Let's inject this Hardware forum with a little OPINION! :-)

[Taxi]

The software and Soapbox forums have had some pretty good questions posted to them recently, so I figured I'd get something started here in the Hardware forum (It's been pretty slow here.)

What is the most important piece of your home theater? In other words, could you live with an average (say, 25") television, as long as you had passable image quality, but an incredible sound system? Or is the TV the most important piece of your system, and you'll get around to all this digital smoke and mirrors when you get around to it?

For me, I'm in the former camp. I do have a crappy 25" tv, but I can live with it for now, even if the 2.35:1 widescreen images are pretty small, because the sound from my Dolby Digital 5.1 setup is very good (not great..yet) and I get immersed in the experience, because of the audio.

How about you?

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Taxi
DDS#42
DVDFile.Com Moderator

Taxi, I'm in the same boat as you. I have a crappy 25" Zenith tv I bought about 4 or 5 years ago. I do have the sweet sound system setup, Dolby Digital, DTS, yada yada. I won't go into detail about that, but I, too, agree that I can live with the horrible tv setup for a while. I'm still in college, living in an apartment, so my dreams of a widescreen tv will just have to be dreams until I get a real job and a bigger place.

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Christopher Cross
www.dvdtracker.com/~cross.asp
Deftones17@aol.com

Yeah... my TV isn't wonderful either, and my speakers are pretty weak, but I've got a nice DD/DTS receiver, and that works for me. I can see the picture and hear the sound and it's clearer and more immersive than VHS (I never did LD), so I'm happy with it. Now that I've got a pretty sweet job I'll probably get some new speakers, but I think I'm gonna hold out for a nice 16:9 TV.

[1138]

Ditto. I just upgraded to a really great sound system, but I'm still using a 5-7 year old 26" TV that is all right, but nothing great. Having just blown some good money on the sound system, it'll be a little while before I do so for the video system too.

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Floyd is pink.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/3924/

Back in '81 I started getting into high quality sound reproduction (probably since I have NO talent in PRODUCING/making my own that are listenable, I had a guitar teacher actually tell me I have no sense of rythme and my wife will verify this). Spent the first few years setting up and upgrading a decent quality stereo. About this time, around '84, I had started hearing good things about Dolby Surround Sound for home use. Got a NEC processor with built-in amps. By '93 surround sound was as important to me as stereo, so I invested in what is still my best piece of equipment- a Lexicon DC-1.

By that time I did have a pretty good monitor, a JVC 31" direct view. Looked fine with VHS and local cable. Well, in March of '97 all that changed. I got my first DVD player and have upgraded twice on the video side, since- a Sony 41" RPTV and my current Pioneer Elite Pro-100 51" RPTV. Thank goodness I had started building the sound system first.

I do feel the sound holds a more important role in how much enjoyment I get out of the whole HT experience, but a good display is only marginally secondary. In fact, I'm already planning for the next monitor to replace the Pioneer, probably in about 3 years. Hopefully by then most, if not all, of the bugs will have been worked out of the HDTV system.

I guess, for me at least, I swap between which side of the equation I'm upgrading- audio first, but the video side will be close behind.

My 2 sense,
James M.

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HT equipment: Pioneer Elite Pro-100 RPTV (ISF calibrated)
Lexicon DC-1 pre/pro, Sunfire Cinema Grand amp, Adcom GFA-555II amp, Legacy Victoria L/R speakers, Legacy CinemaII center channel speaker, M&K SS150THX side surround speakers paired with Atlantic Tech. 162PBM subs(2), Def. Tech BPX rear surround speakers, Velodyne F1800II sub., Sony HiFi VCR, Denon DCD-1500 CD player and DVD-3000 DVD player, NAD 1600 pre/tuner (used for powering up the system and radio reception only), Power Pack V line conditioner/enhancer, Adcom Ace 515 line conditioner/enhancer, LAT and Monster speaker cables, assortment of AudioQuest, Monster and XLO interconnects, various forms of component vibration isolation and room treatment