Our Theater (Third and Final one) - Page 2

My system has had a lot of changes since my last post. Front speakers are now Seaton Catalysts (LCR) and I will be installing next week 4 Seaton Sparks for side and rear surrounds. I will be installing a new PJ tomorrow (JVC RS55) to replace my 5 year old JVC RS2.

I have added a different music server (The Music Vault) which, amazingly enough presented the best 2 channel musical presentation I have ever heard. We even blind compared it to the 4 piece dCS stack ($77,000) and it was better.

My bride bought me new theater chairs to replace my trusty and comfortable Acoustic Innovation seating that I had for about 10 or 15 years. I have also changed the front ceiling to eliminate and vertically based null.

As an aside, when my wife and I met, I had 4 columns of equipment. It will soon be down to one !!

And I am in the process of selling all of my analog gear (REALLY tough decision). With about 1100 CD's (400 of which I have never heard) plus new purchases plus about 500 movies, I simply do not have enough time to listen to it all. AND, that is how I am financing the new PJ, speakers and setting up a fund for eventually buying a high end SSP once one is available that will do room correction better than my trusty Integra 80.2.

Most audiophiles are addicted and I am no different. One of the characteristics of all addicts is to blame someone else for their problems. I would like to nominate CraigJohn. I purchased some new wall mount speaker brackets and the only speaker that would fit were the Seaton Sparks so that is his fault. Furthermore, he has implemented wides in his system and raved about how wonderful it was. I needed more speakers to give it a try eventually, so the fact that I even purchased more speakers is also his fault. And in addtion, he introduced me to listen to stereo in non-two channel listening modes which FORCED me to get compatible speakers all of the way around. I feel better already

Just kidding. I am quite anxious to some day get to his part of the country (when there is no white stuff on the ground) and hear/see his system.

I will try to post some new photos once I figure out how to get a black and gray room to show up.

Current equipment list:

VIDEO EQUIPMENT:

JVC RS55 w/ Motorized Panamorph Anamorphic Lens
Screen Masking System by Somis Systems (one of a kind ! - he never built another one)
Stewart Filmscreen 2:35 120 x 51 inch screen

SPEAKERS:

LCR: Seaton Catalysts Powered Speakers on sand-filled Seaton Stands
SUBS: Seaton SubMersive HP (4);
Surrounds: Seaton Sparks (4) Powered Speakers

ELECTRONICS:

Integra 80.2 SSP
APS 1050 Power Conditioner (Front end and source equipment)
APS 2000 Power Conditioner (LCR speakers)
TacT 2.2XP with Aberdeen power supply ----------- This will probably be gone soon
Antelope Zodiac Gold Plus DAC --------------------- This will probably be gone soon

SOURCES:

Music Vault Music Server
Oppo BD83 Bluray Player
Direct TV DVR

ROOM STUFF:

Theater chairs by Berkline
RPG BAD Panels (both sides of screen)
RPG BAD ARC Panels (first reflection point)
Acoustic Panels by GIK
RPG Skylines
All four corners are bass traps and soffit around perimeter is as well

MISCELLANEOUS:

BlueJeans Speaker and Interconnect Cables
Control4 Equipment Controller

Craig -- where did you find that photo of that "speaker"?

I just installed my RS55 to replace my RS2. First the good news: Way brighter than the RS2 and the color/dynamic range is really much better. BUT, the primary reason I did the upgrade was the incredible DLP like clarity that I saw at CEDIA. Unfortunately, that is not there (yet). I checked the focus and did a quick check and adjustment of the convergence but that did not really give me what I expected. I have tried various settings also. I'd be surprised if calibration fixes this and I wasn't planning on having it calibrated until I get close to 100 hours on it.

I am also having an issue on startup. When I first power the projector on, there is no red. I have to remove the HDMI cable (the same one that was on the RS2) and replug it and then the red come on!! I will order another HDMI cable and see if that fixes it but I don't think the cable is the issue.

I have yet to figure out how to find the eShift control to see if it is engaged but I am open to any ideas on either issue. I'm a bit bummed!

As Harry Pierson of TAS once said: "if it works right out of the box, it isn't High End"

I ordered the interconnect for my surrounds (which will be here on Monday, and I can run them through the smurf tubing and solder the one connector so the interconnects will be ready) and now have power where each will be located. I should get my Sparks either this coming Wednesday or Thursday. Since the mounts are installed, I should be up and running (it will take a bit longer to run Audyssey Pro now) sometime Thursday.

First movie: Probably Tron. I don't even know if I have a 7.1 movie but I suspect I do.

Tron at reference is quite amazing -- a major smile creator.

My 1.5 day project for installing my new Seaton Spark Surrounds took a mere FIVE days

Installing speaker mounts; getting power next to the speakers; running XLR interconnect through existing smurf tubing; soldering the other connection; mounting speakers; painting face plates; completed.

ANYTHING that could go wrong did. For example: (1) I ran the interconnect wire through the walls with the WRONG connector in the theater and did not realize it until all were done, and soldered at both ends. Multiple runs to Guitar Center (no where near my home) to get converters and extra pieces of interconnect; (2) my soldering abilities needed serious work – SERIOUS. What should have taken an hour or so, took ALL day!!!

Tomorrow I will run Audyssey Pro and see what I end up with.

In the illegal drug world, there are pushers and users. Based upon what Craig did (with, for, to) you and me, it is apparent what category he falls into ;-)

Actually, Craig enlightened me on the value of listening to 2 channel music in surround. ----- way more fun (and realistic) than just using two speakers. While I have now invested many more thousands of dollars to get the best I can out of movies and music by upgrading my surrounds and adding two more, I am sure it will be worth the money and the (wasted) time.

My plan is to calibrate today and then try some music and movies. We are going to watch a movie tonight I have seen but my wife has not --- Hannah !!!

I will be using four surrounds. I moved my older surrounds (Dunlavy) out of the room. I'm not ready to enter the heights/wides play ground yet. There seems to be a bit of disagreement over how good it really is! It would be an expensive experiment!

Very old photos. Both sides of the screen have RPG BAD panels and the top and bottom are absorptive. The front ceiling is absorptive and bass traps!!

Did my Audyssey calibration (with CraigJohn/Seaton sub distance mods) and played the "motorcycle" scene from Tron at Reference - 5.

WOW!! WOW!!!

I had no idea what I was missing!!!

We watched Hannah tonight and my wife who doesn't care about any of this stuff commented on how we were in the middle of everything, (we watched at about reference minus 7 !!!


A 7.4 Seaton System is FUN

The brightness of the projector is amazing. I can have overhead reading lights on and the picture is still bright enough. And the color is breathtaking. Great picture.

I have not listened to any music yet.

Craig: sending you a PM.

Also, when watching TV, and having the sound set to Dolby PLzII, only the rear speakers were playing and not the side ones?