wangdang

Toshiba has a nice lne of small lcd -- HD-ready monitors.We bought 23-inch with built in DVD -- which gave it an EXTREMELY HIGH Spousal Approval Factor. Aound $700 from on-line dealers last summer.

The Enhanced Package version of "The Beatles Love." Two disks -- one CD and One DVD-Audio, that will play on all DVDs. Same song list on each. Finally, the real fifth Beatle, George Martin, gets his due. He and his son took all the old original Beatles masters and cut together a 70-plus minute program that really gives the 26 included songs a fresh flavor. Sure you can sing along -- every note is sung by the Fab Four - and the music is what you remember, but Martin cuts it together in new ways -- like lifting the strings from "Good Night" and putting them under Ringo singing "Octopus's Garden". What strikes me most is how inventive those guys were and how gutsy they were to bring sounds to Top 40 Radio that no one else was offering. The DVD-Audio is pretty good. not gimmicky, with very clear, crisp sound. Well engineered, as you would expect from George Martin. I haven't listened to the CD yet, but I am sure it is as well made. Drawbacks? Well, it does rework masterpieces of boomer culture. And there are things Martin had to do to make it function as a soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil. But I am enoying it quite a bit.It's really hard not to have a good time listening along.

Hard to believe this thread went almost 3 whole pages without someone coughing up "Dune"

Wrap the remote in a plastic bag with a fresh chicken, bury it for a month and you'll for sure forget about the smoke smell ..... Or you could spend $30 for a Rat Shak learning remote.

Start by calling Comcast. I can't tell you about charges in Virginia, but the dual tuner box works great. it's worth the ext5ra $5 it costs me per month. I can't say about your new stand, but the dual tuner does get HOT (!!) and needs good ventilation or it will trip itself frequently.

on-line sources for DVD-A: AIX Records at www.aixrecords.com/ (superb indy label -- great samplers) Acoustic sounds at www.acousticsounds.com (full line dealer) Music Direct at www.musicdirect.com (full line) DTS REcordings at www.dtsonline.com/ (still putting out some good stuff) Happy Multi-channel Listening -- look for best titles at the Weekly Recommended thread mentioned above.

For anyone coming into the area early, Lyle lovett and his Large Band are in little Rock on 9/14. The Arkansas Symphony plays LR with guest violinist Corey Cerovsek on 9/17 and 9/18.

"Switched on Bach" really grabbed hold of me -- it was the first classical music album I ever bought. Not near the last, but it still has a warm place in the heart. I nevver found much more in the genre by Carlos, but my favorite electronic classical musician was/is Isao Tomita. By the way, when Switched on Bach was released, the artist was known as "Walter Carlos." I later bought a cut-out of a Wendy Carlos release that was an absolutely horrid attempts to synthesize Tibetan music (why????) What was the deal there? Did Walter lose something in the transition?

For some good primary info and opportunities for deep study, go to the speakers section at ecoustics.com, and click on "Articles." You'll find plenty of "reprints" from specialty A/V magazines, explanations and info. Then head to your local retailer and buy Klipsch

The best of the swamp-rocker -- "Premonition" by john Fogerty. Live rock-n-roll. Available on CD, but the DVD, out of print, but frequently on Ebay, is worth the extra bucks for the songs and the concert video. I just got a Russian copy of the PAL version off Ebay from some guy in Azerbijian -- price was decent, audio and video are great and he didn't nail me for the shipping ($4). This is the only modern day recording, I think, of Fogerty doing old CCR songs and he knocks it out! Happy B-Day, thebes.

Sometimes it takes the context to understand the guilt .... I am a middle-aged Republican southern baptist sunday school teacher, so naturally one of my guilty pleasures is AC/DC, especially "Thunderstruck." And I regret to confess that back in the 70's I actually owned and frquently sang along with a Mac Davis album.

Speakers $2,000 HDTV $4,000 StudioTech Rack (high in SAF) $800 Yammie 2300 $700 Switchers, cables, players, geegaws, brickbats $700 CD's, DVDs, SACDs, DVD-As -- as nickoltl said -- priceless Saddest part is that had I been a more active reader of this forum, I would have saved some money. Almost as sad part is how much the prices of a lot of that stuff dropped the day after i bought it

---------------- On 8/8/2005 11:34:14 PM sunburnwilly wrote: Any schools located near Hope Arkansas ? ---------------- Henderson State University is just up the road in Arkadelphia -- I believe it has the only School of Aviation in Arkansas.

He also sounds like a good candidate for one of the military academies.

Thnkas again to joesportster for the wonderful deal and heeckuva shipping job! Alison Krauss is serenading us right now -- my bride is just sitting right there in front of the speakers, listening loud, smiling and rocking to the music. For what it is worth -- here's the first six CD's played on the Heresy's, in this order: Beatle "One" Alison Krauss "So long so wrong" Copland by Bernstein Best of Leon Russell Thomas Dolby "Aliens Ate My Buick" Concord Jazz Sampler Volume 3 Nothing like some good tunes to help yu beat the Arkansas heat!

---------------- On 7/13/2005 2:02:33 PM kepople wrote: You last statement about 6th channel is confusing. If what you state is correct that would be a 6.1 disc which is not listed on the discs I have purchased. kirby ---------------- Some in-depth explanations might be required. Suggest you go to http://www.revolutionhometheater.com/howto/dvdaudio/main.shtml for more in-depth information. Other places for info: www.ecoustics.com www.soundandvision.com www.hometheatermag.com After these, if you are still confused, let us know.

---------------- On 7/13/2005 10:01:25 AM damonrpayne wrote: Wangdang: there are 2 seperate settings on my motorola box. The one you are talking about is "480i override", which I have set to 480p. "DVI HD Output" is set to 1080i. Whoever said 1080i is not HD is a little off I think. I would think 720p looks better than 1080i to a lot of people so I agree with Anything over 576 lines. There are so very few things that can do 1080p right now, a couple Qualia products come to mind and that's it. When the PS3/Blu-ray comes out I may have to look into a 1080p TV. ---------------- I've got those same options on my motorola box -- one is set to 480I, so i can scale it with my TV; the other to 720p, which is the preferred HD setting for the Sharp LCD. Hope you watch some good HD shows and can let the joy of watching and listening to a wonderful a/v system help you forget those maroon installer guys!

Back to the setting at 480p --- If this is a Motorola box, what you are setting is the default for the non-HD signals. If you have cable stations that you subscribe to, hooked up between a motorola HD box and your TV by DVI, then the HD signal will more or less bypass the processing in the motorola box. That menu setting is telling the box how to send you the non-HD signals. Frankly, I bypass the motorola 480p and send just the plain cable signal to my Sharp Aquos, because the scaler in my TV is much better than the scaler in the STB. Plus, the default setting stretches the signal in a way I do not like. So I control all that at the TV. It is true that many cable guys do not really understand HD. but usually there is a techie back at the ranch who does. Call him if you have problems. You can change that setting on the Motorola menu. You do it by turning the power off to the cable box, then pressing the menu button on the cable remote (some boxes require you to press it a couple of times -- also make sure the remote is set to "cable"). My suggestion -- change it and see what you get. Big caveat -- make sure you are subscribing to the HD channels -- the cable packages usually include local stations (IF THEY ARE SENDING AN HD SIGNAL -- many do not), Discovery HD Theater, ESPN-HD, INHD-1, INHD2, and maybe a premium or TNT-HD. If yu do not subbscribe to the cable package for these, you will not get the HD signal -- this has been a big probalbe in my town -- where people assume that they subscribe to the pricy digital packages, but not the HD separate package,and think they are getting HD. I promise, if you are getting the HD signal on the stations I mentioned, you'll know it. But yes, all the other channels will look like typical cable crud. One last suggestion -- when I went HD, I had the cable guys re-run the line from the pole to the house -- it made a world of difference on the non-HD signals.

John Hiatt, "Master of Disaster" CD/SACD -- acoustic folk, pop, blues, country -- heck, it's a bunch of Hiatt songs. Like his former partner Ry cooder, it's hard to pinpoint his style. But the lyrics are great, so is the music, and a bonus here is that this is a multi-channel SACD masquerading as a CD. Yep -- I found it in the CD section at BB with no SACD notation other than some fine print on the back, and sure enough, it plays analog 6-channel, too.

---------------- On 7/4/2005 3:46:00 PM kepople wrote: Are there any well stocked online stores? ---------------- Here are a few good places to shop --- www.dts.com -- home place for DTS surround-disks www. aix.com -- my favorite surrund music label -- their samplers have lots of good music www.acousticsounds.com -- a full line store www. musicdirect.com -- another. Happy listening!

Joe -- please see pm

I have Klipsch computer speakers and an early version of the reference home theater system. I want to upgrade to a pair of Heresies or Cornwalls. What is a reasonable price for used pairs? Does the type of wood finish really make a difference?

sorry for my triple post (anyone know if you can delete instead of edit?)

HookedonTronics has the Pioneer VSX-815 for $228 -- big savings on a great little receiver. For this performance level, it is one of the best.