Official A/V Thread

[Neo Ash]

I hope to get off the equipment merry-go-round soon on my 2-ch system. A lot of stuff has come and gone recently.

An upgrade from my plasma TV to a LED may be a consideration, after the dust settles for the 2-ch system….if that is possible. I have always liked plasma TVs, mostly the black levels and color quality. However, the new LED TVs have me considering an upgrade; however, it will be hard for me to let go of my plasma. I’m sure that will get me on a home theater upgrade kick. It’s a vicious never ending cycle.

Anyone on the fence when it comes to Plasma VS LED???

Anyway, here are the most recent upgrades. I purchased a pair of Rogue M series tube monoblocks. So far I’m very pleased; I think I will be keeping these for some time. I need to get some short 3’ power cables for them, the stock ones are way too long and created a mess.

 

[Mendel]

The only advantage I can think of for LED tv would be they consume less power.
Image quality wise it is no contest. I would take full hd plasma each and every time.

 

[Kristian Meller]

The only advantage I can think of for LED tv would be they consume less power.
Image quality wise it is no contest. I would take full hd plasma each and every time.

Yes.

 

[Late]

Anyone else a member of discogs? What a great site, I won't be buying from ebay anymore.

I am, and yeah, it's a great site, the site for buying music online really.

http://www.discogs.com/user/Late_

^There, haven't really updated it in ages. Started typing in my records and got overwhelmed by the workload. (That's like 10% of my music there)

 

[Hyperduel]

Hey guys I need some assistance.

For a 32 inch LCD TV which one is usually better: Panasonic, LG, or Sansung?

I'm revamping my audio side of the bedroom where I would like to put a simple 32 inch TV (no size bigger), purchase the new Oppo BDP-103, and run the analog outs from the Oppo to my 70s vintage Kenwood receiver so it can amp my Grado RS2-i.

The concept is great sound from the Oppo when playing tons of Music/Concert DVDs. Normally I only buy Music/Concert DVDs and Anime DVDs. I love the Oppo that it can play AVI, MKV, and other random stuff (SACD, DVD-As, etc). I'm focusing a little more of the audio side than the video side. I just need a simple LCD TV that it will do the job and hopefully doesn't look too much like shit. 720p is fine for my needs. The video part with me playing most of not all my anime is just icing on the cake.

Edit: This isn't going to be a gaming TV BTW.

The upgrade according to Oppo from the BDP-93 to the BDP-103 is a warmer sound and some upgrades done to the analog part of the player. I don't think it would be worth it for me to spend $1200 for the new BDP-105.

 

[Neo Ash]

Hey guys I need some assistance.

For a 32 inch LCD TV which one is usually better: Panasonic, LG, or Sansung?

I'm revamping my audio side of the bedroom where I would like to put a simple 32 inch TV (no size bigger), purchase the new Oppo BDP-103, and run the analog outs from the Oppo to my 70s vintage Kenwood receiver so it can amp my Grado RS2-i.

The concept is great sound from the Oppo when playing tons of Music/Concert DVDs. Normally I only buy Music/Concert DVDs and Anime DVDs. I love the Oppo that it can play AVI, MKV, and other random stuff (SACD, DVD-As, etc). I'm focusing a little more of the audio side than the video side. I just need a simple LCD TV that it will do the job and hopefully doesn't look too much like shit. 720p is fine for my needs. The video part with me playing most of not all my anime is just icing on the cake.

Edit: This isn't going to be a gaming TV BTW.

The upgrade according to Oppo from the BDP-93 to the BDP-103 is a warmer sound and some upgrades done to the analog part of the player. I don't think it would be worth it for me to spend $1200 for the new BDP-105.

I have a 32" Panasonic Viera TV for my bedroom. I'm very pleased with it. Of the three you listed, I would go with the Panasonic or Samsung. Oppo makes some great bang for the buck quality DVD players. For a 32 inch TV 720p, is fine.

 

[Lastblade]

I bought a house in August and slowly building my man cave in the basement. The previous owner has a projector/screen setup, which I will do in a year or two. For now, I got a Sharp Aquos 80" LED TV.


There is a nice closet size room to the right, which I used to hide all my other A/V equipment and systems.

Denon AVR-4311CI
Sony BDP-S790 Bluray player
PS3
360
Saturn
Wii (debating whether I should replace it with WiiU)

And display a few of my transformers and other games and such.

 

[Kristian Meller]

Just a teaser.

 

[Kristian Meller]

I moved a few weeks ago, in large part cuz I wanted a serious setup. Turns out the living room was almost perfect for a 108" screen and a JVC X30 projector. The room still needs accoustic adjustment, and I've bought some of the grey stuff they hang in studios that'll go up soon, hopefully this weekend. The carpet on the floor helped a lot. The shelves to the right of the screen hold, I'd say, about 2/3 of my live action Blu-ray collection. Only 11mm covers, no slip covers and no ex-rental stickers from Blockbuster is the concept The Hitchcock collection can stay until I've finished with it though.

It has, of course, been professionally calibrated. The computer was connected to both the sensor in front of the screen and my Lumagen scaler. The guy is ISF, THX and so on certified, so he knows what he's doing. He even developed the screen I have in cooperation with the Danish manufacturer. The result is as good as 100% correct colour reproduction. You could colour grade a movie in my living room! I think that sort of result is pretty boss for a setup that's not too far out of reach for the average Joe. I was lucky getting the scaler used for about $1000 though.

I still have some moving mess to deal with, and the wall to the left of the screen will be adorned with some shelves where the Mac Mini will have its place one day. The looong HDMI cable going from the scaler to the projector will be dealt with appropriately soon.

Equipmental list:

Projector: JVC X30
Scaler: Lumagen RadianceXD
Screen: Lissau TrueColor 108"
Receiver: Marantz SR4001
Amplifier: Creek Audio Evolution 2
Blu-ray player: Oppo BDP-83
Speakers: DLS R55
DAC w/ asynchronous USB: Musical Fidelity M1 DAC
Cable-tv: Smart TV tuner from Stofa
AM/FM/DAB Tuner: Cambridge Audio 640T
Server: Mac Mini
Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Streaming: Apple TV 3, Boxee Box, Roku 2 XD
Cables: Black Rhodium Rhythm (sound interconnects), AudioQuest (HDMI, speakers, etc.) and so on.

 

[Kristian Meller]

I also put some acoustic stuff to take the edge off the sound, which has been rather sharp-like cuz of the largely empty living room.

 

[terry.330]

Been looking into adding a headphone stage to my setup for the last couple of weeks. Looking to keep it under $1k for the amp, cans and cords.

So far I'm leaning towards:

Woo Audio WA3 Amp
http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wa3.html

Beyerdynamic DT 880 (600 ohm) cans
http://www.amazon.com/beyerdynamic-880-Premium-600-Headphones/dp/B0024NK35S

I'm open to suggstions especially for the cans. I know Sennheiser and Grado make products on par with Beyer but reviews online are so all over the place as far as headphone gear goes It's up to the listener is as much as I could gather and I don't have the money or patience to try out several different pair at $250-400 a pop.

 

[Neo Ash]

terry.330 - Did you score a headphone stage?

I'm thinking about trying out some cables from AntiCables. I have been seeing these for years, and have heard a lot of good things about them. Many stories are out there on forums of people selling off mega buck cables after trying the anticables. I'm thinking about pulling the trigger and ordering a set to see how they compair to more expensive cables. Anyone else tried these out? There is not as much info on their ICs; the design is interesting to say the least.

 

[TurboRotary13b]

TV: Panasonic VT35
Receiver: Pioneer Elite SC-55
Speakers: Bowers and Wilkins 683s and HTM61 Center
Speaker Cables: AudioQuest Rocket 44s
Power Conditioner: Panamax M5300
Consoles: USA Gold Edition AES, Neo Geo X, Sega Genesis (model 1, VA5, HDG), Sega CD (model 1), 32x, Dreamcast, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360

It all works.. Its nothing amazing... but it works. And it works beautifully with the AES too.

 

[Neo Ash]

After several years of wanting to try out the products by Anti-Cables, I have finally done so. Over the years that I have been in this hobby, I have owned or auditioned everything from basic zip cord to extremely expensive cables. These Anti-Cables are fantastic, period.

After years of buying thicker and thicker cables, these thin anti-cables are refreshing. I am a fan of minimalistic designs; often times keeping things simple results in the better sound. The best dielectric really is none at all, and these cables are a great testament to that.

I have only tried these with one pair of speakers so far. I've been more than pleased with how the cables are performing with the new pair of Vandersteen speakers I purchased last week.

 

[BryLmoo]

Tube amps, you say? Better, you say?

 

[Neo Ash]

Tube amps, you say? Better, you say?

Yes, in my opinion; tubes are my personal preference. However, don't just go by what I say, or anyone for that matter, you have to be the judge. Listen and compare. The same goes for displays, buy what looks best to you. Go to your local hifi shop and give some tube gear a listen. There is a naturalness and musicality that SS just can not capture IMO, this is especially true in an all analog setup. There are a hand full of SS amps I could be happy with, that is less true for me concerning preamps. There's no right or wrong, just go with what sounds best to you.


I would totally do a vintage 2-ch setup with that pair of restored Advents you have. Something like an HH Scott, Fisher, or Dynaco would be so retro cool and good sounding. Vintage Marantz and McIntosh is also nice, but gets expensive quickly.

I have not had a SS amp or preamp in my 2-ch rig in years. Before I got into tubes I used McIntosh SS amps, before that it was Japanese SS stuff.

 

[BryLmoo]

Thanks for the info! When I have some expendable cash, i'll check it out. lol My thing is, for vinyl, you're going for analogue anyways, so why not use what will bring out the best in the medium? i'm having a blast just listening right now. I hear all this talk about audiophile this and audiophile that, but for the life of me, I just cannot fathom being able to hear that much of a difference in sound.

 

[terry.330]

I'll agree with Neo Ash tubes especially with vinyl can bring such a rich warm feeling to the sound that it's very satisfying to listen to.

As for the audiophile thing, I used to listen to me records on a shitty Aiwa TT piped through an equally shitty Techinics receiver and was blissfully happy/ignorant until I heard good gear and decided to get a proper setup. I see it as if you enjoy music so much why not get the best out of it? There's not 1 day that I regret spend what I did and selling what I did to get my hifi.

You don't have to shell out ton of $$$ especially if you're buying retro equipment. With the speakers you have you can pick up a late 70s amp and TT in really good condition for around $300 and it will sound outstanding.

 

[Tripredacus]

I recently had picked up this thing called Recoton MTS TV Stereo Decoder. It seems to be some device used to get a mono sound "signal" from a stereo TV broadcast so you can put it into a stereo system if your TV is mono. Or something like that. Anyways, since nearly everything is stereo since say 1990 or so, does this device have any use at all anymore?

 

[BryLmoo]

Going to my local hifi shop tomorrow after I get off to listen to different amps. Should be interesting!!!!!

 

[PleaseKillMeNow]

Oh wise A/V nerds, help me!

Long story short, how can I get this:



to play well with this:



which has this in the back:



because the receiver looks like this:


and that would look pretty boss.

(I'm in the middle of a move, during the week I'll have some actual pictures)

 

[Neo Ash]

Oh wise A/V nerds, help me!

Long story short, how can I get this:

View attachment 4805

to play well with this:

View attachment 4806

which has this in the back:

View attachment 4807

because the receiver looks like this:
View attachment 4808

and that would look pretty boss.

(I'm in the middle of a move, during the week I'll have some actual pictures)

It's more than hacking cables and adapting wires. I'll need the specs of the receiver and speakers or at least the model numbers. Otherwise, you run the risk of damaging stuff if you just start hooking stuff up.

 

[PleaseKillMeNow]

It's more than hacking cables and adapting wires. I'll need the specs of the receiver and speakers or at least the model numbers. Otherwise, you run the risk of damaging stuff if you just start hooking stuff up.

Of course, that should've been the first thing I post:

The receiver is a Hitachi HTA-3000.

The speakers are from a Phillips MCD 139 (which, I've done some searches and some have just plain 'ol speaker wire in the back, not all this crazy DIN mumbo jumbo).

 

[Neo Ash]

Of course, that should've been the first thing I post:

The receiver is a Hitachi HTA-3000.

The speakers are from a Phillips MCD 139 (which, I've done some searches and some have just plain 'ol speaker wire in the back, not all this crazy DIN mumbo jumbo).

Those speakers do not have a crazy impedance. Some of the new HTIB stuff does. You should not have a problem with that Hitachi. So, you have all three speakers that connect via a single plug. You will still have a + and - wire for each speaker. You will want to run the main speaker wires to the + & - terminals on the A side of the receiver. Then enable your B side and run the + & - subwoofer wires to B. The A+B should give you the impedance outoupt you need (Ohm). To verify which wire is which you can test if you have removable grill covers. Connect a battery to the speaker wires. When the positive on the battery is connected to the positive on the speaker wire the woofer will move out. If it moves in the connection is backwards. If the grill are not removable it will not hurt anything if they are connected to the receiver backwards. If they are backwards they will be "out of phase". You should notice weak bass if they are out of phase. You sub will basically be working as a full range driver due to a lack of a cross over network. This is OK but not but desirable; basically you are letting it roll off at naturally where it stops producing frequency responses.

My suggestion is checkout Craigslist and pickup a pair of bookshelf or floor speakers. You will be much happier. I'm sure you can find a vintage pair on the cheap.

EDIT - I see you did say that the main speaker do NOT have a DIN connector??? Some small systems do not use the standard black/red speaker wire color code. So some of the above ramblings may still be of use. If it is just the Sub with the DIN, it would help to know the pin out on that DIN. I misread your post and was assuming the DIN was used to consolidate all the positive and negative wires. You can directly connect the + & - to the woofer inside teh sub and bypass the DIN and related circuit board. In the end, you'll still be better off with a cheap pair of good speakers off Craigslist. A pair of vintage floor standing speakers or large book shelf speakers should easily out perform that 2.1 speaker combo.

 

[ApolloBoy]

Surprised I didn't catch onto this thread before, I'll go ahead and chime in...

My main TV, or monitor I should say, is a Sony PVM-1344Q manufactured around 1992. I play pretty much all of my consoles using it, and although the picture is a bit soft compared to my other PVM (a PVM-1390), it still looks great. Speaking of my other PVM, I have that plugged in and sitting in a corner of my room. I mainly have that around for meetups or parties when my main PVM is being used. For my Windows 98 PC and media center PC, I use an HP w1707 LCD monitor. Previously I was using an Extron VSC 150 but it couldn't handle high-res video very well (even through RGB and component), so I pulled the HP monitor out of the garage.

For audio, I use a JVC R-X500B dating from 1984/5 which is a hand-me-down from my dad. It works well for my needs, but I need to finish recapping it to get it back to its best. I use all my game systems and PCs with this receiver, and the only component I keep hooked up to it is a Pioneer PL-707 turntable from 1983. The PL-707 is also a hand-me-down and it's a great turntable, probably one of the better consumer-grade ones from the time. I'd like to get a new cartridge/stylus combo for it though, I use a Stanton L720 which is a bit on the cheapish side. For speakers, I use a couple of cheap Philips speakers and a couple of plastic Panasonic computer speakers. They're not the best by any means, and I'd love to have a couple of nice vintage floor speakers, but I happen to have the smallest room in the house so that's not gonna work out.

I've also been debating on getting a CD player and tape deck to add to my audio setup. I've always liked the looks of those early CD players, but I'm not sure if the sound quality on those would be up to snuff these days. For a tape deck, I'd like something of the same vintage as my current setup, but I haven't come across anything I'd have my heart set on.