2004
I have this 'thing' for audio/video... stuff.
I began
assembling components to bring a theater-like experience into the home
in 1982 when I ran the cable TV audio through my Sansui receiver and filled
the room with sound from a pair of EPI speakers. Following that,
I went to a Sony receiver with VHS VCRs and Genesis Physics 20 speakers.
When Genesis Physics went out of business in the late 80's, I ran across
a closeout sale on a pair of their 66's for $500.
Not bad for a $1900 pair of speakers. Although the manufacturer is gone,
I was lucky to find a place
that rebuilds the speakers to spec and is run by an ex-employee of Genesis
Physics. (I've blown a number of woofers, even though they're rated at
500 Watts a piece).
I
moved to Adcom seperate components at about the same time and have always
enjoyed this combination. Prior to using this combiniation, an equalizer
was a must. But after switching over, I've never had the need for one.
(Note: Straight Wire cables also made a huge improvement in sound - especially
in the deep bass). The next Earth-shaking discovery was the Sunfire
subwoofer (!). Only a 9 inch cube, the thing can rattle the house to its
foundation (literally). Using this subwoofer and high-passing the
main channels at 80 Hz has solved the blown woofers problem for good.
Also, the in-ceiling NHT speakers are remarkable at serving as surround
speakers. Highly recommended.
When
DVDs became more common, I finally moved the Adcom preamp to the computer
room and bought the Sony digital preamp mentioned below. (DTS was
more of a motivator than anything else about DVD, to me, but now the picture
has me hooked). I was hesitant to do so, because my original Sony
receiver lacked any convincing low end, and I'd also returned a
Sony laserdisc player because it looked too soft and the colors were pale.
The new preamp, though, really impressed me!
Next
came the high definition monitor. DVDs look awesome on it, but I was hoping
for some HD material. TimeWarner Cable came through with HD cable. There
was a months-long waiting list, but the wait was worth it. I'd thrown
out HBO a long time ago because I usually had the movies they show far
sooner than they did. HBO in High Definition, however, is a truly amazing
thing. DiscoveryHD Theater is often mind-blowing.
Primary Entertainment System Equipment
Signal routing/processing
Sony TA-E9000ES
Digital AV Control Amplifier with 2 remotes (Firmware v2.5):
Sony TP-501E LCD
touch screen remote
Sony RM-SU1 mini
remote (from upgrade v2.01)
Monitor
Hitachi 53FDX01B
53" 4:3 UltraScan HD High Definition rear projection monitor
Sources
Toshiba SD-4700
Progressive Scan DVD/CD/CD-RW/VCD/MP3 player
Pioneer CLD-M90
Laserdisc player/5 CD changer
RCA LDR600 Laserdisc
player
Mitsubishi HS-U69
SVHS VCR
Kenwood KT-880 FM/AM
Tuner
Aiwa AD-F770U cassette
deck (12 Hz-24 kHz +0/-3 dB... 85 dB SNR, measured after tweaks)
Scientific Atlanta
Explorer 3100HD High Definition cable tuner
Amplification
Adcom GFA-5002 bridged
center channel amplifier
Adcom GFA-545 rear
channels amplifier
Adcom GFA-555 mk
II main channels amplifier
Speakers
Genesis Physics
66 main speakers
NHT CS 6.3Ci rear
in-ceiling speakers
Mirage MCC center
channel speaker
Sunfire Subwoofer
(with internal 1200 Watt amplifier)
Camcorders
Sony DCR-TRV120
Digital 8
Sony CCD FX-620
8mm
Cables
Straight Wire and
Monster
Miscellaneous
Trivia
Total amplifier
power output using above 4 ohm speakers= 2350 Watts (inc. subwoofer's internal
amp)
DTS 5.1/6.1 matrix
and Dolby Digital decoding in Sony control amplifier (w/ well thought-out
soundfields)
300+ laserdiscs
~250 DVDs (still
working on it)
300+ CDs
400+ records (which
generally sound better than CD)
200+ cassette tapes
(yes, really)
Several DTS 6.1
CD, DVD-A discs
1000+ VHS/SVHS video
tapes
Some Home Theater
Links
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/
http://www.omen.com.au/~rutlidge/TA-E9000ES.htm
http://pub7.ezboard.com/faussiedvdandhtforumsonytae9000esinformationforum
http://www.ecoustics.com/
http://www.gcaudio.com/index.html
http://hometheater.about.com/
http://www.ilovehdtv.com/
http://www.humanspeakers.com/
Secondary,
Computer-Based Entertainment/Editing System
The
following system is used to perform audio/video editing and coversion of
tape and LP sources to CD audio.
Hardware
Dual Xeon/RamBUS-based
workstation
ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder
Video/TV tuner/Capture card
Creative SoundBlaster
Audigy Platinum (internal) sound system
17" monitor
Kodak DVC-300 webcam
DVD +/- R/RW drive
160 GB HDD space
w/SuSE 9.0 Pro or Mandrake 9.2, and Windows XP Pro
Adcom GFP-555 Preamplifier
AudioSource Dolby
ProLogic decoder and center channel amp
Altec-Lansing 880
speakers with Dolby Digital surround
Denon DP-47F Turntable
with Grado Prestige Red cartridge
JVC HR-S3800U SVHS-ET
VCR
Scientific Atlanta
Explorer 2000 cable tuner (for digital and HBO content)
Tascam 102 MKII
cassette deck
AKG 240 Studio Monitor
headphones (open)
Sennheiser HD-265
Linear headphones (closed)
Canon PowerShot
A40 2.1 Mpixel camera
Sony DCR-TRV120
Digital8 Camcorder
Audio/Video Software
Rhapsody Music Service
Steinberg Clean
2.0 audio cleanup and surround encoding
Sonic Foundry Sound
Forge 6.0, 5.0 XP
Sonic Foundry ACID
2.0
ahead Nero 5.5
ahead NeroMix
Roxio EZ CD Creator
6.0
WaveLab Lite
MixMeister
MGI VideoWave 4.0
Microsoft Windows
Media Resource Kit
Real Media Encoder
PowerDVD (Roxio
version)
ATI MultiMedia Center
w/ Guide+ (video guide updated weekly via download)
and lots more...
