newbie low budget need advice entry Polks vs HTIB?

[FirstReflection]

Yikes!

Just in reply to Pyrrho. I could indeed just be reading your words incorrectly, but man, to me, your tone just comes across as really harsh - unnecessarily so.

When I say something like "you're always going to want to..." I don't mean that literally. I don't literally mean "always". It's just a way of speaking. A figurative way of speaking. A casual way of speaking.

When someone says, "he always does that", they don't mean he literally always does that. Whomever they're talking about sleeps and eats sometimes, so he doesn't "always" do that. It's just a figure of speech!

So if you wanna dissect what I say with a razor and take every word literally, then yeah, I guess you can call me "wrong".

But seriously, dude. Lighten up! (haha...another great oxymoronic request, no? Seriously? Lighten up? Haha...I am quite the jester, aren't I?)

Anywho, I'm not going to dwell on it a moment longer (oh no! What if I do think about it ever again - even just for a split second? I will be a liar and wrong and not ever to be trusted, oh no!)

But in all seriousness (for real), when you start throwing around phrases like "psychological issues" - that's pretty heavy stuff, Pyrrho. Stuff you shouldn't be quipping about when you say everything else with such stoic seriousness. That's hurtful. So I hope, if nothing else, you'll at least consider that you words and how you write them do have an impact on other people. And since you are knowledgeable and give good advice, I'd prefer not to think less of you just because of your tone - or at least the way that I infer your tone.

friends? m'kay?

 

[Vracer111]

The Epson 8350 is an excellent budget conscious projector... I like it's image better than my low end Samsung Plasma mainly because of it's color reproduction. That plasma gives sharp images with excellent blacks and excellent contrast...but it just doesn't have the accurate color reproduction that the Epson 8350 does, especially regarding reds.

I would agree in quality over quantity for speakers to begin with - start off with the mains and fill out the surround system in stages. No use in having a quick stopgap surround setup if it doesn't sound great. If you are still considering Polks, refurbished on Ebay is the way to go with them if they have the particular model you are looking for. The price is a really sizable discount (nearly 1/2 off in many cases!) and is shipped direct from Polk Audio (free shipping and a warranty.)

Receivers with pre-outs are a very good thing... good amps will quiet down system level noise at the speakers compared to using the amp section in an AVR, especially noticeable with sensitive 8 ohm speakers. Just make sure your circuit ratings are adequate in your house for HT use - having to use multiple 15 amp circuits and figuring your power budget layout for each circuit in an older home (from 1970s) kind of sucks... Better to make sure you have good high amp circuits from the start and not limit your systems capability...

Oh and regarding multiple subwoofers; a single subwoofer will never be an option again after you go this route! Just like going to a projector for a display...

 

[Tadsbud]

The KEF's are on my list to audition before I do an in-home audition (in a few months) of the Aperion's. The Kef's look great. The Aperion's have a metal mesh front grill that, apparently, is hard to remove--this might alleviate my fear of my kids messing with the cones when I am not around. Any idea if the Kef's grill is hard to take off--silly question but for me it actually adds value lol.

I did a few more measurements in the basement today now that most of the framing is done.

The space I have is closer to 10' wide and 11' deep with a 7' ceiling (old 1960s house). See my rough sketch below. D=door, EC=electronics closet (where I plan on housing all my electronics). CL=another closet housing mechanical items. The wall with the sofa is actually 14' from wall to the electronics cabinet. There is a 40'' or so hallway on the left and a larger 5' hallway on the far right. So the 10'x11' (WxD) area is pretty much the area I can work with.

____________________________________________________
|           Sofa           D     |CL    |           |
|                          D EC  |      |           |
|                          |____ |__DDD_|           |
D                                                   |   
D          10'x11'                                  |
D                                                   |
|                                                   | 
|                                                   |
|    ____Screen___________________________          |
|    |                                    |         |
|    |                                    |         |
|    |                                    |         |

So a new question arises in my mind...is a projector the right idea or a large TV? Considering I will be sitting around 8-9' from the screen is it overkill to get a screen w/ projector?

The largest screen I should put in the room is probably 97'' diagonal given my low ceiling. With a 97'' screen it puts me at a 43 degree viewing arc sitting at 9' which is 3 degrees more than the max THX recommends (26 min, 36 optimal, 40 max). To get right at 40 degrees (at 9' viewing distance) I would be looking at a 90.3'' diag screen.

Moving my sofa up to 8' (which is very possibly where it will be) makes the screen sizes change to:
59'' for 30 deg arc
71.6'' for 36 deg arc (THX recommended)
80.2'' for 40 deg arc (THX max recommended)

Using my 97'' projector screen at 8' seating distance makes the viewing angle an uncomfortable 47.5 degrees--which is really bad if I am watching anything with subtitles or lots of text (human eye can read at about a 6 degree arc).

So with TV's like the Mitsubishi WD-73738 73-Inch 3D DLP HDTV at around $1650 delivered with a stand is that a better choice? Or does the Epson projector still blow it out of the water?

How does the Yamaha RX-A1000 7.1-Channel ($629) compare to Yamaha RX-V867BL 7.2-Channel ($649)? Looks like a pretty sweet setup.

What would you do?

 

[Vracer111]

From what I've seen, Rear Projection DLP displays generally are the low end of the image quality scale for displays. That Mitsubishi does look like a nice display though. Still, not sure how it would stack up against an Epson 8350...

My vote would be for Front Projection for the following 3 reasons:

1. I would not want to "have fun" snaking a large, bulky 90+ lb DLP Rear Projection Display around into a basement. I'll take the small 22lb projector that can be hand carried like a large encyclopedia.

2. You are stuck with what ever size TV Display you get. With front projection you can size the image size to the room and seating distance - image size is entirely up to personal preference and limitations of the room. And you almost always end up wanting to go bigger than initially planned...

3. DLP sets seem to have a very narrow viewing angle. With Front Projection, you can sit wherever and at whatever angle you want and get a very good image.

Here's some screenshots from my Epson 8350 setup (Note: I did what I could to approximate what the image looks like in real life, but the actual image is sharper with better contrast than these examples. Colors and black levels are much closer to the actual image - at least they are on my laptop...):

Example 1 , Example 2 , Example 3 , Example 4 (with plasma codisplaying - exposure set for Projector not plasma image...)

I do have the wall the projector and plasma are on painted flat black which helps with image quality as well. If you can, paint all wall surfaces dark flat colors - at the very least the wall the screen is on followed by the ceiling.

I have a 92" 16:9 screen and it's just too small for me at a long 12' viewing distance. I'm going to build a custom 110" and suspend it off the wall 1' to get it closer to the seating. If i could move the seat forward I would want to get about 8' away from a 110" screen - but there would be interference with the backyard door in the living-room and the sectional sofa. Personally, I'm very comfortable viewing the 92" screen from 6' away on the floor. The nice thing about Front Projection (like mentioned earlier) is you can adjust the image size and see what suits your setup best - shoot it on the wall and adjust the image size to figure out what screen size you want to go with... and the best position for the screen as well.

When you initially gave the 12'x12' dimensions of the basement viewing area I was thinking that was the room size, but your room is an open plan much larger than that with 2 hallways. HTiB style speakers would not have been a good route to go!

Is the closet for the equipment going to be actively cooled to manage heat buildup from the system?