Recommendation For A Decent Sound System.

[RimBlock 0]

Hi RB, curiously when I went to choose/buy my kit, my wife was heavily involved because (a) we were spending a fair bit of money (b) she didn't want anything functional but hideous © allowed us to play good guy/bad guy with the salesman. I would say how great the system was, wife would look very unconvinced preferring some much cheaper nasty stuff, she would start to walk away, I would look ruefully at the salesman and start my trip to the door and then he would crack open just a little which was then the signal for my wife to swoop on him and cut him to shreds with Olympic class bargaining skills. It was so funny because the salesman was lost as he was used to extolling the merits for this technical feature or that and my wife was telling him she couldn't care less and that it was an ugly box and if she had to have it in her house it was certainly going to be at firesale prices. It was worth it just for all the drama...I'm sure the salesman would run out screaming if he ever saw "she who must be obeyed" walk into his store again

Nice teamwork.

I jest of course with the previous comments as my wife likes to come along and feel she has the final say in spending that sort of money but she is not really that interested in the movie / music thing and whilst she likes watching on our 100" projector screen with the sound flowing around, she leaves the details to me and then decides what she will buy for herself / the kids to balance out the chi .

Have not informed her I may be looking for another subwoofer to replace the sold one or an upgrade on the centre speaker.... I will leave that for a couple of months I think after the pay with the new pay rise comes in .

RB

[RimBlock 0]

Found 2 great sites regarding viewing distance for 3D or HDTV.

http://www.hightech-edge.com/optimal-viewi...nce-chart/4351/

http://www.best-3dtvs.com/guides/best-scre...ewing-distance/

Nice find, I like the bottom one best and for those who 'just want the facts mam', skip to the summary at the bottom.

The method used in the second suggests for a 100" image at 1080p I should be 4 metres away (13ft). I sit around 16ft away and it is fine for me. This is in part due to furniture and room shape so no-one should be hung up on getting it exactly right. Adding to this is the fact that we have a 42" plasma for when we are not using the projector which means we should be even closer still.

So, what I need to ask for next is remote controlled movie seats. Maybe one of these or even one of these .

RB

[RimBlock 0]

RM

Youre a fresh air in this forum. Good on you!!!

I am guessing this is for me. .

If so thanks. Just different perspectives and a will to put them across. Whilst I would never claim to be an expert in this I have enough experience to be able to give some, sometimes hard won, pointers, the best of which is to go and try for yourself. I also like to be fairly light hearted and whilst cultures may differ, hopefully the funnies come across ok. You read my T-Blog yet..... there is more in there .

RB

[RimBlock 0]

Any shops to recc for what u recc??I only went kec so far

Sorry Marc, I got side tracked with Ely claiming she was a WoW chick and a real female but without providing pictures .

To be honest I have only dealt with KEC but I would advise googling for shops in The Adelphi or looking in the Yellow Pages for the same and giving them a call or just going there and asking around.

RB

[mars73 0]

Ely

Just curious. How much was the SVS sub that you upgraded to? Have you had a listen and was it worth the difference in price?

[Ely1 0]

Whilst I wouldn't like to to go against common knowledge of all husbands that our wife is always right, looking at the Oppo website it seems the 83 is actually discontinued and replaced by the 93 so your hubby may be right to want to upgrade .

RB

Yep, it was the NTFS/FAT32 thing that did it for me in a heartbeat. Salesguy did not have to say more. Besides, it was only a $210 difference so it made perfect sense to me. It's the loyal 83 fans who believe the 83's upscaling is superior that is keeping the price difference very minimal (like on eBay). Rest of us hopefuls are awaiting new firmware updates with the Marvell chip's potential.

-Ely

[Ely1 0]

Sorry Marc, I got side tracked with Ely claiming she was a WoW chick and a real female but without providing pictures .

To be honest I have only dealt with KEC but I would advise googling for shops in The Adelphi or looking in the Yellow Pages for the same and giving them a call or just going there and asking around.

RB

I never mentioned playing WoW, though I did - was an Undead Mage. The best game so far is still Dark Age of Camelot (played Lineage, Guild Wars, Allods Online, etc).

Pics as promised:

-Ely

[RimBlock 0]

Yep, it was the NTFS/FAT32 thing that did it for me in a heartbeat. Salesguy did not have to say more. Besides, it was only a $210 difference so it made perfect sense to me. It's the loyal 83 fans who believe the 83's upscaling is superior that is keeping the price difference very minimal (like on eBay). Rest of us hopefuls are awaiting new firmware updates with the Marvell chip's potential.

-Ely

Haha, only S$210 difference..... lucky hubby to have found you. I had to negotiate heavily to get S$120 surround speakers . Saying that we have recently bought and reno'd the EM and the credit cards are creaking a bit under the strain .......

Any reason why you decided on the Oppo and a media player rather than just ripping to a hard drive and streaming your media (BluRay / CD / DVD) ?

RB

[RimBlock 0]

I never mentioned playing WoW, though I did - was an Undead Mage.

Lucky guess .

RB

[Ely1 0]

Nice find, I like the bottom one best and for those who 'just want the facts mam', skip to the summary at the bottom.

The method used in the second suggests for a 100" image at 1080p I should be 4 metres away (13ft). I sit around 16ft away and it is fine for me. This is in part due to furniture and room shape so no-one should be hung up on getting it exactly right. Adding to this is the fact that we have a 42" plasma for when we are not using the projector which means we should be even closer still.

So, what I need to ask for next is remote controlled movie seats. Maybe one of these or even one of these .

RB

LOL, love the chairs. Yes, nice chart there, Drexter - calculated my distance and it should be fine with a 46" and a wide couch, so can hang on the edge for 70 degree FOV. heh.

Thanks for the links!

-Ely

[Ely1 0]

Ely

Just curious. How much was the SVS sub that you upgraded to? Have you had a listen and was it worth the difference in price?

Haven't upgraded yet, but it's definitely in the works, especially after Vicenzo has spoken

Price difference should be another $500. *ouch*

-Ely

[Ely1 0]

Haha, only S$210 difference..... lucky hubby to have found you. I had to negotiate heavily to get S$120 surround speakers . Saying that we have recently bought and reno'd the EM and the credit cards are creaking a bit under the strain .......

Any reason why you decided on the Oppo and a media player rather than just ripping to a hard drive and streaming your media (BluRay / CD / DVD) ?

RB

Using the AC Ryan (more formats supported) as a NAS (2TB built in) so the computer doesn't have to be turned on all the time (though it is rare that it is off~). Computer wirelessly streams downloads to the NAS, which is attached to the receiver. Going to use the Oppo as a dedicated disc player. Seems a little redundant and excessive now, doesn't it? Ha! Just another shinnnnny precioussss sitting on the console

-Ely

[RimBlock 0]

Using the AC Ryan (more formats supported) as a NAS (2TB built in) so the computer doesn't have to be turned on all the time (though it is rare that it is off~). Computer wirelessly streams downloads to the NAS, which is attached to the receiver. Going to use the Oppo as a dedicated disc player. Seems a little redundant and excessive now, doesn't it? Ha! Just another shinnnnny precioussss sitting on the console

-Ely

Copying the files wirelessly may be a bit slow but sure beats laying cat6. The main advantage I think the Oppo will give is access the BD+ material if you like funky menus and little games on the BluRay discs.

Be aware that if you are ripping full rather than converting to MKV or the like then the 2TB will fill up pretty fast. Mine has but I have a 20 bay server chassis so I can just slot a couple more drives in. The NAS is using a low(ish) powered dual core so doesn't draw too much power. Part of the human condition is to expand to fill all available space .

Any thought to backup of all the ripped movies ? A failed hard drive could cost you a lot of time filling and ripping again. An external second drive would be a cheap solution.

The WD also supports everything I have thrown at it. I think RM is just about the only unsupported format I have found a it is licensed from Real Media but the WD was twice the price of the ACR Mini when I bought.

RB

[Ely1 0]

Copying the files wirelessly may be a bit slow but sure beats laying cat6. The main advantage I think the Oppo will give is access the BD+ material if you like funky menus and little games on the BluRay discs.

Be aware that if you are ripping full rather than converting to MKV or the like then the 2TB will fill up pretty fast. Mine has but I have a 20 bay server chassis so I can just slot a couple more drives in. The NAS is using a low(ish) powered dual core so doesn't draw too much power. Part of the human condition is to expand to fill all available space .

Any thought to backup of all the ripped movies ? A failed hard drive could cost you a lot of time filling and ripping again. An external second drive would be a cheap solution.

The WD also supports everything I have thrown at it. I think RM is just about the only unsupported format I have found a it is licensed from Real Media but the WD was twice the price of the ACR Mini when I bought.

RB

Shamelessly, I'll have to admit that I own two WD Media Players too lol! Going to use them in the other bedrooms, and of course, quite a number of external HDDs. One Seagate purely for backup, but the rest are portable so I can move my media about (TV series, workout videos, etc) - I think I like everything compartmentalised and organised. The AC Ryan allows more HDDs too so not too worried about the 2TB limit.

I definitely don't want wires around - one my biggest pet peeves so I try to keep everything as uncluttered as possible. I still cringe at necessary trunking.

Won't be ripping - I plan to collect and keep hard copies of the films I NEED to have on Blu-Ray and on DVD, and the rest are MKV, BD-ISO etc (like nonsense films like Beverly Hills Chihuahua *blush*). Quite obviously, the geek in me insists that Godfather, LOTR, Star Wars, 300, Band of Brothers, Kill Bill, Avatar, Bourne Collection, Black Hawk Down, are in the NEED category.

The WD is a gem, and I only got it because of its multi-format support. It cost quite a bit when I got it but no regrets with this one.

-Ely

[RimBlock 0]

Shamelessly, I'll have to admit that I own two WD Media Players too lol! Going to use them in the other bedrooms, and of course, quite a number of external HDDs. One Seagate purely for backup, but the rest are portable so I can move my media about (TV series, workout videos, etc) - I think I like everything compartmentalised and organised. The AC Ryan allows more HDDs too so not too worried about the 2TB limit.

I definitely don't want wires around - one my biggest pet peeves so I try to keep everything as uncluttered as possible. I still cringe at necessary trunking.

Won't be ripping - I plan to collect and keep hard copies of the films I NEED to have on Blu-Ray and on DVD, and the rest are MKV, BD-ISO etc (like nonsense films like Beverly Hills Chihuahua *blush*). Quite obviously, the geek in me insists that Godfather, LOTR, Star Wars, 300, Band of Brothers, Kill Bill, Avatar, Bourne Collection, Black Hawk Down, are in the NEED category.

The WD is a gem, and I only got it because of its multi-format support. It cost quite a bit when I got it but no regrets with this one.

-Ely

Sure, the two different ways of doing it. I prefer distributed so have a central NAS with media player but have installed cat6 in all the bedrooms, living room, kitchen and study. One box with the media and backups and no multiple hard drives to put the latest movies on. We also have two mio TV installs and two XBox 360s so laying cable also helps with those.

Both methods are very valid. If you are going wireless then probably best sticking to a dedicated player for BluRay. Of course home plugs are another option.

RB