Home Theater Thread continues

[hjames]

DAMN DAMN DAMN - this post had PARAGRAPHS when I first loaded it ... Forum software is BROKEN!!

This thread started with a pair of beater 4320s I got off ebay and drove to a Philly suburb for way back in 2006 http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...6-4320-Project

I added some 2050 cabinets and tried to upgrade them to "discrete 4 ways" along the way, and moved them into L200 cabinets that turned into a secondary home system when I found a great deal on a pair of actual JBL 4341 Studio Monitors being sold off by a recording Studio in York PA. http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...-4341-Monitors

That system grew and was modified into a biamp config, at one time nearly the whole room was JBL - speakers, power amps and JBL/UREI crossovers ... but that changed over time.

Now, in an urge to simplify, I've sold off the 4341s, the L100T/3 sides and soon the LC2 center ... I've moved the hanging L20Ts up to my office, and the only thing JBL left in that room now is the 18 inch 4641 sub ...

I've switched nearly the whole room over to DCM Time Frame transmission line speakers from an out of production firm from Ann Arbor, Mi.

Even sold off the Dahlquist system I was playing around with upstairs yesterday afternoon ... Tho I still have the L200 based 3 way system - doubt I'll ever get rid of that ... but again, thats the upstairs system with Toobes ...

Anyway - I took Emma to brunch Saturday, the usual Dim Sum place in Falls Church, VA. On the way back we followed a sign for a yard sale - and - mixed among the pewter and crafty stuff, was a Salamander Chameleon Sonoma cabinet. Its a 3 bay mission style AV console kind of cabinet in a cherry finish. It looks like a laminate wood product, but its built on a metal framework underneath ... It had a couple of dings and scratches, and was priced at $175 ...

I asked him how flexible he was on the price but he said very firm ... so I moved on to look at other stuff. After we bought enough nick nacks - I looked around and he was gone, just his wife was taking payment for housewares and such - So, on a whim - I wrote $120 on a business card and gave it to her and said if he doesn't get any other offers, I'd be interested at that price. I've actually downsized the gear enough that I could fit it in that cabinet - but I wasn't sure I could really make use of it - and ... its 64 inches long! I wasn't even sure it'd fit in the CR-V to get it home!

Well, by the time we got home they'd already called and accepted my offer (!) but we had some other stuff we had to do first so we did that. I googled this cabinet online and found they were stupid expensive ... but people liked them. Bottom line - I measured the CRV and found it would just barely fit ... so back we went, loaded it up, and brought it home.

All the metal internal structure means ITS HEAVY ... I called around and no one local had the accessory wheel kit that sells for $100 ... But the feet had little screw level adjusters - nearly the same size as a set of 4 casters I had gotten for another project. So I took the feet off the base, drilled the center hole slightly larger and put casters on each of the feet while it was still in the back of the truck!

So I took the feet off the base, drilled the center hole slightly larger and put casters on each of the feet while it was still in the back of the truck! We unloaded it Sunday morning, rolled it down the driveway and the sidewalk through the kitchen and into the TV room ...


Spent most of the afternoon/evening tearing down all the amp and interconnects in the old racks, and moving everything into this system -
my plan was to have just the Denon TT and the center channel speaker (DCM TimePiece) on top! Plus the Wii and a pair of bunny ears for FM as well!

Still have to get the old SCAN Teak rack out of here - and will eventually make a nice wood "sleeve" and grill for the 4641 subwoofer -
it works GREAT but I'd like it a wee bit more furniture-like and less theater/industrial.

And now I need to center the TV - move the wall bracket at some point!!

Eventually I'll pull all the blue rug up and redo the floor with a hardwood floor pergo type product - its just a concrete slab underneath.

The AV fun never ends!

[grumpy]

I've looked at that cabinet line several times for HT... where it's desirable
(for me) to not have the gear and lights on display so much. It looks like
furniture in a nice way. Great deal, ... congrats

[SEAWOLF97]

I keep seeing those in the "Audio Adviser" catalogs , yes at stupid prices ...nice catch.

when I do see their offerings, thats always the model that I thot was pick 'o da litter.
kind of a Mediterranean look ...

[Mr. Widget]

I keep seeing those in the "Audio Adviser" catalogs , yes at stupid prices ...nice catch.when I do see their offerings, thats always the model that I thot was pick 'o da litter. kind of a Mediterranean look ...

Mediterranean?

Dude, don't you remember the horrible brown stuff sitting on green shag carpeting that was called Mediterranean Style?

Nice find Heather... not sure what style I'd call it, but it will certainly make for a fine HT addition.


Widget

[SEAWOLF97]

Mediterranean?

Dude, don't you remember the horrible brown stuff sitting on green shag carpeting that was called Mediterranean Style?

Nice find Heather... not sure what style I'd call it, but it will certainly make for a fine HT addition.


Widget

they call it "a Mission-influenced style".
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SMCSO

Not everything labeled "Med" was that horrible.

[hjames]

I got a Vandersteen 2W powered sub the other day and have been trying to make friends with it.

It seems to work ok, but it IS different than other subs -
basically, you install a high pass filter on the input of the power amp -
it gets set to match the imput impedance of your power amp and it rolls off the low freq.
You run a pair of speaker cables to the L & R connectors on the sub- and the sub
senses the signal off the mains and has compensation for the rolloff.
Its very music and just brings a bit of the lower octave under the mains.

I originally had it on the side wall where the 4641 used to live, but yesterday
I rearranged all the Vandersteens and put the sub module in the front right corner ...
(instead of on the middle of the side wall next to the 2CI side surround.)

So - I have 4 nearly matched Vandersteen 2 series pairs in the room
(2CE fronts, a bit older 2CIs for side surround) a small Vandersteen VCC-1 center, their older 2W sub,
and those non-Vandy DCM TF-600 transmission line speakers in the rear.
for the rare occasion when I need 7.10


The Vandersteen 2W sub is not a big IN YER FACE sub like the 4641 with the 600watt HK Citation 22 amp
I ran it on - but I always had that dialed down by 10db or so and it was still a PRESENCE.
Plus, the Vandy sub's not funky-industrial like the 4641, either - the black cloth and wood finish is kind of nice.

Still got to rip that carpet out, by the roots!~

[Titanium Dome]

Mediterranean?

Dude, don't you remember the horrible brown stuff sitting on green shag carpeting that was called Mediterranean Style?

Nice find Heather... not sure what style I'd call it, but it will certainly make for a fine HT addition.


Widget

Mission sounds right to me. It'd look good in our master bedroom. (Well, we call it master bedroom out of habit, but there's really no master here. Just us.) It's all Mission style furniture.

Congrats, Heather, that's a nice score.

[hjames]

Had some listening time fun tonight - pulled out Boz Scaggs Dig and played a few tracks from that -
basically just the Oppo BDP-93/Integra preamp/B&K ST202 plus amp and the front pair of vandersteen 2CEs - no sub.
Remarkable how much bass those 2 funky cloth covered stacks put out effortlessly ...

[Krunchy]

Had some listening time fun tonight - pulled out Boz Scaggs Dig and played a few tracks from that -
basically just the Oppo BDP-93/Integra preamp/B&K ST202 plus amp and the front pair of vandersteen 2CEs - no sub.
Remarkable how much bass those 2 funky cloth covered stacks put out effortlessly ...

I'll take your word for it, I wouldnt think something that shallow would be able to produce good LF, I always think you have to have the depth of a "proper/traditional" enclosure for that.
Your set up is looking really nice Heather, you must be pretty happy with it, do you find yourself using this room more frequently now, for listening as well as HT?
I know you got rid of the 4341's & your main 2 channel set up nowadays is the L200's, what do you have left in the JBL family?

Have fun!

[hjames]

moved from my LC2 for sale thread- http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sea...rchid=13210087

That's a center I have and it's outstanding! How do you like the Vandys?

Love them to bits so far - I got a pair of 2CEs (4 way floor stander) delivered for a demo and we tried them out with our Carver receiver (125w/ch) - very nice and full sound. Nice presence, great imaging - paid the man his $300 and sent him on his way(!) Later that day I hooked them up with the 40w/ch Jolida tube amp at first and they were good, but not as deep as I hoped. They really do want a bit more power. They're 87dB efficient - not like our L200 based 3ways with the walnut horn.

I had some time 2 weeks later and hauled them down to the TV room and put them on the Adcom GFA-555, and used the XLO biwire cables they came with. Much fuller and seemed like the sound was more defined - a little crisper or detailed. Position is a little more critical - but its like the sound is just there - not playing in a wooden box.

A week later I got a B&K ST-202 Plus amp (200w/ch, but I'd heard they are a better pairing than the Adcoms) - I think it does seem a bit warmer with that now. Time to sell the Adcoms I guess.

Found a pair of slightly older 2CI speakers on the local CL - paid a wee bit more, but I learned from the DCM TimeFrames theater I built that its best if everything is voiced the same - and the 2CIs are really close - basically the same drivers with a slightly older xover design. I set them up as side surrounds, and have a pair of DCM TF-600s as rear surround - they only play with 7.1 sources and there aren't many of them.
The TF-600 have rear/side facing tweeters so they are more open sounding than you might think, and they do match well with the Vandys

Found a matched Vandersteen VCC1 center and that turned out to be a great addition - its a better tonal match than the (excellent) LC-2.

I also made a bid on Audiogon for a Vandy active sub ... basically 3 8 inch woofers in a common box with a compensating network - they claim its the equiv of a 14" cone ... Dunno - but I should have it next week. The subs are a bit rare, so if its not superb I can sell it off easy enough. I'll be about $1400 into this batch of speakers, so far, they sound quite good.

For a review ... Music is quite nice - I tried all the usual stuff - Steeley Dan, Clapton & Winwood, Knopfler, the Who. CDs and music discs are quite good - SACDs are nice as are mudic videos - played Leonard Cohen's On The Road disc - even his low gravely voice sounds great.

On Friday I got a Dorian CD of Musorgsky's pictures at an Exhibition on pipe organ ... 2ch stuff - its crazy impressive even without any sub.

We'd watched the original Die Hard last week (remastered on Bluray) - and it was very cool - plenty of power with all the explosions and pyrotechnics ...
Last night we watched The Long Riders DVD (1980 western with the Quaid brothers, the Carradine brothers, etc) and got swept up in that.

Oh, ampwise - the mains are running on the B&K amp I mentioned, the rest is on an Elan Z-660 - its an interesting modular piece with 6 60 watts amp cards - and each pair can be bridged into a 150w amp. So the center is a bridged pair at 150w to keep up with the 200w mains, the sides and rears are on 60 watt channels and seem to do fine. Currently, I've got that old JBL 4641 sub on another Adcom GFA-555 bridged to mono - est 600watts - its set 7dB down in the Integra setup menu.

But the new sub won't need an amp - maybe its time to sell the Adcoms - or maybe keep one for backup and sell that HK Citation 22 I've had forever.

[hjames]

Found another pair of walnut Vandersteens locally - this pair are 2Ci again with the Sound Anchor stands ...
just slightly pricier than the killer deal for the previous pair ...
so I grabbed them and put them in as side surrounds, and moved the DCM TF600s to the back
for the occasional rear surround use for the somewhat rare 7.1 sources.

All I need now is for someone to buy the JBL 4641 sub - it really is overkill in that room ...

Oh - and and I can sell the Cherry JBL LC2 center now as well -
I actually got the factory wall mount brackets when I bough it so it can hang it on the wall -
tho I actually never had clearance under the TV to try that.




Oh, that new DVD just released of the 1981 Muddy Waters club date with the Rolling Stones at the Checkerboard club is just EXCELLENT!

[hjames]

Still cleaning up the once complex system ...
Since I got that Salamander cabinet 2 weeks back to hide all the gear in,
I've been downsizing racks and amps and such since then!

I moved the wall-mounted HDTV over 16 inches to better center it in the room,
put wheels on the Salamander cabinet so I can move it around, and bought a new amp that will handle all the surround channels.

Its an Elan Z-660 - a thin rack mountable thing with a huge torroidal transformer inside 6 channels at 60w each ...
and each pair can be bridged to a 120w/ch!

I've got it set with 1 bridged pair for a 120w/ch center, and the remaining 4 channels for side and rear surround use.

Pix later once my cleanup is done!

Haven't opened mine yet, but here is a pic of one John has - he sent me a pic of his before mine arrived.

Anyway - the old Biamp Rack has been trimmed down a lot at this point ...

Center bay of the Salamander "console" is the TivoHD, OPPO BDP-93 and the Integra DTC 9.8 on top -
all of them with 1x3 spacers under their feet to increase the airspace.

Left Bay is one GFA-555 (for the front mains), with an Adcom ACE-515 Power switcher above it and a
switched channel adapter gadget for the cable system above that.

Right bay is the Elan Z-660 on the bottom, the other Adcom GFA-555 (bridged for the JBL sub) and another ACE-515 for that rack.

The Denon DPF-45F Turntable sits on the top right, center speaker in the middle, lazy susan CD rack on the left.

The HDTV has to be turned on via the TivoHD own remote, but the Integra remote turns the rest of the gear, and manages most of the rest of it.

Still go - sell off some of the leftovers from the cleanup ...
Plus redo the paint on the chair rail moldings around the room, rip up the carpet, and redo with a hardwood floor product.

[BMWCCA]

I moved the wall-mounted HDTV over 16 inches to better center it in the room,
put wheels on the Salamander cabinet so I can move it around, and bought a new amp that will handle all the surround channels.

Its an Elan X-660 - a thin rack mountable thing with a huge torroidal transformer inside 6 channels at 60w each ...
and each pair can be bridged to a 120w/ch!

Is that an X-660 or a Z-660?

[hjames]

Is that an X-660 or a Z-660?

Yep, its supposed to be a Z, man ... snagged it from an AudioGon vendor.
I apparently typo-ed it in morning fun in hurried posting ...

[BMWCCA]

I know you usually work the Saturdays so I didn't say anything before -
I did get that right, yes - you are usually tied on Sats?

Finished up yesterday around 8:30pm delivering a new car to an old friend who had ordered it about three weeks ago. He's not in the best of health and BMW was showing his 2013 X5 50i M-sport with Performance Package would be delivered on the 13th and he was very anxious to have it. It finally showed up Saturday around 4pm and we had it prepped, programmed, cleaned, treated, waxed and gassed and in his hands by about 7:30pm.

Saturday is always a busy day but I'll stay even later to make an old friend's day a happy one.

The "truck" has 440hp and sounded great! It looked basically like this one: