What are some ways to upgrade your HT without spending any cash?

Do you have mattes? They are a cheap upgrade that make an awesome difference.

 

Hmmm... no dough tweaks... hmmmm...
You could try adjusting your speaker positions for best imaging, or...
If you have or can borrow a SPL meter, use it to balance your speakers, or...
see if your sub is in the best location for your room, or....
clean the fingerprints, dust, and doggie nose prints off your TV screen, or...
if you have a RPTV, open it up and clean the dust off the lenses and mirror, and maybe tweak the focus while you're in there...
Just a few cheap tweaks...
KJP

 

Shoplifting .

 

Try connecting a set of RCA cables between yor DVD/CD player and your reciever instead of a digital connection like a coax or optical.
Big difference in sound for me!

 

Clean the room. No it won't make it sound any better but it will make it look nicer. I recently redid my entire wiring setup taking care to hide as many wires as possible and avoid interference. Does it sound better? No, but its much more pleasant to look at when I am listening. And that makes me happy, and if I'm happy when I'm listening it adds to the experience like a wet bar or a popcorn machine. No, they don't add sound but they sure do add to the experience.
The real reason I cleaned, the fiance told me to because "you live in filth!" She was right, but now that its clean I honestly wonder why I didn't do it sooner.
Or just charge a bunch of new stuff.. if you don't have to pay for it right then, its almost like its free!!!

Jon

 

Remove the ear wax and put on you glasses if needed.
Kevin

 

Damn, Kevin! YOu beat me to it! Took the words right out of my fingers!
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-Kieran
My HT Page
[Edited last by Kieran Coghlan on October 11, 2001 at 07:19 PM]

 

If your center channel speaker is ontop of an RPTV.
Overhang the front beyond the screen an 1" or so.
John
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Bedroom Based Theater

 

Listing your broke/poor "acquaintance's" equipment would help...
Replace the jumpers that came with your speakers with some decent (read Home Depot) speaker wires really improved the mid range in my system. Others: clean display if applicable, moving speakers/sub around to find ideal placement, borrow DVDs from fellow enthusiasts to watch titles you don't own so you can enjoy the HT, and invite those who don't have an HT or haven't seen HDTV, if they have it, so they can justify past and future purchases from their "OOOHS" and "AAAHS!"

 

Yep...Kevin got me too.
A package of Q-Tips and an air can to spray out the dust from your components. Clean the ends of all your wires, make sure they are connected well. Grab some Swiffers and dust everything, including your monitor.
Speaker placement.
Jeremy

 

Mattes!!!
Cheap tweak that works great! (Still waiting for a new RPTV to make a set for...)
Backlighting!
Recalibrate stuff... I just did it this weekend... I cant believe how out of wack my settings were... I screwed around with them each time i watch, i guess i screwed with them too much...
If you have an RPTV: Disable your SVM...
Line the inside of your TV with Duvetyne...
http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/usefu...eous_tips.html
More cool tips in above link...
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The So Family Home Theater!
http://www.multimania.com/sonick182/ht/index.html
You're all entitled to your opinion, but you're all wrong!!! - Paul Dalmine
ICQ: 8593599

 

Spending money is the only thing that comes to mind.
Sorry!
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Trevor..
My HomeTheater S.E. Sonically Enhanced
*Outdated new pictures
due to recent upgrades!
**Equipment list current

 

In HT, its not about spending money or not, its how MUCH money you spend that you're looking at...
Upgrades can go from the cost of time (Calibrating, speaker placement) to a couple bucks (backlighting, mattes, etc) to thousands and thousands of dollars (the obious CRT Front projector, a new House)
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The So Family Home Theater!
http://www.multimania.com/sonick182/ht/index.html
You're all entitled to your opinion, but you're all wrong!!! - Paul Dalmine
ICQ: 8593599

 

Like John H, Nick and others have said... rearranging and recalibrating your speakers can have a tremendous impact on what you hear. Other than that, for free, I'd recommend lowering your expectations.
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Take Care,
merc
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God Bless America!!!

 

I would agree with the idea of repositioning speakers. It is amazing what an effect that can have. When I first set up my second stereo system in my bedroom in my old house, I placed the speakers (Energy e:XL 16 bookshelf speakers) on the ends of the dresser. I had no other place to put them at the time. This was hardly the ideal place for speakers since the top of the dresser was about waist level, and the speakers were surrounded by other things (items on the dresser, the wall behind the dresser, and things to each side of the dresser). So, the speakers were too low and had no room to breathe. I finally rearranged the bedroom a bit and was able to raise the speakers about two feet and spread them out a couple feet farther from one another. The difference was striking. It was as though I had bought new speakers. A friend of mine heard the system before and after the speakers were relocated, and he couldn't believe the difference moving them made. Now, the improvement you may observe could be less significant than I did because my speakers were originally in the worst place possible. I would think most people who have some clue about audio would set up speakers better than I did initially.
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