First System... (1 Viewer)

[Plindsey88]

Hello Fellas (at least I'm assuming most of you are fellas)...

So, last year with my annual bonus I bought a 52" Sony XBR5 (KDL-52XBR5). So far, I've been very pleased with it. Last year I also bought an HTIB with upscaling DVD by Panasonic. I've been less than pleased with the audio.

So, this year I decided to purchase my first real audio set-up. So I bought a Sony STR-DA 2400 ES receiver, JBL ES80's for the front with associated JBL ES25C for the center. I got JBL L820's for the rears and a Klipsch Sub-10 subwoofer. I also bought a PS3 for Blu-Ray. Everything arrives on Wednesday.

My "theater room" doubles as a living room and the furniture / window arrangement makes for a tough speaker lay-out, but can't really be changed. The dimensions are roughly 13 x 20.

Mainly I am posting to hear what you guys think about the equipment. Did I make wise purchases? Any advice from anyone who owns this same equipment? I will be running an HD DVR from Comcast, the PS3, and an XBox 360 all via HDMI.

Any comments are greatly appreciated. Feel free to include any comment on the TV, as well. I've been pleased with it, but any expert advice couldn't hurt.

Thanks.

 

[LanceJ]

Hi Pat,

What is meant exactly by "tough" speaker lay-out? Uh oh, I hope the surround channels aren't in front of you and the center channel isn't at the top of an armoir with the TV located five feet below!

All the gear is fine with me - I especially like the speakers - though Klipsch's entry-level subs usually sound a bit boomy to me and build quality seems a bit......frugal (when I knocked on them with my knuckle they made a hollow-ish clunking sound :frowning.

As far as the TV: make sure you go through its settings and turn off anything that isn't truly helping the picture. For example, I can't stand newer TVs' 120Hz mode (each manufacturer has their own trade name for this) which to me makes everything including classic movies look like video tape. :frowning: Or video noise reduction (VNR) modes which can be helpful for badly authored dvds, but used with good video sources can eliminate details you *want* to see.

And calibrating it, even by eye, will result in a more realistic picture than if you stick with the out-of-the-box settings which are made to get your attention in a brightly lit store but look radioactive at home. To do a much better job though, use a dvd that includes the THX Optimizer feature*. It's made for non-tech people, it only takes about 10 minutes and the resulting picture will look great. At first it may seem too dark, then you realize dark/creepy scenes actually ARE dark/creepy; people's faces will look like skin & not a plastic mask etc etc. There are more sophisticated calibration discs available, but this is all I feel is needed for my own beer-n-pretzel viewing habits.

On a music-related note (I use my system about 60% music/40% HT): if you listen to a lot of CDs, I would recommend grabbing a CD player while they still make them. Generally speaking IMO they are soooo much easier to use than a BD or dvd player and they include lots more playback functions, and especially, those functions are usually located on the front panel instead of only via an on-screen display i.e. you have to have your TV on just to select random or delete a few tracks - arrrgh! And a CD will always sound better than any MP3 file (I still run into people who don't know MP3 [and AAC, WMA etc] are lossy formats). Lastly, using one will save wear and tear on dvd/BD players & as a bonus CD players regularly last for a decade, and longer.

Here's a few:

* Sony CDP-CE375 - five-disc changer, only 119 clams. Sort of a mechanical media server: load it up and hit shuffle, that's it - no software to pull up, no tedious pointing/clicking and no worries about a hard drive crash.

* Pioneer PD-F1009 301 disc changer - includes the cool CD-TEXT function.

* Onkyo DX-C390, the one I saw also looked really nice & used metal(!) for the front face plate.

* Yamaha CD-S700 single-disc player - this or something from Arcam is what I would like to own for my own system. Also includes a USB port, for flash drives I assume.


* most dvds mastered to THX standards include this; look for it on a sub-menu of the dvd e.g. on my Attack Of The Clones dvd IIRC it's located on the "Options" submenu and consists of a dimly lit logo I have to look for.

 

[LanceJ]

Did that help you any Patrick?

I guess if your gear arrived on schedule, right now you're surrounded by empty boxes, packing peanuts, and have itchy eyes from reading all those manuals.

 

[CB750]

Lance,

You are right about holding on to your CD especially a 5 disk one. One of the things that 5 disk DVD players lack is the ability to random shuffle music tracks from 5 disks. They figured no one would want to watch random chapters from 5 different movies.