Home Theater catch-all

Thanks for the honest truth. Simply reading through the thread, I started to have my fears about being frugal. I have heard before, and read a lot here, that speakers should be the biggest investment, since they last.

Regarding the projector, do you have suggestions? I thought it was a pretty good projector...

Psssst.

4 great speakers for cheap....you'll still need a center and a sub though

https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

My wife would laugh so hard if I suggested dropping $800 on a subwoofer that big, both the cost and the size. She's always telling me to turn the volume down anyway, which always makes me sad.

I may piggy back on this a bit. When we bought our house, it came with four wall mounted speakers installed. They're Cambridge Soundworks, and are probably about 8 years old when I looked them up, and I actually like them. The problem is that my center channel is part of an old Onkyo home theater in a box, and it's really not matched. How the heck do you find a center channel that matches speakers that old? The mismatch is definitely noticeable. Whatever I wind up getting can't be very expensive, because my wife doesn't see any reason to spend any money on new speakers at all.

JC wrote:

Psssst.

4 great speakers for cheap....you'll still need a center and a sub though

https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

(Wonders what the shipping would be)

Abu5217 wrote:

Regarding the projector, do you have suggestions? I thought it was a pretty good projector...

I'd have to look into it more. Last I had read BenQ was kicking all the others around in the sub-$1000 category. That's been probably a year ago though. Would be worth doing more research.

Thin_J wrote:
Abu5217 wrote:

Regarding the projector, do you have suggestions? I thought it was a pretty good projector...

I'd have to look into it more. Last I had read BenQ was kicking all the others around in the sub-$1000 category. That's been probably a year ago though. Would be worth doing more research.

The W1070 is still popular among the avsforum folks at least.

Abu the main thing you want to look for in whatever projector you get is that it offers lens shift (assuming you're ceiling mounting it on a 12ft ceiling, you'll very likely need some good vertical lens shift to get the image low enough) and if it's DLP, research what kind of color wheel it's using. DLP is great because it gives you better contrast/black levels than LCD at a budget price point, but if the projector goes cheap on the color wheel you'll notice a rainbow effect in high contrast scenes that will annoy the hell out of you. I think BenQ tends to do a bit better in the color wheel department than Optoma, but both are popular brands for <$1000 price range.

Abu5217 wrote:
JC wrote:

Psssst.

4 great speakers for cheap....you'll still need a center and a sub though

https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

(Wonders what the shipping would be)

I'd guess around $65 for all 4 of them. The small speakers weigh 14lbs each. the bigger ones are 19lbs each. So total weight would be around 70lbs. Would probably ship in 2 separate boxes

The only issue with those would be matching a center channel to them. The entire series is discontinued so finding a matching 5th (or 5th, 6th, and 7th if you want to do 7.1 at some point) would be some varying grade of hard to impossible.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
Thin_J wrote:
Abu5217 wrote:

Regarding the projector, do you have suggestions? I thought it was a pretty good projector...

I'd have to look into it more. Last I had read BenQ was kicking all the others around in the sub-$1000 category. That's been probably a year ago though. Would be worth doing more research.

The W1070 is still popular among the avsforum folks at least.

Abu the main thing you want to look for in whatever projector you get is that it offers lens shift (assuming you're ceiling mounting it on a 12ft ceiling, you'll very likely need some good vertical lens shift to get the image low enough) and if it's DLP, research what kind of color wheel it's using. DLP is great because it gives you better contrast/black levels than LCD at a budget price point, but if the projector goes cheap on the color wheel you'll notice a rainbow effect in high contrast scenes that will annoy the hell out of you. I think BenQ tends to do a bit better in the color wheel department than Optoma, but both are popular brands for <$1000 price range.

Thanks for the info. The Optoma is DLP, but I haven't found info about the color wheel (yet). It does NOT have lens shift, so that would be an issue. We are planning on getting a 24" hanging mount, regardless of the projector that we purchase.

Edit: Going away to get lost over at avforums for a while...

Thin_J wrote:

The only issue with those would be matching a center channel to them. The entire series is discontinued so finding a matching 5th (or 5th, 6th, and 7th if you want to do 7.1 at some point) would be some varying grade of hard to impossible.

True, and their CSI models match well with them. I had the CSI30 for my center channel speaker, but the CSi A4 is still in production and can be had for under $200

Thin_J wrote:

The only issue with those would be matching a center channel to them. The entire series is discontinued so finding a matching 5th (or 5th, 6th, and 7th if you want to do 7.1 at some point) would be some varying grade of hard to impossible.

Run a phantom center through the AVR and problem solved.

Do not skimp on a sub. With a room that big you need 2. Go with Thin and get the SVS. Great company and their subs will make noises in movies you did not know existed. It is not cheap, but will last if you take care of them.

Watch out for AVS. Love that place but it leads to the dark side. DIY gear. It is not for everyone but it will kick the snot out of some serious commercial gear.

fishdude wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

The only issue with those would be matching a center channel to them. The entire series is discontinued so finding a matching 5th (or 5th, 6th, and 7th if you want to do 7.1 at some point) would be some varying grade of hard to impossible.

Run a phantom center through the AVR and problem solved.

Do not skimp on a sub. With a room that big you need 2. Go with Thin and get the SVS. Great company and their subs will make noises in movies you did not know existed. It is not cheap, but will last if you take care of them.

Watch out for AVS. Love that place but it leads to the dark side. DIY gear. It is not for everyone but it will kick the snot out of some serious commercial gear.

Stop tempting me

fishdude wrote:

Run a phantom center through the AVR and problem solved.

I guess, but I dunno. I think I'd rather have the dedicated speaker for that stuff. You're depending on speakers you haven't heard to have excellent imaging. They might and it might be fine, or they might not and you're back to being a speaker or multiple speakers short of a full setup.

Thin_J wrote:
fishdude wrote:

Run a phantom center through the AVR and problem solved.

I guess, but I dunno. I think I'd rather have the dedicated speaker for that stuff. You're depending on speakers you haven't heard to have excellent imaging. They might and it might be fine, or they might not and you're back to being a speaker or multiple speakers short of a full setup.

True. It was an option to finding a matching center. Would work until he is ready to grow out of the speakers that were mentioned and get something else.

Come to the dark side........at least for your subs. Buy a kit and glue it together. You can use masking tape to hold the box together if you do not have clamps. If you have clamps, use them.

That said, the deal above is stupid awesome. Get 2 of them and don't look back.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

This is an amazing deal on an SVS sub. they will go fast.

Anxiously awaiting payday (Friday)

Abu5217 wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

This is an amazing deal on an SVS sub. they will go fast.

Anxiously awaiting payday (Friday)

oy, good luck. I'll be surprised if there's any left by then.

No kidding. I love my 2 Ultimax 15's but am considering getting a pair of these for behind the couch nearfield. Somebody buy them all so I do not have to make this decision.

I'm getting one for behind my couch, hope it'll integrate with my front Outlaw sub.

Are you kidding me? I was hoping to take a break from any further purchases for at least another month, but that is an EXCELLENT price! My only issue is this model doesn't seem to break the 20 Hz threshold I've been planning to cross. Decisions, decisions...

In a slightly related note, any recommendations for a 2-way stereo active crossover?

So the projector market hasn't changed. I still love the idea of geting a huge screen and replacing the giant TV stand with instead a small stand for a center channel speaker and a shelving unit for all my HT gear... but there is no projector below about ~$2000 that would not drive me nuts.

Were I to do it I'd end up paying for the Sony VPL-HW40ES.

In fact.. I'd probably just do what this guy did:

mr_n00b wrote:

Are you kidding me? I was hoping to take a break from any further purchases for at least another month, but that is an EXCELLENT price! My only issue is this model doesn't seem to break the 20 Hz threshold I've been planning to cross. Decisions, decisions...

In a slightly related note, any recommendations for a 2-way stereo active crossover?

Your room will help it on getting below 20, a pair will also help to balance it. Unfortunately if you are already chasing ULF you are not going to be happy. You may try putting it in a corner and hoping for a friendly corner boost. It takes big bucks to get a commercial made sub to get under the 17-20 barrier. Normal people are not chasing the low tones so they don't make them. I like not being normal.

fishdude wrote:

I like not being normal. :D

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/QQ65FVL.gif)

Yeah, as tempting an offer as this is I'm going to stick with the plan and wait on dual SB-2000's.

Ok, so we have the theatre setup now, but I am running into an issue. I have an HTPC going into the receiver (Denon AVR-S910W) which has two HDMI out. One is going to a TV, the other to the projector. Problem is, if the TV isn't on, the PC does not send a video signal to the projector. The PC does not even know of the second display, since the switch happens in the receiver, so I can't individually tweak the image on the projector. Thoughts?

My denon has the ability to choose what output is used when the receiver is off. It's a pass through of sorts. Might want to see if yours has that option.

JC wrote:

My denon has the ability to choose what output is used when the receiver is off. It's a pass through of sorts. Might want to see if yours has that option.

I will look into that. It's odd, if both the tv and the projector are on, the screen image fits perfectly on the TV but not on the screen. If I turn the projector off, the image is a bit too big for the TV screen. And, as mentioned, the projector image vanishes if I turn off the TV.

I will do more research, but I feel it's a setting in the receiver somewhere. Windows is only seeing a Generic PnP Monitor as a display.

Check your manual

Video Output

Select the HDMI monitor connector to be used.

Auto(Dual)
(De­fault):
The pres­ence of a TV con­nected to the HDMI MON­I­TOR 1 or HDMI MON­I­TOR 2 con­nec­tor is de­tected au­to­mat­i­cally, and that TV con­nec­tion is used.
Mon­i­tor 1: A TV con­nected to the HDMI MON­I­TOR 1 con­nec­tor is al­ways used.

Mon­i­tor 2: A TV con­nected to the HDMI MON­I­TOR 2 con­nec­tor is al­ways used.

If both the HDMI MONITOR 1 and HDMI MONITOR 2 connectors are connected and “Resolution” is set to “Auto”, the signals are output with a resolution that is compatible with both TVs.
When the “Resolution” setting in the menu is not set to “Auto”, set the resolution in “Video” - “HDMI Monitor 1” and “HDMI Monitor 2” to one that is compatible with both TVs.

You can check which resolutions are compatible with your TV in “HDMI Monitor 1” and “HDMI Monitor 2”.

Awesome, thanks. I was wondering when flipping through the menus if that was it. Just downloaded the manual this morning, but have been super busy. Thanks again.

Wasn't entirely sure where to post this, so I figured the folks in this thread might be the only ones interested. Tested happened to get a little interview with Andrew Jones at CES this past week. The Andrew Jones:

I bought the ELAC B6s for a music only 2.1 system in the office and absolutely love them. For home theater I still enjoy Klipsh as they can be a bit "in for face" for big action and such but for an all purpose affordable speaker I really like what he is doing.