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  1. Mike-grouse

    Spending a lot of money, opinions please...

    RPTVs Pioneer Elite and Mitsubishi's Platinum Plus and Diamond Lines are the best RPTVs out there. Mitsubishi offer more value since the price is considerably cheaper and offers the same quality picture of the elite. I went with the mitsubishi personally. Reasons: price, cost of...
  2. Mike-grouse

    Testing Speakers and sound equiptment, what is a good CD?

    Quite the contrary, there are a lot of metal CDs that have great soundstaging. Of course some of the best recordings come from the bigger names: Metallica: Master of Puppets, Black Joe Satriani: Flying in a Blue Dream, The Extremist, Self Titled (best of all) Guns and Roses: Use Your...
  3. Mike-grouse

    Spending a lot of money, opinions please...

    A good amp can make a night and day differene with speakers. It can make cheap speaker sing and great speakers sound even better. Speakers are only as good as what you feed them.
  4. Mike-grouse

    Got speakers.. NOW WIRE!!

    www.cobaltcable.com To Walt N: Funny you should mention people that hear different because they want to. After doing a blind test of cabalts speaker cable vs monster 10 gauge speaker cable, what should'nt have been a difference really was. Just because they should be the same doesn't mean...
  5. Mike-grouse

    Got speakers.. NOW WIRE!!

    Proving once again that cables are still a heated debate. Cable length versus size: whatever you say, but when I hear a defintite improvement when using 10 gauge versus 16 gauge speaker wire on a multitude of speakers and receivers from cheap to expensive something else is going on beyond a...
  6. Mike-grouse

    One Sub or Two???

    I'll differ from everyone else here, Don't bother with 2 2200s. I have the 2200 in a 24x16 room and at a properly calibrated level it plays the whole room perfectly. If a jam it out, one sub will vibrate the hell out of the whole room. The properly calibrated level is about half that...
  7. Mike-grouse

    Testing Speakers and sound equiptment, what is a good CD?

    Get techno type music like madonna ray of light for bass and soundstaging test. Most important, and it may be music you don't like, but you need heavy metal to test out the crossovers. If a speakers going to distort it's going to playing the electric guitar washout of heavy metal. I have...
  8. Mike-grouse

    Paradigm Signature line? Signature 200?

    I heard the B&W Nuatilus line and compared it to their CDM line which incorporates the nuatilus technology and I have to be honest, I can't hear enough differenct to justify 10-20 thousand more for the speakers. It just becomes evident that the more an HT product costs, the more extravagant...
  9. Mike-grouse

    Spending a lot of money, opinions please...

    Go with B&Ws CDM series. It combines nautilus technology and sound simply amazing. If you're looking to save a little Paradigm Reference competes readily against B&Ws line. Have to agree with getting a separate amp instead. While the reciever may sound close to an amp, the amp will have...
  10. Mike-grouse

    What's a good HTiB?

    "Well to do people" I started on a small budget as well and the upgrade path by not buying an HTiB was a lot easier and a lot less limiting. I could build a better sounding system and more upgradable system for the same price many are willing to spend on an HTiB. I comes down simply...
  11. Mike-grouse

    New HT system - are sound effects too loud?

    no no it should remember. If cheap surround receiver of the early 90s do it (that was prologic) than all others do it now. It sounds like you have the power off or something. Be sure the receiver isn't plugged into a outlet controlled by a power cord. Even though they're off the receiver...
  12. Mike-grouse

    Does an HDTV have to have 3:2 pulldown?

    3:2 pulldown is yes technically for film, but the reson it exists is so the processor can change modes whether it's doing film or video. THere are sometime when activating film mode on the line doubler will actually make the video look better and vice versa. It helps out both. Don't go...
  13. Mike-grouse

    Want to buy HDTV - Samsung, Sony, Panasonic??

    Do not buy an RPTV in that price range. They're genrally cheap verisons of the real models that brand offers. Get a sony crt tube vega linup. Copare price ranges: rptv (generally): $2000 - $8000 CRT: $300-$2200 Get a caddy or lexus of tube technology vesus the yugo of RPTV...
  14. Mike-grouse

    tube tv or not tube tv

    Good HDTV rear projection unit look just as good if not bette r than tubes. Proof positive is that I have a 36 vega xbr (love it) and replaced it in my main home theater with a mit 65" platinum plus (it was better than the diamond lineup for 6 months at time of purchase). If you have $4000 to...
  15. Mike-grouse

    Does an HDTV have to have 3:2 pulldown?

    Wrong wrong wrong! You absolutely need 3:2 pulldown. An internal line doubler is the most importent one because without 3:2 pulldown standard cable/dss images will look much worse than standard interlaced tvs. It's not an upgrade, but rather a downgrade in quality getting anything less...
  16. Mike-grouse

    I'm I being a victim of lame component cables?

    Not the cables but rather your inclination that a projection progressive should look like a tube. Fact is the interlacing on tubes hides a lot of image artifact making the image actually look better on the interlaced set at first. Progressive set show more of the faults of compression...
  17. Mike-grouse

    Anyone have this problem?

    Look like you still have the protective plastic lining that usually ships on the protective acrylic screen. Did you take it off of both sides. If they are surface scratches I've been able to remove those by simply rubbing them off with my finger. If there are indeed deep scratches, get...
  18. Mike-grouse

    is prgressive scan necessary if TVs have built-in line doublers?

    I'll keep it simple. A progressive player (one with 3:2 pulldown aka do your rearch) will ALWAYS look better than a tvs internal line doubler even the pioneer elite. THe reasons are in the amount of steps it takes to deliver the picture to the diplay tubes: using the internal doubler...
  19. Mike-grouse

    Tv problems

    call the company. Sounds defective. Look at stores to see if it applies to the same model there. Good luck
  20. Mike-grouse

    is a computer monitor the best way to see DVD?

    one more addition: The main goal of a home theater is to simualte the movie theater as best as possible. Big screen and big sound are fundamental. I've had the monster vega 36" and now have a monster platinum plus mits 65" hdtv 16:9. Loved em both and both provide excellent video...
  21. Mike-grouse

    is a computer monitor the best way to see DVD?

    A "good" hdtv rear projection model will look better than a compute generated DVD image. sure you have more squeezed so that it looks better, but you don't have the same calibration controls on a computer that you do on a TV. Mainly the sharpness setting. When calibrated correctly the...
  22. Mike-grouse

    question about 2 channel music with a 5.1 HT setup

    Hey dave, You try music with the sub. Just calibrate the sub for music listening. It's nice to know that audiophiles still exist. ANother option for DVD multipurposing. Have the dvd players digital out go to the digital in for dvd receiver input AND have the analog 2 channel audio...
  23. Mike-grouse

    Clear screen

    It sounds like your getting some interferance from either power or a cable crossing the path of the cable of the particualr input. Move cables in the back around to see if that alleviates the issue. Turn lights off in that room and adjoining rooms. If none of that works, plug TV in...
  24. Mike-grouse

    What's a good HTiB?

    No to HTIB Just get a surround receiver with a good set of fun as hell cerwin vegas. You can always add little cheap center and surrounds later. A site I reference often sums up HTIB perfectly and as a public service I'm delevering the URL here to you (I'm so nice.... why thank you)...
  25. Mike-grouse

    New HT system - are sound effects too loud?

    Ahhh, the old addage of what is turly better. The sound in your home theater will almost always sound better than the run of the mill standard theater. There are only a few theater across the nation that could be considered reference. Simple reasons: A theater has to try to deliver a...
  26. Mike-grouse

    Any reason NOT to buy an SACD player now?

    The only reason not to buy is to wait for a dvd player that can play both DVD-A and SACD. Both sound similar bu tI prefer SACD myself. Now if they only had DVDs that I wanted. For $200 why discuss. Just go out and buy it so you can enjoy hi-res audio now. Honestly Stereo SACD sounds...
  27. Mike-grouse

    I'm a believer now...Bose 5.1 from 2 speakers

    THe technology bose is touting isn't new. In fact it's just playing with stereo sound like Q Sound did in the early 90s and still does today. I hear surround information in 2 channel mode now. Doesn't mean I'm going to throw out my other speakers. What is Q-Sound, simply put... it's imaging...
  28. Mike-grouse

    Cable Question...

    Can't give you an opinion on the receiver as I know nothing about it, but cables on the other hand... burn, trash, mangle... pretty much destroy those stock cables and go get at least some monsters. I've had people I knowthat had good luck with AR cables too. Just buy em from a store that lets...
  29. Mike-grouse

    Thoughts on Rotel vs. B&K amps.

    B&K struck me as too expensive for what it offered versus the rotel. A site I use often has a review of the Rotel-1095 if you're interested. Bought one myself after reading it . It does quite nice. Makes everything sound... louder and effortless. Couldn't believe how much I was missing...
  30. Mike-grouse

    New Speakers to match Reciever

    Hey bfore you go out to listen check out a guide I use before I go out an listen. It helps remind of what ot listen for and rally shortens my time. The guide I use is http://www.htadvice.com They have an section related to overviews of all the diff HT components out there. They call it gear...
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