Where I Watch Stuff

[hjustin]

Hello, all.

I've visited these forums more times than I can remember looking for Blu-ray release dates and had no idea this community had so much great information about all-things home theater. As I look at making some major upgrades to my living room home theater for the first time in many years, I finally have joined, seeking the company of like-minded individuals with more than a passing interest in home theater.

I live in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio which seems to be a kind of home theater black hole. In my circle of friends and acquaintances I don't know anyone that's interested in the hobby. I have one friend with a nice front projection setup in his basement but has invested little to nothing in his sound system. I'm in the process of helping a good friend put together a Denon/Paradigm 5.1 system. There are only two home theater dealers in the area and their product selection leaves a lot to be desired.

Here's my current view from the couch:


Here is my room:


Current plans are to move the couch off the back wall and get some treatments on that wall to reduce reflections. My CC-350 does not sound good at all. I'm not sure if it's the center channel itself, the room or some combination of both. I am buying two used Outlaw LFM-1 EXes, picking them up Sunday evening. I need to figure out where I'm going to put them. My Paradigm PS-1000 is in the front left corner presently.

Forum member PDominguez graciously allowed my wife and I (she's into this stuff, too) to demo his dedicated home theater last weekend it was the best HT I have ever experienced...both sound and video. He is running all Klipsch speakers powered by an Outlaw amp. He has four subs. At reference level, it was amazing to hear. I'm looking to get something like that experience in my living room (but without the two 21" subs....they're simply too big for our room).

I've rambled on enough. I'm glad to be here. Looking forward to learning and lot and getting to know the community.

Thank you,
Justin

[Spurrier Sucks]

Nice! Welcome.

[bguzman]

Hello hjustin and welcome to the Galleries,

You have some nice equipment there. I can see by your acquisition this weekend that you have already been infected with the HT sickness so it is safe to move about the gallery with out further damage, it's to late already. Now to the serious stuff. You say that your center does not sound good. Have you run Audyssey? This is very important. Checked the connections, loose or out of phase. Moving the sofa away from the back wall, as you stated, might help also. If you have a sound meter, or a smart phone with a SPL app, you can level match your speakers. This should help with the center. Audyssey will do this for you but you can tweak it to your liking too. It might be a case of just bumping up the center to match your fronts. Good luck.

[hometheatergeek]

Hello and glad to see another new member to the HT galleries. BTW there are several members here in the threads that are near you. I too have an all Klipsch setup with 4 subs.

[Travis]

Hello Justin,

Welcome to the HT Galleries Threads. The guys here are really nice and have good advice....usually.

[ZIPPO]

Welcome to the site!

[hjustin]

Originally Posted by bguzman

Hello hjustin and welcome to the Galleries,

You have some nice equipment there. I can see by your acquisition this weekend that you have already been infected with the HT sickness so it is safe to move about the gallery with out further damage, it's to late already. Now to the serious stuff. You say that your center does not sound good. Have you run Audyssey? This is very important. Checked the connections, loose or out of phase. Moving the sofa away from the back wall, as you stated, might help also. If you have a sound meter, or a smart phone with a SPL app, you can level match your speakers. This should help with the center. Audyssey will do this for you but you can tweak it to your liking too. It might be a case of just bumping up the center to match your fronts. Good luck.

Thank you, sir.

I have run Audyssey...my Denon has MultEQ XT. I'm going to recalibrate again tomorrow after moving some furniture around. I also want to replace my speaker cable on my front three. Going to buy something from Emotiva, Monoprice, or maybe Parts Express. Speaking of Parts Express, their showroom is only 15 minutes from the house. I'm considering purchasing Omnimic to help tweak my setup, but an SPL meter at the very least. I was in Radio Shack the other night and they had a digital SPL meter for $50.

Thanks to everyone else for the kind words and the welcome. I really appreciate it.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Justin

[bguzman]

Originally Posted by hjustin

Thank you, sir.

I have run Audyssey...my Denon has MultEQ XT. I'm going to recalibrate again tomorrow after moving some furniture around. I also want to replace my speaker cable on my front three. Going to buy something from Emotiva, Monoprice, or maybe Parts Express. Speaking of Parts Express, their showroom is only 15 minutes from the house. I'm considering purchasing Omnimic to help tweak my setup, but an SPL meter at the very least. I was in Radio Shack the other night and they had a digital SPL meter for $50.

Thanks to everyone else for the kind words and the welcome. I really appreciate it.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Justin

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours also.

I noticed that the sensitivity for your fronts is 93 but the center is 87 so I'm back to bumping up the level of your center, page 65 of the manual, before you do anything else and it is easy to do. One more question. Do you use a tripod when you run Audyssey? Some people don't and make a huge difference. That is way cool that there is a Parts Express near you. I used Monoprice speaker wire to finally get rid of my mix and match speaker wires and it worked out great, I now have more top end.

[hjustin]

Originally Posted by bguzman

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours also.

I noticed that the sensitivity for your fronts is 93 but the center is 87 so I'm back to bumping up the level of your center, page 65 of the manual, before you do anything else and it is easy to do. One more question. Do you use a tripod when you run Audyssey? Some people don't and make a huge difference. That is way cool that there is a Parts Express near you. I used Monoprice speaker wire to finally get rid of my mix and match speaker wires and it worked out great, I now have more top end.

I do use a tripod for my Audyssey calibrations. Can I change channel volume post-calibration?

[crazyBLUE]

Welcome to the Home Theater Galleries Justin

You have a nice looking setup & might I add plenty of room for a nice projector setup if you ever decide to go bigger

[bguzman]

Originally Posted by hjustin

I do use a tripod for my Audyssey calibrations. Can I change channel volume post-calibration?

Yes, let Audyssey do its thing and then tweak it to your liking, that's what I do.

[hjustin]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

Welcome to the Home Theater Galleries Justin

You have a nice looking setup & might I add plenty of room for a nice projector setup if you ever decide to go bigger

Thank you. My wife and I are trying to figure out how to add a projector to the living room but still have it be a living room when we're not watching stuff. I know light control is huge with front projection (used to rock a CRT front projection system many moons ago ). We primarily watch at night and can control light with curtains but we would have to pain our white ceiling and beige walls for optimum light control. Not sure that would work. I've actually spent a bit of time looking for other home theaters that have incorporate front projection into a non-dedicated room.

[hjustin]

Finally home after a long (but awesome) day spent with both families. Tired and still stuffed. Probably going to knock out last night's episode of American Horror Story before turning in.

Have friends coming over tomorrow night to watch:



Saw it in the theater opening week. Our friends have yet to see it so need to get everything tidied and tweaked up tomorrow so it looks and sounds good.

Looking forward to digging into everyone else's home theater galleries. Some of the threads are HUGE so it will probably take awhile.

[callas01]

hello and welcome to the galleries.

Congrats on the Outlaw subs too. I agree that perhaps its the center channel that needs to get bumped up a little too. Everything looks really nice.

[BigAl87]

Welcome to the HT Gallery Threads, I hope you enjoy our company, I really like the space you have for your setup, looks really good, I love your TV, wished I could have gotten a 60 at least but my 55 is enough for the space I live in.


BTW your wall and basebourd colors are so darn close to mines

[hjustin]

Originally Posted by callas01

hello and welcome to the galleries.

Congrats on the Outlaw subs too. I agree that perhaps its the center channel that needs to get bumped up a little too. Everything looks really nice.

I kicked the volume up on the center channel and it did help with dialogue. We watched Brave last night at -10 (didn't want to scare out guests away) and all things considered, everything sounded pretty good. I can't image what it's going to be like when I replace the PS-1000 with two Outlaws.

[hjustin]

Originally Posted by BigAl87

Welcome to the HT Gallery Threads, I hope you enjoy our company, I really like the space you have for your setup, looks really good, I love your TV, wished I could have gotten a 60 at least but my 55 is enough for the space I live in.


BTW your wall and basebourd colors are so darn close to mines

Thank you, glad to be here.

You know, no matter size the ST30 is, the picture on these things is phenomenal. Very happy.

[hjustin]

Parts Express had an SPL meter listed in their Black Friday ad so I zipped into their showroom yesterday and pick one up. $15 for this thing. I just read Big Daddy's guide on how to use a meter for home theater calibration and it says to use "C" weighting and slow. This meter is "A" weighting and fast. Back it goes on Monday. Guess I should have read the guide first!

[bguzman]

Originally Posted by hjustin

I kicked the volume up on the center channel and it did help with dialogue. We watched Brave last night at -10 (didn't want to scare out guests away) and all things considered, everything sounded pretty good. I can't image what it's going to be like when I replace the PS-1000 with two Outlaws.

Awesome

[callas01]

Originally Posted by hjustin

I kicked the volume up on the center channel and it did help with dialogue. We watched Brave last night at -10 (didn't want to scare out guests away) and all things considered, everything sounded pretty good. I can't image what it's going to be like when I replace the PS-1000 with two Outlaws.

get ready for a good amount of bass, placement will be less critical then with one sub but you may have to make adjustments.