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.