righto well ive sold my old sony home theater setup some time back - like around 4 months ago - in th emeantime ive been waiting to tile my apartment - but ive gotten tired of waiting - so ive gone ahead and orderd the setup ive been after

okay - so lets start with the tv - ive decided to go with a plasma since plasma is still better for SD television - and i intend to get a full HD capable true HD tv in a huge size ie around 70" or maybe an HD projector sometime in the future - so for the moment for at least two years plasma will make our local tv broadcasting look good - so the tv is gonna be either this model or something very close to this


http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/...d=HPT4254X/XAA#

its a 42" plasma with 1500:1 contrast ratio - and can output 720p or 1080i - and its got a native tuner resolution of 1024 x 768 - not sure whether it upscales SD signals that it receives - if it doesnt ive got to find a scaler unit - and nowadays new models of receivers are soon going to be released which will upscale anything up to 1080p - but i cannot wait the 6 months

then on to the dvd player - i really want a great dvd player cos im not gonna be changing this anytime soon - its gonna last as long as i have the system - and maybe it will soon get complemented with some form of HD capable player - but ive selected this model from denon

http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3299.asp

the SA model isnt the CI (custom integration) version but it doesnt lose too much in terms of features for that - the player has received 5 stars from what hi-fi magazine in the UK and the local edition too - and is considered one of the best in the business at this price range (around R6k retail) - and it is also decent with stereo music - i mainly want it for its HDMI capabilities as well as the faroudja dcdi chipset for upscaling to 1080p (720p and 1080i selectable since my tv doesnt handle full 1080p anyway) - its a surefire winner as a dvd player - now on to the brains of the system - the reciever/amp for the setup will be the denon AVR2307 - linkie =

http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3255.asp

which is a killer unit for its price - it allows you two HDMi inputs and it allows conversion of all types of inputs to HDMI - note it wont upconvert/upscale those to 1080p but it will pass them on at native res to HDMI which is why ill need a scaler for MY DSTV unit to actually upscale that signal to 1080i if i can find such an animal here (it is available in the UK) - i have an alternative to wait for the 2808 which gives 10 watts per channel more in 8 ohms and has two major difference to the 2307 ie it provides decoding for dolby trueHD and DTS-HD which are the new audio standards for HD-DVD and Blu-ray - but considering that currently it is illegal for anything but th eplayer to decode those (in a move to prevent piracy) it seems highly unlikely that this will be bery important since i can actually still get the decoded signals from the HD player to the receiver in 7.1 PCM over HDMI with the 2307 - so it isnt a train smash not to have this

the other one addition the 2808 gives for the r4k extra its gonna cost is that the reciever also has the faroudja chipset so that any input source at whatever res can be upscaled to 1080p using upscaling algorithms to allow any source including vcr and tv tuner set top boxes and also things like playstation 1's and x-boxe's or any other SD source to be played in 1080p res - not gonna be easy to find an alternative means to do this but im not 100% convinced that his is urgent since even DSTV is going to actually start a new HD service very soon if the rumours i hear are true - so the new decoders will become 720p capable too very soon ie around next year this time - so maybe waiting 6 months more to buy a receiver is going to be a road to nowhere - so im just going to go with the 2307 for now

now we get to the speakers - well ive decided to get some acoustic research speakers since those fit into the pricing profile and also the performance profile of what im after for my large room - also these speakers have a nominal impedance of 6 ohms so they will actually increase the RMS output of the amp since that is a high current unit - at 6 ohms they will get somewhere between 140 watts and 145 watts RMS per speaker which will probably be powerful enough for the volume levels i want to play at

AR used to belong to the Harman group - but has subsequently given up its manufacturing to someone in China - so i havent been able to find a website for those speakers - but i have taken some pictures of the demo models - mine will differ slightly cos these pics are of the black ash version whilst mine will be the glossy "piano black" jobbies - so here follows the pics

fronts



another angle - and you can see the size by judging from the tv which is a 42" plasma



and then with the grilles removed so that you can see the speaker drivers - what you cannot see are the down firing 8" woofers that are located at the bottom section of the enclosures - the large ports are for those woofers



i will be using two sets of those - one for the fronts and then another for the rears - and then for rear surrounds i will have a matching set of smaller bookshelves - which i intend to wall mount to dimensions provided on dolby's website to make the setup into 7.1



then the subs - for now im going to get one but i will add another identical one later so that the bass gets evenly spread across my large room - its actually 5m x 9 m x 3m



12" drivers with 200 watts rms per sub - two of these will fill the room with bass - but as ive said one will work for now

the center channel is a unit that matches the front speakers but without the additional 8" woofers - but it has the same tweeters with the identical midrange/midbass drivers - so the front stage can be timbre matched

i will be getting all of this stuff either late this week or early next week so i will post pics of the actual stuff i receive since that piano black finish is going to look totally awesome IMHO - ive also started purchasing some demo dvds to check whether the purchase is worthwhile but including the amprack plus tv and audio sytem i think i will be getting some decent equipment - will report on the progress as it occurs - but i really cant wait for the new toys to arrive

you make me wanna chew my wrists

nice setup!

thanks Paul - hopefully its going to be what im looking for and i wont have to change too much soon - since im now going to be practically bankrupt - what with a new car + all of this and also forking out for lots of home renovations - but yeah hopefully its all gonna be worth it in the long run



why ???? - since if you have a few good poker games im sure you could get yourself something similar - just keep on meeting up with n00bs and im sure it will be like taking "candy from a baby" LOL

Question though: would a LCD tv not be better than a plasma?

I am jealous. I want to do something similar in my room. At the moment I have a 42" LG Plasma hooked up to my PS3 and am using Logitech Z5500's for noise. The room is quite large, 8m x 10m so I am usually watching my movies with the speakers on boost.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the cost of all this? The denon sites show prices in $'s, but you can never directly convert

LoL, yes whatever! You should know of better by now, old man :-p

Enthusiasts are NEVER satisfied for long.
I give it 5 years max :-p

5? look at warpath... he was trying to pwn his 30k setup for 10 or something ridiculous


The Yamaha system is a sweet deal... but why Plasma? LCDTV too expensive?

Oh, and I forgot to add, it looks GREAT!
Nice and balanced, no great component held back by an R500 DVD player or something like that.

since the screen is mainly for tv viewing the extra resolution of lcd wont be a benefit but rather a hindrance - ive compared the two and since our tv broadcasting is SD at the moment LCD actually is pixellated and distorted on normal tv and decent on dvd - but this is for the maon lounge and its more for TV than anything else



the lcd that id have loved to buy is a full 1080p 40" unit - iut now costs R24k - whereas this plama costs R13k - over time ie around 3 years the lcd im after will either drop down to around R12k when HDTV starts being broadcast here - so the plan is use this till then and get the l;cd when the price drops ie so id be spending R25k or R26k over three years butid have two tv's for that cash rather than pending it all now and in the end having only one tv - ive learnt with computer equipment not to be an early adopter of completely new and (at the time) useless equipment - we dont have any HD sources right now - HD-DVD and Bluray are still battling it out and consumer acceptance will be Dependant on media - and thats very scarce at the moment - HDTV is still a couple of years away - so ill get it when i need it - and ill be getting it all cheaper than the early adopters

okay - retail values as follows

1) dvd player - R5995
2) amplifier - R9995
3) tv - R13999
4) rack for equipment R2999
5) speaker set - 5.1 - R8999 - comprises of two rears and a pair of floorstanders + centre and Sub
6) additional pair of floorstanders - R2999 (to make it 7.1)
7) additional subwoofer - R2499
8) cables - two HDMI - R800
9) plus ive picked up a car deck upgrade - R3000 (to be paid for with the big system)

with discounts etc im getting it all for around R42k - which translates to roughly R10k discount if you count that lot up above - plus free delivery to my home - so im pretty happy with the pricing - cos everyone else will not be able to get it at those prices - and they will be closer to actual retail levels - maybe at least R5k more than what im paying for the equipment im getting - yes i agree that most people will not pay retail values - but these are mainly packaged prices - so getting a deal on a complete package is far cheaper than paying individual prices



thanks - im hoping it will sound great too

true true - but i have designed this so that the speakers are basically futureproof and the dvd will never ever be changed - only thing im likely to change is the amp for a stronger unit since the spekers can handle up to 285 watts RMS - so this setup is considerably more futureproof than most other setups ive purchased - and great value for money - since it performs way above what you would expect for the price - ive heard better sounding setups - but those cost twice the price for a 2% improvement - so im pretty happy with what im getting and i think the only thing that will benefit the setup is a a better amp or maybe this pair



but that pre-amp processor and power amp combo is $7000 each - so $14k translates roughly into R200k here - cos you need to account for import duties as well as vat and shipping plus dealer profit margins - so yeah but one can dream ...... hmmm maybe if they start up the lotto again ..... LOL but yeah speakers are gonna stay a while - amp will get changed when technology changes - but since i can get Dolby trueHd and DTS-FD via PCM it will be a while till i decide i need to change - and dvd will never change thats why im not getting a R500 cheapie to just tide me over - i will add the HD source when the format war gets decided ie HD-DVD or Bluray gets decided as mainstream consumer format and media is freely available - so hopefully it reamins as carrots said

Looks pretty nice Naughty.

Just for reference, when will it be worth to go for HDTV

Looking awesome Naughty!
I just have one Q, probably because Im a n00b

Why such an expensive DVD player? What makes it so special?
I have a R400 player that plays EVERYTHING, I mean I throw DivX with Ac3 on there and it nails it, along with Mpeg-3 video and WMV.....

in Bahrain - right now - in SA probably in around two years when the HD broadcastring standards are set



its got the faroudja dcdi upscaler - it plays at selectable resolutions of 720p/1080i and 1080p - so it will upscale the signal to match your display - also its as good as an entry level cd player for hi-fidelity sound - and its got a few tweaks such as 24bit at 192khz audio capability as well as SACD - an SACD player alone used to cost over R10k in recent times - and the picture quality from its decoding chips are actually more than 10% better than those cheapie players - and thats a lot - this is as close to having HD as you can without having HD - it actually upscales your normal dvd's to HD resolution - so no more R20 pakistani dvd's for me (not that i ever bothered with those anyway) - im slowly building up my collection - but ive only got enough for demo right now - not a real collection but see me in a years time - im gonna start buying one or two dvd's per week from now onwards



we are all n00bs at this this - even if i have a good system doesnt mean im not a n00b

im trying to build up my blu ray collection. it's just hard when the only places you can really get them from have the same old shit. i did find a nice range at www.have2have.co.za though and got 300 last week. It was <3 to watch that in HD.

yeah - thats why im waiting on the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray to be decided - i could jut get both - but i want a commercial unit that will play via HDMI to actual 1080p on a screen and also to be able to have full 7.1 dolby trueHD and DTS-HD capability - thats why im going slow but sure on this setup

plus im sure those discs cost a packet as opposed to dvd's which are now around a 100bucks on the average

have2have gad them nicely priced. R250 for each, which is R50 cheaper than anywhere else. but watching a dvd is even a pleasure with it scaled up to full 1080i/p

wait dvd player for 6k???? does it play blu-ray????

Eh. We just got the Bravia TV here. HDTV is at least 3 years off

nope - it doesnt play blu-ray or HD-DVD cos those use blue lasers whilst DVD uses red lasers - so this model plays only dvd's but it uses an upscaling chip made by faroudja to increase the dvd's resolution from 752x480 interlaced to 1920x1080 progressive scan - there are better upscaling chips made by Reon (found on samsung upscaling players) and also Realta but those are only found on really high end players that cost in and around the R25k mark - thats a bit ridiculous for a dvd only player which wont play Blu-ray or HD-DVD

the R6k one is of the highest quality that you can get for that price - and its got features that your R500 cheapie will never get - it also upscales divx movies - imagine a divx movie at 1920x1080 progressive - that should look as good as original dvd on a decent screen

my screen isnt true 1080p compatible but i can use 720p and 1080i - normal people cant tell the difference between 1080i and the current 1080p in current generally available equipment - though in the future the recording standards will improve till the 1080p will look far better and playback equipment will improve too



in that case when you see me buying a proper HDTV then its time for you to buy one too LOL

Make sure you show us some photos of the set up installed at your house when you get it!

okay - forgot about this thread for awhile - and the stuff has arrived and i have installed it - the speakers look all nice and shiny in the gloss black - and without too much of typing here are the pics

so first up i had to get the TV stand - this was cos the wall mount idea had to be shelved cos the 42" tv i was planning on getting evolved into a different idea - i wasnt too happy with a native resolution of 1024x768 - so i rather got myself the samsung 50C91h which is a 50" (127cm) monster sized unit - so heres the new stand with the TV on it - next to it you can see what was replaced ie the 51cm sony CRT



everything arrives - the boxes are all huge



righto - unpacking all the stuff reveals the front speakers (rears are identical sets of floor standers

front end of the setup - tv working and speakers all in place as well as amp and dvd player



rear of the setup looks like this - surround back speakers are smaller bookshelf speakers - gonna probably use those up in my bedroom and get myself some dipole surround speakers for wall mount purposes - also those give a diffuse surround effect so will be better - for now ive got some small sony surround speakers - not even gonna connect those for now - dont need 7.1 until ive got a blu-ray/HD-DVD player



centre channel speaker above amp/receiver and dvd player - upscaling on the dvd player works incredibly on the hugeass tv



subwoofer - this thing really pounds - changing my mind about having two - probably wont need two at all - the floorstanders create enough bass - gonna probably switch off the sub when just watching movies normally - and only switch it on for demo's - otherwise my neighbours will kick me out of the building



more or less now up-to-date - but future plans for the setup are as follows

1) link up HTPC
2) get Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo player
3) get the dipole speakers to make it all 7.1
4) get 2 crown xls202 power amps for centre channel and rear surrounds
5) get 2 crown xls402 power amps for main speakers - reason for amps are that the speakers are all being underpowered right now - and those power amps will probably be the cheapest way to get proper full power into them - not to get louder - but to have a fuller richer sound at lower volume levels and more control over the speakers

obviously all these additions are all over the long run - but for now its a great start since it sounds awesome and the only weak point is the stereo cd playback (must have more amplifier power to get that to a standard of utmost potential) - but when im ready for the power amps ill just decide based on what the highest powered amp that i can afford gives me - if its powered below what these crown amps will give then the crown amps are the best solution - the reciever will remain as a controller pre-amp

waw ...

Awesome. Dude...what do you do for a living.....??

I wouldn't bother with a combo player for HD-DVD/Blu Ray. Get yourself a PS3. It's the only player that will support the next revision of the BluRay format and HD-DVD is on the way out so expect the exclusive titles from that format to make their way to BluRay. Plus you will have an awesome gaming console for that mad setup you got.

I am envious I got a 42" LG Plasma with my PS3 and some Logitech Z5500(http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=za,en) digitals wired around my room. More than enough for me at the moment, but I wouldn't say no to what you have. Even the movie room looks pale to this setup Rocking a 60" Panasonic Panel in there with an upscaler to get some good resolutions all going through a Yamaha receiver and out through a Bose 5.1 system.

You are my hero sir

well firstly the PS3 is an excellent short term option - since the upscaler it uses for SD dvd discs is superb - and it does a decent job of the audio too - but it contains one omission that can never be addressed ie DTS-HD master audio - which is a better version of DTS-HD

DTS works on a "building block" principle - if the player can playback DTS-HD master audio - then it will - if it cannot it just plays back DTS-HD - and if thats not available then it just plays DTS - of all the options there DTS-HD master audio is completely lossless and is basically the studios final edit - you wont get better audio than that - and id love to be decoding that in discs in which it is available - the reciever that im currently using will be replaced at some stage by something that will decode the bitstream versions of DTS-HD master audio - but for now the PS3 doesnt have the capability of doing it over HDMI - and probably never will get this facility - need to research ore if it will be able to do it via optical

as for HD-DVD - those exclusive titles will eventually come to Blu-Ray - but HD-DVD isnt toally dead and finished yet - despite warners defection - so it will take a while before movies like transformers and lord of the rings (trilogy) make their way to Blu-Ray - right now to me transformers is one of the most excellent demo discs - and unfortunately th eversion with DTS isnt available here - id love to have the HD-DVD of that

so yeah maybe a thousand or two more - already i can get the samsung BDP1500 dual format player for a decent price - around R1k more than a dedicated Blu-Ray player - and pricing of that will drop like hectic over the next couple of months - i was tempted to pickup a samsung BDP1200 Blu-Ray player - getting it for around as much as my DVD player ..... hence a good deal - and that can do a thing or two that the PS3 wont - but ive decided to wait it out since im sick of being an early adopter - will wait till i can get it at prices that wont hurt my pocket

but yeah -im happy with how the setup is progressing - ive always wanted an awesome audio system - and this just is around as good as it gets - so im happy with it