Tim's Ultimate Home Theater
Here's a wider shot of the whole system - and its movie list
A shot of the lower components
One of the main speakers, an M+K S150THX (with a Domo Kun mascot)
One of the main speakers sans grille
The guts of the system reside in this component rack, to the right of the seating area
Another rack of movies and laserdiscs.
I built this system after working at Sears during the summer of 2000. Sadly, Sears doesn't carry any audio/video components that would pass Tim-quality-control, so I pieced together the system from various sources, including downtownaudio.com, 800.com, ebay, Marconi Radio in Glendale, and Crutchfield.com. The end result is the following system, of which I am pretty proud:
Component stack
Receiver: The brains of the operation, this THX Select certified Onkyo TX-DS777 delivers 105 watts to each of the five satellites (or 180 watts into each of the L/R speakers for stereo music). My favorite feature is the "THX Cinema" mode, which incorporates several proprietary THX technologies such as Re-Equalization, Timbre-matching, Adaptive Decorrelation, Bass Management, Bass Peak-level Manager, and Loudspeaker Position Time Synchronization. Of course it does DTS and Dolby Digital decoding, and is controllable via a nice on-screen display.
DVD player: A basic Pioneer model, this DV-333 (with updated Error-correcting firmware) connects to my receiver via a MonsterLink optical cable for lossless digital sound transfer. It supports Mpeg-video, CD-R's and CD-RW's, and of course DTS and Dolby Digital.
Laserdisc player: A Pioneer CLD-M301, this unit plays the laserdiscs I've been collecting from Ebay. What's great about laserdiscs are that they are incredibly cheap compared to DVD's (and even new VHS tapes) but are still of spectacular quality. (my friend Terry, a professional video editor, still swears by laserdisc quality versus that of DVD's). Several movies, such as the original Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones trilogy, are not available on DVD, but ARE available on laserdisc. I have about fifty laserdisc movies to date, the newest being Saving Private Ryan (which looks *incredible*).
VCR: I chose this Panasonic PV-S7680 because it had all the features of the top-of-the-line Sony R-1000 S-VHS VCR, at half the price. This VCR is bulletproof; in three years of constant use it has only needed service once (for a jammed loading mechanism). It has an audio level meter on the front (which is helpful in editing) and uses S-video, as well as the higher-resolution Super-VHS tapes. Unfortunately, this VCR is expensive, but if you can find one cheap I recommend it. It also has a nice wide-body design that fits perfectly into a rack mount.
Projector - This new model from Infocus, the X1, is an entry-level Digital Light Processing projector, that creates quite a nice picture. The DaLite screen it is being projected onto is currently configured for 72 diagonal inches.
This year, my roommates and I also sprung for Dish Network service; we have a 20-inch Dish500 on our roof, and a Dish301 receiver. Right now, it's set up to get local channels (go Lakers), and 100 cable channels (at least twenty of which are good). ;) The satellite receiver is a must in Irvine, which seems to be in a radio black hole.
Satellite speakers: My new THX Ultra certified Miller and Kreisel S-150THX speakers handle main Left/Right channel duty. These speakers are rated up to 400 watts RMS, and have a wonderful flat tonal quality, and produce fantastic uncolored sound (unlike "no highs no lows" Bose)
The THX Select certified Miller and Kreisel 750-THX Mk-I satellites handle the Surround channels. They have two mid-woofers like the S150's, but only one tweeter.
All speakers are powered by heavy Mogami 10-gauge speaker wire. This summer, my dad and I made the speaker stands you see here. We used 1/2 inch birch plywood, covered with concert fabric to match the speaker color, as well as to give them a rugged exterior for portability. The rear stands are weighed down by lead shot bags, so they don't tip over, and weigh in at almost 50 pounds each. The front stands have no weights except the stacks of laserdiscs at the bottom, which, in that volume, are probably just as heavy as the lead shot bags. My dad and I also fabricated custom alumninum brackets to secure the speakers to the stands, so they cannot be knocked over accidentally, or taken off without some effort. ;)
Subwoofer: The Miller & Kreisel V-1250THX subwoofer handles bass duty in this configuration. One aspect of speaker design that M&K avoids like the plague is that of speaker ports. On some cheaper subwoofers you may notice a gaping hole in the side of the cabinet. This hole, while raising the VOLUME of the subwoofer, contributes significantly to distortion via air noise as well as slow, boomy bass. The M&K subs avoid this problem completely by designing the driver into an airtight cabinet, then adding a more powerful amplifier. This way, the bass is quick and surgically-precise, allowing it to be versatile enough to handle classical music as adeptly as the Armageddon DVD. This sub is powered by a 125-watt internal amplifier, with a 12" driver.
I also recommend audioreview.com as a place to research your home theater purchases and see what current and previous owners have to say to prospective buyers about the products. What I learned from AudioReview helped me to choose each component in this system. I'm happy to answer questions or give suggestions too, feel free to email me. :-)
