My HT and my first post

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  • 04-01-2004, 03:24 AM
    ksing44
    1 Attachment(s)
    My HT and my first post
    I attached a picture of my HT. I think it sounds pretty good in spite of the fact that I ONLY HAVE A RECEIVER and I have all kinds of ACOUSTIC FLAWS in my room.

    Please use the link if the photo does not show.
    http://forums.mbnz.org/gallery/pics/...00445717AM.jpg

    My impressions about the equipment I have:

    Denon AVR 5700: I love it! I am glad I purchased the 5.1 version before they almost doubled the price and added 6.1 or 7.1. I don’t need more than 5.1.

    Monitor Audio Speakers: Silver 9s Fronts, Silver 12s Center, & Silver 4s Rear Surrounds They sound great and they have beautiful cherry cabinets with beautiful silver and gold drivers. They are very nice looking speakers.

    Miller & Kreisel Subwoofer – MX-125 Mk II: Shakes the entire house and yet it is still musical. You can even feel it in your seat. Nice Oak Cabinet.

    MIT Terminator II BiWire Cables: I have them on ALL 5 speakers. They were on sale for such a low price that I just couldn’t resist, even though cables may not make any difference. They are so big and fat they just look cool.

    Denon DVD-2500 DVD and CD Player: Broken after 3 years. It wouldn’t recognize any DVD discs, but it still plays CDs. It played very well, but I wouldn’t buy another because it broke.

    Sony DVP-NS725P: New and it seems OK. It reads anything I through into it.

    Old 36" Direct View Mitsubishi TV: The Mitsubishi is fine, but I want a new Sony 36" with all the bells and whistles.

    Cinepro PowerLight 1800 Surge Protector and Power Conditioner: It seems to work and I like how the pull-out-lights illuminate my system.
  • 04-01-2004, 05:03 AM
    kexodusc
    That certainly is a lovely looking system, especially the Monitor Audio's...can I ask what you paid for them and what your impressions are? Welcome to the Forum!
  • 04-01-2004, 06:05 AM
    ksing44
    Monitor Audio Speakers Sound Good To Me
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kexodusc
    That certainly is a lovely looking system, especially the Monitor Audio's...can I ask what you paid for them and what your impressions are? Welcome to the Forum!

    Thank you for the compliment about the appearance. I had to make concessions about optimizing everything for the best sound with fitting my stuff into a less than optimal space and making my wife happy with the way it fit into the living room. If I close up the TV cabinet and put on the speaker grilles, the system blends in to the living room. As for the sound, even with the huge solid cherry entertainment center in between my two front main speakers, I get a nice 3-dimensional image when in 2-speaker stereo mode. In spite of the fact that the image is more focused in the front, when in stereo mode, I tend to use “Matrix” mode to get a much bigger sound stage with all 5 speakers participating.

    I love the Monitor Audio speakers. I certainly didn’t get a deal or anything. I purchased them new and I think I paid top dollar for them at the high-end stereo store. As I recall, the front 9s speakers were $1000.00 each, the center 12s was about $700.00, and the rear 4s speakers were about $350.00 each. The MK Sub was about $1000.00. The prices were basically the suggested retail prices and then they gave me %20 off everything. The only thing that was much less than normal was the price for the MIT Terminator II cable. I got it on sale from Audio Advisors for about 75% off the retail price.

    As for the sound of the speakers, I think they sound great. They seem to have a full rich sound and I think everything sounds very detailed and accurate. They do a great job with female vocals, which I love. I think they also do a great job with instruments. The very light and rigid C-CAM drivers are just beautiful and they sound good to me. I am afraid I don’t really know enough to tell you much more than that. I have noticed that poor recordings are revealed on my system and that on a lesser system you might never know the difference. I think this might be true for any slightly better equipment. I know that I am not in true audiophile territory, but my system seems good enough that it is not the weak link in the chain.
  • 04-01-2004, 06:22 AM
    kexodusc
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ksing44
    In spite of the fact that the image is more focused in the front, when in stereo mode, I tend to use “Matrix” mode to get a much bigger sound stage with all 5 speakers participating.

    A necessary compromise I too have to make with my system. I find the wife's plants (which are placed against my 13 ft wide walls) make excellent sound treatment devices to enhance soundstage width.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ksing44
    The prices were basically the suggested retail prices and then they gave me %20 off everything.

    I'd say you did fairly well then. Sometimes even 20% is hard to get.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ksing44
    I have noticed that poor recordings are revealed on my system and that on a lesser system you might never know the difference. I think this might be true for any slightly better equipment. I know that I am not in true audiophile territory, but my system seems good enough that it is not the weak link in the chain.

    I use to think it was my speakers flawed at certain volumes until I brought some cd's to my local dealers and noticed the same results on some Klipschhorns and Magneppan's.

    By the way, what are your room dimensions and speaker layout?
  • 04-01-2004, 09:53 PM
    samgupta
    nice job--it really looks good!
  • 04-02-2004, 03:22 AM
    ksing44
    1 Attachment(s)
    The Dimensions and Layout
    Here is a drawing of my HT Layout.

    The room is 24 feet by 14 feet and it has a cathedral ceiling. My stereo is located in just half of the room.

    I have the front speakers angled in and I keep the front speaker points fully extended so that they are also angled slightly up. The rear speakers are also angled in toward the listening position and they are on heavy speaker stands that have the tweeters just above my ears when I am sitting on the sectional sofa. The center speaker is above the TV and I have it angled down so that the tweeter is aimed right over my head. The subwoofer is aimed out into the room. After all, they say the sound from the sub is not supposed to be directional. I use a laser pointer to aim the speakers and I adjust for best sound. I used arrows to give an idea of how I aimed the speakers.

    The windows have wooden blinds and light curtains. The floor is wall to wall carpet and the French doors are usually kept closed. My study is behind the French doors, so I open them up to listen to music when I work at my computer.

    By the way, I rarely use the stove, so I don't toast my speakers. I watch my huge Lava Lamp instead of lighting a fire. The stove can heat my entire house, however, if I ever need heat during a power outage. :eek:
  • 04-02-2004, 03:34 AM
    ksing44
    1 Attachment(s)
    Test for jpeg file
    I just wanted to try to post another picture of my HT. It is the same picture, but I saved it slightly differently. I can't see the first picture on my MAC, but I can see it at work on my PC, so I wanted to try a different strategy.


    NOW I CAN SEE IT ON MY MAC! :)
  • 04-02-2004, 04:18 AM
    kexodusc
    Whoah...that was way more detail than I was expecting...what program did you use, and how long did it take to whip that up?

    You've already contributed to the forum...I've never thought about using my laser pointer to assist in speaker setup. Interesting idea.

    So your HT area is roughly 12 X 10 (give or take). I'm considering moving mine into a similar room, with a wall on once side and an open extension into another room on the other. Do you notice any obvious acoustic drawbacks to this?
  • 04-02-2004, 05:19 AM
    aimen
    1 Attachment(s)
    just a thought here
    why dont u move ur TV in the center of to the smaller wall with speakers besides it
    move ur sititng around, make one sofa on long wall other in middle/back of room , piano behind that sofa, place surround there u may be able to get better acoustic result or much fuller sound in matrix stereo mode in ur whole room
    after writing all this i realized theres a stove in the middle of the room so this setting may not be possible so NEVER MIND

    congrates for ur HT
  • 04-02-2004, 05:42 AM
    ksing44
    Labor of Love
    Hello kexodusc,

    I used PowerPoint and then just saved it as a JPEG file. I also had to reduce the size of the file, so that I could post it on the forum. I have to do that with all my digital pictures, so it isn’t a big deal. As for the time it took to draw my room, it may have taken 15 minutes or so, but it was a labor of love. Actually, I deigned my entire house with a similar drawing program, ClarisWorks. I am not an engineer, but I like figuring everything out myself.

    As for the acoustics, I think the speakers near the wall, are a bit louder than the speakers that are adjacent to the open space. You can play all kinds of games with my receiver to “fix” it, but I ended up just letting it be. Every song is different, depending on how the stereo was mixed, so it all comes out in the wash. I do use the inputs to tell my receiver how far away each speaker is from my seating area, “sweet spot”, that I always sit in when listening.


    Hello aimen,
    Yes the stove, with its huge stone foundation, protrudes into the room, so I really have to stay to one side or the other. A fireplace would have given more usable space and it wouldn’t have toasted the speakers, but it also wouldn’t have been able to heat my entire home. When I designed the house, I wanted an efficient heat source, rather than a strictly ornamental flame. My furnace works so well, however, that if I had to choose again, I might go with a fireplace. Live and learn as they say.
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