The Greatest Home Theatre

[Lefisc]

I started thinking after I posted on Bob’s “What are you watching thread” that I have difficulty watching bad or old DVDs after watching great blu rays. In our “new” era of 1080p and DTS MA I find I cannot go back!!!! SAVE ME!!!!!

So don’t take this too seriously::disbelief:

Frankly, I have the best Home Theatre system I have ever seen or heard.
What an egotistical, self-indulgent statement. But it’s true. Individually, I have heard some better components, but not put into a group of home theater. I think of this when I consider upgrading my SVS subwoofers to ported ones, or replacing my Oppo 105 with a 105D.

I already prefer my home theater to any real movie theater I have been doing the last decade, with the exception an IMAX 3D one

In a home theatre system I heard pair of famous, outrageously expensive speakers. The pair reproduced music great, but had a rasp when people spoke. That’s not good. The dealer said if you have to great speakers you don’t need a center channel. Wrong!!!!! You do, you very much do, it really helps to draw you into the movie when the sound is directional.

I didn’t say anything because too many people were impressed by the price I think, and the earnestness of the dealer, who was sincere. And the projected image was big, but washed out, with terrible colors, terrible blacks and no sharpness.

I have to mention that when I have seen really good projection systems, in people’s homes and at dealers. But when I do they have a decent, but not spectacular audio system. I guess some people prefer to concentrate on the video, others the audio. I feel it should be both. Often the video people concentrate on size, if it’s REALLY BIG, no matter how good or bad the picture is, it’s great. Many audio people feel similar about bass, knocking you out of the chair is all that is important.

Of course, I too have adjusted everything to the way I like it!

But finally happened. I’ve been spoiled.:disbelief:

 

[NorthStar]

Barry,

First, I did not start that thread, but TheOctopus did, on April 4th, 2013. ...Me, I just followed suit.

That's a good post, and not too many members at all here at the aquarium (tank) have much to share on films; I think unfortunately, but that's all fine.

Yes, movies are entertainment just like music; an art form, and with very high emotions potential.
You don't need a $6 millions home theater system to get the message across, loud and clear.

The center channel is the most important channel of them all; and if it is a horizontal one (because you have a large screen just above it) you better make sure that it has a tweeter above its midrange driver, and then flanked by few woofer drivers. ...A 3-way center channel speaker with midrange and tweeter vertically arrayed.
And it must be identical in timbre and dispersion to its two main L & R flankers. ...Check Mike's (adm) home theater system with his three front Wilson speakers (excellent center channel one too; properly designed) for what I mean here.

For multichannel music (SACD), best is to have the same five identical speakers all around, and all full range.

________________

But this thread is about moving pictures and surround sound; not just one of them but both together. ...Home Theater System.

Me, I am simply amazed at what you can get today for a very small investment.
You can have a top-notch home theater room system for less than twenty grands! ...Ten years ago that was $100,000 or even more!
And if your home theater room is modest (small), for ten grands you are fully running and enjoying the full impact and immersion (sound & vision).
...Like for your display a Panasonic 65" plasma HDTV, the ZT Series. ...And she does 3D too.

Sometimes in high-end audio sites like UltraHighEndReview, WBF, AudioShark, etc., I feel that I'm surrounded by more audio dealers than actual members.
But it's just an illusion, not the true reality.

On other audio sites, like here, movies are almost non-existent; not an important subject of conversation. . ...Audio gear is 95%+ of all discussions.
And music listening (albums, CDs, hi-res audio files, etc.) is the rest of it. ...Here I'm not counting off topic subjects, like life in Kabul, Afghanistan, or the last football game, or how cold or hot it is, etc.

Actually Home Theater is not even an audio matter for most audiophiles; the picture is not part of the picture!
Et pourtant, the sound, the music, the audio envelopment is very well alive and most prominent.

It's almost like, sometimes, as if stereo, and turntables, are the essential absolute in 2014. But it is not! ...It's only one part of it, not the full picture.

Methinks that it's great to have one room dedicated to retro and nostalgia: A turntable and two speakers and tube mono amps.
Then another room for the digital age: With a PC or Mac, a digital music server, and five speakers, and a multichannel SS amp.

The Home Theater room, can have all of this in it, and much much more: Picture and Sound ...And 3D picture and multichannel surround sound.
...A hi-def display (or two), a SSP, a bunch of SS amps and speakers, an acoustically treated room, a bunch of sources (BD players, SACD players, turntables, music servers, R-2-R tape decks, etc.), few DACs, few subwoofers, ... and a whole lot of high resolution music and high definition movie material.

Barry, you have a state-of-the-art home theater system, and it didn't cost you $6 million dollars.
...No wonder that you watch movies and that you love Blu-rays.

__________________

Me personally, @ my age (we're are pretty much all the same age here, and over there) and at this point in my life, everything counts!
...And even more than all the toys on Earth, are the people and their deep emotions. ...The quality music recordings, the quality movie transfers, their emotional content, the important messages they convey; all of it contributes in big part to some of everything that counts.

It amuses me sometimes to see us on how we react towards others who have much more money, and much less money.
We are slave of this monetary system, and we totally forget our true sources; the full human power to act and react and adapt to all our different surroundings. ...Our emotions are not from material things, but from the messages we get from all our senses. ...Pulsations from vibrations; physical and cerebral.

I love watching a good Blu-ray movie @ home; among zillion other things.

 

[Lefisc]

Bob,

I checked and I am surprised hat I did not put up my audio/home theatre system up. I'll answer your great post, but first let me put that up. I have the Revel Voice 2 center channel and as you can see it is exactly what you mentioned. And it perfectly matches the two Revels speakers that are left and right.

"The center channel is the most important channel of them all; and if it is a horizontal one (because you have a large screen just above it) you better make sure that it has a tweeter above its midrange driver, and then flanked by few woofer drivers. ...A 3-way center channel speaker with midrange and tweeter vertically arrayed.
And it must be identical in timbre and dispersion to its two main L & R flankers. "

 

[NorthStar]

I don't need any pictures Barry to decipher your passion about movies, and music.

This is totally and freely optional. ...Besides, I can read your sig very fine thank you.
...And even without a sig for me you remain the great Barry I always loved and always will love.

 

[Lefisc]

Thanks,

First, I will always consider this YOUR thread because you have been so kind and inviting. it really great to share in these things. I have picked up and am going to pick (such as the Thief) many of the movies you liked. Oh, I did post my system, just for the heck of it.

Bob, I have always been invited over to friends houses to "listen to my new speakers." I always tell them i am coming to listen to your MUSIC, not your speakers. Yeah, we all want to show off, i guess, a bit in the beginning, but our equipment is a means to an end and the end should be a great movie or great music.

 

[NorthStar]

You got the right picture Barry.

As you probably already know it is what is inside a person that counts for me, not outside.
The gear doesn't breathe like the artist; it simply reproduces it. ...Replicates at best what was recorded from the mic.

At the end of the chain, in our homes, accurate or not, it's us the listeners, the viewers who digest the reproduced messages.
Our system might cost $6 millions, $60,000, or $6,000 but the messages remain the same from an emotional point of view.
It's all in the content first, the quality, the value of that content; first well recorded enough and then delivered efficiently enough.

- And yes that's a great Revel center channel speaker you got there; that'll do perfectly the trick.

________________

I've read once before, a very long time ago, that we might be spending a fortune on audio/video electronic equipment and state-of-the-art loudspeakers and subwoofers and enormous amounts of money on cables, but if our room is not optimized acoustically and visually first then we are wasting a bunch of money for simply nothing.

What I mean is this: Acoustically treat our room first, calibrate it too visually (ISF and proper lighting), then use a program like Acourate, or Dirac Live, and finally get our audio/video gear to work together in harmony with now our room fully calibrated acoustically and visually.

It makes total common sense, it's totally logical, and the best audio/video experts are all saying it.

- Me, personally, I don't do full justice to it (only partially); but I am fully aware of it, I totally agree with it, and I'm slowly but surely working on it. ...At my own leisure paste, and without missing the beat of the moment.

I don't aim for best and perfection, but for simplicity and satisfaction.

One word I really like: Accommodation.