Richard's HT family room

[Zman2k2]

Hello and welcome to my thread.

I've been browsing and reading through others threads, and I felt it was time for me to start my own.

My living room, which is also the family room, is serving as the HT room for the house. Not the best setup, but we somehow make it work. It's been changing a lot since I started reading through Blu-ray.com, so you all are to blame for my wallet being thinner.

Currently, the equipment is as follows:

-Sharp Aquos 46" LC-46D82U Display- It's about 6 years old now, but it still does the job. I'm not a huge videophile, so it does what it's supposed to.
-PS3 Slim- This is the current player. Over the last two years, this has changed 6 times. Don't be surprised if it happens again.
-Emotiva UMC-1 Pre-Pro- Wonderful unit. The sound quality is something that I love. It just works, well.
-Emotiva XPA-5 Amplifier- Powers my setup well. Very glad I went with the XPA series.
-Focal Chorus 826v Mains with an CC800v center- in Mocha- The high point of my system. Such wonderful sounding speakers. The depth and clarity have changed my listening habits.

If you'll notice, one thing that's missing in the list is a subwoofer. I had an Elemental Designs A3-300 subwoofer. But it didn't blend well with my Focals. When playing movies, it did the job just fine, but when listening to music, it left a lot to be desired. So the search has begun anew. I'm still reading reviews, and getting opinions of people around me, but the short list is as follows.
- Rhythmik Subwoofers F15. As described, an audiophile subwoofer, great for music. This is good, as my music listening has increased 10-fold since I got my Focals.
- SVS Subwoofers SB12-NSD. A high-powered, sealed subwoofer, capable of going low, but maintaining it's ability to play with music and movies.
-Rel T5 subwoofer. Rel is widely known to make subwoofers that play well, and blend perfectly with music of all genre's and speakers of all types.

The pricing between them is what's the sticking point for me right now. As well as the aesthetics and power. My opinion changes daily as to which one would be better.

Anyways, that's a very basic intro to my system. Comments and queries are welcome. Come one, come all and have a seat and relax at my place.

[bz1080p]

Welcome to the HT Zone

[BigAl87]

Richard,

Great room great gear and great furniture, I love your Focal Chorus Speakers amazing setup

[Zman2k2]

Thanks guys. Good to be here.

Olivier, the furniture was custom made. My dad works with wood, and as a gift to me, he made me the stand. I made some measurements with my old gear, and everything fit in it great. But of course, as we all know how it goes, as I upgraded, I soon discovered that some things didn't fit where I wanted them to. As an example, the amp doesn't fit in any of the shelves below it, it's about 3/4" too tall for the shelves. But the stand looks so good, and was handcrafted by my father. I just can't get rid of it. And it's oak, and looks fantastic.

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

Thanks guys. Good to be here.

Olivier, the furniture was custom made. My dad works with wood, and as a gift to me, he made me the stand. I made some measurements with my old gear, and everything fit in it great. But of course, as we all know how it goes, as I upgraded, I soon discovered that some things didn't fit where I wanted them to. As an example, the amp doesn't fit in any of the shelves below it, it's about 3/4" too tall for the shelves. But the stand looks so good, and was handcrafted by my father. I just can't get rid of it. And it's oak, and looks fantastic.

My hat to your father, I love wood working one of my uncle did the furniture for my parent's living room except the couches of course and my 2 tables in the living room were hand crafted as well by a wood worker in my region cost me a good amount of money but it's all worth it stays in style and last very long.

[Spurrier Sucks]

Great setup that this needs it's own thread. Thoght I had rated and commented on it before but I hadn't. Now I have.

[Goldensuitcase]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

-Emotiva UMC-1 Pre-Pro- Wonderful unit. The sound quality is something that I love. It just works, well.

So you would recommend the UMC-1? I was debating waiting for the XMC. Thoughts?

[ManUtd]

Hey Richard it's great that you finally started your own thread. Great setup!

[Raiders12]

Welcome, awesome setup! Nice amps!

[Zman2k2]

Thanks for the nice comments, both here and in my gallery.

Originally Posted by BigAl87

My hat to your father, I love wood working one of my uncle did the furniture for my parent's living room except the couches of course and my 2 tables in the living room were hand crafted as well by a wood worker in my region cost me a good amount of money but it's all worth it stays in style and last very long.

He does do some wonderful work. Unfortunately, he's had to get out of woodworking for personal reasons, so that makes the stand that much more special. I never developed the keen sense that he has when it comes to woodworking. I could never get the tight tolerances that he was so good at.

Originally Posted by Goldensuitcase

So you would recommend the UMC-1? I was debating waiting for the XMC. Thoughts?

Yeah, I think I would recommend the UMC-1. It has some minor problems, for instance, my HDMI#1 input is wonky, the handshake issues with it make it pretty much useless. But for all the problems that some have mentioned over the year that it's been out, the company has worked hard to cure the problems. Most of the issues that were there at the start have been fixed, and they are still working to improve the firmware. As you can see, my theater is the family TV, and my wife and daughter have no problems working the whole thing, without my coaching. Everything works great.

[BigAl87]

Richard I love the wood finish on my speakers as well I know they are veneers but they look great and I love my Canadian speakers .

I'm sure you enjoy the sound of your French Speakers too, they had a demo room in Montreal at the Son et Image show where you were able to audition the Grand Euthopia, That Focal room wass the busiest of the show.

[bz1080p]

Good morning Richard
That woodworking is amazing!!!!

[Zman2k2]

Good morning everyone.

Olivier, when I was demoing speakers, I had the chance to listen to the Grand Utopia speakers as well. One word, amazing. They played some Pink Floyd- The Wall while I listened. I think I listened to half the disc before I realized I had to go pick up my wife 20 min. ago. I was mesmerized. The sound was something that I one day hope to achieve in a listening room of my own.

[Zman2k2]

I'm BAaaaaaaaack!

And the changes have really happened. Pretty much the only things that have remained are the stand, and the subwoofer. Everything else is gone.

Reasons, I found that I wasn't listening to music or watching movies as much as I used to. As such, I found the Focals' being wasted for what they could do. I found a happy buyer, who really liked what he heard, and a deal was struck. The UMC-1 and the XPA-5 have been replaced with a Marantz SR 6006 about 2 years ago. Unfortunately, the Marantz is in the shop as the HDMI board and network board have both gone bad. They couldn't do the repair at the shop, so they had to send it to Marantz for the surgery. I hope to get it back before years' end, but I'm not too optomistic about that. With the holidays, it could delay the repairs.

Anyways, I've been curious about bookshelf speakers, and thought that they would be a good fit for me, as the sub, an SVS sealed sub really handles the lows quite well. I've gone back to basics, and started with a Polk system. The RTiA1's are my front mains, bi-amped off the Marantz receiver, and a CSiA4 center backs them up for movies. In the rear, I have some older RTi4's that cover the surround duties, although I haven't heard them yet, as I got them after the receiver went for repair.

Various blu-ray players have been replaced with an XBoxOne. I find the image quite good, and the quality is there. I don't mind the fact that the XB1 only outputs LPCM, as the sound is the same with either that or bitstreaming.

Once I get the Marantz back, I'll really get to test the system out, as it's all pretty fresh right now, not a lot of hours into any of the equipment. I don't even have pictures up, as I'm waiting for the Marantz to start the gallery again.

I have some Monitor 40 series II's for sale, I used them as surrounds for quite a while, then moved them to the front, when I sold the Focals', and was happy with them, but the upgrade to the RTiA series was so cheap, I couldn't resist.

Anyways, that's all the changes, and I'm happy with them so far. Star Trek Into Darkness sounded wonderful before the receiver gave up, and I'm waiting to watch The Wolverine, and Fast and Furious 6.

I like the new look, the towers almost overpowered the room, the bookshelves seem to even out the space, and make it not so claustrophobic.

That's it for now, but we all know how this hobby goes, and I'll probably be upgrading speakers again soon. Or the receiver, or adding an amp, or changing cabling, etc. WAF plays in too, so we'll see what I can squeak by.

Richard

[Billy13]

Nice to see you posting here

I was completely unaware you even had a thread

[Zman2k2]

It kinda died off in 2011, not sure why I let it go. But I'll try to keep this one up.

[Billy13]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

It kinda died off in 2011, not sure why I let it go. But I'll try to keep this one up.

Sweet!

Hey, I just noticed your from Canada. That's where the sub I just picked up was made

[DangeRuss]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

I'm BAaaaaaaaack!

And the changes have really happened. Pretty much the only things that have remained are the stand, and the subwoofer. Everything else is gone.

Reasons, I found that I wasn't listening to music or watching movies as much as I used to. As such, I found the Focals' being wasted for what they could do. I found a happy buyer, who really liked what he heard, and a deal was struck. The UMC-1 and the XPA-5 have been replaced with a Marantz SR 6006 about 2 years ago. Unfortunately, the Marantz is in the shop as the HDMI board and network board have both gone bad. They couldn't do the repair at the shop, so they had to send it to Marantz for the surgery. I hope to get it back before years' end, but I'm not too optomistic about that. With the holidays, it could delay the repairs.

Anyways, I've been curious about bookshelf speakers, and thought that they would be a good fit for me, as the sub, an SVS sealed sub really handles the lows quite well. I've gone back to basics, and started with a Polk system. The RTiA1's are my front mains, bi-amped off the Marantz receiver, and a CSiA4 center backs them up for movies. In the rear, I have some older RTi4's that cover the surround duties, although I haven't heard them yet, as I got them after the receiver went for repair.

Various blu-ray players have been replaced with an XBoxOne. I find the image quite good, and the quality is there. I don't mind the fact that the XB1 only outputs LPCM, as the sound is the same with either that or bitstreaming.

Once I get the Marantz back, I'll really get to test the system out, as it's all pretty fresh right now, not a lot of hours into any of the equipment. I don't even have pictures up, as I'm waiting for the Marantz to start the gallery again.

I have some Monitor 40 series II's for sale, I used them as surrounds for quite a while, then moved them to the front, when I sold the Focals', and was happy with them, but the upgrade to the RTiA series was so cheap, I couldn't resist.

Anyways, that's all the changes, and I'm happy with them so far. Star Trek Into Darkness sounded wonderful before the receiver gave up, and I'm waiting to watch The Wolverine, and Fast and Furious 6.

I like the new look, the towers almost overpowered the room, the bookshelves seem to even out the space, and make it not so claustrophobic.

That's it for now, but we all know how this hobby goes, and I'll probably be upgrading speakers again soon. Or the receiver, or adding an amp, or changing cabling, etc. WAF plays in too, so we'll see what I can squeak by.

Richard

Welcome back

[Zman2k2]

Originally Posted by Billy13

Sweet!

Hey, I just noticed your from Canada. That's where the sub I just picked up was made

Yeah, I saw that beast in your thread. That should make the ground shake. What is it, a 15 or 18"?

Originally Posted by DangeRuss

Welcome back

Thanks Russ. I'm going to try to be more active in the community again.

[Billy13]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

Yeah, I saw that beast in your thread. That should make the ground shake. What is it, a 15 or 18"?


Thanks Russ. I'm going to try to be more active in the community again.

It's a 15", and from the couple hours I put on it earlier, I couldn't be any happier with it.