Amdek

KHW5, I know these are as low as you go, but do you think I could live with them as rears with the 525 THX fronts, SS-1 sides? Plan is some day to get the THX onwall Sides, and probably THX inwall rears. Right now though I have the 525s across the front three, SS-1 sides, and SVS PC Ultra...oh and [+o(] KLH [:'(] rears, Audyssey sets them up as crossovered to the sub at 150Hz, which is high as my receiver goes, which means they may only be doing 200Hz -3dB. I just want something better the KLH, for the short term, and I am hard pressed to pass on the KHW5's for $90. But if they suck, I will pass and look else where.

Hope this link works: http://shoponkyo.com/products.cfm?group_id=1&subcat=Receiver Since you are thinking about going used, get a Onkyo refurb, the 605 has the latest tech like Dolby True HD, DTS HD, LPCM...DD and DTS are lossy, TrueHD is lossless, its like going from an MP3 to as good or better then CD quality. 705 better still, 805 is the best bargin when they have them for $600 or under. 705 and 805 pass 1080/24p (505 & 605 might just never researched it) if you have a projector that suports this or a TV that does, you WANT this. I bought a 304 refurb and haven't had a problem with it, and it is powering 8 bass shakers. Look to Amazon for 805 deals as well, that is where I got mine at. You will have Blu-ray sooner then you think, and the sound and video will never be better with a newer receiver that only costs $100-$300 more. Oh and the 705 and 805 have 8 point Audyssey...big thread on AVS receivers forum about Audyssey if you get through most of it and don't believe that it is a must have feature remind me to bonk ya on the head.....

Impedance plot for THX Ultra 2s? Just curious if anyone has one...

They are very clean sounding. They are 260watts per channel, so I have plenty of power left over. I almost went for the outlaw mono blocks but at half the price I just couldn't turn down the Crowns. There is a big thread over on AVS about these amps here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=418666

Crown XLS 402s BK ref50

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&Q=&is=REG&O=productlist&sku=144242 Those are what I am using for my front left and right. 36" high puts the horn just above ear level, but not that far above to get my panties in a bunch. 26" is to much for you?

---------------- On 5/27/2005 9:48:50 AM neo33 wrote: "It means that MOV-based surge suppressors aren't going to last as long as series-mode." I have Panamax on my McIntosh Home Theatre system for 10 years now and it is still going strong! ---------------- And your MOV's could be blown and you would never know it. If you are lucky, you still might have some surge protection left.

Main Entry: tim·bre Variant: also tim·ber /'tam-b&r, 'tim-; 'tam(br&)/ Function: noun : the quality given to a sound by its overtones: as a : the resonance by which the ear recognizes and identifies a voiced speech sound b : the quality of tone distinctive of a particular singing voice or musical instrument tim·bral /'tam-br&l, 'tim-/ adjective

I paid just about half of retail pricing. But I didn't get them from a authorized dealer so take that for what it's worth. And yes I am more then happy with them. I had Atlantic Tech THX speakers before I got the Klipsch Ultra 2's. I now more then ever just get lost in the movies that I watch. Not that the AT techs were bad or anything, just that I feal that I steped up a level of envelopement.

Around here (wisconsin), there is a chain of theaters (Marcus) that have a really big screen, they call it their Ultra Screen. Here is what their website has on them: "The UltraScreens®, with razor sharp three-story tall picture, crystal clear digital sound and comfortable stadium seats are Marcus movie magic at its best. The UltraView® auditoriums, with seating for 500, boast a screen 75 feet wide by 32 feet tall. The UltraScreens® take moviegoing to a totally a new level of excitement that can never be experienced at home. The UltraScreens® are more than 500 times bigger than a typical 19television screen." http://www.marcustheatres.com/ultrascreen.cfm May not be Imax big, but they are all THX certified if I recall correctly, and boast a nice image.

And here is a link about the subject of furmans mis-doing's. Naughty, naughty, naughty...I say. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=491545&highlight=Furman+SMP

Furmans SMP (series mode protection) is not the same SMP that brickwall, Adcom and others have. Furman in fact got sued for advertising SMP as one of their features, and lost. So get your money back if you can! MOVs are a bad idea, even more so if you just spent $200-400 on them.

I wrote the following a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...Well for a website that is long since dead. Should give you a leg up on what dBs are really all about. There are many ways to talk about and explain sound. We can say it is dry, flat, bright, dull, muddy, brilliant, and many other descriptions. Terms such as that are intangible when it comes to the next guy, one mans perfect sound, is another's mud. These kind of descriptions can be helpful and can be used as a basic guide, but other terms like a dB (deci-Bel) can be given an exact scientific definition. Knowing what such terms mean is helpful, not just for helping us to pick out and compare components, but it also helps to understand how we hear. A Bel is a standard of measure, named after Alexander Graham Bell. A deci-Bel is one tenth of a Bel. So what is a Bel? Well, a Bel is the logarithm of an electrical, acoustic, or other power ratio, the key being power. The formula for this is Bel=log(A/B) with A and B representing the two levels being compared. Since, in sound issues, a Bel is really too large a number to work with, they wanted to use something smaller and went to a dB, which changes the formula to dB=10*log(A/B). To help put this in non-tech terms, dBs are used to measure how much more or less we have of a certain thing. In this case how much more or less of an acoustic power or signal level, referenced to a certain level. dBs can be used in a variety of situations when talking about consumer electronics, whether it is voltage, wattage or SPLs(Sound Pressure Levels). I will point out that a dB is a dB, whether it is talking about volts, watts, or SPLs, how we figure the ratios is somewhat different, but in the end a 1dB increase in voltage, is a 1dB increase in wattage, is a 1dB increase in SPLs. Now to apply this to our components, first comes voltage. I start here because this is ultimately what drives our speakers and components. It is also the one that throws a curve ball at us in relation to the formula. Now if you know Ohms Law, you know that power is proportional to the square of the voltage. Since the dB(power) = 10*log(A/B) formula is for power ratios, the voltage formula changes to dB(volts) =20*log(A/B). Lets apply this to the real world. The average CD player puts out about 2V (volts) with the maximum signal recorded on a CD. With the 2V given, if I said that a particular CD' s average level output on the same CD player is about .6V, how much below the peak level of 2V would the average be? 20*log(2/ .6)=10.4 dBs. This is just a small example. The point is that if you know two voltages you can determine the difference in dBs. Also if you follow the formula, doubling the voltage will yield a 6dB increase, but this is not so with wattage. How do dBs correlate to wattage? Well, since watts are a measurement of power, we can go back to the dB= 10*log(A/B) formula. When looking at receivers and power amps, marketing and salesmen types love to throw out numbers like this or that has this many watts, but it really means nothing until you get that broken into dBs. Take an 85 watt per channel receiver, and a 110 watt per channel receiver. Based just on the manufacturers specs we can determine the exact difference in dBs between the two. Before we do, I want to make it clear that just because there might be the smallest of differences in dBs does not automatically mean that the component with the smaller wattage is just fine. It should come down to how clean one sounds over the other. Ok, putting in the above numbers you get dB=10*log(110/85). That calculated out equals 1.1dBs, not much difference at all. To get a noticeable perceived difference in volume, you need about a 3dB increase; 1.1dBs falls well short of anything significant. That leads us into the discussion of dBs and SPL. The human ear needs that 3dBs more to perceive a noticeable change in volume, and to perceive a doubling in loudness we need an increase of 10dB. Now going back to wattage for a moment, to get 10dB more in terms of watts, you need ten times the power. While you digest that for a moment, you also need to know how speakers are rated in relation to dB SPLs. A speaker usually has a rated sensitivity somewhere in the manufacturers specs. This measurement as an industry standard is taken with a 1 watt input at 1 meter away on axis with the tweeter. The average is about 90dBs. That tells us with one watt of power at one meter away the speaker will produce a SPL of 90dBs. So if the same speaker is driven by a 100 watt amp, you would use the following formula dB= 10*log(100/1), the 100 being the one hundred watt amp, and the 1 being the one watt to obtain the given sensitivity. With that plugged through the calculator, you come up with 20dBs. That, in turn, means that if this speaker is driven with 100 watts of power, it will reach 110dBs at one meter away. The relation of dBs and distance can also be used to help determine how loud that 110dBs might be at say twice the distance. This falls under the inverse square law. Basically, all you need to know is that in a reflective-free environment, if you double the distance you lose 6dB of sound pressure. So at 2 meters that 110dBs is now only 104dBs,but in the real world we don't live in a reflective-free environment so the drop most likely won't be exactly 6dB. To close, a few things are very important to remember about dBs, volts, watts, and SPLs. First, just because one power is higher than the next, does not mean it is significant, but at the same time if the lower-powered device does not sound as good as the higher-powered one, the difference in dBs won't matter either way. Also remember if you are dealing with manufacturer specs, the variance of some manufacturers overrating their equipment's ability or in some cases underrating its ability needs to be factored in. Next, the more headroom the better, but in some cases too much headroom is complete overkill. How and where dBs are referenced to is also important. When I say a SPL meter reads 90dBs, that means that a sound is 90dBs above the threshold of hearing. With CD's, Full Scale Digital (a maximum recorded signal) is referenced to 0dB. Anything below that becomes a minus dB from the stated reference point. In the long run, it helps to remember where the reference point is. Understanding dBs and how they relate to our components, speakers, and ears is important, and I hope this humble column has started or increased your knowledge on dBs.

Stereophile's Guide to Home Theater is no more, it changed its name to Ultimate AV, and then became an online only magazine. If you had any months left on your subscription they gave you that many months of Home Theater.

I keep all the extra stuff in my lobby, not that I have alot, but that is where the THX/klipsch/DD/DTS signs are and some other movie related stuff, oh and I do have more signs and a poster in my stair well, but the only things in my theater are seats and a screen and some klipsch speakers and an exit sign. Well the rack of equipment is there, but its in the back corner with the back side of the rack poking through the wall back there.

You could get a Pioneer 1014/1015 and a Crown XLS-402, no sense waiting for seprates. I run crown amps for my THX ultra 2s, they sound great together. Just make sure whatever you get has pre-amp outs, so adding an amp is a simple chore.

You could buy a set of SB2s and use just one for your center speaker, sell the other one on here or ebay. Surrounds could be some more SB2s or SB1s. Or if you want bipole sides, maybe pick up a pair of SS1s.

Money wise, that sounds like a great deal. Sound wise, if you hate them, sell them to me as I will be looking for a pair in the next month or so .

With no sub it prolly won't help that much if its small or large...but.... Try it both ways with a nice deep voice playing over the center channel, see which one you like best, with out a sub large just might be your favorite. As your mains prolly don't do bass any _better_ or _worse_ then what the center can do.

Wolf if you have a subwoofer, set them babies all to small. As the sub will produce the bass with less distortion and more impact.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html In a 5.1 setup, the two surrounds go to the side of the listening position. In a 7.1 setup, the two extra speakers go on the rear wall.

Slightly better picture, still not the best. Left side without the grills.

---------------- On 3/24/2005 8:25:11 PM DTLongo wrote: Mine. Pic 1 of 2, the front array. (I hope the pic is not too large.) ---------------- Wow nice setup, get rid of the rabit ears and you could have that picture on some Kilpsch promotional materials .

---------------- On 3/24/2005 10:23:03 PM gibby214 wrote: Amdek, Is your center up against the wall or in the wall? My screen and speakers are positioned about the same as yours. Gib ---------------- Its just on a stand that my Dad built for me. The stand was covered with some velvet (as seen in the pics). But have since taken off the velvet and stained the stand black to match the left and right speaker stands. I will try to get more and better pics this weekend. Oh we also put some black velvet on top of the center speaker as we were getting lots of shine off the top of it. It didn't cause the picture to degrade from what I saw, but it was a minor distraction in our totally light controled room.

Right with no grills on.