs that were larger than an an average 10 year old. But then your description of the experience makes it sound pretty compelling and worth the cost/space.

One final thing. Can you elaborate on how you have balanced the sound like you talked about. This is all virgin territory for me...

--Drew

Thanks Drew, its been fun using this as a blog of sorts. Feel free to drop by and see the place, you know you are always welcome.

Give me another day or two to summarize on the sound balancing - its a pretty involved thing... but for starters you can look at the audioholics main page guides here:

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/index.php

~Josh

 

[wilkenboy]

Seating!

The new seating was delivered yesterday around noon. I was working from home, and had some teleconferences from 1-4:30, all of which was spent on the new couch. Then my bro-in-law and his wife came over for dinner and "LOST" last night, so overall I spent around 5 hours on it yesterday. Infinetly better than the old couches we had in there. I have intentionally kept them out of the pictures for good reasons, and sitting on them was an exercise in endurance past the 1 hour mark.

With the new paint and the new seating the room aesthetics are really coming together. I'll get some updated pics here in the next few days and post them here for your enjoyment.

I'm dragging my feet on room acoustics/sub integration. The problem I'm having is with my spare time I'm enjoying it, not tweaking it!

Checked my lamp hours the other day and it was inching up on 1000. How time flies when you're having fun!

~Josh

 

[Matt34]

Nice score with the couch, looking forward to the pics!

 

[wilkenboy]

Updated Pics

Here a panorama I put together this afternoon. Not a perfect composite (particularly the range of exposures), but it gives you the general idea. The color of the walls is darker than this indicates.

This was taken from the double-door entry, if you look carefully you can see the doors on the right an left. You can see the SVS 20-39 hiding in the corner behind the couch. That thing in the corner on the left is my wife's light set.

The new couch is very comfy.

~Josh

 

[angstadt530]

Looking good! Seems like the sectional fits the room perfectly.

Can't wait to see the place once you install the cabinents. I'd suggest finding a cheap audio rack until then so you can get your equipment off the floor. I think I have that same file cabinent...