May Austin HTF Meet. (1 Viewer)

[Chad Anson]

I'm intrigued, Nils, as I haven't been to the Oasis in a few years. I vote for the Oasis!

 

[Rajiv Arora]

Oasis sounds good to me. I just sent a mail to Colin with my address for route planning.

-Rajiv

 

[Jeff Meininger]

It looks like the tour will probably be coming by my place before nightfall. :frowning: I'm still excited about hosting, but it will have to be an audio-only demo.

For the head-count: my wife Darlene will be coming on the tour with me.

Edit: I'd like to try the new food at Oasis, so Oasis is my vote for the restaurant.

 

[Jonathan DA]

1. I'm in for lunch and the tour. But I'm not paying $7 for the world's smallest margarita in a disposable cup.
2. I don't really care.
3. I'm volunteering my theater. I'm in Round Rock for those planning the tour route. A night showing is a requirement for the Miniplex, however, as I have a low output CRT with no light control. Many of you have already seen it, however, so if we stick to new ones then I'm precluded. I do have few new features though, including a second row riser, acoustic treatments (the corner traps made a huge difference), and new surround speaker mounts. Unfortunately, the previously hinted at new Mirus model will not be ready by the 17th after all. Sorry, you can't rush greatness.

 

[Rich_Ave]

Hank,
Thanks for the welcome. I was able to meet a few of the folks at the last meet (including you, but you probably don't remember me - I have a pretty forgetable face, fortunately.

1. I'd like to join the group for lunch
2. The Oasis is fine
3. I'd be glad to add my HT to the list on the parade.

Hank, you asked for a few more details:

 

[Rich_Ave]

If I could only type, sorry about hitting the enter key too quickly. Anyway, the details:

Projector: Sony VW10HT LCD projector
Screen: Stewart 100 inch Grayhawk
Preamp: Rotel RSP 1066
Power Amps: Rotel RMB1075, Rotel RB1050
DVD Player: Rotel RDV1080
Cable: Scientific Atlanta 3100HD (HDTV Cable Box)
Speakers: Vance Dickason HT speakers from Parts Express
Audax surround speakers (monopole) from Madisound
Subwoofers: 10 inch Titanic from PE
12 inch NHT kit (MDF flat kit)
Remote: Phillips TSU3000 Pronto

I have a lot of little projects to do before my HT is complete (if ever), but it's usable, and I would certainly welcome everyone's comments.
Rich

 

[Colin Dunn]

This is an overwhelming response! I count 11 13 people who have offered to throw open their home theaters for the tour. This may very well be too many to visit in a single day.

I'm going to get started looking at where everyone is and come up with a tentative route plan.

Do we want to make this a two-part meet on Friday evening (May 16) and Saturday afternoon/evening (May 17)? Maybe Sunday afternoon (May 18) as well? It may take 2-3 installments to visit that many home theaters (assuming about an hour at each plus 15-30 minutes drive time from site to site).

This is the current list of people who have at least tentatively offered to show their theaters.

Chad Anson
Jeff Meininger
Dave Elliott
Frederick Falk
Mike Frontier
Hank Frankenberg
Rajiv Arora
Rich Avery
Nils Luehrmann
Jonathan Atkins
Chris Lewis (he doesn't have an account on the HTF but sent me private E-mail volunteering to host)
Julian Turner
Colin Dunn

 

[Colin Dunn]

Our group is sprawled out over the entire metro area, from Bastrop to Round Rock to Lago Vista. We also got an abundance of volunteers, twice as many as we could visit in one day.

Then there are a few other special considerations. Chad Anson's theater is under construction. Jeff Meininger's and Jonathan Atkins's theaters need to be scheduled last to get adequate darkness.

My suggestion: We do seven theaters on May 17, and save the other six for another meet during June (June 14). So here is my first stab at a schedule. This will be revised as the volunteer list changes and times get juggled around. We get a mix of old and new hosts on both days.

May 17 Meet/Order

12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch (Oasis)
1:15PM-2:00PM Chad Anson
2:15PM-3:00PM Hank Frankenberg
3:15PM-4:00PM Rich Avery
4:15PM-5:00PM Mike Frontier
5:30PM-6:30PM Frederick Falk
6:45PM-7:30PM Dave Elliott
8:00PM-? Jeff Meininger

June Meet (tentatively June 14 - exact date TBA)/Order

12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch (location TBA)
1:15PM-2:00PM Rajiv Arora
2:15PM-3:00PM Nils Luehrmann
3:45PM-4:30PM Julian Turner
5:15PM-6:00PM Colin Dunn
6:15PM-7:00PM Chris Lewis
7:30PM-? Jonathan Atkins

 

[Greg Risley]

Sounds like a pretty good plan I might have to meet you guys on the last few stops. Depends on how the day is going at the shop. Dang and I could go for some Oasis lunch.

Greg

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I like the idea of a Friday Night followed by a Saturday afternoon combo meet rather than split it up over a month.

Friday night & Saturday night can be focused to wards theaters with light control issues. While Saturday afternoon we can schedule HTs with light control.

I also agree that with all the volunteers, I would prefer that only HTs that have not yet been available before be the main focus.

As I am regularly scheduling Movie Nights at the Luehrmann Miniplex, my HT should definitely be removed from the Parade of HTs so as not to take time away from those that have not hosted.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Colin, take my name off also. As Nils reminded, this tour is focusing on HT's that we've not yet seen.
See you guys at The Oasis on the 17th. Is 1:00 okay?

 

[Scott Oliver]

I like the idea of knocking out some light control issue theaters on Friday night and saving the rest for the following day.

Plus I agree that I think it would be best to knock down the list of hosts a bit, particularly those who have hosted a meet before. That could take 4-5 names off the list and make it feasible to do 2-3 visits on Friday night then leave only 6-7 for the next Saturday.

Also just a warning while I am sure everyone would really appreciate seeing Julian's theater it is quite a drive from the general vicinity of most of the other theaters. It is about 20 miles from me, so it is probably close to 40 miles from most of the other locations.

 

[Rajiv Arora]

I'm torn. I hate to split this up over a month, especially since I am most likely not free on June 14th. On the other hand, anyone offering to be on the parade is graciously opening their homes for the group and it seems churlish to exclude anyone.

For me, everyone's HT is "new" so I won't comment on the "only new" HTs debate.

Let's just allow people to voluntarily exclude themselves and then see what can be accomplished. I like the Friday night/all day Saturday approach.

-Rajiv

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Rajiv,

I absolutely agree with that. I don't think anyone is suggesting a mandatory exclusion of frequently seen HTs. Obviously if someone wants to include their HT in the 'Parade', then by all means they should. I was only using my situation to point out that my HT is regularly available. So having mine on the 'tour' would only be redundant and would likely take time away from viewing HTs that have not been available for Movie Nights or HT meets.


BTW: Looking over the proposed Saturday schedule, only one theater is scheduled after 8pm, and yet if there are HTs that have light sensitive issues, then we still have a problem as it doesn't get dark until after 8pm this time of year.

Which also leads the question, to those HTers who do not have light control, when do you get to use your HT? I can't imagine only using my HT when it is dark outside. For us, we use it on the weekends to watch sporting events, during the day for the neighborhood kids to play console games on, and even at night we still use the blackout blinds to remove any artificial light coming from outside.

Perhaps with so many HTers reporting to have no light control, we could plan on a future DIY light control session? I've been involved in some HT projects you would swear there would be no way to control light, and yet in each case we eventually found a way to do it. It often helps to brainstorm with a group to resolve difficult problems. Besides, we even have a PS-MoFo in our group!

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

With Nils' experience and my garage, surely we could come up with light control. CAUTION: big item to consider is if you're married, this gets into the WAF area of *window treatments*, an area near and dear to the ladies, so they have to be part of the decision process.
If you're not married, get some black foam core board from Michaels and 3M Duct Tape it over your window

 

[Jeff Meininger]

Nils: when we first got our PJ, it was still getting dark early enough to make use of it quite frequently. Now that days are longer and daylight savings time is in effect, we get to use it on Friday and Saturday nights only. Yes, it's a bummer.

We have opaque vinyl pull-down shades for the windows in the living room. I've also made some light-blocking panels for small and odd-shaped windows. Kinda the "married" version of the black foam core board Hank is talking about... they are thick pink foam insulation sheeting wrapped in white blackout fabric. These can be friction-fit into the window frames when needed and easily removed and stored under a couch when not in use. I also have a removeable blackout-cloth "curtain" that can be hung to fill the walkway between the living room and the kitchen when needed, and put away afterwards.

A significant, deal-breaking amount of light leaks in around the edges of the vinyl shades even when they are prevented from curling away from the window by putting binder clips on the metal window track, trapping the vinyl in place. I might be able to counter this by putting some moulding around the inside of the window frame, but that would be an expensive and time-consuming project. Plus, even if I did the best job I'm capable of, the placement of the moulding would look very odd.

So as it is right now, there are 7 shades to pull down (with at least 2 binder clips to install for each), 4 panels to fit, and 1 curtain to hang whenever we want to watch something before it gets dark. Even with all of this, there is enough light left in the room that there's not much point to doing anything other than playing video games.

To put nice cellular shades on all of the windows would make things easier, but would probably cost about $2000. No-can-do. And even then, I suspect that we'd need moulding around the edges to prevent light leakage problems.

Then there's one more opening between the kitchen and a room adjacent to the HT. I haven't done anything about that yet... there's no square opening from which to hang a curtain or install a door.

Our living room is very hostile to front projection, and light control is just one reason of several. :frowning:

 

[Jonathan DA]

I hope to add light control to my loft in the near future in the form of giant drop-down black velvet curtains that will cover the 1.5 missing walls. I'll still get the live-end/dead-end acoustical benefits plus the ability to use the theater during the day. Doing that, however, will necessitate a change in my screen mounting, which will in turn require a complete recalibration of my projector, but I was going to do that anyway to get a larger image. One of these days...

 

[Colin Dunn]

Later on tonight, I'll see if I can come up with a new schedule for a Friday night / Saturday afternoon-evening meet. Hank and Nils have offered to withdraw their HTs from the list. Since I have hosted many meets as well, I could take myself off the list. That will whittle down the list from 13 to 10.

With 10 theaters, I would then split the schedule for three on Friday night and seven on Saturday afternoon/evening. I will make a revised schedule this evening and post it here.

 

[mike_frontier]

Hey guys,

If it is all possibable can I have my Home Theater shown on that Friday night (5-16-03)?

The reason being is that the wife will not be home (at work) and I probably can get my mom to take my kids to their house for then evening.

I also need light control to show my theater or if in Daylight were going be watching TV on a 32"

Which you prefer a 32" or 92" picture?

Let me know if this is ok with you guys?


BTW,, I got 2 movies on VHS called Lords of the Ring Two Towers and The Recruit. The only flaw is its VHS and we can watch either of those films off my PJ. IMHO it didn't look to bad at 16:9 in Video Mode I was pretty impressed with pic quality (but then again I am not picky ).


But let me know if you guys are ok with Friday Night at my house (5-16-03)?

Oh also forgot to mention,.,, I am trying to get a hold of the guy in UK to get me that darn movie called “28 Days Later” that will be released there on 5-19-03.

 

[Scott Oliver]

I went and saw Brian Kurtz of SMA today to demo and talk about turntables. bTW, he was very happy about having had the chance to host the March meet.

Anyhow after testing stuff out and giving my preamp a whirl in the system, I am considering going for the Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck w/ Spacearm as my future turntable. I think if I splurged for that then I may never consider a turntable upgrade again, except possibly better cartridges. Also as a WAF note the Spacedeck vs. the lower level Interspace has blue faux marble instead of green which goes better with the looks of my preamp and its blue backlit logo.