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I have an all Hersey Home Theater and I can state that it ROCKS! Here are some pictures (they are a tad out of date but you get the idea) Laters, Jeff

If you want to do it then do it! [8-|] Now to answer some of your other questions. First you are thinking PC based playback which is sooooo 2000 [] All the action these days is in networked (wired or wireless) media streamers. The streamer setup is sweet because you can have your noisy PC, media server, NAS, or whatever sitting away from your listening area. All you have is this smallish box that hooks to your network and amps. Sonos and Squeezebox are good examples of music based streamers. Both have digital outs so you can use your own DAC if you want to. Then there is a whole host of streamers that do music and video (I have one called Popcorn Hour hooked to my 4TB NAS via my network). Again these are all equipped with digital outputs so you can use your own DAC if you desire. All these devices will support lossless formats like FLAC as well as plain ole WAV files. There is a need for high quality music downloads and I wish the music industry would start supporting higher quality downloads! Anyway that is my 0.02 worth. I hope it helps. Laters, Jeff

There is a HD DVD version of Digital Video Essentials (DVE) available almost anywhere HD DVD are still sold. Laters, Jeff

As mentioned FLAC is totally lossless. I rip all my CD's to disk using FLAC. I use a combination of MediaMonkey and Winamp to manage my music collection. I generally use MediaMonkey to rip, organize, tag etc all my music files and Winamp for playback. Once in a while when I get a CD of a live Grateful Dead, Gov't Mule, Phish, etc show Winamp will show all the track information without having to re-enter it all in by hand. MediaMonkey is the only choice (in my opinion of course) if you have a huge music collection that you need to manage. MediaMonkey is able to sync with my portable device (Dell DJ30). When I transfer the files to my MP3 player MediaMonkey will automatically transcode the FLAC files to MP3 based on the parameters that I select (bitrate, playlists etc) as it puts them on the player. This way I can keep my "master" files as FLAC and convert them to MP3 (or other formats) as needed. I believe that MediaMonkey also works with iPods and iTunes. I do not use either of those products so I cannot confirm how well they work. Laters, Jeff

WOOT after all these years I finally have some of your recordings hehehe. I am sitting here ripping CD's to my new 4TB NAS so this is perfect timing! The recordings sound fantastic! Laters, Jeff

As a recent owner of an Xbox360 with the Microsoft Live service I would say that streaming is a very viable and real technology that is here right now. I can download/stream 720p movies with 5.1 DD sound and watch them in my theater for around $4 a pop. I have Verizon FiOS service at my house and even though the total file size for a 2 hour movie is around 13GB I can start to watch the movie after a minute or two. I have to say that I really like the system which surprises even me! I would be very surprised if Microsoft does not have some plans up their sleeves to allow for the secure burning of the movies or transfer to another device in the future. So I am actually going to agree with Mas on this one (shock horror [] ). These companies are not just thinking near term and downloading is just going to become more and more prevalent. I will even go further and say that I think Blu-ray disc and HD-DVD will be the last physical media formats released for movies (although flash memory may become a "sneaker net" way of being able to transport the movies to your car etc..). Laters, Jeff

I am a big believer in having a dedicated center channel. However that being said you can always get a single Heresy later on for the center channel. Here is a picture of my front speakers. It is a bit dark because of how the camera reads the screen material: Here is a better shot of the speakers without the screen: and just to round it out an older shot of the back. The rear speakers have since been mounted on wall mount TV stands made for a 13" TV and they are facing the seating: Laters, Jeff

I have a 550 and two 520's and I love them. They control everything including my portable Air Conditioner and Lasko fans. The only thing that I do not like is that you have to create a different account in the software for each remote. They do not let you have a single login from which you can pick your multiple remotes from. The IR signal from the remotes is very strong as well. Laters, Jeff

I am running a Fisher 500B that I have done the standard mods to and I love the sound. I replaced the power tubes and I am rolling the low power tubes now. Everyone loves the sound. I do too! Laters, Jeff

I run 3 12" SVS subwoofers in my all Cornwall 5.1 system. They are fab. They are fast and a nice match with the Cornwalls. The house rocks when I crank it up. I little overkill maybe? Oh yeah but I like it [] Laters, Jeff

Monoprice would be my recommendation. Look under their RCA coax digital cables. These cables are all 75 ohm and will work for subwoofer and composite video cables as well. Laters, Jeff

Thanks for all the great comments! It was great having ya all come over and sharing the house with you. It makes all the work worth it! See ya again in another 6 to 8 months hehe [] Laters, Jeff

Yup you should have mail yourself. Laters, Jeff

In addition to all the discs mentioned here I would add that pretty much anything from AIX Records that matches your tastes rocks. They "get" multi channel sound. I am using 5 Cornwalls +2 subs for in the system with my DVD-A/SACD/DVD player. Laters, Jeff

Thanks guys! I will look at getting some water based poly for them. Laters, Jeff

I have used both the coax digital and the 6 channel (5.1) analog outputs on my A1 HD DVD player. Both sound fantastic. I am currently running the analog outputs of the HD DVD player into the analog inputs on my Panasonic SA-XR55 digital amp. It took several hours to get all the levels balanced but I love the sound. Laters, Jeff

Chris - You can still come! Just bring some ear protection. Laters, Jeff

It's official. The new date is September 23rd at my house. Please post here if you have any questions. Laters, Jeff

Can anyone offer advice on the best way to finish a pair of raw birch Heresys without turning them yellow? I would like to put a finish on these but I want them to retain the light white natural color of the wood. Thanks! Jeff

I would use the Khorns as the front mains, a Belle as the center, and the Cornwalls as surrounds. Is there some reason you don't want to use the Khorns in the HT system? Otherwise I would look at getting another Cornwall and doing 5 Cornwalls (of course I am bias in this reguard). Then perhaps 3 Cornwalls up front and Belles as surrounds. Or the Belles and Forte upfront, 1 pair of Cornwalls as side surrounds in a 5.1 setup or as side and rear surrounds in a 7.1 setup. For HT the most important selection is the 3 main front speakers. The best case is that they are all identical. Second best is that they are all timbre matched. Don't forget to use a SPL meter and balance your system once it is all setup. This seems like a small step but it can make a huge difference in the sound of your system. Laters, Jeff

Here is a screenshot with all the lights in my theater on: Here is the same frame with all the lights off: So with the lights off you certainly see that picture is washed out a bit without the same deep contrast etc but the picture is still totally watchable. The projector setting for these pictures was Cinema 1. That is the out of the box calibrated setting. There are several even brighter settings that you could choose from as well. Would I want to watch a movie with the lights on? No probably not. Could I watch a football game with all the lights on? You bet. For HD I use both HD Cable and my HD DVD player. Both sources look excellent on this projector. Even though this is a 720p projector I find that I get the best picture with the cable box and HD DVD player set to output 1080i and let the projector scale it to 720p. Hope this helps you out. Laters, Jeff

I have it. I love it! Laters, Jeff

Ok it looks like August 5th is becoming a bad date even for the few people who responded to the orginal invitation. I am flexible and the date really does not matter to me so lets do another poll. When in August or September would be a good time for everyone to have a gathering at my house in Plano? Respond back here or in the DFW_Hornheads Yahoo group. Thanks! Jeff

Thanks for all the comments guys! There are some people who responded to the invitation in the Yahoo DFW Hornheads Group as well. Please PM me or post here if you need directions to my house. Laters, Jeff

Rudy - I would love to look at yours as well [] Laters, Jeff