First Home Theater (apartment!)

Hello everyone!

I finally managed to get my last two components for my HT this Christmas. The new TV and a 360 to act as a media center extender (and the occasional game, of course). My previous TV was component video only, so I've just NOW been able to hook everything up using HDMI and experience TrueHD and DTS-HD.

First thing's first. I've been a long time lurker of these forums, so a huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributes here. I've learned a tremendous amount. Secondly, I DO live in an apartment, so budget was a concern for me as I save for a house. Slowly, over the past 36 months, I've cobbled this modest home theater together for right about $3k.

Equipment:
Samsung 52" B750 Series
Onkyo SR-TX708
Emotiva XPA-3
Samsung BD-P3600
XBox 360 (Media Center Extender)
Roku HD
AppleTV (1st Gen)
Nintendo Wii
DLINK DAP-1522 (4 Port Wireless Bridge, 5Ghz N)

Speakers:
Front: (2) Polk Audio Monitor 70's (XPA-3)
Rear: (2) Polk Audio Monitor 40's (Onkyo 708)
Center: (1) Polk Audio CSi3 (XPA-3)
Sub: (2) Bic America F12's (with subdudes)

That's it folks!












(just kidding plenty of pics for everyone!)

Wide Front Angle


Side Front Angle


Bell'O Rack


Rear of the Room


Back Right


Back Left (with Harmony 1000) (old R50's)


Back Left (new M40's!)


Back Left Naked (M40)


Another Front View


Front Naked


Receiver (with RF extender hidden at top)


Networking/Roku/Wii


Behind the Front/TV (I got bananna plugs for christmas too!)


Center Naked


Center & Subs


Subs Naked


Emotiva XPA-3


My apartment flooring is carpet on plywood (ick), and it's 100% nailed down. I decided for the time being not to pull it up and hide the wiring along the edges of the walls. I'm pretty much done for now. Upgrades will commence once I have my own house!

My to-do list:
Grab a ratshack meter, setup REW and tune the subs, if at all possible (probably a BFD, if needed)
Get rid of my crappy-ass couches and get something more theater'ish (maybe loveseat/recliners?)
Attempt to clean up a little wiring. I used cable management everywhere possible, but it's still a little cluttered behind the rack for my tastes.

Thanks again for making this a cool place to lurk AND participate, enjoy the pics!

X

Thank you! Yes, I've been reading up on the Emotiva Amps, actually. My current receiver does not have pre-outs, and I knew this when purchasing. I decided that being in an apartment, I'd go easy for the time being! In the future I'd love nothing better than to pick up a better receiver, an amp or two and get hardcore. =)


Thanks! You don't live upstairs by chance, do you?

I'm actually quite lucky. There's no one beneath me, nobody beside me (model apartment is next door), but there is someone above me.

I purchased the subdudes in an effort to try and reduce the sound traveling thru the floor/walls. I've only had the F12's about 2 weeks now. I was pretty impressed with them, however they are starting to break in, and are getting quite a bit more robust. I try to be courteous... No complaints thus far!

Thanks ddgtr! I'm not ashamed to say that I didn't pay full price for a single piece of this HT. I even got something shown in the pics at walmart! It's odd really, I know all my neighbors across the hall by name, but I've never had the opportunity to meet the folks upstairs. I did leave a note on their door after christmas letting them know about the new subs, and that they should come knocking if it was ever too much.

Thanks again for the compliments. I think the place would look and feel significantly cozier (is that a word?) with new seating!


Thanks for the welcome, ldgibson! While my Polks aren't considered the cadillacs of the audio world, I do have to say, I like nothing better than putting the system in two channel stereo mode, leaning back with closed eyes and listening to some good music. The front sound stage blends surprisingly well with the subs!

So, the RokuHD. Very Very cool little box. Has been trouble free thus far. I primarily purchased it for Pandora and the occasional NetFlix. Now, before someone chimes in and says "but wait! Your bluray player does netflix and pandora, and your 360 does netflix and last.fm!", while the bluray player does get great PQ, I'm going to be getting something more reliable. I didn't buy into the hype about the reliability issues on the bd-p3600, it's been in for repair twice in the 4 months I've owned it. I plan on replacing it with an LG 390 (I think..).

Netflix loads SUPER fast on the Roku, and Pandora plays and plays without any issue. Roku recently announced a Channel Store, with accompanying SDK kit, which is free to anyone! They're really trying to pull in more content providers to create additional content channels. If it takes off, it'll be pretty slick. The one thing which was weird, is that the Roku is an "always on" device. There's no power button, no nothin, however it only uses 3 watts in standby, and 5 watts PEAK, so it's kinda nice that there's never any startup time!


Hi hikarate! I actually aquired the TV stand from wal-mart. It's sold under one of their generic walmart brand names, but is actually made for them by Whalen furniture. It's VERY sturdy, and is a "hanging" type of mount.

My sub positioning is actually my third attempt and sub placement, after having an epiphany in the shower one morning!

Pre Epiphany: (subs were in far left corner and back right corner, seperated)


Post Epiphany: (crappy cell phone pic)


Thankfully, the second shelf was non-load bearing, and with the subdudes, everything made it in with about a quarter of an inch of clearance! It sounds a LOT better up front. With my cramped living area, I really had no other place to put them.

X

Well, frankly, the house is probably at LEAST another 24/36 months out. So for the time being, I can justify something decent for the hiney!

Thanks for the kind words on the setup =)


Thanks for the welcome! The tower surrounds work quite well back there! Never been big into bookshelves really. Mental/psychological block, I guess.

My extender also has a slight delay. The reason for this is that Media Center Extenders actually use RDP (remote desktop protocol). The host computer handles all the visual display processing. Each time you press a button, you wait for the IR, the networking from 360 to the host, the host to process the visual changes/processing, and the host to send the changes back to your MCE.

I still like the results, though. It was either the 360, or an Apple TV, and I don't have to worry about Apple TV running out of HD space! Windows 7 included native support for AAC (itunes) playback, so I figured I'd go with the 360 for the occasional gaming session too.

EDIT: FYI. For those curious, with the 360 and Windows 7, you get native playback of just about any type of format you need. It handles xvid/divx etc. No more installing ffdshow and various other transcoders to get this stuff working on your extenders/mce!

X

Since you're already wired on the 360, even switching to a faster computer would only shave maybe 10-30ms off the delay.

I borrowed an AudioControl 3052 SPL/Spectrum Analyzer from a friend. Sadly it doesn't have an output to a PC. Audyssey has been run on the receiver, and according to the 3052, has a impressively flat response across the board from around 110hz+.

It's on my to-do list to get a radio shack SPL meter and setup REW so I can see what the subs look like. Since the subs are somewhat on the "cheap" side, part of me is hoping that the room response will be decent. The other side of me is dying to pick up a BFD and have some fun tweaking. (sigh, more money).

X

Oddly, when I was testing the subs on that lower shelf, there were VERY few, if any rattles. The subdudes did infact take care one or two small twangs, and also seem to have tightened up the sound quite a bit.

The purpose on the subdudes originally was to try and do everything in my power (short of turning the volume down) not to piss off the neighbors. =)

There's still one rattle left to track down that only rarely occurs. I think it may actually be a wire rattling against the back wall/base board!

As I mentioned previously, I really only had one placement choice for these subs originally (damn apartment). The shelf is probably NOT the best place in the room to put them as far as SQ goes, but it's a damn sight better than my previous placement location, so it'll hafta do for now!

Thank you!


http://xari.us/pics/hometheater/new/

There have been no new updates to the HT since I posted this thread. I'm still VERY much enjoying it! I am however waiting to see what the new Onkyo 708 looks like (assuming they announce one).

I'd really like to get a newer receiver with pre-outs and maybe toy around with an Emotiva amp.

Will do, and thanks! I'll come crawling to the receivers/amps section for help when the time comes!


No problem, hope it was worth it for ya lol

X

Funny you mention that, with the temps getting warmer and me wanting to use the patio, I was just looking into some of the DIY cut to length wire covers, both hard plastic and rubber! I'll probably get that part covered in the next week. =)

Okay, the Egg had a sale on some polk bookshelves, and I picked up a pair of Monitor 40's for a great price! They replaced my old tower R50 rears. Wow what a big difference in sound! I always knew the R50's were "decent" for the ridiculously cheap price I got them at, but the M40's blow'em away.

I will post pics later today or this weekend.

BTW, I grabbed the Sanus 24" basic black stands thanks to hikarate's pics. I managed to get them for $28 shipped. The stands are decent enough, however on each stand, the MDF cracked when I tightened the screws. I was using a screwdriver and being very careful, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. If you can afford to splurge on metal stands versus the MDF's, I'd say do that. If the stands will be hidden from view and small cracks don't bug you, you can't beat'em for $30. Just one of those "you get what you pay for" scenarios.