Okay - I live in a small apartment. The living room is about 10x16 (no common walls with the other apartments tho, and I'm on the ground floor, and my upstairs neighbor has been instructed to let me know the MINUTE I have something on too loud, and thus far has managed to completely miss out on Blackhawk Down, Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers Once (and Young) played at rather interesting volume in the past few weeks... But I digress...)...
Prior to receiving a Denon 1803 as an early Xmas present, sound was stereo run through a Marantz 2230 to some no-name (but not all that bad) speakers I've had since the early 90's...
Picked up a pair of Infinity Studio Monitor 120s at a Goodwill store ($10 each!) and one needed about $100, and the other was perfect. Dropped $150 on an Infinity Entera center channel the day after Thanksgiving, and will be replacing the no-name (now the side/rear) speakers with Infinity speakers in February. Rear surrounds are a pair of those little bitty cubes that I snagged cheap, and aren't the high priority at present - primary reason for choosing them was that they were easy to hang. Don't have a sub yet, and the neighbors are probably happy about that. The big Infinity speakers seem to do okay by themselves. May try to locate a very small one in the future - suggestions are welcome.
All told, it sounds pretty cool. I know everything isn't precisely matched, and all that, but I may have gotten lucky, because the test tone matches fairly well, and the whole mess seems to work okay together. Primary "test" medium has been an Eagles DTS dvd, along with lots of flicks with lots of things going bang... Goes very well with my camo netting curtains (okay, I'm a little weird, but hey, it's fun...). Too bad John Wayne predates Dolby...
Viewing distance at present is about 7-8' across the room to a 19" box. I'm planning on getting a larger TV in January, and here I'm starting to wonder... If I get too large, it's gonna look grainy, right? I'm _not_ gonna pay the premium for new technology at the moment, so however beautiful it is, the HDTV stuff is out. I may buy one when they cost less than a Hyundai...
I've seen "standard" 32" TVs at Sam's, etc., for in the neighborhood of $300-$350 and up. And I've seen 36" sets, etc., for a bit more - Will these likely appear too grainy? Should I consider smaller?
Alternative is to do some MAJOR furniture rearranging (two sofas, one monster coffee table, etc...), or have fewer guests over for "let's drink beer and watch stuff blow up" movie night. I can probably run the long way down the room, but it's gonna require some serious friend abuse, and a lot of beer, to implement.
Prior to receiving a Denon 1803 as an early Xmas present, sound was stereo run through a Marantz 2230 to some no-name (but not all that bad) speakers I've had since the early 90's...
Picked up a pair of Infinity Studio Monitor 120s at a Goodwill store ($10 each!) and one needed about $100, and the other was perfect. Dropped $150 on an Infinity Entera center channel the day after Thanksgiving, and will be replacing the no-name (now the side/rear) speakers with Infinity speakers in February. Rear surrounds are a pair of those little bitty cubes that I snagged cheap, and aren't the high priority at present - primary reason for choosing them was that they were easy to hang. Don't have a sub yet, and the neighbors are probably happy about that. The big Infinity speakers seem to do okay by themselves. May try to locate a very small one in the future - suggestions are welcome.
All told, it sounds pretty cool. I know everything isn't precisely matched, and all that, but I may have gotten lucky, because the test tone matches fairly well, and the whole mess seems to work okay together. Primary "test" medium has been an Eagles DTS dvd, along with lots of flicks with lots of things going bang... Goes very well with my camo netting curtains (okay, I'm a little weird, but hey, it's fun...). Too bad John Wayne predates Dolby...
Viewing distance at present is about 7-8' across the room to a 19" box. I'm planning on getting a larger TV in January, and here I'm starting to wonder... If I get too large, it's gonna look grainy, right? I'm _not_ gonna pay the premium for new technology at the moment, so however beautiful it is, the HDTV stuff is out. I may buy one when they cost less than a Hyundai...
I've seen "standard" 32" TVs at Sam's, etc., for in the neighborhood of $300-$350 and up. And I've seen 36" sets, etc., for a bit more - Will these likely appear too grainy? Should I consider smaller?
Alternative is to do some MAJOR furniture rearranging (two sofas, one monster coffee table, etc...), or have fewer guests over for "let's drink beer and watch stuff blow up" movie night. I can probably run the long way down the room, but it's gonna require some serious friend abuse, and a lot of beer, to implement.
