Roddimus Prime

I sold my 3 PS3's before christmas because I hate sony and ended up buying an XBOX360 with the HD-DVD drive instead. So far I have a small collection of HD-DVDs.

V for Vendetta
Batman Begins
Terminator 3
The Mummy
The Grinch who stole christmas
Serenity

I'm planning on snagging up 3-4 more this week: Superman Returns, Last Samurai, Evil Dead and Departed.

End of this month the whole Matrix Trilogy comes out as well as my all time favorite....

SHAUN OF THE DEAD!!!

Anyone else into next-gen DVDs?? Got any movies you want to trade? sell?

BOOSTD 7

Since I have about 1000 standard def DVD's and a nice Video up-scaler I'm not to worried about HD-DVD just yet I find differences in audio far more important than differences in video.

Roddimus Prime

then you REALLY need to step up to HD or BluRay. The audio quality is AMAZING. 7.1 surround AND increased picture quality.

Just for giggles I watched Grinch in HD and then flipped the disk and watched the DVD version upscaled and it was VERY noticeably different. So much so that my wife commented on it.

BOOSTD 7

There isn't much more information in a TrueHD track than there is in a DTS or normal AC3 track, in the future there probably will be ... but right now audio isn't much different on HD discs. Most movie tracks just don't need much more audio resolution anyway, they're just transients and dynamics.

I'll go HD as soon as there are cheap HD burners and discs available

Roddimus Prime

pwn.

I have a simple Onkyo 5.1 surround system with a non-powered sub and I can tell a BIG difference in the amount of sound I'm hearing now...It's not sounding better...I'm just able to distinguish more sound now. does that make sense?

My next purchase is going to be a BOSE lifestyle 25 system. I know some people don't like them but you can't argue with the technology and way it sounds. Plus they have a money back guarantee.

BOOSTD 7

Ha, audio is my thing

TrueHD signals are the future for sure, they can essentially be a true copy of the original Audio Master tapes. There's huge potential there, so when discs take advantage of it fully it'll be very impressive on a nice system.

Please lord PLEASE do NOT get a BOSE anything system. You can easily argue with the horrendous sound If you're close to making a purchase, let me give you some suggestions.

Roddimus Prime

I'll gladly take any input you have but it's hard to argue with the bose system for someone who wants quality audio and isn't demanding the very best of everything. Bose is more than enough for 90% of the people out there, including myself.

1. Simple hook up system
2. complete package designed to work together
3. AdaptIQ sound monitoring system automatically adjusts the audio levels to fit any room. (big selling point for me)
4. tiny gel cube speakers take up almost no space and look great.
5.acustomass module provides enough bass repsonse to rattle my windows.
6. Multi room listening ability...play 2 rooms at once
7. Streaming meida from my Mac or the built-in HDD.

Also keep in mind my media room is only about 16' x 16'. I don't have to have anything that is going to blow my windows out. I justwant very clear and distinct surround sound processing.


p.s. Ever see the Bose suspension systems used on their lexus GS430? It's amazing.

BOOSTD 7

I guess the decision comes down to, do you want TRULY good sound or just sound? Seriously the ONLY thing Bose has going for it is size - it's small and unobtrusive. But no matter what horseshit the marketing people try to tell you, Physics is what it is - those gay little cubes just can't perform worth a poop.

All that 'technology' is nothing special, pretty much every $400 or so receiver on the market can do all the same things - and produce MUCH more power than the Bose box, and with higher quality DAC's, power supplies, and amp stages. Bottom line, that tiny Bose form factor is what kills it's performance.

16x16 is a pretty good sized room. You could easily put a nice pair of floorstanding speakers in front with a center channel, and then put a pair of either bookshelf or dipole surrounds in the rear. A single 10" or 12" sub would likely get the job done too.

Just so you know, I build all this stuff myself. I've build about 10 sets of speakers, a few subs, even now I'm building a ton of amplifier modules with build in crossovers - and a pre-amplifier. If you decide you want real sound, and don't mind the space of a traditional setup, let me build something for you I'd be happy to hook my boy up!

Jackelope

hm.. have to keep that in mind when i build my dream house.. (a dome) - yah.. i know i'm wierd!

BOOSTD 7

Friends don't let friend buy Bose

Here's some info on one of my latest speaker builds. http://www.audiocircle.com/gallery/t...php?album=1488

Current project is massive. My Uncle gave me a $5000 check and said build the best you can do. So far I have for AV15 15" subs and a 2500 watt amp to run them all. Main speakers will be an open baffle setup with an MTM (midrange-tweeter-midrange) on the top and four woofers below that handling 200hz down. I'm building a 300 watt x 3 channel amp for the fronts and center, and a 150x4 amp for the 2 side surrounds and 2 rear surrounds. I can't wait to hear it all done, good thing he lives in the middle of nowhere, neighbors would NOT approve I'm also having him install 2 new 20amp mains off his circuit breaker just for powering the Theater setup!

Roddimus Prime

good lord...that stuff looks great to be built at home with bare hands.

Here's my question about your stuff (or whatever you prefer) vs Bose...

1. The Bose has AdaptIQ technology that automatically listens to ittself and adjusts everything based on the environment. I heard it in person when the kid in the store put a wooden box around a gel cube and the system corrected ittself in like 3 seconds to sounding just like it did before it was muffled. AWESOME to see in person.

2. What do you use for surround signal processing?? Most everything I buy, be it HD-dvd or video games, only use Dolby digital II. Do I need anything more than the Onkyo I've got now?? It's a Dolby Digital DTS system with plenty of power for my entire house....at 65% volume it'll be louder than anything I can stand. I watch most movies on 45%.

3. Space is a big issue for me as I'm trying to mount my speakers in the upper corners of this room. The small speakers I've got now are "ok"...but they are NOT quality by any means....a friend of mine that worked for Bose gave them to me. I guess if I remove my computer desk I have room to put some larger tower speakers and an entertainment shelf.

4. How much?? Honestly, I don't want to spend $1000 on the entire system. I can't imagine needing anything large because of the size of this room. The wife says it's 14' X 14'.....

5. What I'm MOST concerned with is the spacial sound. I want to hear everything around me. Not just super loud blasting noise. Anyone can make a loud system.....but that bose system really has a great sense of spatial sound to it. Better than any other all-in-one reciever system I've seen demo'd in stores.

BOOSTD 7

1 - Don't know about actively changing equalization, but pretty much every receiver has an auto eq feature. Hook up a mic and run a setup routine and it sets all the speakers sizes, distances, equalization, etc. Even still, if you have good speakers with a flat response, all those equalization features aren't needed.

2 - What you need for TrueHD soundtracks is a receiver or processor with a 5.1 or 7.1 analog bypass. Tell me what Onkyo you have and I can tell you if it'll work or not.

3 - Proper speaker placement is extremely important. If you're compromising the performance from the start by sticking them in the upper corners of a room, then it doesn't matter what you get cuz it'll all sound like crap Proper placement, greatly generalized, is tweeters at eye level, front left and right equidistant from your centerline, and about 18-24" minimum out from the wall.

4 - Even with a $1000 budget you can get a more traditional setup with real speakers that sound fantastic. Quality speakers sound good even in a small room, there's a lot more to a speaker than just the volume level it's able to produce.

5 - Again, quality speakers are able to create a 3D soundfield from just 2 channels of playback. Bose needs the full surround and TONS of artificial processing to create the effect. All those DSP modes in the Bose demo great, but sound totally artificial and become very tiring after a few minutes of listening. 95% of the information in any movie soundtrack is done by the front 3 channels, weight your budget toward them and you'll be much better off - and you'll have a system that also sounds good for listening to music.

Movies are all about dynamics - going from whisper quiet to sonic boom in a millisecond. Bose systems simply cannot do that, those little baby drivers just don't move enough air to create impact. I guess dynamics is something you truly have to experience to appreciate

Thanks for the props on my last speakers. I did those without even owning a table saw, just a circular saw and a router. For my current projects I bought a killer table saw, and the quality of what I'm able to do has went up significantly!

Roddimus Prime

You've put the most logically argument on the table. Now I'm going to ask you to back it up.

My receiver is an Onkyo TX SR500 Show me what you would do with it in a 14 x 14 room and how much it would cost.


Sell me a system man...I really want great audio but I think something like a dummy box (bose) is probably the easy way out.

p.s. I have a $8,000 limit on my Circuit City card so don't kill me on this stuff!

BOOSTD 7

Well that SR500 is very limited on connectivity, it won't work with a HD-DVD player in TrueHD. It'll do your standard surround decoding, but that kinda kills the point of HD not having TrueHD capability.

In a 14x14 room I'd build or buy a smallish MTM floorstander for your front L/R, and a MTM center channel. Then a pair of small bookshelf speakers or dipoles for the rear surrounds. Sub would be simple, just a 10" or 12" and about a 250 watt amp ... I could build one for under $200, or buy one for around $350.

Roddimus Prime

you're saying the sub would be $200? How much for the other speakers? What brand speakers do you use? Car audio speakers?

What receiver do I need for true HD audio decoding?

keep in mind I hate sony products....dont recommend anything sony!!