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1. Some swear by the Infocus X1 (800x600 dlp; 4x3). If you can go a bit ($300 +/-) higher, many swear by the Infocus 4805 (854x480 +/- dlp; 16x9). I'm quite happy with my Sanyo Z1 (960x540 lcd; 16x9). It's quite good for HDTV among other things. 2. Some hide cables in the ceiling. I have a...

I sit about 1.5x screen width from my Z1's picture (maybe a little less). There is SDE. My wife doesn't notice it, but I do, especially when the picture or large portions of it is/are static. If I had a Z2, I doubt there'd be any SDE. That being said, don't get too worried about picture...

Small room? Have you considered front projection? Provided you have light control, you can get an excellent picture from a Screenplay 4805 (DLP, DVD res) or a Panasonic PT-AE500 (LCD, 720p). In a smaller room with a smaller screen (75" diagonal or so) these projectors will be VERY bright...

Another thought to hide cables.... There are a number of either perfectly flat paintable cables or not too flat paintable cables (Monster Cable makes some). That'll let you go with standard speakers, but hide the wires.

SDE (screen door effect) occurs on both LCD and DLP projectors. LCD tends to have more SDE than DLP and lower res projectors tend to have more SDE than higher res. That being said, you can generally get more pixels/$ in LCD, so you can some times have less SDE for the same cost due to the higher...

Perhaps try a different projector? I have a Sanyo Z1 and have an 11' throw and can get well north of 100" (I don't have it that big, but it can be if I want it). The reason that I didn't get an X1 or even 4805 was the throw ratio--I wanted a bigger image in a smaller room. My wife and I are...

If you want 4x3 to be bigger than 16x9, the Z1 isn't going to do it for you. It's set up for a 16x9 screen where 4x3 will be in the middle. If you have non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs, you can just zoom them in using either the Z1's aspect ratio control, or use any scaler that is built in to...

Try a Sanyo Z1. You can get it new well south of $1k (shipping included), or spend $1k plus shipping and get an extra bulb. I've had mine for a couple of weeks and even uncalibrated, projecting on a tan (textured!) wall with lousy light control, it's still amazingly great. (I really wanted...

I second the recommendation for the Panasonic. I frequently see it at Costco for $999. I actually used to have a PT-47WX49 (or something like that), purchased in 12/01. It was a 47" widescreen without screen protector which was trouble-free and looked GREAT. Just spend a few minutes with a...

I agree with all. I have 802 Matrixes for my fronts and no center (and non matching rears). I'll be going all B&W gradually. For me, getting rid of my 3 channels up front and going with 2 B&Ws has significantly improved dialogue intelligibility with NO tradeoff in soundstage--I don't even...

First of all.... Congrats! B&Ws are great! I'm running a pair of Matrix 802s (as well as some crappy non-B&W dipole rears) off of a Carver AV-505 (using a 3 year old Yamaha RX-800 or something like that--100x5--as a preamp). The Carver is an 80x5 amplifier, which may seem low, but it actually...

Right now I am happy but I expect to be moving in the next few months and having a different setup. At that point, we will have more separation between the stereo pair, and will also need a larger sweet spot (our seating positions will change). I EXPECT that a center will become a necessity at...

I took your advice and went with B&Ws in left and right, no center. It's absolutely great. Insanely great. Leo, good point. For now, I'm not as worried about sweet-spot size. I always sit in it, my wife always sits in the comfy chair way off-axis. I still plan to get a center, but for now...

Jack-- I have posted separately for purchasing advice. This is a request for opinions on which of my speakers I should use and how. I figured it was a judgment call for whether to place it in home theater basics (since it's ultimately about the quality of surround sound replication) or...

Right now, I have the old Carver 5.1 set of speakers. I find them harsh (not bright, harsh) and unpleasant at low volumes and unsatisfying at high volumes. I tweaked the response of the center channel with the EQ in my receiver/preamp, but I am still not overly fond of the intelligibility of...

I cannot comment on the sound quality simply because I have it connected to (what I consider to be) horrible speakers, and I know that it is being limited by them. What I can say is that I bought mine at the tail end of 1998 as a floor sample from Circuit City (when they closed out their...

Thanks--that's exactly what I was thinking about doing (and what the dealer offered). I love the price on the LCR ($500), so if it sounds good, I'll be a very happy camper....

We are unhappy with our current home theater speakers (Carver 5.1) and are looking to upgrade. Our plan was to keep using the Carver dipole rears for a while (replace them with B&Ws eventually), use our stereo pair of B&W Matrix 802s for front left and right, and buy a center channel...