Page 1 of How serious are you about your AV kit etc

This may sound odd, but I was wondering how seriously people take the home cinema lark.
I am not advertising what I have bought over the last year but thanks to people like clayts, Westy , Rich H and so on I have developed a tasty little home cinema with the usual suspects.

DVD player
5.1/DTS rec`ver
Mission Stands
Surround Speakers
Quality leads

next step the active sub, but when I engage in conversation with fellow DVD`ers at work and at play, and ask the usual stuff like -

" how is your kit connected, RGB ? S-video ? " most people look blankly back and say " um, with a lead "

"5.1 or DTS for you then ??" ..." um, whats that ? "

The thing is, I reckon there must be a lot of people out there with AV kit poorly set up and not really getting the best performance out of it.

So, do you take it seriously, or am I worrying too much ?

By the way I was thirty last week. That my explain this inane ramble. Oh and I do talk about other stuff. (liar).. who said that ??

Pete.

Just bought my first audio set-up, been running through a Hi-Fi until now.

Only spent £350 which is probably a small amount compared to a lot of guys out there. (Sony 875 and 325 Pascal Speaker Set). The amp was over £500 last year so it can`t be that bad. Haven`t got the speakers through so I haven`t tested yet.

I intend to add more and more, but I`m still only 21so I`ve got enough time to build that dream setup.


Seeing as you must know a fair bit about it, how much extra quality can be received by buying really expensive speaker cables and wiring?

Do you know where`s cheapest to buy accessories online? (e.g Cables, Speaker Stands e.t.c)

I`d be glad of some feedback, being a newbie to AV setup.

Well, after 2 years, and 4 amps later, i do believe i`ve now found the dream set up i`d always wanted. I`ve no room for a projector (don`t want a plasma - not big enough), so my tv does the trick just fine. My full list (which i`m justly proud of and never bitter that it`s taken all my money!);

Denon AVC-AV11SR Amplifier- every surround format known to man and better than ANY cinema i`ve ever been to
Toshiba 32ZO9B 32" tv
Sony NSDVP900 DVD player - dvd/sacd combo player, awesome, and sacd simply wipes the floor with dvd audio
Acoustic Energy Aegis 3, Aegis centre, Mission dipole surrounds for side and rear surround
2 Yamaha YSTW320 Subwoofers
A Denon PMA355UK stereo amplifier used in a bi-amp configuration to squeeze the last drop of power and dynamics out of the Aegis 3`s low frequency driver
Ixos 5m Component Video cable(from amp to tv, i run my games consoles through the amp to save some socketry on the tellie!)
QED Silver anniversary on all channels
Eccosse Reference producer digital coaxial
Ixos 104 interconnects x3(pairs) for SACD mulitchannel input
Marantz remote (bargain from Richer Sounds)
plus Sony Minidisc, Yammy cassette deck, Dreamcast, SNES and large collection of dvd`s to enjoy it all with!

This time 3 years ago i never would have dreamed of owning this sort of kit, and any set up has got to be better than just plain old Nicam!
And i must thank Clayts for giving me the opportunity to share my knowledge and enthusiasm on his excellent site http://www.area450.com, without him i`d have money an none of the kit i have now!!! :-) I don`t hold him responsible though.....

Long post, but if you enjoy it, tell someone about it!

Westy

Hello,

I see in your post, Westy, you recommend SACD over DVD-Audio.
I am extremely tempted by the Pioneers DV747a which has both of these Formats. Would you recommend I save money and go for a purely DVD/SACD Combo Machine ?
I suppose it`s too early to tell which Format will become the VHS (or Betamax) of Multichannel Audio ?

Any advice would be greatly received.

On the subject of the original thread.....I love talking about Home Cinema, as do a few colleagues at work. There`s not many things that can get us this enthralled. (Slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean).

Regards,

Neil.

The Westy/Clayts axis cuts both ways : without his "advice" I`d still have £400 in my pocket, although I must add that none of his advice has been duff yet.

So :

Encore DV450 DVD player (and for those of you stifling a chuckle check out the crazy things us Sampo fans can get up to now at http://www.area450.com/thesampozone/articles/connectindex.htm : how many of you can honestly say you could rig up a PC hard drive or a CF reader to your DVD player ?!)

Yammy DSPA5 - cracking amp, but may get phased out when Yamaha pull their thumbs out of their butts and release a cheap Dolby ProLogic 2 amp

Wharfedale Diamond 8.3 fronts/8 centre : cheers Westy : these are totally, totally awesome speakers. The 8.3s took a while to run in, but my it was worth it. The centre has the crispest dialogue ever : can`t wait to see how these front three cope with DPL2

Mission m7ds : rear dipole surrounds : another Westy recommendation and again superb !

Eltax A8 sub : a weak link, but it adds grunt where needed

Sanyo 28WN4 TV : a very weak link, but hey it`s only rented and that Tosh 28Z07B will be mine...

Okay, it`s nowhere near as impressive as Westy`s but it does the job in a small space very well.

And everyone at work knows I`m an AV snob : one bloke ran off nearly in tears when I told him off for even considering buying an all in one mini hi-fi.

I love AV, I read all the mags, and love sharing my knowledge. Me and Westy regularly set aside 90 minutes every coupla weeks to yack about all things AV (although recently we have added very bizarre subjects to our conversation : you know - girls and smelly things like that).

Well, thats pretty serious so far chaps. But I did not actually list my gear so here goes -

Sony 735 DVD player
Sony STRDB870 reciever (Westy - I can hear you groaning across the Bristol Channel but I happen to love it !!!)
Mission Stancette Speaker stands
Recycled Aiwa former pro-logic speakers includes centre, left and right front and rears. Actually not that bad until the budget can get some more.
Panasonic 28" DK1 TV set ( not bad - not great )
All supported by IXOS cabling for now.

But still, I am well chuffed.

PS; Westy and Clayts whats the verdict on the old flat panel NXT missions out there ? Much kop, or style over substance ? They seem to be coming down in price all over the web.

Pete

Pete,

I`m sure the other guys will agree that once the bug bites, you`ll be on a road of never ending upgrades and changes. However, that`s half the fun! I`ve learned much of what I know simply through doing it all myself, reading up on the kit and of course listen to advice from others, particularly folk like Clayts and Westy.

I`ve now been into Home Cinema for about 9 years, continually upgrading and changing all the time (after all, none of us can afford to buy the entire kit of top-of-the-range products first time). It`s a case of buying what you can afford and upgrading as you go but still trying to keep it all balanced. I`ve had 3 tellies, 3 Amps, 3 sets of Front Speakers, 2 Centres, 3 sets of Rears, Centre Rears and am currently saving to upgrade my current pair of Yamaha Subs (after advice from Clayts & Westy of course). Then there`s cable changes, sources like video, LaserDisc, DVD, Satellite.......

Things got really scarey when I bought a new house last year and my main concern was if the living room would be any good for the Home Cinema setup (ie big and sqaure enough!). The morale is, take your time when considering what to spend your hard earned cash on and just enjoy what you`ve got regardless of what everyone else has. No doubt you`ll change it when you can afford to though.....

Steve.

This item was edited on Friday, 5th April 2002, 08:36

Just a quicky - JE2 - try http://www.beyondhifi.net for cables etc - can recommend the BTech cables. they don`t have much in the way of speaker cables, though

I re-built my garage to a dedicated home cinema!
I had to do it as cheaply as possible as I had to be able to sell it to `she who must be obeyed`.
Made a little website of the whole process, so if your interested:
http://www.btinternet.com/~taylorre/cinema

Things to do next:
* Upgrade AVAMP with one that has s-vhs switching
*Replace rear speakers with dipolar ones
*Upgrade Projector and screen to a proper widescreen setup - prob. a re-built barcode tube projector with line doubler

Let me know what you think!

Robbyt

How serious am I? I bought a shop!

All the best,

Andrew.