Your thoughts and opinions requested

[Joey_V]

Nice upgrades Rich!! And make sure to give us more impressions and pics! As you know, we're all whores here!!

Sincerely,
:devil:

 

[DTB300]

Yesterday, I ordered a Meridian G68 XXV Surround Processor to act as the centerpiece of my home theater system. It should arrive in ten days or so. I was vacillating between the Meridian and the Theta Casablanca III and would ultimately be happy with either of them. I found a good deal on a brand new Meridian unit with full warranty and went for it.

You could not go wrong with either unit. Wish I could even think about affording either one. Now the wait for the new toys to arrive!!!

 

[twich54]

Rich, Holly Molly, you are putting together one AWESOME system !!

Congrats, hope all comes together as planned, with regards to acoustic treatments, may I also suggest GIK Acoustics. Dan(DTB300) turned me on to them and I can say they make a great product for the $$ spent, besides Glenn(the'G' in GIK) is a helpfull person to deal with.

Also like your selection of the Ekornes chair, I have a "Vegas" model on order, and my aching back is awaiting it's arrival with much anticipation !!

 

[DTB300]

Congrats, hope all comes together as planned, with regards to acoustic treatments, may I also suggest GIK Acoustics. Dan(DTB300) turned me on to them and I can say they make a great product for the $$ spent, besides Glenn(the'G' in GIK) is a helpfull person to deal with.

GIK is good stuff at slightly lower cost. RealTraps is another great company to deal with and also offers great products and service. Depends on which you like the looks of better.

I believe GIK and Real Trap products do a better job (absorption values) than ASC and at a much lower cost.

Dan

 

[Rich]

Thanks for the input, guys. I agree with you regarding the value/performance level of the GIK and Real traps products. I like the look of the Real traps products over the GIK products, so I will be getting most of my treatments from them. This will include an assortment of Corner Mondo Traps, Tri-Corner Traps and their quadratic diffusers (to diffuse the rear wave of the Summits). However, there are certain products that I want from ASC and RPG that Real traps and GIK just don't have an equivalent of, so I will be purchasing those separately from their respective manufacturers.

I have done a lot of research on this and have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, but then some of it will just be trial and error and tweaking once I get the basic set up. I will have bass trapping (one corner mondo trap) in each of the four wall/wall corners (and also in certain locations of the wall/ceiling corners) and tri-corner traps in all eight wall/ceiling and wall/floor tri-corners. I will have absorption and diffusion on pretty much every wall (mostly diffusion directly behind the stat panels and absorption at most early reflection points and along side walls). Once I get all that set up where it sounds really good, I will use the Meridian Room Correction to correct any remaining bass response issues. That should be the icing on the cake.

I am hoping that through proper bass trapping, and a good mixture of absorption and diffusion, I can get a good relatively "live" sound that has great soundstaging and ambient sound information, while controlling early reflections, comb filtering, etc. If I do it right, I am hoping it will sound great for movies and music (multichannel as well as stereo). Of course, I will let you all know how it progresses and what works and what doesn't.

 

[JonFo]

Well, I have made some decisions and ordered some of the gear for my dedicated audio/video room. Rather than play the mystery game and keep you all on pins and needles (like J:devil:ey), I will just lay it out.

Yesterday, I ordered a Meridian G68 XXV Surround Processor to act as the centerpiece of my home theater system. ...

Rich, Congrats, that’s an excellent choice!

Of course, I’m biased, as a diehard Meridian man; I believe they are the benchmark of audio processors.

Please let me know if you need a hand or advice on config’s. I’m quite familiar with these units, as I’ve set up a couple of Friends G68’s, complete with MRC.

You will need to get a suitable mic and mic pre-amp to run MRC with.

Of course, first order of business is to also sign up for the Meridian Owners forum over at:
http://www.meridianunplugged.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi


You will love Trifield. It is THE way to listen to 2Ch sources.

Every so often I try listening to just a 2CH disc (sometimes I’m forced to, as many SACD and some HDAD discs like I Robot are 2CH ), and it pales next to what Trifield does.
Of course, Trifield wants a good a center as you can throw at it. So warning, you can see what that made me do…

The projector I have on order is the new JVC RS1, which should be in pretty soon. Finally, I recently ordered a Salamander Synergy Quad 20 equipment rack to house all of this wonderful equipment. My seating is from the Ekornes Stressless line, and will be delivered this Tuesday.
...

Again, congrats on another excellent choice. This is the PJ I’d get if shopping for a digital today.
Also, excellent choices on seating and stands, as that’s what I use as well.

 

[Rich]

Thanks for the kind words, JonFo. And thanks for the Meridian Owners Forum Link. I will definitely register over there. And I will also take you up on the offer of help when I am knee-deep in calibration and pulling my hair out. I plan to download the software program they offer to do the calibration program, as I expect that will be the easier way to go. I have a radio shack test meter, but I don't have a microphone yet. I'll have to pick one up.

Looking forward to enjoying Trifield. Just hope I don't have to build a line array for my Stage center channel.

 

[kcl]

I also recently ordered a Reference Audio Mods modified Oppo DV-970HD Universal Player.

I picked up one of these and I'm really happy with it. I got a 970 with all mods except the power supply upgrade. My main goal was an SACD and DVD-A player (I've already got a video processor that generates 1080p), and I feel that its as good as drives 2-3 times the final cost. I'm sure you'll be satisified with it.

 

[Rich]

I picked up one of these and I'm really happy with it. I got a 970 with all mods except the power supply upgrade.

Cool, that's the same thing I got. All the mods including the Superclock, but not the power supply upgrade or the cryo treatment. I was looking for a solid universal player with quality audio output that could also output a 480i video signal over HDMI, since my projector has a gennum processor that will scale it up to 1080p. I think this will fit the bill nicely.

 

[asindc]

I like my Rotel 1098 pre/pro...it does a GREAT job on HT stuff and has full bypass mode for 2 channel, as well as a 2.1 channel mode. Nice stuff. The 1098 also has the screen on the front which has many cool uses (as I have said before it allows me to monitor the security cameras while watching/listening to something else) and it can be had for around $2k used. The 1068 I think does everything the 1098 does but w/o the screen... It is a VERY NICE way to enjoy HT on a fairly small budget.

It does NOT have any HDMI support and not enough video inputs for my taste, but those are pretty easy to work around (other than the HDMI for future super HT DTS/DD formats...)

Rich and James,

You guys seem to have the same mindset as I do about upgrading. The crucial decision seems to be how to either 1) integrate a 2ch preamp with a good HT pre/pro or receiver, or 2) find a reasonably-priced HT pre/pro that also does well as a 2ch preamp. I also do not want to compromise video performance and convenience in order to improve my 2ch setup. I also do not have the room (or budget) for two separate systems (alas!). A lot of good information here, though, that will be helpful in my decision.

I'm still in the wait-and-see mode when it comes to HT pre/pros. James, that Rotel seems like a winner... it has the features I'm looking for, but I want to see HDMI and the new surround formats integrated into the new line-ups before I make a decision.

 

[Pcar928fan]

James, that Rotel seems like a winner... it has the features I'm looking for, but I want to see HDMI and the new surround formats integrated into the new line-ups before I make a decision.

I agree...I figured until HDMI 1.3 was ubiquitous HDMI was a moot point really. To many things do not play well together at this point. When 1.3 is FULLY integrated it will be worth looking at!

As for how to 2ch and HT together. Get a really nice 2 channel w/ HT pass through. Hook all your good analog gear direct into the 2 channel Pre. Also hook your Front L/R pre amp outs on your HT pre/pro to the front L/R INPUTS of your 2 channel pre and you will be good to go. Of course the 2 channel pre OUTS go to a REALLY good 2 channel amp... Then the 2 channel should not even need to be turned on to pass the HT Front L/R signals on to the amp...