What got you into Home Theater?

[Andrew Pratt]

Just trying to generate some discussion but this could be an interesting question given our diverse ages and historys in the hobby. So how did you get into home theater? Was it a natural progression from your 2 channel days or a love for movies?

I've been interested in music for as long as i can remember and always was tinkering with radio's and stereo's as I got a little older. I don't remember a toy I didn't take apart to see how it worked and was recording mixed tapes off the radio as soon as I got my first "ghettoblaster" as a youngster. I remember at one point having a pair of speakers plugged into a small black and white TV in my bedroom..of course the TV didn't have speaker jacks so I had to wire them onto the old internal speaker or some such thing From there it has just always been something I've been interested in.

What about you?

[John Holmes]

I started down the HT road in 1984. That's when I bought my first laserdisc player. It was an old (new at that time) top load model. I was so impressed by it's picture and sound that, I had to have more. And the rest... :LOL:




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[craigdcan]

Well, I have always been into music in one form or another, and have always tried to have a good sounding system. I'm originally from a smaller city in Northern Ontario, that didn't really have much in the way of av shops. Once I moved to Ottawa, I decided to go out window/demo shopping, and came across this small specialty store, and went in to have a listen. Well, once I went in to their first entry level demo room, I was blown away at how my "good sounding stereo", had been severely lacking in detail compared to this little entry level package that consisted of 5 B&W 302's, and a Harman Kardon AVR120. As soon as I left this room, I wanted to see what they could have that was better than this...well, I went right to their "ultimate room". Well, I wasn't overly familiar with ultra hi-end home theater at the time, and was just staring at this rack full of amps when a salesman came up and asked me if I'd like to listen to this system. I said "sure", and asked how many watts this system was pushing. He replied that they didn't really like to deal in watts, and that watts wasn't everything, and that "all watts aren't created equal". Well, he threw me for a loop when he told me that it was in excess of 7 hp....I was kinda lost.."what do you mean by horsepower?" He said that each hp was roughly 740 watts or something like that...well regardless how many hp, or watts this was, I was ready to experience it...this little system was the JBL Systhesis One. Needless to say, I was simply blown away, and started saving my pennies to start down the neverending road of Home Theatre.

[Lex]

Natural progression from HT. I was playing 4 speakers when it was just A/B selector I then got a small receiver based DPL system. (look Andrew, initials!) that lasted a few years without great interest really, just the occasional movie by myself (post divorce).

It was when I went to upgrade VCRs one day about 7-8 years ago that all hell broke loose, and the moose was created. (I hated to use that other M word.) Next thing you know, I upgraded to RPTV, then to separates (Rotel), and the rest as they say is history! Somewhere in there, I stumbled upon Digital Theater, after surfing the alt.hometheater groups for a while. lol.

Lex

[Eduardo]

I've alway have been into music. I can honestly remeber playing DJ with my 45RPM record player. Unfortunately not having much money, my system didn't grow till I was out of school and working. I had a decent hand me down system from my dad with full range speakers.

Until I purchased my HI-FI VCR, I never heard of surround sound. After that I was hooked. The moment I heard about 5.1 Dolby Digital I went out and bought my Sony reciever and dvd player. Been extremely hooked ever since. Some people even say that I am addicted. 8)

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

[Sonnie Parker]

45RPM DJ (interesting Eduardo).... I was a DJ in 1979-1983...of course we had a lot of 12" versions too (still have most of them today-DISCO). That's where I met Bug, my wife of 18+ years.

I can remember using to old cabinets my dad got from somewhere, using his jigsaw to cut holes in the doors, and mounting some 8" full range drivers that came from speakers out of a restaurant. These were my first speakers in about 1977, connected to a Soundesign stereo unit with a record player. My first real stereo system was in 1984. But that's just music, not HT.

I really didn't get involved in HT until I went to a stereo shop in 1989 or so and listened to a Yamaha DSP100 surround processor. That hooked me pretty good, not so much for movies but more for music. I liked Yamaha's idea of 2 mains and 4 speakers in the corners up high. Of course my VCR was connected through the system and it sounded really good. This was kind of a halfway HT.

The better HT came in 1991 when we built our first home. I went all Snell speakers with the Sony big screen and a Lexicon processor and had a really good system. Been trading and such since then.

The real deal is on it's way..... widescreen RPTV. I think that will give me the true sense of HT.


All I need now is a dedicated HT room with a FPTV. A few years away to quite possibly my ultimate dream HT.






SONNIE

Cedar Creek Cinema

DVD Collection

BFD Comprehensive Setup Guide

[Kevin P]

OMG... Andrew... are you sure we weren't twins separated at birth or something? 8O Here's my story, note the similarities...

I was a tinkerer too, and always enjoyed music. As a kid I built "stereos" out of parts salvaged out of discarded electronics. My ultimate "system" at home was an amplifier and speakers I dug out of an old phonograph my parents were throwing out. I mounted the speakers in cardboard boxes (hey, it's a start, I even used "ported" enclosures!) and built a power supply for the amp, and plugged it into various sources including my clock radio and a cassette recorder. When I got my first stereo source (a AM/FM walkman) I modified my adapter for stereo (hmmm... my first interconnect! :LOL: ) I also wound up with a B&W TV in my bedroom which served as a monitor for a TRS-80 Color Computer, and I would plug the amp into the earphone jack to watch TV in "hi-fi" sound. I guess this was my first "home theater" as I actually watched Star Wars on it the first time it was aired on TV.

I also taped songs from the radio, using my parent's stereo at first and boom boxes later on. I still have the tapes up in the attic. I'll have to dig them out sometime, I probably have a ton of forgotten 80s tunes on them!

Then when I moved out into my first apartment, I picked up a 19" TV and a Hi-Fi VCR (which cost over $700 back then!) and hooked it up to my boom box, and later on my stereo when I got one. My first real home theater so to speak. Over the years, and numerous upgrades later (bigger TVs, DPL and then DD/DTS receivers, LD and DVD players, better speakers blah blah), it's evolved into the system I have now.




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[Andrew Pratt]

I've always wanted an older brother :LOL:

[Lex]

Oh, I should add to what I posted. I purchased one of the first 2 Hi-Fi VCR Models, a Magnavox. I remember there was also another Japanese model that I looked at, but the slow mo feature was better on the Magnavox. That VCR, in approximately 1983 cost over 600 bucks! 8O That was pretty damn good coin back then.

Lex

[RedStep]

I LOVE reading everyones experience...Sounds like most were first intrigued with audio, and not being satisfied with average

I had to have the BEST stereo system since jr. high, then came the 4 head Hi Fi VCR and the introduction of ProScan...remember :?: And I've been a freak ever since




RedStep
We are truly a product of the decisions we make

[Bob]

Well, I guess I'm the odd one out. Instead of starting with music and then expanding into home theater, I have lived with a home theater, usually in a garage since the 1940's! Not mine, my fathers. I pretty much have always had one also, 16mm film based. Of course it kept changing as the software mediums changed. As much as I liked music I never had much of a system, even when I worked at the Filmore West and then as a roadie I had pretty cheesie systems. Usually JPL based for loud R&R. Although at one time I had a Bose 901/Duel turntable/Macintosh system. For all you Bose haters, there was a time when the Bose 901's received the same kind of noteriety as the B&W's do now, just shows you what a waste of time critics are. Now, instead of expanding my home theater system I keep trying to talk my wife into dumping it and maximizing the 2 channel part. So, I am back asswards.

[David Meek]

Audio was my first love, and then movies. Collected lots of vinyl (still have over 500 albums) and then got into recording them on cassettes, then I moved into CD's. Routed my 27" console TV into my Pioneer SX-880 receiver for that "true" movie experience (hehe), moved up to a Mitsubishi 4-head VCR and started recording albums on to HQ VCR tapes - and it was nice quality sound! Recorded/bought many VCR movies too, although the PQ wasn't too good (as we all know now). Stayed in the VCR world 'til the advent of DVD's. I hopped on board early and haven't looked back. I'm DVD-Audio capable now with SACD to come, and HD-DVD sometime soon (I hope).




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker

[George Bellefontaine]

As a kid I loved the movies , but I also loved the marvel and magic of hearing sound from a radio, and I loved to listen to the big bands ( 2nd world war era). I later got into music in a big way. Studied and played trumpet in small jazz band and sometimes filled in as 2nd or 3 rd trumpet with the bigger bands. As soon as i had money of my own I bought a phonograph record player and started collecting 78 records, then it was a natural progression, as time and money permitted, to bigger and better stereo systems.

Although I owned an 8mm silent projector and collected 8mm films in the 50's, home theater didn't really happen until vcrs and vhs tapes hit the market. I was one of the first to by a vcr in my neighborhood. I connected the vcr to a 19" Sanyo color tv, ran the sound to my Sansui ampliflier and huge speakers and voila, home theater.

After that, it became an obsession until I find myself where I am today with a dedicated HT and a 4:3 crt and widescreen lcd PJ setup, and sound to rattle the walls and drive the neighbors crazy.

It's been a wonderful ride and it isn't over yet.




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[ht_addict]

I've always loved movies and when ever possible would hook my boom box to the audio out just to get that more immersive sound. Really started to get into HT when I lived in the US. Had some time on my hands when I couldn't work for a year(visa issues), so I spent alot of time at my local BB looking at the gear. I started out with a Sony SAV-10 DPL setup which to me was awesome. When I moved back to Canada and got intro'd to HTF that was when DD5.1 fever hit. Within a span of 2mths I put together a DD5.1 setup consisting of:

Yamaha RXV-495
Paradigm Mini Monitors
CC-350
PS-1000

Within 6mths I sold the Yammie for what I paid for it and got a Denon 1801. Added a Rotel RMB-1066 a year later to power the fronts. 6mths later sold the Denon and picked up a Marantz AV560U to complete my move to seperates. 5weeks ago I think I finally completed my setup with addition of my Panny 47(16:9) RPTV. Now I'm in movie heaven.

ht_addict

[Danbry39]

I bought my first HT receiver in 1986 or 87, an Onkyo Pro 7, and coupled it with some AR speakers using a pair of Radio Shack linaeum speakers for the rear. I pretty much stayed with this system until around a year ago when I decided to get my first DVD player. Well, it didn't work with my old Onkyo, so I bought an Onkyo 696 receiver. I immediately noticed it didn't sound as good as my old Onkyo. Anyway, most of this didn't work well with my old Toshiba 35" TV, so I bought a Mitsubishi 55859. I didn't want to toss my old great Onkyo receiver, so I decided to give it to my eldest daughter, but she'd need speakers and a CD player, so I gave her the Polk RT 35i's I was using as well as another oldie but goodie Onkyo product, a cd player. I replaced these with Klipsch Reference speakers, a Harmon Kardon CD changer, and, after giving her my old Yamaha sub, bought myself a Hsu VTF-2. Still not being satisfied with the new Onkyo, I bought a Parasound 1205A amp. Now things were really starting to cook, but the two-channel sound was somehow still lacking, so I bought the Rotel 1066 pre/pro and a Magenta ADE-24 to make the two-channel sound more analog sounding. Stupid me, I hated the HK CD changer and, just this last weekend, replaced it with an Arcam 72T. Now, after we have all the above, two more DVD players, and over 200 DVD's, I finally have a system I love. A lot of money to spend for the year, but it's finally together. Actually, it cost a lot more than I thought. Each step of the way, my wife got to choose new goodies of her own: Two pentium 4 computers, new dishwasher, new carpeting, etc. and there's even murmering that she wants a good HT for the living room now. Hmmm, what's that about those Rocket speakers?




Keith

[David Meek]

It's been a wonderful ride and it isn't over yet.

You betcha! SACD, HD-TV, HD-DVD - the best is yet to come. . .




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker

[George Bellefontaine]

Nice first post, Kevin ( ht-addict ).

Tex, now stop that. I'm retired and can't afford all that new fangled stuff... :W




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[efarstad]

It all started for me with my love for music and singing to ABBA ("Vooley Voo...uh ha") and Eddie Rabbitt ("I love a rainy night") on my moms stereo growing up! Then as I grew older I started singing Bryan Adam, Journey, and a whole slew of other songs! 8) Then when I was a senior in High School I bought my first Prologic Receiver and a pair of Bose 2.2's!!! Now I was dancin' man! :roll:

Then came the Klipsch center channel, and smallish Bose box speakers for my surrounds! I had that for years, actually until I was married if you can believe it....I just didn't follow the industry much and thought I had a decent system. Then I found these Home Theater Forum websites and my life forever changed!!!

Yes, you people....all of you...are to blame for the countless $$$$ I've lost due to upgrades over the years. Not only did I get into HT, but I also had to buy separate 2-channel gear as well! That's how bad it's gotten...but it all started with "lovin' a rainy night" many moons ago! :B

E





The Norwegian A/V Nut!
E-Cinema

[George Bellefontaine]

Vooley Vous... darn it , E, now I have to go play one of my Abba lps.




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[David Meek]

But Erik, you are SO HAPPY now!

[Burke Strickland]

Some of my earliest memories are of watching movies in commercial theaters (or drive ins) with other members of my family, and falling asleep in symphony concert halls. (I was maybe four.) :>) So I have watched and loved movies virtually all my life. And enjoyed music during that time too. As a kid who thought he wanted to be an architect (Frank Lloyd Wright was my childhood idol), I used to draw house plans that included a home theater. My friends laughed and said only millionaires could afford anything like that. But I knew that one day, there would be a movie theater in MY home. Meanwhile, I heard a lot of music both on phonograph records and in live performances. Believe me, there was no doubt back then which was the “absolute sound”. While high end “hifi” was exciting (and beyond reach for a kid) and what we had at home, shared by the whole family, was considered good for its day , it was obviously not “real”. I knew that someday even that gap would have to narrow.

My first hifi rig in high school was a turntable that I earned the money to buy, plugged into a stereo table radio my parents bought for my birthday my junior year in high school. I stepped up to better stuff in college through some careful shopping for quality at low-budget prices and then bargaining like I didn’t have any money to spare (and that was actually true). When I got out into the world of work, I started the long spiral of upgrades that included early dalliance with surround (the passive Dynaco Haffler processor, later a surround ambiance synthesizer, and so forth). I got others involved in “stereo”. But I still listened to live music at every opportunity, and recognized that we had a long way to go in our home systems.

Meanwhile, I had “invented” home theater my senior year in college by plugging the earphone output of my 15” color portable TV into my stereo system. :>) Of course, I was limited to whatever was broadcast on TV, and that sorry state of affairs lasted until I got my first VCR, a Beta HiFi unit. Needless to say a couple of years later I was forced to go VHS. And graduated to a 32 inch Sony XBR a few years after that. By then, sound reproduction was making great strides or at least, my income was catching up with what was available at more than just entry level, and in December of 1995 I took the big plunge with Definitive Technology BP-2000s and shortly thereafter added BP-20s and a CLR2000 for a full surround system. Overkill for Prologic I was told, but the BP-20 surrounds are still in use today whereas smaller less capable not-full-range surrounds would have been retired by now. I had to get an external Acurus amp to drive those front Def Techs, since my JVC receiver wasn’t quite up to the task , and then with the addition of a Yamaha DSP-A3090 (which I used as my front end for Dolby Digital until the summer of 2001) , I thought I was in sonic heaven.

But while I was listening to the soundtracks in all their glory, and sharing all this experience online on CompuServe’s audio and video interest groups, I was still watching my laser discs (an ever expanding collection that maxed out at 500 titles) on a 32 inch screen. When DVD came along, I decided to start shopping around for something, well, BIGGER. I wanted more impact. In early 1998 after a life threatening medical situation that required hospitalization, I decided that although I was fully recovered, it was a wake up call, that it wasn’t prudent to keep putting off things like the projector I wanted, so I ended up with a Sony VPL-W400Q. That and a 10 foot diagonal 16:9 screen turned what had been a very nice TV with a killer sound system into a real theater for movies in my home.

Like I said earlier, I had always dreamed of having a home theater, even before it was something just anyone could have. I feel very lucky to actually have as nice a one as I do. But a little over a couple of years ago, I was looking around the room and lamented that I had not been able to listen to any of my vinyl LPs for over a decade, not having a working turntable. Meanwhile I had inherited a big collection of 78rpm shellacs, most of which had not been played in maybe four decades. So I set out to get a budget model turntable that could accommodate both. But a new well made one that actually sounds good is impossible to find these days. I ended up getting a Rega Planar 3 with a Grado Reference Platinum cartridge for my LPs and a Rega 78 (a Planar 2 with the motor timed for 78 rpm) with the Rega 78 cartridge. Far more expensive than I had ever planned to go with this, but a very satisfying purchase, all things considered.

I was now rediscovering music. Not that I hadn’t been buying and listening to CDs all this time, having been an early adopter , but movies had clearly been my focus. And it was a movie soundtrack in a demo of Martin Logan Requests (and other models) in a surround system at a dealer that got me started on the upgrade path again for speakers. But upon listening to a variety of speakers, I decided that my main interest was in optimizing two channel music, since I still had a killer surround system for movies. One day when I was at the dealer, waiting for a Rega demo, I spent the waiting time listening to Magnepan speakers. First they had the MG 1.6s set up. I had read a lot of good press on these, and with my demo CDs, they sounded really good. Then the dealer needed to “borrow the room” to audition a pair of tiny monitor speakers for a high roller from out of town and disconnected the Maggies. When Mr. “I can evaluate these speakers with twenty or so 5 second sound bites” left, the dealer asked me which Maggies I wanted to have connected, and I went for the 3.6s to check out the difference. He positioned them in the best spot and hooked them up, then put on a CD. Viva la difference! While I had enjoyed the 1.6s, these 3.6s absolutely made my jaw drop. I could close my eyes and sense that the performers were in the room. There was a palpable sense of space that transcended the planes of the speakers and presented a holographic sound image that I knew was superior to any I had experienced with other speakers.

I came back another day with a larger stack of demo material when I was getting the cartridge installed in the Rega and was joined by several others who also had their own demo material and were very serious about the Maggies. It didn’t take much more listening to convince myself these were “it”. But the bad news was that the wait on these was 14 weeks. Yikes! But I discovered that the dealer had a pair in their shipping area that had been delivered in the wrong finish and were to be returned to the factory. I would have ordered that exact finish, and so I asked if I could buy them instead. So I waited just a few days until they could arrange delivery to my home and setup by their staff. And after we had set them up in a totally separate system from my movie sound system (but collocated in the same room) and played a few demo tracks, the dealer suggested that at some point I should try the Maggies with a movie as well as enjoy them for music.

I did that and decided to merge my equipment into one unified system again. But I realized that even the best of my electronics, while not shabby, were not in the same league as the Maggies. So a year later I moved the Acurus to surround duty and stepped up to the incomparable BEL (Brown Electronics Lab) 1001 Mk V power amplifier. It is the perfect match for the Maggies. While I have never been a big “wire” guy, I also ponied up for the BEL “The Wire” speaker cables that were designed to work in unison with my amp for tighter control of bass, etcetera. The wire was expensive compared to the Home Depot/Monster bulk roll stuff I had been using, but a comparative bargain among “high end” cables.

But last and certainly not least, I finally decided it was time to get better resolution and detail from my preamp, and add DTS to my surround processor’s capabilities. I had first toyed with just getting a dedicated high end two channel preamp but figured as many boxes as I already have on the racks (two Bell’Ogetti towers) that I would be better served by a high quality pre/pro that “does both”. I looked at B&K, Theta, Meridian, Bryston, Lexicon, Meridian, Sonic Frontiers/Anthem and (on paper) Tag McLaren, but as many of you know by now, I settled on the incomparable (at least at its incredible price) Integra Research RDC-7. And I haven’t felt the urge to upgrade since. Oh wait – I did upgrade the RDC-7 this past summer. :>) And that brought my HT up to the THX Ultra 2 standards, so now I am running a 7.1 system for HT but “fall back” to two channel stereo for most music. (And I don’t see that changing any time soon.)

I've gone beyond just describing how I got started, but once your into it, it is hard to stop! :>)

Burke

[Andrew Pratt]

Its interesting that a lot of us have done similar things as we progressed along the winding road that is Home Theater

[KS]

Wow, did this thread bring back memories. I remember having a small (about 10 inches wide) Admiral radio strapped onto my Detroit News bag when delivering papers. Every week I'd take a bus to downtown Detroit and either see a Tiger game or go to a show.

I saved up $30 and talked my father into coughing up $60 to buy a stereo console for $99 for our family room. I couldn't count the times I fell asleep listening to albums. First movie soundtracks then, as I grew older, the Beatles followed to my fathers horror by the Stones.

I married young and always had some kind of system. I worked for a while in a Jewelry store and picked up a Panasonic two channel, put it in our living room and hung the speakers on the wall. My first wife was not pleased but she wasn't much of a wife anyway

As the kids grew money was tight but now my son is a pilot, my daughter a nurse, and I'm a HT addict. My children's inheritance is being spent on receivers, projectors, and amplifiers. My second wife of twenty years thinks I'm crazy but loves me anyway, she is a keeper.

Fun to write this post, I'm smiling with a small tear in my eye. Memories can be sweet.

Ken

[George Bellefontaine]

Ahhh, so true, Ken.




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