Pictures of your B&W Set-up

[htsteve]

d52232dole,

I totally agree with Vancouver. A pre-pro will have many of the same processing features and choices as a receiver. The difference lies in the engineering and parts used in the pre-pro compared to the pre/pro section of a receiver. In a pre-pro, the circuits are laid out better, the power supply can be refined and most critically, all of the parts and chips can be upgraded.

Here's a simplistic view that I hope helps. Let's compare a $2000 receiver with a $2000 pre-pro, and break it down into it parts.

Receiver

Pre-amp and processing $900
Amplification $900
Tuner $200


Pre-Pro $2000

I would expect the pre-pro to sound and look better simply because it's had more money and engineering put into it.

Also, in the long run, it is cheaper this way. If you have separates and some new processing comes out, you only need to replace the pre-pro and not an entire receiver, where you would be rebuying the amps and tuner as well.

Finally, if you have Blu Ray, or are planning to get it, the uncompressed audio (DD-HD or DTS-MA) is awesome. And separaters will bring out the best of these formats.


Hope this helps.

[d52232dole]

Thanks, Vancouver and Steve! I got it now.

I also got a similar comment/response from another thread within this "B&W" box.

[leej]

My Stuff

A few Pictures of my stuff:





I know there is a color mismatch, for now. I'm working on that.
I'm considering a new center. Has anyone tried the CMC2 with 703's? Or maybe the HTM4?

[Eddie.Nyce]

A few Pictures of my stuff:






I know there is a color mismatch, for now. I'm working on that.
I'm considering a new center. Has anyone tried the CMC2 with 703's? Or maybe the HTM4?

Hi Leej,

Your pictures did not show up.

[leej]

Sorry!
I edited the pictures. Hope they show up, this time.

[Briz vegas]

What colour mismatch? The center channel matches the shelf it is sitting on.

I don't want to cause any alarm but your pet deer seems to be missing the back half

[audioqueso]

leej,
It's kinda weird and kinda cool with the "color mismatch". Yes, I know the left/right are black and the center is not, but then I look at the center and it matches the legs of the av rack. It's like those black & white picture where everything is in contrast. It's kinda cool. I like it.

Your setup looks like it must sound awesome for HT. Congrats!

[leej]

I don't want to cause any alarm but your pet deer seems to be missing the back half

It's not missing. It's in the freezer!

[leej]

leej,
It's kinda weird and kinda cool with the "color mismatch". Yes, I know the left/right are black and the center is not, but then I look at the center and it matches the legs of the av rack. It's like those black & white picture where everything is in contrast. It's kinda cool. I like it.

Your setup looks like it must sound awesome for HT. Congrats!

Thanks! I upgraded to the 703's (used) and I'm pretty pleased witht the sound. Still experimenting with placment. I've thought about upgrading the center, later on. If so, I would get it in Black. I thought about the CMC2, but no balck ash - only gloss. I'm wondering how much better an HTM2, or HTM4 would sound, compaired to the old CDM cnt. Anyway, its fun just to shop-around.

[Frank Helmling]

My Sony and B&W equipped HC-Lounge...

[audioqueso]

Whoa Frank!!!
Is that really your room!?? That is just... so smooth!
Wow... that's really really cool! It looks like something you'd see at some exotic resort. VERY NICE!!

Do you have any more pictures?

[Frank Helmling]

Thank you! The look/layout came up when my girlfriend wanted to be satisfied for my plan to pimp the living room to suit hometheater needs, so I invented this look to avoid stress. And now, I like it so much, I can't tell one...

[Briz vegas]

It's not missing. It's in the freezer!

Oh. The would explain why you called him "Deer Licious"

In Australia we eat Kangaroos but it is not common. Many say we should do it more often as they are better adapted and less destructive than cattle.

We don't eat Koala's however. They are too fast to catch. :roll:

[Briz vegas]

Very modern looking setup Frank

Did you consider reproducing the color of the dark strips on the side walls over the whole front wall?

I went with a sort of eggplant coloured feature wall in my lounge, partly to cover up a 1960s timber panel wall, partly to provide a less reflective surface. Given that your wall is not much bigger than your W I D E screen I am guessing that you could get away with it although it would highlight the white screen more when it is not is use.

[Hidefbob]

HTSteve,

Onkyo 885 pre pro
Outlaw 770 amp, 200 watts x 7

PS3 Bluray
Toshiba 65" rear projection
Toshiba XA2
Oppo 980H

B & W 802D ,htm4s center, DS8s side surrounds and in ceiling rears

I was thinking of audiogon in the 5,000.00 to 10,000.00 range for amps, has anyone had any experience purchasing equipment this way?

Thanks,
Bob

http://picasaweb.google.com/bchidef/theroomfinished

[Shyamalan]

Hi Frank Helmling.

I really love your setup. It's really nice.

Are you happy with the sound of the HTM61? I'm interested in the 600 series but some reviews said that this central channel isn't as good as it should be.

Thank you and congratulations.

[Blindamood]

I was thinking of audiogon in the 5,000.00 to 10,000.00 range for amps, has anyone had any experience purchasing equipment this way?

I personally have had great success with audiogon, both for buying and selling. However, I have pretty strict guidelines for what I will purchase, and how much I will spend on used gear. As with any online purchases of this sort, you have to be very careful. But, so far my experiences have all been very good.

[htsteve]

Hidefbob,

I've bought plenty of stuff on Audiogon. All my experiences have been quite good. However, I have not bought anything quite this big and expensive, even though I came close a few times. I have bought used expensive items, but I got them form my dealer, who does a robust trade in business.

802D's are special speakers and really should be paired with a very good and powerful amp. You also have a very nice budget to work with. For about $4,000 or so used, you can get a McIntosh MC402 (400 watts X 2 and loads of current, $7,000 list), which would be a fabulous amp for the 802D's. I have the little brother, the MC252, which is excellent. You would have a 2 channel amp for a very long time. Use the Outlaw to run the center and surrounds for now. The MC402 would drive GREAT bass from the 802D's. I did not see a sub in your room, so getting a powerful amp for the 802d's would really help the bass response.

Also, in the $6-7k range, you could also get a pair of used MC501 monoblocks (500 X 1, $5,500 each list).

Audio Classics also sells a lot of used Mac gear.


Hope this helps.

[Hidefbob]

There is an SVS pc ultra in the room which provides plenty of house shaking bass.
I like the Macintosh 402 or 501 suggestion.
I have purchased 3 large items on the net with great success but they were all from reputable dealers. Spending that amount on used equipment over the net is a bit scary Is there some kind of guarantee that your not buying an empty box?

Thanks,
Bob

[htsteve]

Bob,

Cool on the SVS sub. And also cool that you have purchased over the net the large items. Buying from dealers over the net is one thing I thought of, but didin't put down. You can do fairly well this way. It IS a bit scary to buy that much.

Keep looking, something will pop up.

[Relentless]

There is an SVS pc ultra in the room which provides plenty of house shaking bass.
I like the Macintosh 402 or 501 suggestion.
I have purchased 3 large items on the net with great success but they were all from reputable dealers. Spending that amount on used equipment over the net is a bit scary Is there some kind of guarantee that your not buying an empty box?

Thanks,
Bob

I have seen pairs of 501's in the $5000 range on Agon all the time. If you are going with Mac that is what I would wait on. There is no guarantee but I like others I have bought and sold high dollar stuff there with great success.

Find something you want to buy there, look at there feedback, look at the feedback of the persons writing the feedback and you can get an idea of who you are dealing with. Get there phone number talk to them.

In the end you are taking a chance but I have yet to have a bad experience with Audiogon.

[Ken49r]

Hidefbob,

Escro.com is a safe way of doing internet transactions for high ticket items. The fees seem comparable to Paypal with the added piece of mind.

https://www.escrow.com/index.asp

Here's how the process works: The buyer or seller opens an account with Escrow.com. The buyer sends payment by wire transfer, check or credit card. Escrow.com verifies that the money is really there or the buyer really has possession of the credit card and then tells the seller to ship the merchandise. The seller ships the merchandise and submits tracking information. Escrow.com verifies that the buyer has received the item. The buyer has a set time period to accept the product or ship it back. Finally Escrow.com pays the seller. Escrow.com is licensed by the state of California and is recommended by such e-commerce sites as eBay. It handles about 100 transactions a day. Its services don't make sense for inexpensive online purchases because Escrow.com charges a minimum $25 per transaction. Its fee is $63 per $1,000 value of the transaction if payment is by credit card and $32.50 per $1,000 for wire transfers, Abbey said.

source:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/escrow-abbey-fraud-2164091-buyer-sites

[Frank Helmling]

@Shyamalan:
I wrote a comment on the HTM61 in this thread:

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=31632&page=2

Very modern looking setup Frank

Did you consider reproducing the color of the dark strips on the side walls over the whole front wall?

@ Briz vegas:
I want to design and install some kind of absorber made from wood for the front to end up with a "dead end" around the screen and of course to darken the wall via the wooden colour....

[emig5m]

Frank, your first picture shows the 683 and your avatar and specs show 684? I had both, also used both with the HTM61, but regardless, the 683 was just flat out better. Bigger soundstage, deeper and more weighted bass, played louder, clearer/more detailed midrange, etc. Also, I found that plugging the port of HTM61 helped clear it up. I kept switching back and forth and it was clearly clearer sounding when fully plugged. Anyway, your room looks like perfection. That photo should be in B&W's catalog. :E

[Nolan B]

My Sony and B&W equipped HC-Lounge...

Its very rare for HT rooms to look stylish. You did you a great job!

[Frank Helmling]

Thank you guys!

@emig5m: I had both also. We're "d'accord"! The 683 is much better than it's price tag reveils. The 684 is for those with a "boomy" room tendency - otherwise, go for the 683, folks! As stated earlier, I wrote a comment on the HTM61:

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showth...?t=31632&page=2

[gross30]

Great looking gear Frank and Lee. Nice setups. :T

[ZX10 Guy]

Haven't posted in a while. But since I did post some pics here a long time ago of the initial stages of my dedicated room build, I figure I'd post some updated pics:






Balanced power transformers feeding two 20A circuits into the room.


Measured bass response in the room (PLIIMusic and Trifield):



I also had my Pioneer Elite Pro 141FD ISF calibrated. Here's one of the calibration charts for ISF Day mode:



I have a couple of things outstanding to do with the system...namely to add a Meridian HD621 and another shelf so I can put the Oppo BDP-83 off of its perch on top of my DirecTV HR22 DVR.

[emig5m]

Haven't posted in a while. But since I did post some pics here a long time ago of the initial stages of my dedicated room build, I figure I'd post some updated pics:

Your system is in the top three of my favorites in this thread... :T

[ZX10 Guy]

Your system is in the top three of my favorites in this thread... :T

Thanks!

[97disco]

Agreed!

Your system is in the top three of my favorites in this thread... :T

I would have to agree. Simple. Elegant.... near perfect.

Many elements I will definitely incorporate in my dedicated room.

Sometimes I feel this blog becomes a "measuring" market with the tens-of-thousands of dollars stacked throughout a room... as if it becomes an obsession to see how much high-end stuff can be placed in a single space.

But people like ZX10 Guy make this thread all the more better with their design (which is half the reason why I am here).

What a fantastic job you did with the basement (I assume)!

Great work! Thanks for posting.

[ShadowZA]

Haven't posted in a while. But since I did post some pics here a long time ago of the initial stages of my dedicated room build, I figure I'd post some updated pics:

...

I have a couple of things outstanding to do with the system...namely to add a Meridian HD621 and another shelf so I can put the Oppo BDP-83 off of its perch on top of my DirecTV HR22 DVR.

Congratulations on your most beautiful and elegant setup, ZX10 Guy! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy! :T :T :T

[Frank Helmling]

Beautiful! the clean and straightforward layout is sheer perfect.

Like a room in an art museum dedicated to display B&W speakers.

[ZX10 Guy]

Thanks again everyone for the compliments. While I didn't throw up the wall studs and the drywall, I did sit down and do a lot of the planning along with hanging of the acoustical treatments. I had a vision from the start to put together a room which would satisfy my acoustical requirements while not looking like I took what most people envision as a HT or recording studio and dropped it into my house. I wanted a seemless flow from one area of my house to the other.

I don't really have a desire to upgrade my speakers. While I know I can probably get closer to that like you are there experience with more expensive speakers, I feel I would have to substantially more money over what I've invested in speakers so far to get any significant improvements. At a minimum, I would probably be looking at 803Ds where I may do three across the front or two 803Ds and an HTM2D.

Oh and yes, this is my basement. Just as a slight aside, this is the rec area outside of the dedicated room:

[97disco]

Again, very nice. I take it no kids!

BTW, what acoustical treatments are you using?

[ZX10 Guy]

Yeah, no kids.

I got them from a company called Acoustical Solutions. The panels are Alphasorb panels wrapped in Guilford fabric. The exception are the ceiling panels which are wrapped in a suede fabric. You can also specify different edge treatments. The edge treatment I opted for is a beveled edge.

[Mark-n-b]

Haven't posted in a while. But since I did post some pics here a long time ago of the initial stages of my dedicated room build, I figure I'd post some updated pics:



I have a couple of things outstanding to do with the system...namely to add a Meridian HD621 and another shelf so I can put the Oppo BDP-83 off of its perch on top of my DirecTV HR22 DVR.

What a lovely room.

[Hidefbob]

What a lovely room.

That really is one of the nicest basement setups I have seen.
Having designed and built my own room I can really appreciate the effort and satisfaction that is realized from a project like that.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bchidef/theroomfinished

[sunshdw]

Made a few changes in my system. Added a Runco CX40HD, Rotel RCD 1072 and was able to move my 610xp to where it will do some good. More mods to my 683s to come.

Thanks for looking and comments are welcome!!

[fredBelgium]

Hello,



















:T

[Frank Helmling]

Hey Fred!

WOW!

Pure and straight, that's it!

btw: Is this your basement or any other room?

[Nolan B]

Good lord.

Is that really in your house?

[1oldguy]

Looks fantastic........Probably because it is:}

[sikoniko]

Fred,

Would you be willing to compare (probably in another fred) your old Classe amps to the Pass? Also, do you feel that the classe just were not offering enough power? Classe is coming out w/ 600W mono's soon...

[Freddie40]

I thought I would share a picture of my system with you. I have had my Matrix 802 Series 2 speakers for 19 years. I recently upgraded to the Bryston BP-6DA Preamp, the Bryston 4BSST2 power amp and the Pioneer Elite BDP-09 Blu-Ray disc player. At this point I think I like the DACs on the Bryston vs the DACs on the 09. For the first 19 years of these speakers I had a Forte Model 2 Preamp and a Tandberg 3006a power-amp. Upgrading to the Bryston's was a huge improvement in sound quality, plus I have a ton of power to spare. I clipped the Tandberg many times. I am using Transparemt cables and speaker wires for my system.

Dave