New HT Pics and Homepage (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Hopkins]

I just got a new digital camera (Kodak DX4530 5 MP) for my upcoming study abroad trip to western Europe. While playing around with it I took alot of pictures of my HT setup which I'd been meaning to do for awhile. They turned out so good i decided to go ahead and put together a webpage for them as well as an equipment listing (which I'd also been meaning to do for awhile). Here's a link, and it's also in my signature:

Hopkins Home Theater Homepage

This is how the HT will be setup until the middle of August when I load everything up and take it back to school with me (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA). This college stuff can really get in the way of staying settled lol. There are some elements I haven't incorporated into this current HT (because I'll only be here another 4 weeks before leaving for Europe) that I have in reserve, such as DD, DTS, and THX signs and a decent assortment of framed movie posters.

Regardless, just thought everyone might like to take a look and let me know what they think.

 

[MarkWC]

I cannot get it to work.

 

[ScottCHI]

your link requires a "log-in", stephen. something i doubt most here, myself included, are going to do.

can you make those pics "public"?

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I couldn't figure out how to make things public with MSN so I moved everyting to an old geocities account. Should work fine now. The original link has been changed and here's the new link also...

http://www.geocities.com/nehpets4627/HHT.htm

Let me know what you think

 

[Drew_W]

The setup looks nice!

If I might make one suggestion, it would be to move the surrounds, so that they aren't pointing directly at the listener, and only a few feet away. I can't say what will work best for your room here, but my seating area is also against the back wall, and that did present some problem. I experimented with pointing them directly at the seating area, but the sound was too direct. My surrounds are in the corners of my room as far apart as they can be (6-7 feet from prime position), on bookshelves, facing *INTO* the room at a 45 degree angle to the wall. This gives much more of a spacious effect. Pointing them *AT* the back wall might work as well, but aesthetically, it's something of an oddball solution. This is exactly how dipoles work, radiating sound off the front and rear walls in order to achieve a more ambient environment.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

That's pretty much where the surrounds have to stay in this room, but when I get into my apartment at school in august I'll have some more freedom and will hopefully have some more space between myself and the surrounds, as well as some space between the surrounds and the wall. I've had dipoles in the past and prefer more localizable effects, especially w/ the amount of info in the surrounds that's meant to be localized in DD and DTS soundtracks. Luckily I don't do alot of Pro Logic type listening where the surrounds need to be really diffuse.

Thanks for the input

 

[Drew_W]

Can you rotate the speakers in their current position?

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I'll give rotating a try...

 

[greggor]

Nice set-up!

I concur with the above recommendations on the placement of your surround speakers. I would also consider mounting your projector to the ceiling. As someone who has always been intersted with Swan speakers I have some questions for you. How would you rate their overall sound and what did you compare them to prior to purchasing. I have a paradigm studio reference set-up and was always curious about the swans but could never locate a dealer for an audition. Enjoy your home Theater system, and let us know if any of our recommendations helped you out.

 

[MarkWC]

That setup is very nice, very clean. I concur with the setup for the surrounds. It may improve your effects if you pull them away from the counch and even work with raising them higher than ear level at sitting position.

I see your moving out relatively shortly, but for now tweaking and moving things around could give you a realm of improvements.

Two questions:
How do you like
-your divas?
-your FP

C

 

[David Judah]

Very nice set-up, although the PS2 looks a little out of place. I like the looks of those speakers; they look similiar to B&W's.

I think you'll like the rear soundfield better after you've rotated the speakers into the room a bit more. That back wall is probably causing some wierd reflections which don't contribute to natural imaging. Let us know how it works out after you move them.

I envy you getting to move your set-up into another room soon. Tweaking is the most enjoyable part for me. Even though we've been in our house almost 3 years now, I'm still moving things around trying to get placement just right.

I see you have the venerable RP-91. I just can't find a good reason to get rid of mine, although that may change when the new Panasonic flagship player comes out.

DJ

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I did have an RP91 but it suffered a mechanical failure about 7 months into use, so i switched to the D1.

I really love the Divas. They sound very clean and neutral. I purchased them mainly based on reviews and board posts, but afterwards I took my 2.1s to a local B&W retailer and we compared them to some 602s, CDM1s, and 805s. The 2.1s sounded far superior to the 602s in all categories, slightly clearer ans better imaging than the CDM1s, and on par with the 805s which had a slight edge in imaging and clarity, but they were a bit brighter as well.

FP is great, especially now that I have it on an adequate sized screen. Before may I only had a 60" screen in a small on-campus apartment and really wasn't taking advantage of it's capabilities. The bump in screen size is the biggest WOW factor upgrade i've done since building my sub.