Wette Home Theater 2004

[RaceTripper]

The RaceTripper Home Theater System

Here are all new pictures and descriptions of our home theater system. May, 2004
Pictures updated 12/24/04 (new amps and subwoofer)

Video Equipment

• Samsung HL-P6163W 61" DLP Widescreen HD Monitor
• DirecTV HR20-700 HD DVR
• Arcam DiVA DV88 Plus DVD player, upgraded with Silicon Image SiI504 deinterlacer.

Audio Equipment

• Arcam DiVA AVR300 7.1 Receiver (DD EX, PLIIx; DTS ES, 96/24; used as a pre/pro)
• Arcam Alpha 10 Integrated Amp (2 x 170 WPC @ 4 ohms)
• Arcam Alpha 10P/3 Power Amp (3 x 170 WPC @ 4 ohms)
• Arcam Alpha 9P Power Amp (2 x 140 WPC @ 4 ohms)
  
• Note: Alpha 10 Int. used as power amp for L/R; Alpha 10P-3 powers Center & Side Surrounds; Alpha 9P powers Rear Surrounds
  

Speakers

• L/R: Dynaudio Audience 72
• Center: Dynaudio Audience 122C w/Dynaudio center stand
• SL/SR: Dynaudio Audience 52SE w/Dynaudio wall brackets
• SBL/SBR: Dynaudio Audience 62
• Sub: Dynaudio Sub500

Video Equipment (Office/Man Room)

• Samsung LN-S3251D 32" LCD Widescreen HDTV
• DirecTV HR21-700 HD DVR

Video Equipment (Bedroom)

• Samsung LN-T4069 40" 1080p LCD Widescreen HDTV
• DirecTV HR20-700 HD DVR

Game Consoles

• Microsoft XBox 360
• Sony Playstation 3 40 GB

Miscellaneous

• Home Theater Master MX-700 & MX-500 remotes
• Transparent Audio Powerbank 6
• Niles AC3 voltage-controlled AC outlet strip (to trigger 3 power amps from AVR300)
• Ideal-Lume backlight

My DVD Collection (DVD Profiler)

Pictures
The pictures aren't great, but they'll give you a good idea. I'll update them with better ones when I can.

• Closeup of the equipment (view)
• Closeup of the sub (view)
• The custom center speaker shelf I built (view)
• The center speaker w/stand (view)
• Here you can see the side and back right surrounds (view)
• These are the shelves I built for my DVD collection (view)
• My Eames chair for serious and comfy viewing (view)

Dedicated Music System
I use this for music. I have about 1000 jazz LPs and 2000 classical LPs. No pictures yet.

• Linn Sondek LP12 turntable
• Rega RB300 Tonearm
• Goldring GL (Gerard Louis) MC phono cartridge
• Arcam Alpha 10 Integrated Amp w/MC Phono Board (currently used as power amp for HT system)
• Rega Tuner
• Linn Sara speakers w/stands (x2), NAIM speaker cable

I might add an Arcam CD player later.

Equipment Web Sites

• Arcam
• Dynaudio
• Transparent Audio
• Samsung DLP HDTV
• Home Theater Master
• I get my gear at Music For Pleasure

[mlemmond]

Very Nice

[incubus0]

Very nice looking setup and house.

Do you do design work too?

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by incubus0

Very nice looking setup and house.

Do you do design work too?

No, I'm a software engineer with a liberal arts education. My wife and I both handle design of our interior, but she and her friends say I have a very good eye for it. A lot of what you see in the pictures design-wise is my influence. The art pieces are collected jointly by my wife and me. Our dining room is cool because it has the walls covered with very large vintage posters. Like these:

Dining room #1
Dining room #2

Dean

[incubus0]

Originally Posted by dwette

No, I'm a software engineer with a liberal arts education. My wife and I both handle design of our interior, but she and her friends say I have a very good eye for it. A lot of what you see in the pictures design-wise is my influence. The arts pieces are collected jointly by my wife and I. Our dining room is cool because it has the walls covered with very large vintage posters. Like these:

Dining room #1
Dining room #2

Dean

Very nice.

I'm buying a new house so this type of stuff is becoming important quickly. I may steal a few ideas.

[snipsnapsappy]

Wow, I did not realize you bought towers for the Surround backs, must be very nice for DVD-Audio. Is the Arcam a DVD-Audio player?

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by snipsnapsappy

Wow, I did not realize you bought towers for the Surround backs, must be very nice for DVD-Audio. Is the Arcam a DVD-Audio player?

I've actually thought about replacing the back speakers with another pair of Audience 52SE (like the side surrounds) mounted on the walls, since they sound better (they use drivers and xovers from the more expensive Dynaudio Contour speakers).

The Arcam is not DVD-A, but is upgradable to it (i.e. it can be upgraded from a DV88+ to a DV89). But I don't have immediate plans to do that, since this is primarily a movie system, and I have a seperate system for music.

But this system sounds really quite good with CDs played in stereo direct mode (i.e. using analog inputs and DSP processing disabled on the receiver).

Dean

[Iguana Man]

Dwette.....as in: "I just Dwette my pants"! That is some incredible gear dude! AWESOME.

I'm in awe, everything is so clean, cool looking, and downright impressive....we may have to revisit the HT award thread!

Now I hope I don't come off like I'm raining on your parade, but isn't there another option for the center channel? I know, I know.....I may come off as nit-picking but it seems like a strange place for it. Any plans on moving it?

...... ......

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Dwette.....as in: "I just Dwette my pants"! That is some incredible gear dude! AWESOME.

I'm in awe, everything is so clean, cool looking, and downright impressive....we may have to revisit the HT award thread!

Now I hope I don't come off like I'm raining on your parade, but isn't there another option for the center channel? I know, I know.....I may come off as nit-picking but it seems like a strange place for it. Any plans on moving it?

...... ......

Thanks for the compliments. I'm always doing bits and pieces to improve it. Right now it's looking and sounding pretty damn good.

In the old place I had a center speaker shelf above the TV. But as you can see from the picture, now I have a window behind the TV, so doing that is a more of a problem. The window is 44" wide. The center speaker is 22" wide, 12" deep, and weights 25 lbs. I couldn't come up with a functional and clean solution for mounting the center above, so I put it on the shelf. It turns out for the better actually. If you look, the center drivers are closer to even with the L/R speaker drivers than they would be if sitting above the TV. The stand the speaker sits in is very rigid and solid, and I'm not getting any resonance I can hear. Even though it's slightly off-center, I have not noticed that aurally.

BTW: I have moved the front L/R apart more (I'll do new pictures), with the sub between the R and the TV. I get a better soundstage that way, and it ends up at just about the angle Dolby recommends for a 7.1 system and the bass is a bit more detailed. Along those lines the surrounds are a bit too high and the rears are a bit too low, but it ends up working out just fine with PLIIx. I've now ot it where I don't notice the speakers, just an even and consistant soundstage.

So, the center speaker stays put for now.

Dean

[PunkMunkey]

Sweet HT!...top notch gear and damn near ideal setup to boot!...I am curious however, you mentioned that you have a separate music only system...might I inquire as to what taht system is comprised of...feel free to post any pis you hay have of it as well ...

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by PunkMunkey

Sweet HT!...top notch gear and damn near ideal setup to boot!...I am curious however, you mentioned that you have a separate music only system...might I inquire as to what taht system is comprised of...feel free to post any pis you hay have of it as well ...

Done. The music listening system equipment is listed in the main post now. No pictrures yet. I currently don't even have the turntable set up. It's 18 years old and has some issues with the suspension that needs repair. When I put an LP on it, the suspension bottoms out. Guess I need new springs.

Dean

[PunkMunkey]

Vinyl only music system?!?...I don't see too many of those anymore...even the most stauch "audiophiles" I've encountered have some sort of CD player/transport...

I'm not faliliar with the Arcam you're using to power the Linns...is it a tube amp or solid state?

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by PunkMunkey

Vinyl only music system?!?...I don't see too many of those anymore...even the most stauch "audiophiles" I've encountered have some sort of CD player/transport...

I'm not faliliar with the Arcam you're using to power the Linns...is it a tube amp or solid state?

The Arcam is 4-5 years old, solid state. As you can expect with Arcam, it's very high quality. I originally had Naim gear that sounded better (NAC-32/Hi-CAP/NAP-110), but traded to the Alpha 10 thinking I would turn that into a Alpha 10 DAVE/Alpha 10-3P to be a DD 5.1 system. I ended up going to separate system route instead. I now regret giving up the Naim, but am still very pleased with the Arcam.

It really is a LP system. CDs have just never sounded as good to me, so I've never invested in a high end player (although my Arcam DVD player does an excellent job with CD playback). If I did I'd get one of the Arcam CD players. I don't even use the tuner really. There is a crappy 10-year old Sony CD player attached, but not even worth mentioning or using.

But I have over 3000 LPs (~1/3 jazz, mostly acoustic; 2/3 classical).

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by PunkMunkey

Vinyl only music system?!?...I don't see too many of those anymore...even the most stauch "audiophiles" I've encountered have some sort of CD player/transport...

Dude, true "audiophiles" swear by vinyl.....analog baby, analog.

(I'm not one - to that extent, so go easy on your reply! )

PS. Your under 40 aren't ya?

PSS. Dwette, by the way....I hate you man. Envy does that to me!

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Dude, true "audiophiles" swear by vinyl.....analog baby, analog.

(I'm not one - to that extent, so go easy on your reply! )

PS. Your under 40 aren't ya?

PSS. Dwette, by the way....I hate you man. Envy does that to me!

No, 40 is under me.

You can hate me, that's OK. You aren't alone. My pocketbook hates me too.

I guess some day I have to give those newfangled CD thingies a try. Seriously though. I have a few hundred CDs. They sound really pretty good on the HT system when I play them in stereo direct (no DSP) mode. But I don't care much for the stereo DSP effects modes.

[PunkMunkey]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Dude, true "audiophiles" swear by vinyl.....analog baby, analog.

Yeah, but even most "audiophiles" have some sort of CD transport and outboard DAC combo...not hatin' on the vinyl...not at all...anyway, a "true audiophile" would have a tube amp on those speakers :p ...analog baby, analog...

Originally Posted by dwette

You can hate me, that's OK.

Hate you?!?...man, I wanna BE you...or at be in possession of all your cool gear...

[aintnosin]

Originally Posted by PunkMunkey

Hate you?!?...man, I wanna BE you...or at be in possession of all your cool gear...

dwette, if you're house gets burglarized, you know where to start looking...

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by PunkMunkey

Yeah, but even most "audiophiles" have some sort of CD transport and outboard DAC combo...

But the DV88 Plus just about covers that. It has an excellent CD transport and 4 high quality 192/24 Wolfson DACs, despite being a DVD player. As a CD player it's better than many dedicated CD players.

But I mostly use it for DVD Video, and it really shines at that.

Dean

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by dwette

No, 40 is under me.

My '40' comment was for PunkMunkey , not you.....

[PunkMunkey]

I am under 40...but not too far that I don't know the merits of vinyl...I even own some vinyl (belive it or not)! ...but up until fairly recently, the stuff I tend listen to wasn't being pressed on vinyl (not with any regularity anyway), that coupled with the fact that I don't have a decent turntable has led me down a predominantly digital path...I'd love a nice analog rig (tuntable, tube amp, nice pre-amp with a phono stage), but the wife says until we buy a house of our own I have to settle for my budget HT gear...someday, someday...

[RaceTripper]

I've updated my equipment post to reflect the following:

Arcam DV88 Plus is getting the Silicon Image SiI504 progressive scan upgrade board. This offloads deinterlacing from the Vaddis 5 to the SiI504, which is a better quality interlacer (the same one used in Arcams top of the line FMJ DV27A).

I've also improved some cables, most notably the Transparent Cable Premium Digital Link which I now use for the DVD coax audio. This really made a tremendous improvement in digital audio. Better detail and clarity throughout the range, and much better bass response (cleaner, less boomy). Big improvement to the center too -- I find myself turning on subtitles to understand dialog less often than I used to.

Dean

[Iguana Man]

So...the "envy" continues......

Cables made a difference huh? Dude, you are a braver man than me!

And seriously....you would put the subtitles on ????

(Very nice Dwette, very nice indeed.)

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

And seriously....you would put the subtitles on ????

My wife often has to go to bed early on weekends. She works at a hospital and has to get up early. I may stay up to watch movies, but at low volume. I used to show subtitles because I couldn't always hear dialog clearly enough. Upgrading the cables has improved this.

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Cables made a difference huh? Dude, you are a braver man than me!

My dealer always lets me takes cables home to try for a week or so, allowing me to use them casually and not feel the "pressure of auditioning," which is nice since I can demo when I'm completely relaxed about it and focus on enjoying movies. After I while I know whether they contributed to that enjoyment or not.

I used to be really skeptical about the benefit of premium cables, but they have made noticable improvements in my system.

[RaceTripper]

I've changed the speaker placement of my fronts and sub, so pictures are updated to reflect that.

Now all the speakers follow the Dolby recommended angles from viewing position. This has improved soundstage imaging from what I had before.

Dean

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man