JayEmm's home theatre history... - Blu-ray Forum

JayEmm · 12-16-2015, 11:03 AM

Hi Everyone...

Photos will be forthcoming, I have to drudge through some albums for this!

So a brief history of my home theatre endeavours. I guess I've always been quite lucky in that my Dad was fairly big into movies and sound stuff, although he definitely made some curious buying decisions.

In the very late 90s, maybe 2000, we (the family) bought a Plasma TV screen. I didn't know anyone else that had one, I don't know how much it cost but it can't have been cheap. It was a JVC unit, EDTV resolution. To that was added a BOSE Acoustimass system that even at the time confused me because I was never sure how you were supposed to get real surround sound from a player with just two RCA plugs...

Anyway, the upshot of us getting this TV was that I got the old "family" screen, a 29" Panasonic CRT. Quite a good screen for the time. It was a Pro-Logic model and even came with two rear speakers and a "centre". Amazing! That was technically my first "surround sound" setup, although I can't ever recall hearing anything from those surrounds.

I then wanted a better sound, so realised my dad had an audio setup in the garage he didn't use. It was old (early 1980s) but was separates and looked very cool. It was mostly JVC units with a pair of Acoustic Research AR18Ls speakers. The speaker foams were shot, but £15 on eBay and a half hour of work later they were back in action and sounding quite good to my then 15/16-year-old ears.

I then decided to get a proper amplifier, something a bit more modern, so got a Yamaha receiver from eBay. This stayed with me for a while. I then upgraded the old AR speakers for a pair of B&W DM602s (S1). What a change! I then put the ARs on rear duty, and bought an REL Q150E sub. Hey presto, 4.1! Nowhere to put a centre speaker at the time, but it did me great.

Unfortunately, I then went off to uni where I had no room for any of this. The Yamaha receiver got sold and the B&Ws were packed down. I then sold the subwoofer and that was that for two years.

When I was at uni, I got my own place. Naturally, the very first thing I bought for a new home was not a sofa, but a projector! I got an InFocus IN78 at a bargain price, and an 88" free-standing screen. My old B&W speakers from home got dusted and brought along, and I bought a pair of B&W DM602 S2s to take over front duty. I then bought an Acoustic Research centre speaker to perform centre duties. Unfortunately, living with people above, below and to either side of me I decided to not get a sub at the time. Probably a wise choice. My new AV receiver was an Onkyo TX-SR805.

This setup stayed with me through one move and was a real pleasure. I loved the projector. Circumstances changed, and I moved out of London and into the countryside. Annoyingly the house I moved into did not have anywhere suitable for a projector, so it had to go.

I moved onto an LG Plasma, a 60" PZ950 model. I also finally bought a subwoofer again - the benefit of detached living! I got an M&K VX-700. Which kicks hard considering it's only 8" woofers.

This brings me nearly up to date. I replaced my AR centre with a B&W one and this was all working fine until about two months ago, when my Plasma screen started dying on me. Deciding it wasn't going to make it through Christmas, I have a new screen. I spent a long time considering what to get, but decided to go LCD. I bought a 75" Sony KDL75W855C. It's not quite as good as the LG, but it's noticeably larger, works very well for most things and somehow seems sharper. I did not want a 4K set because I don't want 99% of my content being upscaled. Having a native 1080P set is ideal for me.

With the new TV, I am taking a speaker upgrade too. An audiophile friend of mine has pointed me the way of Ruark, so on the way I have a pair of Ruark Crusader IIs, a dialogue one and a pair of preludes taking front, centre and rear duties respectively. These will be my first floorstanders and I am very much looking forward to the upgrade!

So, that's my history in a nutshell. My job, by the way, is a cinematographer on low-budget films - so having a decent setup is quite important to me as I need it for both work and pleasure. I'm also an incurable cinephile!

FreddieFerric · 12-16-2015, 11:06 AM

Welcome to the board. Your setup sounds very nice. Hope to see some pics soon.

JayEmm · 12-16-2015, 11:06 AM

Photos from my first "real" setup... pretty soon after I moved in, as a student, hence the chaos!

And yes... that's a centre speaker sat on a laptop case.

My trusty InFocus...

My early collection... featuring more HD DVDs than Blu-Ray!

FreddieFerric · 12-16-2015, 11:16 AM

Always good to re-purpose laptop cases to suit a higher need.

Billy13 · 12-16-2015, 11:26 AM

Welcome to the Galleries.

Nice set up.

rpatt · 12-16-2015, 11:53 AM

Great story. Welcome to the forum.

DangeRuss · 12-16-2015, 12:11 PM

Great intro and welcome to the Home Theater Gallery Threads ........

May your time here be as enjoyable to you as it is for most of us

BTW: Nice Rig you've assembled

Johnny Vinyl · 12-16-2015, 01:00 PM

Welcome JayEmm to the HT Galleries section of our forum. It was a pleasure to read about your progression as I'm sure a lot of us can identify with the process.

Looking forward to your continued participation!

JV

hometheatergeek · 12-16-2015, 01:02 PM

Welcome to the HT galleries thread Jay. I can't see you posted pic here at work but will check them out later.

JayEmm · 12-16-2015, 01:32 PM

Thanks for the warm welcome gents. I will post some pictures of the new setup over Christmas when it is assembled, it is currently the building site you would imagine with installing a new system and Christmas co-inciding

DangeRuss · 12-16-2015, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayEmm

Thanks for the warm welcome gents. I will post some pictures of the new setup over Christmas when it is assembled, it is currently the building site you would imagine with installing a new system and Christmas co-inciding

Sounds like (pun intended) a lot of fun

I look forward to seeing the new rig

JayEmm · 12-27-2015, 12:19 PM

So... the story continues.

It's taking a little longer to get completed than I had hoped thanks to Richer Sounds. I originally bought a 75" Sony LCD through their eBay outlet, only to find the picture had a (very obvious) stuck pixel on delivery.

Their response to this was pretty poor, reading between the lines their "manufacturer refurbished" stuff is actually not that at all - it's customer returns. In my case, a customer returned it for a dead pixel and they did not feel the need to list that in their listing. So, I bought one from RS direct, that turned up just before Christmas and guess what - another dead pixel! Yay!

So, I currently have TV #2 on the wall while I wait for #3 to be delivered. I have told RS to inspect this one themselves as I am getting bored of mounting and dismounting a gargantuan screen. What frustrates me most is Sony have decided that what people really need on a six foot television is a four foot long moulded plug. A very bizarre decision.

In good news, I now have fully upgraded my speakers. My faithful and long-serving B&W setup has now been replaced entirely by a set of Ruarks. A brand I had never heard of, but had been pointed towards by an audiophile friend with a very nice setup. I got a pair of Crusader IIs for the front, a pair of Prelude Is for the rears and the Dialogue One for my centre.

Overall, I am extremely impressed. Stereo reproduction from the Crusaders is sublime. Given the size of my room, I am not able to place the speakers wherever they want, I have only about a foot of wiggle room front and back, and a couple of inches either side. Fortunately, the Ruarks perform excellently given this non-ideal placement.

Annoyingly, I will have to buy some small stands for the floor mounters, or make some, as the woofer of the left speaker and the rears are obscured by my sofas. But that is an easy fix.

A new cabinet houses my stuff, but it's ventilation is poor so I am going to be implementing a custom cooling solution to keep my XB1 and (new) PS4 cool. My amp is perched on top of it for easy wiring. I have now fully moved over to banana plugs, not realising for years that I could remove the bungs in the back of my Onkyo in order to use them. Huzzah!

Finally, an upgrade on the front from QED Silver Anniversary to NAIM NAC A5 cabling has released an extra little bit of audio performance.

Here's a rough before and after... tidying of Christmas articles still to be done!

12-16-2015, 11:03 AM	#1
JayEmm Active Member Member since:Dec 2015	JayEmm's home theatre history... Hi Everyone... Photos will be forthcoming, I have to drudge through some albums for this! So a brief history of my home theatre endeavours. I guess I've always been quite lucky in that my Dad was fairly big into movies and sound stuff, although he definitely made some curious buying decisions. In the very late 90s, maybe 2000, we (the family) bought a Plasma TV screen. I didn't know anyone else that had one, I don't know how much it cost but it can't have been cheap. It was a JVC unit, EDTV resolution. To that was added a BOSE Acoustimass system that even at the time confused me because I was never sure how you were supposed to get real surround sound from a player with just two RCA plugs... Anyway, the upshot of us getting this TV was that I got the old "family" screen, a 29" Panasonic CRT. Quite a good screen for the time. It was a Pro-Logic model and even came with two rear speakers and a "centre". Amazing! That was technically my first "surround sound" setup, although I can't ever recall hearing anything from those surrounds. I then wanted a better sound, so realised my dad had an audio setup in the garage he didn't use. It was old (early 1980s) but was separates and looked very cool. It was mostly JVC units with a pair of Acoustic Research AR18Ls speakers. The speaker foams were shot, but £15 on eBay and a half hour of work later they were back in action and sounding quite good to my then 15/16-year-old ears. I then decided to get a proper amplifier, something a bit more modern, so got a Yamaha receiver from eBay. This stayed with me for a while. I then upgraded the old AR speakers for a pair of B&W DM602s (S1). What a change! I then put the ARs on rear duty, and bought an REL Q150E sub. Hey presto, 4.1! Nowhere to put a centre speaker at the time, but it did me great. Unfortunately, I then went off to uni where I had no room for any of this. The Yamaha receiver got sold and the B&Ws were packed down. I then sold the subwoofer and that was that for two years. When I was at uni, I got my own place. Naturally, the very first thing I bought for a new home was not a sofa, but a projector! I got an InFocus IN78 at a bargain price, and an 88" free-standing screen. My old B&W speakers from home got dusted and brought along, and I bought a pair of B&W DM602 S2s to take over front duty. I then bought an Acoustic Research centre speaker to perform centre duties. Unfortunately, living with people above, below and to either side of me I decided to not get a sub at the time. Probably a wise choice. My new AV receiver was an Onkyo TX-SR805. This setup stayed with me through one move and was a real pleasure. I loved the projector. Circumstances changed, and I moved out of London and into the countryside. Annoyingly the house I moved into did not have anywhere suitable for a projector, so it had to go. I moved onto an LG Plasma, a 60" PZ950 model. I also finally bought a subwoofer again - the benefit of detached living! I got an M&K VX-700. Which kicks hard considering it's only 8" woofers. This brings me nearly up to date. I replaced my AR centre with a B&W one and this was all working fine until about two months ago, when my Plasma screen started dying on me. Deciding it wasn't going to make it through Christmas, I have a new screen. I spent a long time considering what to get, but decided to go LCD. I bought a 75" Sony KDL75W855C. It's not quite as good as the LG, but it's noticeably larger, works very well for most things and somehow seems sharper. I did not want a 4K set because I don't want 99% of my content being upscaled. Having a native 1080P set is ideal for me. With the new TV, I am taking a speaker upgrade too. An audiophile friend of mine has pointed me the way of Ruark, so on the way I have a pair of Ruark Crusader IIs, a dialogue one and a pair of preludes taking front, centre and rear duties respectively. These will be my first floorstanders and I am very much looking forward to the upgrade! So, that's my history in a nutshell. My job, by the way, is a cinematographer on low-budget films - so having a decent setup is quite important to me as I need it for both work and pleasure. I'm also an incurable cinephile!

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12-16-2015, 11:06 AM	#2
FreddieFerric Blu-ray Knight Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Mar 2008 Location:NOLA Home Theater Gallery:146 4K collection:14 Blu-ray collection:238 Blu-ray reviews:7 Trading Score:1	Welcome to the board. Your setup sounds very nice. Hope to see some pics soon.

12-16-2015, 11:16 AM	#4
FreddieFerric Blu-ray Knight Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Mar 2008 Location:NOLA Home Theater Gallery:146 4K collection:14 Blu-ray collection:238 Blu-ray reviews:7 Trading Score:1	Always good to re-purpose laptop cases to suit a higher need.

12-16-2015, 11:26 AM	#5
Billy13 Blu-ray Count Top contributor Member since:Mar 2013 Location:Somewhere Between Heaven ↑ & Hell ↓ ...... Home Theater Gallery:436 Blu-ray collection:115 DVD collection:63	Welcome to the Galleries. Nice set up.

12-16-2015, 11:53 AM	#6
rpatt Blu-ray Guru Top ranked HT gallery Top contributor Member since:Aug 2008 Home Theater Gallery:69 Blu-ray reviews: 3	Great story. Welcome to the forum.

12-16-2015, 12:11 PM	#7
DangeRuss Blu-ray Grand Duke Top ranked HT gallery Top contributor Member since:Oct 2009 Location:The "Boogie Down" Home Theater Gallery:230 Blu-ray collection:470 DVD collection:354 Blu-ray reviews: 74	*Great intro* and welcome to the *Home Theater Gallery Threads ........* May your time here be as enjoyable to you as it is for most of us BTW: *Nice Rig* you've assembled

12-16-2015, 01:00 PM	#8
Johnny Vinyl Moderator Top ranked HT gallery Top contributor Member since:Jul 2007 Location:At the crossroad of Analogue Dr & 2CH Ave Home Theater Gallery:19 Blu-ray collection:205 DVD collection:7 Blu-ray reviews:3 Trading Score:8	Welcome JayEmm to the HT Galleries section of our forum. It was a pleasure to read about your progression as I'm sure a lot of us can identify with the process. Looking forward to your continued participation! JV

12-16-2015, 01:02 PM	#9
hometheatergeek Blu-ray Grand Duke Top ranked HT gallery Top contributor Member since:Feb 2008 Location:Near Atlanta GA Home Theater Gallery:48 4K collection:39 Blu-ray collection:290 DVD collection:40 Trading Score:2	Welcome to the HT galleries thread Jay. I can't see you posted pic here at work but will check them out later.

12-16-2015, 01:32 PM	#10
JayEmm Active Member Member since:Dec 2015	Thanks for the warm welcome gents. I will post some pictures of the new setup over Christmas when it is assembled, it is currently the building site you would imagine with installing a new system and Christmas co-inciding

12-27-2015, 12:19 PM	#12
JayEmm Active Member Member since:Dec 2015	So... the story continues. It's taking a little longer to get completed than I had hoped thanks to Richer Sounds. I originally bought a 75" Sony LCD through their eBay outlet, only to find the picture had a (very obvious) stuck pixel on delivery. Their response to this was pretty poor, reading between the lines their "manufacturer refurbished" stuff is actually not that at all - it's customer returns. In my case, a customer returned it for a dead pixel and they did not feel the need to list that in their listing. So, I bought one from RS direct, that turned up just before Christmas and guess what - another dead pixel! Yay! So, I currently have TV #2 on the wall while I wait for #3 to be delivered. I have told RS to inspect this one themselves as I am getting bored of mounting and dismounting a gargantuan screen. What frustrates me most is Sony have decided that what people really need on a six foot television is a four foot long moulded plug. A very bizarre decision. In good news, I now have fully upgraded my speakers. My faithful and long-serving B&W setup has now been replaced entirely by a set of Ruarks. A brand I had never heard of, but had been pointed towards by an audiophile friend with a very nice setup. I got a pair of Crusader IIs for the front, a pair of Prelude Is for the rears and the Dialogue One for my centre. Overall, I am extremely impressed. Stereo reproduction from the Crusaders is sublime. Given the size of my room, I am not able to place the speakers wherever they want, I have only about a foot of wiggle room front and back, and a couple of inches either side. Fortunately, the Ruarks perform excellently given this non-ideal placement. Annoyingly, I will have to buy some small stands for the floor mounters, or make some, as the woofer of the left speaker and the rears are obscured by my sofas. But that is an easy fix. A new cabinet houses my stuff, but it's ventilation is poor so I am going to be implementing a custom cooling solution to keep my XB1 and (new) PS4 cool. My amp is perched on top of it for easy wiring. I have now fully moved over to banana plugs, not realising for years that I could remove the bungs in the back of my Onkyo in order to use them. Huzzah! Finally, an upgrade on the front from QED Silver Anniversary to NAIM NAC A5 cabling has released an extra little bit of audio performance. Here's a rough before and after... tidying of Christmas articles still to be done!

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