Welcome to Home Theater - you'll be glad you came

[JonMarsh]

Welcome to HT Guide and Home theater in general- you'll be glad you came, and you'll meet many friendly helpful folks on the guide to help you get started in your own Home Theater experience.

Personally, I guess I'd have to say I had a pretty fast and hard ramp on what we would now call home theater- it happened in 1986, after moving to California with my family (wife and daughter). I hadn't had a TV since my early teens, and bought a Sony XBR 20" Trinitron for my wife and daughter, especially since the latter was just at the Sesame Street age. But for me, I didn't find that very involving for movies, which was my only real love or use for a TV, so Xmas of '86 I bought an unreliable, cantankerous Heathkit CRT front projection unit from ThomasW's stepdad, and tore it down and resoldered practically every connection in that set over a period of two days. That and my first VCR purchase, plus my current DIY music system (4 way using Seas 13" subs and linearray midwoofer,midrange and ribbon tweeters- mind you, we're talking 1986!) put me in the HT business before Xmas day. Of course, the term hadn't been invented at that time...


However you get into it yourself, you've got a lot of great experiences ahead of you- like watching my young daughter's favorite laser disks with her over and over again... believe me, after the 10th time, even "Spaced Invaders" gets a little old...

Welcome to the Guide, and have fun while you're here.

~Jon

[Scott Simonian]

I remember how I started with home theater. I was so young, too. After the chalked with blockbusters summer of 95', I began a journey into the world of home theater.

MY system began with a Yamaha pro-logic receiver. I had pair of KLH towers, a Bosten center and a pair of shite as hell Polk surround speakers. Yeesh. You know I started with all these speakers and didn't know what pro-logic was. So, for a short while I listened to everything in "Rock DSP" mode. :roll: I thought that was surround sound back then. Like I said, I was young (fifth grade going on sixth at the time. Where did the time go?) and hearing things from all-around was cool. Didn't take me long to learn what Pro-logic was. My first subwoofer was a Yamaha 8" 65watt little thing.

All that crap and then the big screen came. I shudder inside when I think back to when I wasn't even a teenager and now I'm 20. I have learned some much about home theater since. Now I hope to begin the more advanced stages of DIY speaker building. I am still a novice. All I have diy is a pair of Adire 281's, LCC, and a vented Tempest.

*sigh*

Still so much to look forward to.

Jon - that is so funny you mentioned "Spaced Invaders". :lol: I used to watch that so much when I was real little. All I think of is freakin' Hulk Hogan. :

[Clive]

We beleive without a doubt that there are many of you who need a nice place to start. Well here it is folks. Feel free to ask any question even list or show your setups. There will be many opinions shared here but you will be able to draw from those opinions and create an idea or conclusion to fit your budget and your home.

Feel free!! :T

[Patt]

Hi Uncle Clive,

Glad to bump into you again.....brand new squeaky clean Forum....Excellent!

[Chris D]

Well, I'll lend my knowledge from time to time as I can. Everything I've learned about home theaters and the A/V industry has been by doing my own research and then trying it out. I've recently completed my own private home theater that you can read about here in the Guide or in Home Theater Builder Magazine. (www.hometheaterbuilder.com) Hope I can help.

[David Meek]

I don't know how much knowledge I have to lend, but if you need an opinion. . .

[JonMarsh]

Don't worry, I'll drop in and muddy up the waters with David a bit, too. I'm not probably really a "mainstream" HT guy- I'm the strange dude next door with the big power saw and all the test equpment, hanging out with the other DIY lovers.

OTOH, there's quite a few really good non DIY units, and I do try to keep abreast of the more interesting things out of plain old self interest- obviously, for example, I'm never going to be building my own DVD player...

Let's just try to be sure we keep Evil Twin out of this forum... no telling what trouble he might cause. :E :storm: :storm: :gah:

~Jon

[David Meek]

Let's just try to be sure we keep Evil Twin out of this forum... no telling what trouble he might cause. :E :storm: :storm: :gah:

Oh no! 8O Has he been seen in here yet??????

[SoundXplorer]

This forum kicks ass, glad to find a new place to hang out and hopefully learn a few things.

[Clive]

Welcome to the Guide SoundX. You sure will learn here, we always do :T

Get yourself familiar with the Furum with all it's guidelines and the owner/moderators. Drop us a question when you feel comfortable and we'll kick it off from there. Thanks for the being here

See ya' around!!

[grizz118]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

[Arkudos]

Jon,

I just started my first diy speaker which is your RS180/RS28A MTM (yes with the foil caps too!). I am current working on building a couple UcD400AD amps to go with them. My issue is the rest of the system. I currently have an older Yamaha A/V reciever that will work for now but need to start from the ground up as far as interconnects to dvd player. I have been saving for a Pioneer Plasma. Any recommendations for this newbie?

[s57]

Connection of two amps

Can you give me your expert advice on how I can use the same pair of front speakers for HT and pure music. I intend to get two amps, namely one AV Amp and one 2 channel music amp. The AV Amp will be connected to the 5.1 system. However, I dont want to buy a separate pair of speakers for the two channel music amp. How can I do that. Someone suggest I should get a AV Amp with Pre-out and then connect it to the 2 channel amp with the front speakers. Any problem with this configuration. Please advise.

[davebat]

Anyone know good Sony Bravia help boards?

when in "Normal" mode My Bravia kdl-40v2500 LCD TV displays a small HD image in the center of the screen instead of filling the screen. The aspect ratio is right but the image is too small. Does anyone know how to fix or can anyone point me to a good board? Many thanks.

[David Meek]

Dave, what is the source? DVD, HD-satellite, HD- or BR-DVD, standard-def cable, etc...? Also, what input type are you using? Coax cable, component, DVI, HDMI...?

It could be something simple, like watching a letterboxed standard-def TV signal. This exact thing happens on my Pioneer Elite Pro 1140HD when I'm watching a non-high-def show that's been letterboxed. For example "Blood Ties" or "The Dresden Files" from the Sci-Fi channel. My source for TV is an HD-satellite tuner/dvr/dish, input via HDMI.

[Fred333]

Very nice forum. I just recently joined, but have been reading it for a awhile now.

[RobP]

Welcome to the Fourm Fred!

[Blaine]

I want to build a the "Statements" DIY speakers, and an infinite baffle sub, and get a better amp, and a 50"+ LCD, and oh yeah build a room with lots of bass traps and... and... and... and... and..... my wife thinks I'm nuts. I do too. She's right. We can't afford any of that, and I'm not willing to sell my sportbike. For Pete's sake I'm reading this forum at work. I think I need a 12 step meeting or something...

[kujomujo]

I think I need a 12 step meeting or something...

Dude... I'm on step 11... doesn't work... try the "patch" instead.

KM

[aggienader08]

Hello all!

I'm new to the HT scene and this is my first post on htguide.com! I'm planning on building my first set of speakers (L&R 3.5 way floor standing & 3 way center channel - all vented) and I don't want to try and accomplish something like this going in way over my head.

I guess my first question is: Should I use MDF for the cabinets or use real pine or something similar? I've heard multiple sources of which I'm not sure I can trust that real wood resonates too much and that's why most cabs are made with MDF board. The musician in me says to use real #1 grade pine and let those puppies resonate all they can, but I don't want something that sounds like crap.

Any suggestions?

for my design I'm using the same drivers and components for the crossovers in this design:

http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZDT3.5.html

[David Meek]

Hi Aggie, welcome to The Guide! :welcome:

You should post a thread of this nature in the Mission Possible DIY forum. There are MANY more members there that can answer your question fully.

[Makalousse]

Hi everyone!
I am new to this and this is my first post ever! anywhere...

First I want to say that I do not have a true HT at this point. All I have is a decent music system connected to a 27'' Sony Wega. My system goes like this:

Rega Brio integrated amp
Rega Apollo CD player
Paradigm Titans

This is all about to change and I need a little advice, I hope you guys can help me!

The plan should evolve in 4 steps:

Step 1:
Buy a TC-P58V10 Panasonic Plasma + match it with a Samsung BD-P 3600 Blue-Ray player that I currently own and install them in my Soon to be fully redone basement. At the beginning they will be conected to the cheapest used 5.1 I can lay my hands on and a pair of old EV-16 as fronts + a pair of Bose 301 as surrounds and any old center speaker I can find for now.

Step 2:
Build a Subwoofer that would work well with the other speakers I intend to build.

Step 3:
Build the following:
2Mini Statements as fronts
1 Statement Center
4 Monitor Statements as surrounds and back speakers

Step 4
Buy The Emotiva UMC-1 Processor and the UPA-7 Power Amplifier.


My questions are the following:

What do you think of my TV, processor and Amp choice?

Is the Emotiva system a good match for the speakers I intend to build?

Since this will be my first attempt at speaker building, are the Statements over my head?

Thanks in advance for any comments!

[Bryceo]

I started with a 21" toshiba picture tube tv, pioneer main speakers and a 8" sansui subwoofer my surround come from an old stereo systeam and my center was 2x6" car speakers and a 2" tweeter hahaha looking back on those days
I felt it was the best systeam in the world till I got a job and bort real gear

[Lex]

We all started somewhere. :-)

[Mw182006]

I used to have an old 27" CRT, with a yamaha receiver powering some speakers that were part of one of those big old shelf-top systems you'd find at Best Buy. Ah the good ol' days.

[madmac]

My first 'system' as a kid was a Ghetto blaster hooked up to home made speakers I made and the enclosure was made of cardboard!! Hehehe!!. I was very proud of it at the time!!

[Mw182006]

^ Not everyone can say they've done DIY though!