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[Korranator]

KLee,

How good is Onix Rocket Subwoofer :ELT SW-10se?

They have a great deal ging on right now for $799 which includes the fronts, center, rears, and subwoofer.

http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=60.1

Seriously thinking about picking it up.

 

[Kleegamefan]

You cannot get better sound for equal or less money than Rocket speakers...

They are the best value in the world, IMO.... I'm a HUGE FAN of rocket products

 

[gofreak]

Some great posts here from the usual suspects

Quick, slightly related Q: With Bluray and or HDTV what will be the standard resolution for movies? 720p or 1080p? Currently my projector is a 720p native LCD..I only bought it last year, and would be hesitant to replace it so quickly, but a replacement next year could maybe be on the cards if 1080p will be the standard with these formats. I'm not so concerned about 1080p games, but if the movies are there too, I'd be sorely tempted.

Also KLee - with dts-HD, Dolby Digital Plus etc - there are receivers out there at the moment that support these?

Thanks..

 

[Diseased Yak]

I have a fairly inexpensive HT system. As someone posted earlier, I too have one of these:

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cmt340c/cmt340c.html

and 4 of these:

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cbm170/cbm170.html

You can't go wrong with Ascend. They are Net-based only, which means they can sell a super high quality speaker for low prices. To go along with mine I got this:

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/subs/vtf2ii.html

Which was more than enough for my living room. It'll rattle pictures off the wall and scare my pets just fine.

Powering it all is an Onkyo 797 THX 6.1 reciever, which kicks all kinds of ass. This is being displayed on a Hitachi 53" Ultravision widescreen HDTV. Also included in the system is the Samsung HD Directv reciever, a Hughes DirecTivo reciever, a Pioneer 563A DVD player which also does SACD and DVD-A (Dark Side of the Moon on SACD is a religious experience).

I'm very happy with my system, and the whole thing can be had for around $5k.

Nate

 

[AB 101]

Look no further than JandR, who, along with One Call, are probably the most reputable online A/V retailers on the web...

They have it for $584......worth every penny, IMO:

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4027285


BTW, don't pay attention to the watts rating on Harmon Kardon products...they are VERY conservative (more like truthful) with their ratings than all the others out there...

NAD is pretty conservative with their power ratings as well.

They make a nice piece of kit. I have an old NAD 3020 integrated amp and it still works great. Rated like 40 watts or so. Got it hooked up to a old pair of Advent speakers.

 

[Korranator]

thanks for the suggestions, I'm buying the ELT package.

Will that H/K 435 handle a 6 ohm center speaker?

 

[Kleegamefan]

You will be a happy, happy man, I predict

 

[Korranator]

Will that H/K 435 handle a 6 ohm center speaker?

that ELT center speaker is 6 ohms.

 

[Shompola]

6 ohm on that H/K(wich is a PSU beast anyway) should not be a problem, besides 6 ohm center speakers are quite common.

 

[Kleegamefan]

Some great posts here from the usual suspects

Quick, slightly related Q: With Bluray and or HDTV what will be the standard resolution for movies? 720p or 1080p? Currently my projector is a 720p native LCD..I only bought it last year, and would be hesitant to replace it so quickly, but a replacement next year could maybe be on the cards if 1080p will be the standard with these formats. I'm not so concerned about 1080p games, but if the movies are there too, I'd be sorely tempted.

Also KLee - with dts-HD, Dolby Digital Plus etc - there are receivers out there at the moment that support these?

Thanks..

With both HD-DVD and BRD, the movies will be authored as 1080p on the disk itself.....this resolution is the same as film, which is 1080p/24.....well....actually its 23.98 frames per sec on film, but who's counting

Depending on the HD-DVD/BRD deck, you will have the option to perform all the deinterlacing and ( in your case) scaling either in the deck itself and then passed to your TV as 720p via HDMI..

OR

The raw 1080p/23.98 signal will be passed digitally via HDMI and then all scaling and frame rate conversion will be handled within your tv (unless you have an expensive outboard scaler, this would be the best option)...

OR

You might find a deck that gives you the option to do both (either scaling/frame rate conversion/deinterlacing at the source deck or the display itself via HDMI)


BTW, all this stuff also applies if you only have DVI+HDCP ins on your LCD TV as you can just use an HDMI (female) to DVI (male) converter for about $14USD...so no worries there


OPTION #1
Both Dolby Digital Plus and dts-HD are similar in that they are backwards compatible.....a Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie encoded in either DD Plus or dts-HD will be downsampled to regular Dolby Digital 5.1 or dts 5.1 output through the S/PDIF connector (either toslink or coaxial audio) on the BRD/HD-DVD deck to the reciever which "sees" the data as regular dts or Dolby Digital (in the case of DD+, the downsampled Dolby Digital 5.1 is played back at the max 640Kbps data rate.....no Laser Disk, DVD or even D-Theater movie released ever used this max rate)


OPTION #2
Now, if you want to hear the full res versions of Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital Lossless (MLP) or dts-HD you will need to have IEEE 1394 firewire/i-LINK or HDMI ins on that reciever....

HOWEVER

Keep in mind, HDMI v1.0 and v1.1 will *not* be able to pass a full DD+/DD Lossles/dts-HD audio signal....for this you will need HDMI v1.2 or better (you can also pass SACD audio with this version).....the only recievers that I know that are upgradeable to HDMI v.1.2 are the Yammy RX-4600 and both the Denon AVR-4806 and the super expensive Denon AVR-5805.....all three are only HDMI v1.1 but upgradable via firmware update due in the fall.....the reason for this delay is because its an AACS encryption issue on both HD DVD and BRD, but you didn't hear that shit from me...

Although these are all expensive recievers, Zoran, Silicon Image and Sigma Designs are no longer producing v1.0 or v1.1 HDMI transmitter/reciever chipsets so all the upcoming A/V recievers with HDMI switching(yes, even the cheap ones) should be DD+/DD Lossless and dts-HD compatible for those HD-DVD/BRD Player/Recorder and PlayStation threes......


One thing to note that HD-DVD products and BRD products will not output the same quality audio.....for example,the max bitrate for DD+ on HD-DVD is 3 Mbps, and on BD it is 4.736 Mbps.....just wanted to let you know that


Here is some info on the upcoming audio codecs, for those who are intrested

http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/DDPlus_FAQ.pdf

http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/DDPlus_Overview.pdf

http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/pa_at_AES Intro to Dolby Digital Plus.pdf

http://www.dts.com/company/press/press-article.php?ID=132784259&yID=2004&cID=1

http://www.dts.com/company/press/press-article.php?ID=267941252&yID=2004&cID=1


Also, I had a personal demo of Dolby Digital Plus and can go over its inner workings here, if you wish

 

[Kleegamefan]

Will that H/K 435 handle a 6 ohm center speaker?

that ELT center speaker is 6 ohms.

A match made in heaven......eargasm is close at hand

 

[----]

I was considering getting this 7.1 Onkyo HT-S780S

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/502005404

I don't know if I really want 7 speakers cluttering up the room. The 230 watt powered subwoofer sounds like it could solve some of the problems I'm having with my current setup.

I have an old Kenwood 5.1 Home Theater system right now which I am really unhappy with because the subwoofer is not powered, the surround speakers are very weak, and there is only 1 optical input. I'm going to try to buy some decent speaker wire for it, but I still think it is going to suck.

 

[chief]

whats a good set of speakers. i already got my reciever and i just need to get some high quality speakers and a nice subwoofer to finish it off. its going to be a 7.1 set up. a few links would help to certain speakers or just the name of any good speaker manufacturer.

 

[Kleegamefan]

There is a SEA of audiophile speaker makers out there....I can perhaps name 20 of them off the top of my head...

Start off with letting us know what your budget is and what your space requirements are and that will narrow it down for us....

 

[gofreak]

long useful post

Cheers Klee!

Looks like a 1080p display is in my future sometime in the next 12-18 months afterall. Hopefully there's a decent choice available after that time, both in projectors and LCDs.

 

[Oni Jazar]

Ok I had a good local deal for the Onkyo TX-LR552 receiver ($178) and I wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts on it or how it compares to the Panasonic SA-XR25S. The thing is I really want something slim and these two seem to be good.

The biggest difference that I can see is that the Panasonic has 100watts per channel while the Onkyo only has 65watts. I am 100% planning on getting the Athena micra 6 speaker set for whatever receiver I end up getting but I need to know if the watt difference is a huge deal breaker. I have a small one bedroom apartment so I dont really need super power but if it's a big deal then I'll take it back and get the Panasonic.

TX-LR552 http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Onkyo T...i7gSHAD;_ylu=X3oDMTA5ZW01N2htBHNlYwNiZ3NpYg--

SA-XR25S http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Panason...i7gSHAD;_ylu=X3oDMTA5ZW01N2htBHNlYwNiZ3NpYg--

 

[Oni Jazar]

Allright disregard the last post (note to South Florida and Atlanta peeps: FSCK BRANDSMART). I got the Panasonic SA-XR25S and the Athena Micra 6 speakers. The speakers are already setup and the Panasonic receiver just arrived and waiting for me to get home tonight. Anyone have any tips for a 5.1 newbie?

One question I have is what is the subwoofer cable? Is it just an RCA cable? I bought a gold plated radio shack subwoofer cable but there's a Y split at the end which doesn't make sense

 

[Vark]

Dammint Klee... I'm currently $700 poorer...

http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=69.1

But so much Happier for it

Now I need to wait for my amex to rollover to get the other 5 speakers *sigh*

 

[Vark]

Convince me not to buy this for my office...

Go!

Damn these people and their infernal sales! Who the hell discounts something like That?

 

[Vark]

Got my PBS / ELT combo in today... Holy.. Hell.

I have to say I have a bit of a weird set up. Its in a townhouse so Bass isn't exactly a strong option (noise complaints and all). I set the PBS's to ~ 120HZ with maybe 60 percent volume and even in my oddly shaped open air room they provide plenty of bass. Mid and High tones are incredibly sharp and have this roundness thats almost hard to describe.

If it says anything, I had my speakers delivered to my parents house, where they have a full THX cert MnK system, i showed my Mom the rosewood rockets and she was literally agape at the finish on them. She said something about them being 'better than those black things downstairs'.

Unfortunately there's an audible buzz / pop in one of the PBS's and I'm going to have to have it replaced From what I understand though the Onix guys are very on top of things.

In other news, I pulled out the X88 CD player... I wasn't aware a CD player could weigh that damn much.

 

[Yusaku]

Slightly offtopic, but does anyone think there will be affordable HDMI/DVI switch boxes by the time 360/PS3 come out?

 

[Wunderchu]

http://gear.ign.com/articles/635/635835p1.html

 

[brocke]

Yeah definatly bring your own CD to try each one out. Preferably bring a DVD with dolby digital 5.1 on it.

I would check out the different systems available at the high end stores, since those are usually the ones that have working surround sound systems with all the speakers plugged in and functional. I work at Best Buy Home Theater and about 3/4 of our home theater systems aren't plugged in to more than 2 speakers.

So in short, try it out at a high end store, then go and buy your system for a cheap price at a store like Best Buy or Circuit City etc.