Brand new and need some advice, please

[chriscross]

Hello. I am a brand new member of this forum and to HT in general. I have been doing a lot of HT research on-line. I have been reading (and enjoying) this forum for several days now, and decided to join. I am very impressed with the knowledge, professionalism, and courtesy of the members on this site, and am hoping you can guide me thorugh the HT experience.

I am planning to turn a 24.5' x 14' basement room into a dedicated HT. The room is already finished (drywall ceiling, walls, etc), but I know I will be doing some modifying or "re-construction." The ceiling height on half of the room is 7', while the other half is 8'5". The screen will go at the end that is 7' high. I will probably begin construction in the Fall of this year, so I am in no great hurry, and want to do as much planning and research as possible. I have a budget of $15K for all of the HT gear (projector, screen, recvr or separates, 7.1 surround, dvd player, etc.) The room will be totally light controlled, and we (my family and I) will be watching mostly HD content and DVD's. (also some SDTV, but not much). Also, since the floor is concrete, I plan to build a wood platform and "hide" the sub(s) in the floor in order to give the "feel" of the bass when watching movies, etc.. Floor will be carpeted.

Some questions, please:

Projector - Have seen many glowing reviews of the Sanyo PLV-Z4 (mostly on Projector Central). Is it as good as they say? Any other suggestions?

Screen - It will be a fixed screen, probably about 110" White or gray? High gain? Are perforated screens good? - sounds attractive to hide center channel behind the screen.

Recvr or separates? Good HT recvr suggestions?

Speakers / Sub(s)? Probably freestanding fronts, not sure yet about the sides and rear.

Do I need a power conditioner / cleaner? - not sure how "clean or dirty" my existing power is - can I have this tested?

DVD player - should I wait for Blu-ray or HD-DVD? Will these work with any decent recvr I buy?

Planning to use all HDMI connections - is this best?

I am hoping to be an active member of this forum and am looking forward to your input and advice.

Thanks in advance!!

chriscross (from Cincinnati, Ohio)

[Chris D]

Hi, Chris. That's funny--that's almost the exact dimensions of my room that I just built, except I don't have a sloping ceiling. Some of my comments--

PJ - I hear the Z4 is good, but I would also look the Panasonic AE900, which apparently just came out with a cash rebate, too.

I too use a perf screen, with all three front speakers hidden behind. Works and looks great.

I'd recommend separates if you can swing the cost of going as high-end as you can.

For DVD, yes, I'd wait until May or so to see what gets released for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. If nothing else, the Playstation 3 is supposed to come out around then.

Yes, HDMI if you can.

I need to post my entire construction process. As a suggestion, I've shown every step of my theater construction in Home Theater Builder Magazine. You may want to pick up back copies.

[aud19]

Welcome to HTG :T

I agree with most of what Chris said but....

Seperates, yes but IMO with HDMI, BluRay/HD-DVD and the next gen HD-DD/DTS still being worked out, I'd hold off on any high-end processing for the time being. Get good amp(s) for now with and under $1000 receiver from the likes of Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer, Marantz etc. Then later look at a dedicated pre/pro in a year or two from the likes of Rotel, Sherwood Newcastle, Parasound, Bryston etc. (Those are the company's you should look for amps from as well )

If you do get a perf screen, make sure you do your homework, depending on thier perf pattern, you can end up with unpleasant moire problems when used with digital projectors.

Sounds like your doing DIY subs, if you don't I recommend SVS. For speakers, look at B&W, Energy, Kef, Paradigm, PSB, Polk, Totem etc.

You should always protect your equipment from surges/brownouts as for power "conditioning" the worst that can happen if you don't need it is nothing, the best is that it will clean up any line noise. I HIGHLY recommend APC products in this area.

Don't wait for a DVD player. You can get great players for under $400 and you don't have to worry about when the HD players are actually going to arrive, paying early adopter prices or worry about getting glitchy or feature-shy first gen products.

As this isn't really projector specific, I'm betting it will get moved to the HT section

[Chris D]

Good point, Jason. Like the DVD player, I would wait several months before buying a receiver or processor. There's going to be a lot of flux in the AV industry with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray over the net year. It won't really affect speakers, or (mostly) cables or video displays themselves. But you'll see some big changes and stabilization in DVD players and receivers/processors.

Like Jason said, it may not be a bad idea to buy a good-performing, but low-cost, receiver and DVD player now as a stop-gap measure, and then wait 6-24 months and invest in a very nice player and processor that will be able to do the new formats well.

[aud19]

Yup, then you can move them to a secondary system

[chriscross]

Chris / Jason,
Thanks very much for your initial feedback. A basic question on the term "pre/pro." I know "pre" stands for pre-amp and I assume that "pro" stands for processor. Please give me a brief education on the major differences between this set up and a good quality receiver. In other words, if I am going with separates, what exactly do I need?

What's the function of the pre-amp vs the amp vs the processor? I know this may be a subject for a different section, but please advise.

Also, can I get these three (decent quality) for $2,000 total? And then, I assume I do not need a recvr at all?

Thanks

Chris

[dyazdani]

I am planning to turn a 24.5' x 14' basement room into a dedicated HT.

That's a nice size room, good ratios of dimensions as well.

I have a budget of $15K for all of the HT gear (projector, screen, recvr or separates, 7.1 surround, dvd player, etc.)

Good budget too, I think it is high enough to allow for several options.

Recvr or separates? Good HT recvr suggestions?

Based on the budget, I'd say you'll have roughly $10k left for speakers and amplification/processing after you buy the projector, screen, power conditioning, DVD player.

I'd at least get a separate amp for your main channels and possibly a receiver to use as a pre/pro plus amplification for you surrounds. Jason named a few good brands.

Speakers / Sub(s)? Probably freestanding fronts, not sure yet about the sides and rear.

Many options in your price range here. Again, Jason named a few.

Do I need a power conditioner / cleaner? - not sure how "clean or dirty" my existing power is - can I have this tested?

Yes, I would say you should get some basic surge supression/conditioning.

What's the function of the pre-amp vs the amp vs the processor? I know this may be a subject for a different section, but please advise.

Also, can I get these three (decent quality) for $2,000 total? And then, I assume I do not need a recvr at all?

The pre/pro serves several functions - some being volume control, source (audio and video) switching, decoding of digital formats (DTS, Dolby Digital, etc), and other signal processing such as EQ modes (hall, dance, stadium, etc - I never use these but they're available). I would say that it would be difficult to get a good pre/pro and amp for $2000 unless you look at some older, used units, probably 5.1 instead of 7.1

One last thing - I'm not sure of putting your subs inside another platform/false floor. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the idea. I'd be more inclined to buy a few of the tactile transducers and put your "real" subs in a better location, acoustically.

[aud19]

Pre-amp and processor would be one unit, amplification another. You would require analog interconnects between them for each channel (5.1, 6.1, 7.1)

A receiver has both units in one box with shared power supplies, more cross talk etc hence why "seperates" usually perform better. Seperate also allow for an easier upgrade path as you don't have to replace your amplification just to get new software, formats, connections etc with a new pre/pro.

You can get entry level seperates for around $2000-$2500 but as I recommended, I would get an "affordable" receiver with a quality seperate amplifier until all the above gets ironed out

[Shane Martin]

Projector wise I'd lean towards one of these :
http://www.optomausa.com/product_det...product_id=249

Optoma H72. Should be out soon. Accepts 1080P. MSRP is $3999 but you should be able to get one <$3k.

Screen: Not sure. Lots of choices. A HT show on TV recommended the Goo solutions screen.

Dvd player: They come out in April for HD/Blu Ray. Only negative is you are taking a blind shot at which one will win the format war. If you want to wait it out a bit then consider something like the Panasonic S77 or the Oppo. Both are suitable players for now. ~$250.

Speakers: Spend the bulk of your $$ on this. This will also determine what amp you buy. A more efficient speaker set like Klipsch you can get away with a receiver much easier. More inefficient speakers like Dynaudio you can't do that. An external amp isn't a necessity but it's nice to have. I could recommend many models but for a subwoofer I'd recommend SVS. The large bang for you buck here saves you alot of cash you can put towards a better receiver/amp or better speakers.

I personally use http://www.phasetech.com Phase Tech Velocities. I paid $1,800 for a set of 7(no sub).

My best advice is to go listen to all speakers and decide which ones you like. For instance I know Aud likes Energy which I tend to find them bright. Speakers are the most your mileage may vary product around. If you want in wall solutions just holler. I know of a few that I can recommend highly.

Receiver: Right now lots of new receivers are coming. Something along the lines of a HK AVR 640 would be nice. That would give you full process Logic 7, hdmi upconversion, component switching, and the other great features you would want including a very useful and needed ROOM EQ that even EQ's the bass. Most auto eq's like the Yamaha do not go below 60hz. You can add an external amp if you feel the 640's 75wpc isn't enough.

Another nice option might be a SHerwood R965 or the pre amp version callled the P965 coupled with a good amp. The A965 doesn't put out enough power IMHO. Sherwood uses the Snap eq which will eq below 60hz.

The other biggie that will is the Denon Audyssey EQ. You'd need to buy an 06 model to get this though.

[dyazdani]

Screen: Not sure. Lots of choices. A HT show on TV recommended the Goo solutions screen.

Is that one of the paint on screens?

[Shane Martin]

Yep. Goo Systems screen. The show was on HGTV no less and advocated many products including this one to save money. The projector was a 720P DLP from Infocus while the rest of the speakers and such were fairly noteworthy as well. They even visited Noel Lee's house and you saw his 3-4 home theaters. The guy who designed the theater is fairly well known and usually does 50k-200k+ theaters but did one for less then $15k including construction.

As you know it's tough to recommend a screen w/o knowing which PJ he is going with. One size/type doesn't fit all.

[Shane Martin]

Here's the website:

http://www.goosystems.com/

[aud19]

That goo stuff looks pretty cool :lol:

[dyazdani]

I saw a similar show on Discovery HD a couple of months ago. They used that "Goo" screen as well. It seemed pretty nice as long as you could apply it without any uneveness or streaking.

[Dean McManis]

My guess is that if he is asking about a perforated screen, he wants to put the speakers behind the screen, and Goo definitely won't work for that.

My last 3 screens have been perforated, but it's not a choice that I would recommend for everyone. I wanted a big screen, and at 180" diag it needed to be perforated.
At that size there are no moire issues, as well as with a projected image of under 90".
But from 95" to around 110" (around the average screen size) certain projectors showed a visible moire pattern with different perforated screens. If you are considering a perf screen then buy the projector first and project on the back wall if possible, and get the screen manufacturer to send you screen material samples (a good idea anyway) to check and see if the hole pattern and pixel pattern cause issues at the screen size that you prefer.