wake up call.. [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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plextor guy
02-21-2004, 08:35 AM
My neighbors purchased an Epson Power Lite series projector and invited me over to help set it up. By the time I got there they'd already jumped in and had everything working. To demo their new home theater system they used a copy of Nemo (?), the animated fish movie. Thieir system is pc based with a Logitech 4.1 array of speakers (the high end model from about two years ago). The audio was processed from the onboard audio hardware from an NForce II motherboard. Then there was the dvd rom in the pc, a 40 something dollar unit they'd purchased and installed that day. They used Real Player for the dvd software. To make matters worse I thought, the speakers weren't even arrayed properly. All four speakers were in the BACK of the room in enclosed shelves, one of them firing across the room 90 degrees away from the 'screen' and the other firing towards the front of the room. The other two speakers were similarly arrayed excpt closer together and directly below the the other two. The sub was under the shelves pushed into a corner. I love my neighbors. They are two of the finest people on the planet so I felt guilty and ashamed of myself when snobbish audio and hardware thoughts started crossing my mind. Who the hell am I to have evil thoughts? Then they sat me in the middle of the room and proudly fired the system up. At first I was a little stunned and then started feeling sick. This system was amazing. The audio quality was clear, dynamic and without a hint of background noise. The video quality was stunning in spite of the fact that they were projecting directly on a wall, no screen! The wall wasn't even smooth. It was white but textured. And Real is just a notch above bloatware. I'm not sure what the moral is to this story but I'd have to say that things have improved drastically since I put together my ~12000 doallar home theater system 6 years ago.

Mash
02-21-2004, 11:14 AM
People might spend as much as $12,000 to watch fish cartoons?

Maybe you really mean Texaco at the Opera ??


My "home theater" in the bedroom is
Magnepan MMG $550
Music Fidelity A2 $500
Hitachi DVD/192-24 CD $70
Velodyne Servo-15 used $700
RCA Tube $300
Some zip wire & RS interconnects
Grant total = $2150 ... and I thought this was extravagant.

My main tri-amp stereo is a mite more complicated, but built over 25 years for well under $12,000