Greg's Theater....and other junk/stuff.

Laziness has forced me to avoid making a thread lately. Considering I haven't had a drink today, I am slightly more motivated to do something here! This has all been done on the smallest budget I could get away with (and thanks to craigslist, you would be incredibly surprised how little this cost), as most of my discretionary income goes to my 2-channel system, my almost-a-museum collection of vintage motorcycles, and whiskey

Theater
Viewsonic Pro8100 projector
120" DIY screen
Pioneer Elite VSX92TXh
Pioneer Elite BDP23FD
Monster HTS2600
Xbox360 w/HD-DVD
Netgear WRT54G flashed with DDWRT working as hi-speed wireless bridge
Ethereal wired
Auralex treated
Lutron remote lighting controller

Boston Acoustics VR940 front
Boston Acoustics VR920 center
Boston Acoustics VRS surrounds
Dayton Titanic MKIII 15" subwoofers in 3ft³ enclosures x2
Dayton HPSA1000 1000w rms plate amplifiers x2

I have a pair of VR965's that I was using as mains and using the 940's as rears in a 7.1 setup, but after swapping the 940's to the front, as they have the same drivers as the 920 center, after tuning, it was a far better match, and I pulled the large, powered 965s out of the setup and put them in my studio space at work.

This is the lower level den, which is where most of our time is spent either watching tv or listening to music.


View from elevated kitchen at whole room. It's a long narrow space, 11x24'.
The layout isn't ideal for critical listening, but I pull that chair out into the center of the room for that. It's a give/take sort of deal for happy co-habitation.

Onkyo TX-SR707 as pre/bass management
Denon POA4400 mono class A amplifiers
Emotiva a100 for testing speakers
Monster HTS3600
NAD T515 disc player
PS1 SCPH1000 w/ modded DAC OP

Magnepan MG 1.5 qr's
Infinity S750 subwoofer

Homebuilt 160 strand braided aggregate 8g biwire cables





Another forum member was using this player in two of his setups, one being highly impressive, so it piqued my curiosity. After some research, I found some overly-hyped claims, but getting down to the actual modding of the unit, and really testing it out, I am very pleased with it's sound, incredibly smooth and mellow...while not "comparable to a $6,000 player" as some goons have claimed, it is faaaar better than the $40 and a couple of hours you'll spend on it.

I love them. Bought them years ago to use in my "library" since the headrest is adjustable...then I realized that I dont like reading.

Little update......

modified internally, sound is quite impressive... check out www.dogbreath.de and www.homebuilthifi.com to get the details

Thank you very much. I am not overflowing with income, so has been a process of smart, used purchases and trades through Denver Craigslist over the last couple of years to get here.

Local furniture store, have had them for quite a long time now

Sure, will get em up later tonight.
In the photo from the screen wall, showing the seating, you can see the cable running up the wall, they are midway between the chaise and sofa.

dammit, sorry had forgotten to post those pics of surrounds you were after.
Have a somewhat large collection of vintage motorcycles which have lately become a comedy of errors with broken bits and mechanical failures of parts that aren't exactly easy to come by.

Added an older H/K T40 turntable. (sort of)
Found at thrift in beautiful condition, currently making the plinth black and pretty with automotive finish, and hunting for a decent, entry-level phono pre....pics soon

edit: This isn't working right

apologies for the nightmarish a/v quality from my 9 yr. old digital cam

You know what's more fun than a theater....
.....a completely restored to perfection 1968 Honda CL450 Scrambler blasting down gravel and railroad ties.



after a year of building, "The Mule" is finally complete!

So, found a track in my music collection that I will definitely start using as demo in my theater....
Blue Man Group - Audio

Track 8 is using their signature PVC instruments. This is a 2-channel recording, but playing in Dolby PLII Music surround processing it sounds impressive. Great separation and clarity. The track adds one element at a time which is perfect. Just when a listener gets used to the sound, they add a new piece and increase volume, by the end, when all the instruments are going at high volume, they add the "big drum" which hits somewhere in the 20+hz range. Insanely dynamic, with beautiful decay on drums. Try it out!

Love 60's and early 70's motorcycles. Have damn near a museum in my garage of vintage Hondas (and 1 Yamaha flattracker) and tons of original old print ads, signage and odd dealership items.

Definitely a more consuming hobby for me than audio.

added these beauties the other day....



1st yr model, and only that year, 1970 JBL L100 with full crossovers and vertical alignment...I dig it.