Home Theatre Thread

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Burnzoire
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Post by Burnzoire »

Ok I checked the amp and it has no side vents so the lack of clearance there is ok. I guess I'll have to wait and see if the hot air can escape in there. Got a 3 year warranty incase it eslodes.
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Post by ObSoLeTe »

Burnzoire wrote:
ObSoLeTe wrote:nice setup mate :up:

when i first got my pioneer and jensen setup a few years back i tested it on a few scenes and the t-rex bit from jurassic park was one of them, a few scenes in T2, the first time he shoots the shotgun at the T-1000 down that hallway sounds fucking awesome and nuke going off sounds good

another scene that sounded good that i tested from was U-571, it was the depth chargers part, alot of explosions, metal denting and the creaking of the sub
Thanks for the tip - I just finished watching U571 then (first chance to watch a movie with this setup). Boy the depth charge scenes were off the show! The subby was so punchy and clear. Sound was cinema-quality all throughout the movie. It'll be interesting to see if blu-ray will raise it up a another notch it's pretty damn sweet at the moment.
glad to help, yeah it sounded awesome on my set up the sub works in overtime in that scene :) .
i havent really given my system a good go on any blu ray titles yet, i am going to have to get some of my favorite movies again

The THX Certified logo at the start of most movies is enough to give me a woody. T2 and THX-1138 are awesome. I love the storm in the ball in THX-1138 but the sound of Arnie behind you loading his shotgun (as seen in the reflection of the logo) and then BOOM!. Ahhhh awesome
lol gotta crank it when you see that THX logo, lol yeah i thought it was a nice touch to see his reflection on the logo too

another scene i turn it up on is the minigun scene, the sounds of the bullets tearing into the cop cars and then the grenade launcher finishing the rest off :up: plus miles blowing up cyberdine sounds pretty good
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Post by MiNiStRy »

You definately want to get it out of that enclosure as all audiophiles/videophiles will tell you at least 10/15 cm clearance on all sides. It may be okay now but after watching a few movies on it in summer it will end up overheating and turning itself off. I would recommend a seperate enclosure for your gear as that way you can be safe not to burn it out, i use one of these which can be bought for under $200 with the 20% off coupon DTV08.

http://www.selbyacoustics.com.au/StoreF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... =236155033
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Post by Burnzoire »

grumble grumble

if you look at my setup on page 2 you'll see my options are somewhat limited. Certainly no room for a seperate cabinet. :/
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Post by DjBigK »

Just looking out for you dude.

My last amp died prematurely because I had it in a pretty enclosed space. Started to turn itself off, only every now and then at first, but progressively got worse. Being out of warranty I paid a couple of hundred to get it fixed and in 12 months it started to play up again. It had a fair bit more clearance than your receiver currently does.

I'm not sure about your model specifically but traditionally Onkyo amps run quite hot.

With my new amp I actually built an external box to house it myself making sure that it had plenty of clearance as well as ventilation.

Image

The box I built is to the left of the TV. My old receiver was in the middle hole in the middle of the cabinet (where there is currently an HD-DVD player and a Foxtel IQ2).
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Post by Burnzoire »

thanks for that mate. Will have a think about it. It's crazy that yours overheated in a pretty normal sized cabinet shelf. I'd better give the warranty & manuals a read too. I certainly didn't notice any big warnings in the user manual when I installed it.
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Post by Burnzoire »

18. If you install the apparatus in a built-in installation,
such as a bookcase or rack, ensure that there is adequate
ventilation.
Leave 20 cm (8") of free space at the top and sides
and 10 cm (4") at the rear. The rear edge of the shelf
or board above the apparatus shall be set 10 cm (4")
away from the rear panel or wall, creating a fluelike
gap for warm air to escape.


sigh
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Post by MiNiStRy »

You can still keep that cabinet you have for the tv and maybe go for the two or three shelf version from selbys, it will look nice and keep the mrs happy which in reality its what they think that matters.
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Re: Home Theatre System (advice needed)

Post by Burnzoire »

Well it blew up!

Mind you it's been in a very ventilated space the last 12 months so I doubt it was due to overheating. Maybe went too loud over the weekend but when it went lastnight I was playing music on a very mild volume. Music stopped after a little blip, I went to check it out and the power light was flashing. Flashing lights are too tempting so I hit it again and POP, complete with flames out the bottom. Guess a cap just went... under warrantly, getting it repaired tomorrow.

Here's my current setup...
Image
I know it's not "20cm clearance" but I dunno how you can get more room than this in a reasonable environment. I guess Onkyo still use cheap parts.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by General Chaos »

Omg you let the magic smoke out!
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by jizzlobber »

shit... my amp has no clearance whatsoever, I have to force it into my unit... there are some vents on the side but the top vents are all blocked.
mate of mine reckons it shouldn't overheat though, and it hasn't skipped a beat so far, but I think I better find another nook for the thing
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by selfish »

OK I'm looking to turn my stereo setup into a surround setup, currently I have a Denon AVR-1509 with some hand-me-down bose 101s as the only two speakers.

I'd like to get a sub, centre, and two front speakers (and use the 101s as the rear channel), BUT (and this is the tricky bit), I don't really want to spend more than $500. What should I do? It seems to be impossible to purchase such an arrangement - speaker packs don't exist, you have to get them with some shitty receiver too.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by selfish »

Anyone?
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by mech »

You can buy speakers on their own no worries. I'd check out Jaycar if you have one in your city, or even JB I guess.

Otherwise I'd just get a Z-5500 or Z906 setup. Small, easy, and cheap (< $300), and it sounds great for the price/size.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by pilonv1 »

I'm still using my Z-680's I bought in 1999. Only problem I have is lack of inputs (1 optical/1 coax) and wired rear speakers but they're still great.
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Home Theatre Thread

Post by emptyvessel »

I retired my Z-680 setup from lounge room use last year when I decided I wanted a proper tuner to pump hdmi inputs into, rather than having to rely on optical switchers for all my stuff.

It's not retired fully though, as it's still used in my retro room and still goes well.

The only issue with pc speakers as a tv surround setup is as mentioned the lack of inputs, especially hdmi. But as you already have a tuner, be careful about considering the Logitech speakers as the sub doesn't plug in via the standard cable so it may not be usable.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by mech »

Yeah, lack of inputs sucks. The z906 has 2 optical, 1x coax, but in every other way is worse than Z-5500s :( Found this out the hard way. Although smaller sub actually works better in the new place.

What's the Denon got for inputs though anyway? And how does it sound with the bose speakers?

Note that mixing speakers can be very bad - I had LSK speakers for my centre and rears and Boston Acoustics for my fronts, and they sounded completely different and it didn't match very well.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by pilonv1 »

Z-5500 doesn't have HDMI does it? I can't imagine buying a new set of speakers + amp without HDMI in 2012.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by MiNiStRy »

The 1509 is a entry level hd reciever with 2 hdmi 1.3 connections but it packs a punch in sound and features.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by selfish »

mech wrote:What's the Denon got for inputs though anyway? And how does it sound with the bose speakers?

Note that mixing speakers can be very bad - I had LSK speakers for my centre and rears and Boston Acoustics for my fronts, and they sounded completely different and it didn't match very well.
The Denon has a couple of optical inputs, which I'm using for the PS3 and the Mac Mini - so that's plenty. I've got a cable plugged in for the rare occasions we need to plug an iPod in directly. The HDMI ports aren't for audio, just for pass through. It's got 5.1 output, and a second set of front speakers (which I'm using for some more hand-me-down bose outdoor speakers (which are fucking great, BTW)), I really can't work out why people want inputs direct to the speakers - I come from a land of hand-me-down 70s and 80s equipment, the idea of having anything other than bare wire ports on a speaker weirds me out.

The Boses sound pretty good to my untrained ears, but I haven't done any comparisons with anything. Ignorance is bliss! But maybe they just sound fairly OK in the first place? Very clearly missing out on the lower frequencies though.
emptyvessel wrote:But as you already have a tuner, be careful about considering the Logitech speakers as the sub doesn't plug in via the standard cable so it may not be usable.
That's the thing that worries me about getting one of those types of systems - that the sub doesn't connect to the amp in any way that makes the amp aware of it. When running a 5.1 signal, won't that .1 get lost into the ether?

And really, Logitech? For speakers? This doesn't sound right. Will they work in a normal sized living room? They're computer speakers!
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by selfish »

Oh and for some reason it's stopped letting me turn the thing off with the remote! Wtf?
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by mech »

pilonv1 wrote:Z-5500 doesn't have HDMI does it? I can't imagine buying a new set of speakers + amp without HDMI in 2012.
If you need something small and cheap that sounds good that's the price you have to pay...

I'd read my new TV actually supported 5.1 passthrough from HDMI inputs so I thought the lower number of inputs on the Z906 would be fine... untrue sadly :(

and yes, selfish, logitech. Speakers. It's well known their computer speakers make great cheap 5.1 systems. I had a set for my bedroom now I have a set as my main 5.1 in my place over here because they were, as I said, small and cheap (and sound good). The new ones are very basic, even more so than the Z-5500s - can't adjust treble at all, and only the level of the sub for bass, but sound great at least.

Loved my Z-5500s.

Oh and obviously if you're using Logitech ones you wouldn't be using the hand-me-down system you already got, unless you simply use the receiver as a switcher.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by MiNiStRy »

selfish wrote:Oh and for some reason it's stopped letting me turn the thing off with the remote! Wtf?

Make sure you have the remote assigned for main as i'm pretty sure you have another zone allowing you to control seperate sound in another room.
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by selfish »

WELL the amp has shat its dacks, i'm sending it in to warranty now. Great. But anyway, I'm looking at these:

http://www.avaustralia.com.au/products/ ... ystem.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They can do it for $611, hooray
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Re: Home Theatre Thread

Post by Cardsy »

selfish wrote:WELL the amp has shat its dacks, i'm sending it in to warranty now. Great. But anyway, I'm looking at these:

http://www.avaustralia.com.au/products/ ... ystem.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They can do it for $611, hooray
I have a set of these. Got them for about $500 around 12 mths ago. I love them. Perfect for a smallish room. :up:
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