Next Austin meet - June/July? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Dunn]

I've gotten a few new requests this week from people wanting to be added to the mailing list for Austin Home Theater Meets. With interest in HT meets growing stronger by the day, I think it's time to start planning the next meet. The new guys need to experience the magic that is an Austin Home Theater Meet...

I suggest we have our next meet either around June 22-23 or July 13-14, whichever works best for everyone. I'm avoiding the weekends of June 29-30 and July 6-7 because they are real close to the 4th of July holiday, and most likely everyone's got plans...

Any suggestions of topics and activities for this meet?

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Either of those weekends would work for me. I am now working the first Saturday of each month and will be in Florida on June 11th through the 17th.

I could host the meet in July if we decide to do it then and no one else steps up to the plate. We could have an all day "lake party" with a cookout for lunch.

What topic did we want to do for this next meet? I have heard several people ask about a cable comparison. Is anyone interested in comparing power cords, speaker cables, etc? We would need to have lots of equipment to do these tests with and someone would have to spend some time setting this up properly to make the comparisons valid. If we do decide to do the cable comparison, then I vote we do it in July as this will give us more time to plan and prepare.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I will be expectedly absent from this next meet, and perhaps the next few meets as Linda and I will be a "tad" busy with the expansion of our family.
If you all want to start a baby pool, the official due date is July 1st. Originally the Doctor thought it would be about a week before that date, but the matriarchs in Linda's family tree have all had late births with their first child.
As for weight, I was an 8lbs 7ozs baby while Linda weighed 6lbs, 8ozs.
I believe Linda will be putting a baby pool on our family website - http://www.luehrmann.com , but if you all want to do one on this board, that might be fun.

 

[Scott Oliver]

I like the Lake Party idea, sounds great for summertime meet. We can make margaritas and have cooler of beer, great additives for making comparisons.
Frederick, I didn't make it to your place last time, is your property lakeside or would we be doing the lake party on public grounds?
I will throw out another idea. Since this has been a hot topic on this forum what about a surround processor shoot-out under DBT conditions if possible.
I know of a Outlaw 950, Theta Casanova, Classe ssp-25, Acurus Act-3, and I think someone has the Sony 9000ES within the group. We may actually have more variety in these then in cables.
We could do comparisons with them connected through coaxial digital for 2-ch stereo listening and 5-ch Dolby Digital listening, Basically a test of there corresponding DAC's and DSP processors.
there is my 2 cents worth.

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Scott, I live one block from the lake but have an excellent view of the lake from my house. I have two decks and a patio at my place plus an empty lot next to me that belongs to me where additional cars can park. There is a POA park one block from my house where you can launch jet skis and is open to me and my guests since I am a POA member.

I like the surround processor idea.

I have a Sony STR-DA50ES processor myself along with the Sony DVP-S9000ES DVD/SACD/CD player, a Sony CDP-CA9ES CD player, Sony MDS-JA3ES MD player, Sony TC-WA8ESA Cassette player, Sony DTC-60ES DAT player and a Sony CDR recorder just to name a few.

I have Polk Audio RT800 towers with a Polk PSW450 subwoofer which I consider "middle of the road" speakers. If anyone would like to bring additional speakers for comparasion purposes, that would help. I have a spare bedroom and a second living room where we could have additional comparisons.

So what does everyone else think? Anyone have some "great" speakers they would be willing to cart out to my house to do comparisons with?

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

My new Outlaw Audio 950 pre/pro is still in the box, awaiting the Acurus A200X3 power amp to arrive, SO, I could bring the 950. I'll be making my own interconnects (Canare cable) for it too. Shall we include power line conditioners?
I took part in a power cord comparison at my house last Saturday when we fired up the GR Research line sources. I concluded that a real double-blind objective test is the only way to go. But, as Jonathan has pointed out, that would be way too tedious and time-consuming for a large fun-type meet, so subjective tests would be fun I think.
Nils, this is obviously your first baby. After one or two more, you'll be saying to your wife: "Dear, you're doing great since the birth yesterday. Mind if I run over to the HT meet for 3 or 4 hours?" I had four at Seton - first name basis with the staff: "Hey look everybody! Hank's back again - you know where the scrubs are, Hank - help yourself".
Frederick, you should consider buying equipment with shorter model numbers

 

[Jonathan DA]

I think we might be able to rig up something fairly simple to do a blind (not double blind) test for surround processors. Use the same speakers, amps, dvd player, cables, and simply feed the same signal to all the processors and route the outputs into the amp. I'd be happy to offer a Mirus Audio multi-channel speaker system up for the tests.

Jonathan

 

[Jonathan DA]

Forgot to throw in my vote for the date. I prefer July 13,14.

 

[Scott Oliver]

So are we going to go for a Lake Party and Processor testing on July 13 or 14 at Fredericks house?

I vote YES!

In the case that it is, what amp could we use?
I have a Bryston 5B-ST 3 ch which would be good, but nothing for surround amplification.

Probably need a high quality 5 channel amp, so as to not have different amplification on different channels.

The Sony 9000ES DVD/CD transport would be a good source.

I have 1.5M length of Tara Labs Prism D-2 coaxial digital cable, which is pretty well regarded.

I am throwing all this out, because I think we have got to have pretty revealing equipment if we are going to do this testing justice.

We will also need to develop a play list of CD's and DVD's that will bring out the differences well.
Like HEAT and the big gun fight on the streets, I found that to be really good in discerning differences between my Sony 7000 and the Theta Carmen in the past.
or Patricia Barber's Nardis track on Cafe Blue.

Lastly, I don't think we should try to make this testing the definative scientific study on processor differences (for as Jonathan once stated this would really tedious and boring), but I think giving each processor a fair run at the same material (20-30 minutes in length), with people taking notes on what they are hearing can still be quite fun. Especially when the test concludes and we share notes and find out which unit lines up with which notes.

 

[Scott Oliver]

Hey Hank what did you decide on those GR line arrays. Are you wanting to purchase a pair at some point?

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Okay, I vote for July at Frederick's. My Acurus A200X3 arrived yesterday, so it would be available. I'm not convinced that the rear channel amps have to be identical to the fronts. Plus, I'd like to be one of the first to hear a Mirus Audio system! Sorta like saying: "I saw Dell's first system in his dorm room back when".

Scott: I'm thinking about buying the drivers and crossovers, but there's a formative idea re a new TB 2" driver that would make for some much smaller line source cabinets (and maybe they could be used in-wall for those situations where the WAF rules).
Plus, I think our friend Johathan may have something up his sleeve. Gotta consider the possibilities.

 

[Jonathan DA]

Is this going to be an x.1 or x.2 test, and what is the value of x? Just need to know how many speakers to bring
Up my sleeve? Me? Never!
J
P.S. Frederick, you do have a forklift at your place, right?

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Jonathan, I do not have a forklift, but I have a 2-wheeler (also known as a hand-truck) that I used when we moved last that makes moving heavy objects from point A to point B very easy.
Now let's get down to the important stuff! Doesn't anyone have a jet ski or boat they can bring? You know, the next best thing to owning a boat is knowing someone else who owns a boat!
Seriously though, if any of you do have any watercraft that you wouldn't mind hauling out to my place, we could spend the morning on the lake before we have to come inside to play. If not, then you are still welcome to come over before lunch to play in the lake.
As far as the comparasion goes, I think we might want to stick to 2 channel and 5.1 channel for now as the main tests. However, if anyone wants to bring the additional speakers to have a comparison of 5.1 to say 7.1 using the same pre/pro, I wouldn't mind doing that. I just don't want to go overboard on trying to compare too many different things this one session. You know, we have to have SOMETHING to do at our next meet.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Forklift? We do it big in Texas, that's why forklift! I bet some of the views we get are from those less fortunate states wondering what in the world is going on in Austin Texas.

BTW, my son thinks he wants a jet ski so he priced some yesterday. $5,000 for one in very good condition! Holy wetness, Batman! I had guessed about half that. Frederick, any comment?

I agree that 2-channel music and 5.1 DVD are enough for one meet.
Later

 

[Henry Carmona]

Are San Antonians invited
I vote for July!

 

[Mark Hayenga]

Is this going to be an x.1 or x.2 test, and what is the value of x? Just need to know how many speakers to bring

I will have the 6 channel HDS system done by this date you realize
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Mark

 

[Colin Dunn]

Henry - if you're willing to make the drive from San Antonio, you're welcome to join everyone at the meet. This meet is to the northwest of Austin, so it may be kind of a long drive. If you know others in San Antonio who are willing to make the trek, point them toward this thread.

Mark - If you have those speakers done, bring them to the meet!

Scott Oliver - you've got mail. I just heard a Musical Fidelity power amp my brother bought for his system, and was duly impressed. Very smooth yet detailed, tube-like sound. I didn't think they could make such a warm/liquid-sounding solid-state amp! No joke - I think this $1,600 solid-state amp rivaled the $7,500 tubed Air Tight amp you auditioned a few weeks ago...

 

[Mark Hayenga]

Colin,
I definitely will. I really should have them ready by the 13/14th. Seriously. Speakerbuilder's honor
Projector owners -
I will be having a demo of a Sharp PG-M20X business projector sometime in the near future (http://www.sharpusa.com/products/Mod...58,780,00.html). It is a 4:3, XGA, 1900 lumen DLP projector with a 3x speed color wheel and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Spec wise it's pretty nice, but I am hesitant about getting one with my limited experience. If I could get an in-home demo, would any of you projector owners or experts help me evalaute it? I'm very new to videophilia and don't want to be regretting any purchases down the road. Also, what DVD's are good to test video quality? Should I get the Avia DVD to do a quick calibration before any evaluation? How much calibration do these digital projectors really need?
Ok enough questions! Man I didn't intend for that to be so long. I guess there's just a lot of projector experts that I trust here
Mark

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Mark, Nils is your man for projector advice. He has evaluated several and made a purchase. Hold off on buying for now, and if you can get a loaner to demo, maybe Nils would let you take it to his house for a review. He live close to me, BTW.

 

[Jonathan DA]

An aside, if anyone needs a small plate amp, Josh Hull has one for sale locally.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=73128