Home Theatre
Home TheatreI have recently purchased my first receiver and speakers for a starter home theatre setup in my living room. The room is not very big, about 15 x 13 (~200 sq ft) and is shared with my daughter's toys. I have a 30 inch wide screen high definition TV about 8 feet from our fairly large couch which provides a nice clear picture.
I ordered my receiver, a Yamaha HTR-5650 from J&R; in New York, online in Dec, 2004. As its a slightly older model, I got a great price on it and am very happy with its features and how it sounds. I've kept scanning J&R;'s website for stereo and/or home theater receivers in the $200 US price range and there's often quite a selection of excellent models for this modest price for others in this price/performance market.
One feature it does not have that I would love include remembering the volume on a per source basis as it does for the DSP programs. If I set the TV to Dolby Prologic™ II Movie and then switch to radio, it switches back to my (previously set) Dolby Prologic™ II Music, but I need to turn down the volume about 20dB because of the higher input gain. Switching to DVD, it goes back to Dolby Prologic II Movie for decoding, but now I need to raise the volume about 30dB. Another great feature would be the ability to actually rename the sources from within the menus to match what is attached (PS3 instead of V-AUX for example). That said, its an excellent sounding Dolby Digital™ 5.1 receiver (its a 6.1 but I only have 5 speakers). It also supports DTS which I find, on the movies that support it, sounds slightly better.
The remote has a downfall; it can't control all the features of the unit. That's my only real complaint about the remote. I shouldn't have to get up and fiddle with the front of the receiver to change settings if I have a 6000 button remote (I exaggerate only slightly).
I have quite enjoyed since purchasing it the surround-encoded stereo CDs, TV shows and movies I watch and getting my surround rear speaker and seperated center channel. The receiver supports Dolby Prologic, Prologic II, Enhanced Prologic and DTS matrix decoding options for stereo signals with surround data included. Its actually quite amazing how many stereo TV shows and commercials are recorded with good center & rear channel usage.
I bought Fluance AV-HTB speakers, a very nice sounding 5 piece speaker system made here in Canada. I'm very happy with how they look and sound. I really wanted the SX-HTBs instead, but for one, I can't really afford the difference and secondly, black works into my decor much better.
Its been a few weeks now, and I've tried a variety of source material with my receiver + speaker combo above. Although lacking in "punch" at the very low end, the AV-HTB mains produce very good quality sound throughout their stated range. The lows are clear and not muffled, the highs very crisp and clear. I've played the excellently recorded Swing musical soundtrack CD (my wife's) and she thought it sounded amazing. I've played various surround-encoded classical CDs I own and pianos sound like they're in the room with you, stringed instruments are almost as convincing although slightly artificial (could simply be the recording quality as well). The vocals on her Swing CD are very clear and convincing. The "Hall" (mostly echo) Hifi DSP effect on the receiver adds a lot of flavor to this recording -- my wife won't listen to her music without it anymore.
I'm tempted to borrow a good powered subwoofer to compliment my speakers now and see if I can find something to fit well. I'm not a big fan of overpowering bass -- accurate and convincing would be the words to describe what I want to hear. If something explodes, I should feel it, but dialog shouldn't be muffled by excessive bass interference. That said, after listening to these speakers for just over two years now, the bass sound is really quite full even at fairly low frequencies. They can't do 20 or 30Hz obviously, but the Lord of the Rings and other excellently recorded movies like the Incredibles sound amazingly convincing and shake the walls and/or floor.
With my PS2 attached, video games are especially convincing. Previously "interesting" music and somewhat creepy soundtracks are now powerful and almost make you just stop to listen. I can now clearly tell the difference between poorly and well recorded audio in movies and CDs as well. I'd like to point out that the DTS soundtrack for each "The Passion" and "The Lord of the Rings" are very full and good testbed audio for your favorite 5.1 sound system.
I've seen it said that the center speakers are the weakest part of the AV-HTB configuration. That is probably true, but in my experience, a center speaker need not do much beyond properly relaying dialog. Anything outside that basic frequency range is really the duty of your mains or subs.
Several people have noticed that I bi-amp my speakers. I found with only 85W per channel available from the receiver that bass was getting neglected at higher volumes. When I added a second set of speaker wires from the secondary binding posts on the speakers (for the largest driver) to the 'B' output on my receiver (then configured the receiver to output 'mains' to channel B), I found the additional power very fulfilling. The speakers no longer seem to run out of steam during a quick explosion or other bone-rattling moment in a movie.
For what its worth, I use Belkin Pro-AV 16AWG wiring and connectors for my speakers as well as
for my TOSLink and coax audio cables. They were easy to work with and provide very good sound
in my size of living room with no discernable distortion. I'm sure 14AWG wire would sound even
better, but at the prices Belkin has on very decent cable, this is hard to beat on a budget.
Buy it direct below to help me out with some commission money.
My new Oppo Digital upconverting DVD player is really quite nice. If it has a fault its the boot time; it takes several seconds between powering up the unit and when it will actually eject the DVD tray, for example. Once its running however, its a breeze to use and very responsive.
It works with the vast majority of disc and file types I've thrown at it so far (tested with the DivX Test CD) with everything upconverted on HDMI output and everything but CSS protected (commercial) DVDs upconverted on the component outputs.
(More soon)
Anyone in the Peterborough, ON region wishing to hear these speakers for consideration of purchasing a set themselves is free to E-mail me (below) since buying speakers online without trying them out first is a little scary.
My wife allowed me very generously to purchase a sub-$1000 HDTV at Christmas (2005). I managed to
get a floor-model 30" wide screen CRT HDTV for just under $800 (canadian) and then bought the Starchoice
HDTV receiver with my remaining budget. Since then I've been greatly enjoying both high definition
television offerings from Starchoice and much improved DVD viewing without the severe shrinkage I had to
put up with on my old TV to watch widescreen movies (in letterbox). See photos of the TV (very flat tube)
as well as my speakers and receiver by clicking the link to the right. A secondary benefit to buying a new
TV is being able to connect multiple video sources directly to the TV without using my receiver's video
source switching capabilities. That said, I do miss clicking "DVD" on the remote and having it change both
video and audio simultaneously. Time to invest in a $250 universal remote? Not anytime soon but we'll see.