Info and forum posts by 'macbeth'

RE: Anyone else had problems with the MR Hack for a Panasonic S-35?

Take it back to the nice man in the shop and he will do it for £80

RE: Panasonic S-35 Region Hack in serious need!!! Please Help

Take it to the nice man in the shop and for £80 he will do it for you

Anyone reccomend a decent bargain projector

I`m considering buying a projector for the occasional viewing of films, I`ve seen a Panasonic PTAE200E for £750, is this any good or are there better deals to be had

Whats the best current projector deal

I want to beef up these dark winter nights and get a projector, quite happy to put up with the hassle of setting it and the screen up to make an event of watching a film, but until all the other technology has settled down do not want to splash out to much. I`ve seen a Panny PTAE200E for £750.

RE: problems with dts

Yes it is wrong for the reasons I stated, sub standard implification of the technology

RE: To BOSE or not to BOSE?

Bose are like B&O all show and little go, very clever marketing but not a champion product. I had a pair of 901`s for 1 night in 1978, I blew them up that night with a Phase Linear amp, got a refund and bought a pair of Gale 401`s, show and go still have them but for the last 14 years I have used ATC active 50`s which have been upgraded and maintained at little cost, no show but heaps of go.

RE: problems with dts

I think there is a fundermental point to consider, you say you are connected via the optical link, it is my understanding that as this involves electrical to optical to electrical conversion and as the electronics used at both ends are usually not of a particually high standard, you are best to stick with the digital co-ax link.

Projector - Panny PTAE200

Sound and Vision are doing this model for £750, is it any good and is this as cheap as they get?

RE: Why is everything silver?

On a winters night with the lights down all those black boxes that I fortunatly have dissapear the last thing I want is to open my eyes and be confronted by a load of shiny silver boxes staring at me

RE: Could the cold affect my DVD player?

It is perfectly feasable that the cold could be having an effect,

RE: db meter - for home cinema set up

Thanks for your help. I`ve ordered the analogue one.

RE: db meter - for home cinema set up

Why do you say the analogue one as opposed to the digital one

db meter - for home cinema set up

Anyone know of a supplier of an adequate cheap db meter for home cinema set up, or is it a waste of time and your best to rely on your ears?

RE: Russ Andrews, Kimber Cable, black magic?

Yes you can have a home trial but you will have to use a cable with a connector. Regarding blind tests I`ve been into HiFi since I was 15 done many a blind test and have even had tricks played on me which I have spotted every time. On this ocassion I played a CD which I found barely listenable, fitted the cable, tried the CD again and it was easy to listen to.

Russ Andrews, Kimber Cable, black magic?

Russ Andrews sell a full range of Kimber cables, interconnect and mains, some of which are frighteningly expensive. They make some very bold claims as to the benefits these cables can have on a system. I always use good quality interconnects costing no more than about £80 and feel that £500 to £1,250 is taking the p***.

One of the strangest claims they make is that a replacement Kimber mains cable to your source component will have the most dramatic benefit.

Having resisted falling for this for quite some time I finally relented out of curiosity and bought a 1m length of Reference Powercord for £100, crazy, saving £50, phew, on the connector by having it bare ended as I intended to solder it, perhaps that should be weld considering the thickness of the thing, into my CD player.

The transformation of my humble £500 CD player is astonishing even my wife heard the difference and I did not go to bed until 4a.m. as I went into the night rediscovering my CD collection.

Point is for all you DVD dudes is that this is also meant to hold true for the picture and sound quality of DVD players, anyone tried it or dare to?

This item was edited on Saturday, 27th September 2003, 12:12

RE: For those of you who have hi-fi seperates - how did you first get into it??

In 1974 my parents bought me a portable cassette recorder and I made a pair of external bookshelf speakers at school for it and starting reading HiFi mags especially at the back of the physics class! I held off buying anything because I wanted something really good. My break came in 1979 when I changed jobs to one with a company car and was able to sell my own relativley new car. One Saturday morning I got up drove into Edinburgh and returned with Thorens turntable with SME arm and Shure V15, Quad pre and 405 power amp and Gale 401 speakers, yum. In 1981 I bought the first Oracle Delphi turntable in Scotland, Zeta tonearm VdH MC1, then Musical Fidelity 3B pre amp and 200 power amp. Then in 1990 I heard of ATC loudspeakers and went to a studio in the lake district to hear them, awesome so I bought a pair of active 50`s.

Today I still have the Oracle Delphi with Zeta and VdH, Musical Fidelity 3B, Pioneer Precision CD and the ATC SCM 50A`s. I moved to Dorset a few years ago so ATC are not to far away, I returned them to the factory a couple of years ago and had them refubished and upgraded with SL drivers. These things are awesome.

My home cinema is relativley inexpensive being a Yamaha DSP800 with Eltax rears and centre from Richer Sounds added to the above.

Incidently whilst at the ATC factory I heard their home cinema setup comprising of active 50`s all round with a centre the size of a coffin as made for Sony`s studio.

RE: Rear 5.1 surround speaker choices?

Go and have a look at the Eltax for real they are not all that big and can be neatly mounted to the wall and disguised with a bit of imagination, any object placed on them such as a plant pot, perish the thought but if it keeps the misses happy, should be isolated with a few wee bits of Blu-Tac. If you strive for audio quality micros just will not do the job. I had to compromise, and how. If you go onto the Dolby site and read their tech advice they say that your fronts centre and rears should be all the same, since my cinema system has been added to a serious Hi-Fi following their advice would have cost me £10,000! Whilst I still have a seriously belting stereo, for home cinema mode the Eltax rears and their Liberty centre work extremly well having balanced them with the £7,500 stereo front pair using a Yamaha DSP-E800.

Beyond HiFi - Scarce scart cable

Beyond HiFi have been out of stock for some time of their well respected BTech scart leads. Anyone experiancing a similar problem, is it worth waiting or go elsewhere. They also seem to longer stock the TechLink cable which where built like battleships and struck me as excellent value at a couple of quid more.

RE: Rear 5.1 surround speaker choices?

I would recommend the Eltax HT2 from Richer Sounds, because they are bipolar they are a more discrete triangular shape. They are now sold for £49.95 but did cost £149 a few years ago, voted best rear and given 5 star ratings and I can assure you that they are still excellent by todays standards.

Toshiba SD-220 v SD-330, multiregion playback

I have a SD 220 which plays region 1 with no problem, a mate is considering a SD 330 from Amazon but a bit confused by the statement that you require a NTSC compatible TV for region 1 playback. Is this different from how the SD 220 works? Any suggestions for an alternative quality player at about £80.

RE: can anyone help with a hack code for Roadstar dvd2019???

It`s multi region straight out of the box

RE: can anyone help with a hack code for Roadstar dvd2019???

Good news, it`s multi region straigth out of the box

RE: can anyone help with a hack code for Roadstar dvd2019???

Good news, it`s multi region straigth out of the box

RE: Help!!!!! I need a hack for Roadstar DVD2019 !

It`s multi region straight out of the box

Are Fujitsu Plasma`s the best?

I read that Fujitsu invented the plasma display, manufacture and supply 75% of the market being badged by the likes of Sony and B&O. Thus I am tempted when I see Richer Sounds are selling the Fujitsu P42PCA21 for £2,699. Is this any good?

Fujitsu Plasma P42PCA21, any comments?

I understand that Fujitsu manufacture the majority of the displays that are then branded by the quality names like Sony, B&O etc therefore I assume their displays are amongst the best.

Richer Sounds are doing this model for £2,699 not much more than an LG display therefore is this a bit a a quality bargain.

RE: Whats the name of that scart lead that everyone use to recommend???

I bought the TechLink from BeyondHiFi cost a couple of quid more than the BTech but built out of molten battleships!!!! Awesome build quality.

RE: I need a good 5.1 system

If you are seeking value for money look at Richer Sounds, for example there is a Pioneer VSXD810 AV receiver DD 5.1 & DTS, 120 watts all round for £200 saving £250 and for example Eltax Liberty speaker package which includes front floor standers a centre and bi-polar rears all for £150, so you`d be well sorted for £350. Incidently I bought my Toshiba DVD multi region player for £120 about a year ago from them and so far it has played anything from anywhere faultlesly.

RE: Plasmas - Prime v Cheap Brands

Thank you both for your replies, zipman interesting to hear of your experience, 42%er concise answer to my original question, so that`s why they`re always showing Monster Inc as they were yesterday in Bournmouth and Poole!!

Plasmas - Prime v Cheap Brands

I read some where that the majority of Plasma models use screens sourced from only a couple of manufacturers, has anyone any idea as who uses who. Are there situations when say a Samsung is the same as a Panasonic, does it follow that a prime brand will be better than say an LG.