MatrixDweller

I hate the big stores. $6 for a movie rental. I guess that's what happens when the pushed all the mom and pop stores out in the 80's. Now they can charge whatever they want. I'm personally going for the online rental thing. I get all my HD-DVDs from www.zip.ca here in Canada.

With a good receiver that has an Auto Eq feature your Hard Rock/Metal collection might sound better than the way it sounds in the store.

They might be able to order it in for you. Can't hurt to ask. You could always buy the package existing and sell the RC-52 on Ebay or elsewhere and buy a RC62 somewhere else. Expect to get $125 to $225 for it depending on your feedback ranking.

It's amazing how much more detail I can hear with my RB81's than I could with my old Cerwin Vega speakers. I can't stand to listen to MP3's unless they are >320mbps. I find that a lot of older 80's Metal just sounds like garbage. They really didn't have the recording budget and/or didn't care to polish their tracks so they were blindingly shiny. They probably sounded great on a Walkman or Ghetoblaster back then and your typical teenager didn't have a $5000 stereo setup. Try to find some HDCDs in you collection and you might be impressed. Some bands have re-releases that are remastered to sound a little better. I know generation swine is not 80's metal but it was probably not as highly polished as some of the other releases in the late 90's. I find too that some music just comes alive on my Klipsch speakers. I wasn't a big fan of Supertramp until I heard "Crime of the Century". In particular the track "Bloody Well Right" brought out the full potential in my system. Do I dare to say that Klipsch is "Progressive Rock's Best Friend"? I've found that other progressive rock bands such as Genesis, Rush, and Pink Floyd sound fantastic as well. Maybe it's the fact that these bands (or their engineers) value the recording aspect greatly. Most have more than one CD release of each album (remasters of remasters of remasters...).

Can you disable the cross-over (ie: so everything is passed to the speakers and sub) and then just adjust the frequency cut-off on the RW10 to 80Hz?

90W is more than enough. They are pretty sensitive speakers so it won't take too much to make them loud. I doubt you would want crank it anyway without some sort of ear protection even at 90W unless you have a huge room. The new Onkyo line up is a really good value (I have my eye on the TX-SR805).

Have you seen the specs on the new Onkyo TX-SR805. THX Ultra2 for under $900...wow. 130Watts/channel @ 0.05 THD and 110dB S/N. Looks pretty impressive to me. The TX-SR875 when it comes out should be even sweeter. I'm still waiting to see what Pioneer has to say in about a month with their new line up. That is if I can wait that long. I might pick up the 805 if I can convince (beg) the wife it's worth it.

Player sales are really dependant on the consumer actually needing or wanting the item. HD players won't sell to the majority of people out there right now because they still own a 27" CRT that's hooked up to a $40 DVD player. When the price of HDTV's comes down and more people buy into the HD market they will buy HD players. My guess on which format will win is which one is cheapest. Audio/Videophiles and early adopters don't care so much about price. All those people who bought the bargain LCD's do however. They don't want to spend $500 to $1000 on a HD player. They will hold out until they're in the Sub $200 range. By the looks of things HD-DVD is almost there wih their base player (HD-A2) being sold for $350 (CAD$). The 3rd gen players will probably be the deciding factor.

I'm not a fan of his music but I remember gawking at this album cover in my parent's collection.

You might want to hold off a little bit on your purchase. Denon, Pioneer, Yamaha and others will be releaseing their new line up shortly. Onkyo already has and their TX-SR805 is impressive, with HDMI 1.3a, THX Ultra 2 cert, on board DD+/DolbyTrueHD/DTD HD/DTS Master decoding, and low price of around $900-$1000. The other manufacturers will have similar. When the others release their new lines it will push the price down on older models. You can either get a good deal on a clearance item or step up to a newer system. I currently have a Denon 3805 and it sounds great with my speakers. I guess it depends on your budget. Do you mind stating what you can spend?

Why don't you just bring it back to where you bought it from. If they won't give you your money back they might give you an exchange that you can use to get other goodies with. If in doubt post it on Ebay. They're going for $50-$100 there.

Many recommend dipole/bipole speakers for side surrounds and quite a few people like them. I like direct radiating speakers as they give more of a feel for location. Another side benefit is they are less expensive. THX recommends dipole/bipole for L/R surrounds in a 7.1 layout, but really it all boils down to personal preference. Most people say they prefer monopole for music (5/7 channel stereo or DVD-A/SACD). The crowd is split however for movies. If you are able to demo a pair of monopole and a pair of dipole in your house that would be the best test.

Those speakers are well matched. How big is your room?

I'm using RB81's for surrounds and love them. I personally like monopole speakers better than dipole for surrounds but that is entirely a personal preference.

The RB81 is front ported.

If you're going to have rear surrounds you should use direct radiating, like the RB-61, rather than RS-52s like Watson recommended. They are cheaper as well. As for a receiver upgrade I would wait a bit since most of the manufacturers will be releasing new models soon. These models will incorporate HDMI 1.3, have built in Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS HD decoders. Even if you're not interested in the new models their release will push the price down on their predecessors. About your room. It's a good size and really great because you have high ceilings to play with. Are you building this room from scratch? If so are you considering soundproofing? If you are there are plenty of resources around. With 10ft ceilings you could build a room with in a room for the ultimate in sound isolation.

I'd definitely go for the RC62. It's a much better match to the RF82's and the center channel is so so important in movies. You may also want to consider the RW12d rather than the 10. If you can afford it go for the RSW10d. I'd also hold off on upgrading your receiver for a few months. Most of the major manufacturers should be releasing their new models soon, Onkyo already has and Yamaha should next month. That will push the price down on older models and you might be able to snag one for $100's less.

I have the RB81's and they sound fantastic. They are more of a match to the RF82 but would make an excellent choice for your rear surrounds. There really isn't anything in a bookshelf that is matched perfectly to the 83's. The RS62 really aren't a perfect match either, but that's what Klipsch recommends. The tweeters are different on the RS62 and RB81 than the RF83 and RC64.

I'd actually wait for Christmas, like the Ear jokingly stated, and save to get something decent. If you buy a sub now on that budget you'll probably not even hear it because the RF7's will drown it out. You'll loose at least a hundred bucks when trying to resell the smaller sub later. Save up another $500 and get something a little more in the league of the RF7's. I'd say minimum RSW12. Better would be the RT12d or RSW15 but that would take you until Xmas 2008 to save up for. Then again are you trying to build up a system of your own that you can take with you when you move out?

Your ears would probably burst before the speakers did. The RF7 is rated at 250W continuous and 1000 peak. If you powered then at full 250W they would be pumping out roughly 125dB continuously without any risk of blowing the speakers. At that power they could fluctuate to as high as 1000W for short intervals without damaging the speakers. I wouldn't recommend cranking things up full when you first turn your system on. I blew a tweeter once because my Dad didn't know how to work the system and had cranked everything up to max. I popped in a DVD and when the THX sound played my center channel's tweeter ripped. It was rated at 125W and the amp at 100W. Of course that was a cheaper Cerwin Vega center powered by a cheap Kenwood amp. I'm sure a titanium dome would be harder to break than a silk dome tweeter. That was 10 years ago when i didn't know what quality was. I'm a Klipsch man now.

The high gloss comes from the urethane. It probably wouldn't matter if you used gloss or flat paint but my opinion would be that the urethane would stick better to flat. Flat paint is also a bit easier to work with in my opinion. The effect of adding many coats of urethane would almost be like covering the painted MDF with a sheet of glass.

Self adhesive wood veneer is actually pretty easy to apply. I'm talking about the kind that you use an iron to apply. First sand the MDF so it's a little rough and not so shiny smooth. Next cut the veneer to fit leaving a little extra around the edges. Now heat up the iron and iron it on being careful not to leave the iron in one place too long. Do one surface at a time and wait until it's cool. Use of a rubber roller can help to smooth it out. Use a (really) sharp knife or veneer edge cutting tool to trim the excess off. Of course you will still need to fine sand, stain and lacquer the veneer. It will look tremendously rich when finished compared to painted MDF. You could use exotic veneer to really class things up. You can also make designs by using different types of wood but that might be getting a little too advanced. The only other thing that would come close would be to give the MDF a piano black type finish. To do that: Prime the MDF with several light coats, apply several coats of flat black enamel paint, then apply many coats of high gloss urethane, lightly sanding in between coats, to ensure a glassy smooth finish. The urethane really gives off some fumes so make sure you have adequate ventilation and wear an appropriate mask. One of the tricks to getting a smooth finish is to ensure there is no dust. You can easily make a paining tent out of plastic drop sheet or vapor barrier and some coat hangers. Never sand your project in the tent of course.

Kimball: I have a Denon AVR3805 and was considering either a used DVD3910 or new 2930 because of the Denon Link III. Does everything get passed over the Denon Link? Can you speak more about the benefits of using Denon Link?

Oppo players have a lower S/N ratio and a higher THD than the better players out there. They are par for the course in players in that price range however. Expect around 100dB S/N and .004 or so THD in the $100 to $250 price range. The better players in the $500 range, like the Denon 2910, will have a S/N of 110dB and THD of .0009 or better. Dynamic range and jitter is better of course on the higher end players as well. For those unfamiliar with the terms S/N ratio is signal to noise ratio. Signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is. The total harmonic distortion, or THD, of a signal is a measurement of the harmonic distortion present and is defined as the ratio of the sum of the powers of all harmonic components to the power of the fundamental. The lower the better. For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_system_measurements Of course discerning the quality of the different players is subjective to the listener. A trained ear can hear the difference. It's similar to wine tasting and how the taster has developed their pallet in my opinion.