Anyone get sucked into HI-FI by HT (1 Viewer)

[Greg Br]

This crusade that is enveloping my life began in December with a simple upgrade to a digital receiver, dvd player and sub for a mesely $1400. It is now evolved into replacing the subs with dual svs subs, replacing the DVD player with a DVD Audio player and thinking about a sacd player. My mains are HP tower speakers, a very nice speaker but now I am looking at Paradigm, Thiel, Klipsch, and Martin Logan. I used to think $1000 for a amplifier, thats crazy, now its like how good would my two channel music sound with new speakers and a kick but amp. The Yamaha receiver three months ago seemed very nice, now I just keep thinking Pre Pro.

It seemed like this would be fun to get into HT but it is turning into building myself a concert hall. My budget keeps getting increased while my wife keeps getting incensed. Is there a end in sight, has anyone reached hi-fi Nirvana.

 

[KeithH]

Greg, back in late '99 and early 2000, I bought a Sony DVP-S330 DVD player, a JVC RX-778V Dolby Digital receiver (no DTS), and a JVC XL-MC222 200-disc megachanger that had no digital outputs, no disc naming capability, and could not be daisy-chained. In a little over two years, I've gotten into audio in a big way. I know that my two stereo systems kill anything that I had two years ago, but I am nowhere near audio Nirvana, and the way this hobby goes, I'll probably never get there. There is always a new toy to buy and some way to improve one's system.

 

[Greg Br]

My wife keeps saying nothing is good enough for you. Its also like I was going to get 5 new speakers with a $3500 budget but now its like screw that, take the $3500 and get something marvalous. It seems like accurate music playback is getting more and more important than my HT.

 

[Michael Yung]

Hi Greg, I am exactly like you. I know nothing of HiFi when I first got into HT and now HT is definately taking a back seat to HiFi for me. It started so innocently in November of '99 with me just getting a cheap APEX DVD player. Then in 3 months came the receiver and 5 speakers plus subwoofer. Right away, I knew something was wrong with my setup. The sound coming out of the speakers I got at BestBuy just didn't sound good to me. And so I hit the Net and started reading reviews and join HTF asking for advise. Pretty soon, I went to my local dealer and bought home a pair of Paradigm Studio 3's to A/B compare with the Yamaha speakers I had at the time and I was blown away by the difference. Since then my setup has grown unrecongizable to where I started only a little over a year ago. Pretty soon I will have a full seperate system when I get my Outlaw 950 to pair with my Acurus A125x5 amp powering my Paradigm Reference Studio 40s, CC center and ADP surrounds. And I am also in the process of changing my sub to an SVS from my current PW-2200. And let's not even get into all the different speaker and interconnect cables I've tried...

So as you can see, I am totally sucked into HiFi through HT. But I love it!

 

[Barry_B_B]

So THAT'S what happened. One day I'm sitting in the family room watching Sade's Lovers Live DVD, and next thing you know I'm pondering how much better would this sound with some hi-end quality speakers and some serious muscle to drive them? As it is, I'll be moving to a new apartment soon which must have a nice stereo pair of speakers for the living room. And that 50 disc box with no digital outputs has to go, been drooling over Sony's 300 capacity monsters. And a company called Audio Advisor keeps sending me these nice catalogs with shiny new amps and pre/pro's Yup, The HT stays as it is for now, but the music system is getting a makeover. This is great!

 

[Greg Br]

If you can set up a brilliant stereo system then you are going to have a damn good home theater system. I initially said it would be a 80/20 split for HT, and in the beginning it was, now I find myself listening to music a heck of lot more than HT, I have so many more choices when it comes to music than movies(although 6 months ago my entire cd collection was ripped off). I like the idea of the Outlaw Pre Pro but I did listen to a parasound pre pro/amp at the Paradigm dealer last week and it was sweet. The Martin Logans I tried out were on a Krell PrePro/Amp that was unreal(by the way the Descent subwoofer can kick some serious but). Right now I am not sure the direction I want to go, just now that it is up

 

[Allen Longcor]

I just got an SACD player and now I want to replace everything so that my SACD sounds better. I was gonna let the sub handle the bass and go with a "lower" set of front speakers, but now I need some monsters up front for 2 channel music listening. I'm slowly working my way into hi fi.

 

[Greg Br]

Same thing here, I got DVD-Audio but with my weak bass out of my main speakers it appears I am going to need some mains that extend down to 30hz well. I think I am going to add the Outlaw ICBM in order to get my SVS back into the mix and then when I get the mains I will cross them over around 50 or so and that should sound real good.

Multi Channel brings in a whole new way of thinking. I read an article from David Chesky in the Absolute Sound and he advocates a 2/4/6 system, no center or sub as the most acurate way to reproduce classic and jazz in multi-channel. The one thing he did not address was proper speaker size for the setup, almost avoiding it intentionaly because it would be difficult for anyone to have 6 full range speakers.

 

[Saurav]

Look into DIY. It's much more satisfying, you learn much more, spend much more time on it, spend much less money on it, and usually end up with something that you would have to pay 3x - 4x to get at retail. In the long run, it's actually more financially practical Of course, unless you decide to put a price on the time you spend.

 

[Doug_B]

Yup, same here. After deciding to go into HT, I had time to do auditioning while in the process of getting an estimate from my first contractor for room upgrades, bagging him, and getting a new contractor with a better estimate (not to mention waiting for his availability). All this time and extra $ available made me realize that I wanted really good sound for my music, waking me out of my 10 year (?) music hibernation. After just recently finishing my audio setup, I listen to music at a much higher percentage than watching movies; among other things, it's much easier to find time for a few tunes.
One other positive with respect to the long planning / auditioning process while waiting for my room upgrades; all my audio "upgrades" were done on paper .
Doug

 

[Ron Reda]

I know what you mean, Man. After checking out DVD for the first time at my buddy's house several years ago, I caught the bug and never looked back. Once I finally settled in and got a place of my own, I began picking up components with every bonus check and added to my DVD collection most every weekend. I just about got my HT system to where I really enjoyed it (based on my modest means) until I started getting heavily into music again. My next challenge was to integrate a great sounding music set up into my existing HT set up. Seeing as how music is a lot easier to put on and either listen to or mill about (I have to actually sit down and make movie watching an experience and usually only watch DVDs on the weekends), I was able to justify spending most of my time and money on stereo equipment. Once I got the big stuff out of the way (a nice amp, a quality CD player), it was a new cable here, cone isolators there. The whole thing is very addictive, much like "audio crack." I guess I'm never satisfied.

When I start talking about upgrades or my next new piece of equipment, some of my friends just shake their heads, saying that I can't take it with me to my grave. You know, they're right, but when they're laying me in the ground, the funeral music is gonna sound great on my system!!!

 

[RajeeK]

Man, this place has ruined me. Within the last year, I have replace my ENTIRE home theater, except for the TX. I have a new Reciever and now an amp on the way, new DVD player, dual SVS Subs (my 2nd set of SVS's), new speakers, audio cable, speaker cable...all because of this place. I love my new setup, don't get me wrong, but damn this stuff gets expensive. And when upgradeitis hits I am it's first victim always.

 

[Greg Br]

What I am finding is what can sound damn good for HT just will not do the trick for stereo and for multi-channel. It is just amazing what once was expensive is now run of the mill for my budget.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I think most of us here could tell the same story...in the last two years I've had 6 receivers in my rack two pre amps, 4 power amps, 4 subs (all DIY), replaced all the speakers with maggies, two TV's, three remotes, and am now in the process of the ultimate upgrade..a dedicated media room...you might say I've got the bug bad

 

[Larry B]

Greg:

now I find myself listening to music a heck of lot more than HT

Great. Keep it up! As I once said in an earlier post, HT is fun, but music speaks to the soul.

Larry

 

[Dan Driscoll]

It was the other way around for me, I got sucked into HT by hi-fi. But I my preference has always been for music and I am slowly but surely optimizing my system for music.

 

[Greg Br]

I have a room that could be a dedicated theater/audio room but my dart board and pool table are in there, so I would have to sell it(I would get about $1000, damn gues my tower speaker budget just when to 4500, think I could get a good pair for 4500).

 

[Steve_Ma]

Maybe There's a 12 step program or something we could all join. I wanted a stupid DVD player and some speakers. Now I have an addiction. 2.1ch music is my drug of choice but good surround effects in a 5.1 movie will get me off if the family is asleep and I can't crank the volume.

Here's a suggestion to give you a fix when you don't have any cash and the credit card has been impounded by the SO: If you are using an external sub, and are wired via the LFE in. Go with speaker level connections to the sub then mains. Get a test disk and spend weeks tweaking the calibration and experimenting with different x-overs. It probably won't be much of an audible improvement, but will keep you tweaking for weeks without spending tons o cash. It's not a real fix, but should get you buy till the next bonus or tax return.

--Steve

 

[Chris PC]

Actually I was always into Hi-Fi. It was my stupid PC that sucked me into Home Theater though. I was foolish enough to buy a DVD drive instead of a CDROM. "Heck, its only going to cost me another $100.00" I thought. Little did I know that using the dual-head feature on my Matrox G400 max video card which allowed me to connect a large screen TV would get me addicted to home theater. Sure enough, I bought a 32" TV, receiver, subwoofer and speakers and now I'm looking at a projector or RP HDTV. I've always been into Hi-Fi. I think I am 75% music 25% movies for time spent with each.

 

[chung]

Here's a simple suggestion. Get good stereo speakers, and a decent amp. Those are the main ingredients. Get a competent (not $$$) HT receiver and the surround speakers for HT. When you are reasonably happy with HT, STOP READING this forum or the audiophile magazines.

Don't spend a large portion of your budget on HT, instead focus on the main 2-channel. HT is about movies, and your money is better served on getting good video gear.

Once you have a good stereo set up, you should be happy for a very long time. Don't pay attention to the high-enders. High-end audio is about blowing small differences way out of proportion. Listen to the music instead of your sound system.