Author Topic: Home Theatre  (Read 4756 times)

Quickbeam

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Home Theatre
« on: May 29, 2021, 09:51:52 AM »
For the last few months we have been putting together a new soundstage for our home theatre set up. We now have all the speakers in place, but are still waiting for two more to replace some older speakers we are using temporarily. But a few days ago we got the new 4K Apple TV with Dolby Atmos sound. Our TV is an older Samsung Plasma so it's not 4K, but still has a pretty decent picture. But the real goal of what we've been putting together has been the sound stage.

I've been really happy so far with how everything has come together and I know it will be even better once we get the final pair of speakers we have on order. But with the addition of the new Apple TV, last night is the first time I've heard a movie in a home theatre setting in Dolby Atmos. We bought the movie "Gravity" with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

Holy crap, it was amazing. Sound coming at us from all directions and the floor shaking. Talk about being immersed in a movie. We originally saw this movie in the theatre a number of years ago (in 3d) and I wasn't all that impressed. Last night it quite literally blew me away. It was that good. It's been a while since we saw it in the theatre, but I'm almost positive it sounded better on our system than it did in the theatre. I'm thinking this is probably because the sound is concentrated in a much smaller area.

For any of you who are into this kind of thing, we now have a 7.2.2 sound system. It has been quite the journey putting all this together, and last night was the culmination. If sound is important to you and this is something you are considering and not sure about, my advice would be to go for it. It quite literally takes movie watching to an entirely different level.

And the cherry on the cake for me at least, is that I am also a huge music fan and our new system also takes music listening to an entirely new level. This is definitely the nicest sound system I've ever owned.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2021, 01:30:22 PM »
Nice!  Any pics of your setup?

Quickbeam

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2021, 05:24:07 PM »
Sorry Admin., but I don't have pictures. Hate to admit it, but I have never posted pictures to this site and am not sure how to do so. But even if I did, I don't think pictures would do it justice. Our A/V Receiver, power amp, and all the other components are on a stand which is partially hidden behind a couch. So that doesn't provide a great view. And while our front speakers would show up, it wouldn't show our surrounds or our rear surrounds, or for that matter our in ceiling Atmos speakers.

What I can provide is a link that will show you what we have for our two main speakers, and we will also use for our surrounds. We went with Totem Tribe Towers. Totem is a company out of Montreal that produces high end speakers. Our speakers aren't large in size, but they punch way above their weight class and have a marvelous sound. You can see them here (https://totemacoustic.com/product/tribe-tower/). We got them in Satin Black.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

PonoBill

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2021, 10:40:39 PM »
Um, you spent probably north of 20K on sound gear and you don't have a 4K TV? Those are fundamentally free. You have to work to spend a thousand bucks.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2021, 02:25:54 AM »
I wondered mostly if you had a dedicated theater room or if this is in a living room (or similar) and what you had done there. 

I find myself listening to music now entirely through headphones or in the car.  Electric vehicles are terrific for that as car noise is so low. 

Quickbeam

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2021, 09:52:09 AM »
Um, you spent probably north of 20K on sound gear and you don't have a 4K TV? Those are fundamentally free. You have to work to spend a thousand bucks.

I know. One step at a time though. We really are quite happy with our plasma and any new TV we get will be somewhere around 55" as we don't have the space for anything larger. But you are correct and our next TV will be a 4K OLED.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

Quickbeam

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2021, 10:03:54 AM »
I wondered mostly if you had a dedicated theater room or if this is in a living room (or similar) and what you had done there. 

I find myself listening to music now entirely through headphones or in the car.  Electric vehicles are terrific for that as car noise is so low.

Not a dedicated theatre room. It's all in a living room, dining room combination, but it worked out amazingly well. Just by luck really. We had our house custom designed and built in 2013 and just lucked out in that the design supports what we are now doing with our sound system. We also had ceiling speakers installed during the build and the placement of these speakers once again fits in perfectly with the sound system we now have. I wished we had put in 4 ceiling speakers but again, at the time I don't even think Dolby Atmos was around. Sometime in the fall I am going to try out two more speakers, which are called upward firing Dolby Atmos speakers. They basically bounce the sound off the ceiling to give the effect of ceiling speakers. Not sure how well they will work, or even if they will work at all given our room design and the placement of our already existing ceiling speakers, but I'm at least going to try them out. And if they don't work, we are still very, very happy with what we have. It really does take movie watching to an entirely different level. And also gives a complete new dimension to listening to music.

And one of these days I'll hopefully be able to experience listening to music in an electric vehicle. It will be a while but I'm almost certain our next vehicle will be electric.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2021, 10:32:49 AM »
We bought one of these guys when we moved in here.

Epic TV visually and the Atmos sound bar was highly hyped.  It sounded great in the store (they all do) and it sounds really good in our living room (wide open room, not ideal setup).  The sound is nice, more immersive than a plain old soundbar and with some movies and content it works really well.  In some cases however the speaking voices get buried by the other lesser audio elements and it becomes really hard to hear.  I have messed with the numerous options to the point of frustration.  In those instances I can improve the voices but lose the spatial coolness or vice versa.  I am sure that a real speaker setup is needed but our room would not be great for that. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdAda7gtdFY
« Last Edit: May 30, 2021, 10:35:09 AM by Admin »

Quickbeam

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2021, 12:22:47 PM »
Wow, Admin. That is so cool. LG and Sony OLED are on my short list for when we do finally replace our TV, but I had never seen what you have. It just amazes me the way technology keeps improving, and how fast it goes.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2021, 04:55:08 PM »
Whoah!  Hold the phone.  Upon looking, one of the firmware updates added a smart function that lets you analyze your room by moving the remote to your common seating areas.  I did that and it really improved things.  Turns out that by default, dialogue is mostly centered in the stereo window.  We sit a bit to the outsides and it seems like we had been unknowingly minimizing the frequencies out there that we were looking to enhance.  Thanks for posting.  I would not have revisited this!

Quickbeam

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2021, 08:32:35 PM »
That’s excellent. Glad you got it sorted out!
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

peterp

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2021, 12:35:12 AM »
Whoah!  Hold the phone.  Upon looking, one of the firmware updates added a smart function that lets you analyze your room by moving the remote to your common seating areas.  I did that and it really improved things.  Turns out that by default, dialogue is mostly centered in the stereo window.  We sit a bit to the outsides and it seems like we had been unknowingly minimizing the frequencies out there that we were looking to enhance.  Thanks for posting.  I would not have revisited this!

Sounds like (not to be punny), you sorted out the problem. I had similar experience where I could not make out dialogue and it was driving me mad. Looking at our room I realised big glass windows and tiled floors are basic acoustics worst enemy. Just as an experiment I scattered cushions all over the floor about 1m apart - what a difference! Don't under estimate sound deadening your room.

Quickbeam

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2021, 08:02:36 PM »
Um, you spent probably north of 20K on sound gear and you don't have a 4K TV? Those are fundamentally free. You have to work to spend a thousand bucks.


This is an older thread, but I wanted to post and give a shout out to Pono Bill. I had mentioned in my original post that we built a new soundstage for our home theatre system. As an aside it sounds absolutely fantastic and we are still thrilled with it.

But the real reason I'm posting is that Pono, you had asked why we didn't also upgrade our TV.   I hadn't even thought of replacing our TV before you posed the question, but it made a lot of sense. So while it has taken us a while, last week we ordered a new 65" LG OLED TV. Supposed to be delivered this coming Friday. Am stoked to finally be completing this. Also have to mention though Pono, that your pricing is a little off, or at least the prices you are used to in the U.S. don't apply in Canada. For our new TV, you can triple the $1,000 estimate you made. But it's still all good, as when we get it set up we will have a very nice, complete system.

So thanks again for the idea. Don't know why I didn't think of it myself. I've always been more of a sound guy, so really wasn't concentrating on the visual end. But you were absolutely correct. If we are going to spend the kind of money we did for the sound components, it only made sense to also upgrade the TV.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

PonoBill

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #13 on: October 17, 2021, 10:34:50 PM »
Hmmm. Well, I'm glad you decided to upgrade. Plasma TVs are more than a few generations out of step with current tech. But yes, you can buy a pretty good 4K TV for peanuts. I just bought one of these to use as a monitor at my shop. I've watched a little streaming on it as well. it's gorgeous. I think I paid $420 for it.

https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/crystal-uhd-tvs/55-class-tu7000-4k-uhd-hdr-smart-tv-2020-un55tu7000fxza/

But also, yes, here in the states most of the LG 65" 4K TVs are in the $2500 range. The slightly smaller TVs are a LOT cheaper, but they are also less reliable. They build them to a price, and that price is what the average Walmartian will pay for a new TV.

The biggest problem with 4K TVs is that no one makes them in smaller sizes. I didn't really want a 55" monitor, but it was the only name-brand small(ish) 4K TV Walmart had in stock (if you want a cheap, good monitor, you go where the WalMartians go). 4K TVs make great monitors and they're generally cheaper than actual monitors. I consider them disposable, but make sure you get an extended warranty for your expensive TV. If the power supply capacitors fry, or anything else goes wrong you'll have a heck of a time getting anyone to fix one.

I take dead TVs apart to make light panels out of them. I take the liquid crystal panel out, replace the LED strip with a high output strip, and just use the light distribution and lens system to make lighting panels that feel like daylight. There are lots of dead TVs available. These things work great until they don't, and then they're basically unusable trash.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2021, 11:11:46 PM by PonoBill »
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

Quickbeam

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Re: Home Theatre
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2021, 11:36:00 PM »
Your point about the warranty is a good one, and to be fair, when I quoted the price we paid, that price included the TV, the warranty and the delivery and mounting. And the warranty wasn't cheap. But in my view, the warranty was still worth it. We used the warranty we had on our plasma, so I thought better to be safe than sorry.

I think the TV itself was something like $2,300 and then with the warranty, delivery & mounting charges and taxes it took it to about $3,200. I don't have the receipt in front of me, but it was something close to that.
Infinity Blackfish 12’ 6” x 23”
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 24”
Infinity Whiplash 12' 6" x 24 1/2"
ONE SUP Evo 12’ 6” x 26”
Bark Competitor 12’ 6” x 29”
Red Paddle Explorer (Inflatable) 13' 2" x 30
Starboard Airline (Inflatable) 12’ 6” x 27

 


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