Hi Everyone,
I just joined the forum having lurked for about a month. I thought I would introduce myself by posting my current setup. I dont think I am the target audience for this forum as it seems focused on audio with DACs and super-clean amps and I am focused on HT. Two years ago my basement flooded when a pipe froze and burst. That gave me the opportunity to build a small (14' x 12' x 7') home theater.
Audio:
- When I built the room I designed for Atmos 7.x.4 with in-wall speakers for all but L/C/R using HTD HD-W65 in-wall speakers. Admittedly the room is a bit small for the four ceiling speakers (rear two ceiling speakers are closer than I would like to the back wall) but it does sound good.
- The front sound stage is delivered by the HTD Level 3 Towers and Level 3 Center speaker. I went with HTD for all the speakers trying to get decent performance at a tolerable price point. I am considering building a new front soundstage from DIY Soundgroup. Maybe the HTM-10s.
- I built 3 x PE UM15-22 sealed subwoofers using Parts Express kits and am running them off 3 channels of two Crown XLS 2502 amps with a miniDSP HD for integration. With room response I have pretty nice bass frequency response, flat from about 6Hz to 100hz. I use REW and a UMIK to generate the filters, then run Audyssey to integrate and room correct the rest of the speakers and turn the subs back up after
- Audio processing is provided by a Denon 4300 into three Outlaw M2200 monoblocks for the front soundstage (L/C/R) and an old Yamaha AX-592 for SL and SR (bypassing pre-amp stage). Rear surrounds and Atmos ceiling speakers are running off the AVR.
- For streaming audio I have a sonos connect (no amp) running into the AVR and also use airplay from my phone to the AVR.
- I have done some room treatments using 2' x 4' GIK 242 Acoustic panels at L & R main reflection points, 2' x 2' panels flanking the L & R surrounds, and a 2' x 4' panel horizontally on the rear wall behind the MLP. I have thick carpeting & a thick shag rug on the floor.
Video:
- JVC RS620 projector to 100" Stewart ST100 Screen at 10' seating distance with four seats
- Panasonic UB900 Blu Ray player, Roku Premier+ and Lumagen Radiance Pro 4242 for HDR Dynamic Tone Mapping
I have been surprised at the reviews of amplifiers on the forum - I understand that based on my usage the Denon AVR, Outlaw monoblocs and Yamaha amp are sufficient and I probably wont hear any difference compared to the Purifi and Hypex products that are garnering such great reviews, so i am sitting on my hands and keeping my credit card in my wallet for the time being!
Changes I might consider making are room treatments and more DIY speakers for L/C/R. The room is small and owing to access to a mechanical room (furnace, water heater, etc) is laid out asymmetrically which isnt great for acoustics. I have the 7 panels on the side and rear walls but would like to do something like a fabric wall system to add more absorption but then I would have to rip everything apart and spend more $$$ so it will probably stay as-is ... maybe I'll get a few more panels. I do not have a great handle on how to use REW to figure out what treatments would benefit the room in which locations. This seems like more of a dark art than doing sweeps and building filters in REW to get good room response and integrate mains with subs, etc.
I'm enjoying following the threads on the forum. I have a BS in Elec. Eng. but went into software and then sales so embarrassingly dont have a great handle on how the discrete circuitry works. I am reading up though and it is interesting - I know I had a class at one point where I learned what a "long tail pair" was. I am looking at building a simple amp kit from Neurochrome to get back into it. Maybe the LM3886DR in stereo configuration for some DIY bookshelf speakers in my living room. I appreciate everyone's expertise and contribution.
Thanks!
David