Early home theater

dmalino

what was the earliest home theater type setup you've seen? I remember in the late 80s the hifi shop I frequented had a Pioneer Laserdisc player being shown on a Kloss Novabeam with the audio being played through a Yamaha DSP and Threshold amps. Front speakers were Carver Amazings, the rears were Boston A60s played through a Yamaha reciever. No center channel.

Strong Bad

I can't recall any particular setup, but I remember back to the introduction of Dolby Pro Logic. All of the audio sales people would kick in "Top Gun" on VHS and people would flip out at the way it sounded.

"OOOOOOO...AHHHHHHH...listen to the faint sound coming from the rear speakers. Simply amazing!"

My oh my how far we have come with DTS ES 6.1.


John

McLoki

First I had was a VHS player, Yamaha M-85 amp, Yamaha C-85 preamp and a pair of SDA 1c's. Only front speakers but with the sda effect, movies were an awesome home experience. (and almost surround - this was in the late 80's - early 90's)

Michael

dmalino

Originally posted by john d. strong

"OOOOOOO...AHHHHHHH...listen to the faint sound coming from the rear speakers. Simply amazing!"
John

Best surround sound I've heard was watching basketball on TV. The ambient sounds were whatever the mikes on the court would pick up. You could hear the players yelling at each other. They've since learned to shut the mikes down, too much swearing.

dmalino

Originally posted by McLoki
First I had was a VHS player, Yamaha M-85 amp, Yamaha C-85 preamp and a pair of SDA 1c's. Only front speakers but with the sda effect, movies were an awesome home experience. (and almost surround - this was in the late 80's - early 90's)

Michael

I'm a bit envious, those Yamaha amps were awesome. My favorite setup at the store I frequented had the Yamahas playing through ADS L1290s.
I had a NAD 3300 with a JBL DPL unit that connected through the tape monitor loop.
Boston A60s and a cheap 3pc Radio Shack surround getup ($75)

Danny Tse

The earliest one I remember was a demo at my local Macys (when Macys used to sell electronics....even NHT speakers!). It was those Bose cubes.

My earliest HT set up involved a Sony stereo integrated amp, Pioneer LaserDisc player, AudioSource Dolby Surround decoder/amp, and Radio Shack Realistic Minimus 7 rear speakers. I still have everything except for the AudioSource decoder.

Frank Z

My first one was an Emerson 19" tv, Emerson VCR and a F.R.E.D.

Let's see if anyone knows what the hell a F.R.E.D. is/was.

No googling allowed!!

landry_p2000

My first set-up? Whoa!

Well here it goes.

Sony Pro-Logic surround amp
Sony VCR
19 inch Sanyo TV
Techincs 12 " Floor Standers
Technics center and surrounds (made with a one way 4" driver in surrounds and two in the center)
I think these speakers were made of paper!;)
I thought I was the man!:D

BlueMDPicker

Originally posted by Frank Z
Let's see if anyone knows what the hell a F.R.E.D. is/was.

Hmm.. let's see... is it bigger than a bread box? Can more than one person use it at the same time?

Hell, I give up. I'll take a wild guess:
Fully
Radical
Electronic
Dealybobber

Frank Z

Originally posted by BlueMDPicker
Hmm.. let's see... is it bigger than a bread box? Can more than one person use it at the same time?

Hell, I give up. I'll take a wild guess:
Fully
Radical
Electronic
Dealybobber

WRONG!!
Next loser....er .....player!!:)

BlueMDPicker

DAMN, I thought I'd nailed it!

Front
Rear
Electronic
Delay

Frank Z

Originally posted by BlueMDPicker
DAMN, I thought I'd nailed it!

Almost nailed...but with the wrong end of the hammer.;)

BlueMDPicker

You mean it's really D.E.R.F. and I'm dyslexic?

Frank Z

Dyslexic's of the world...untie!!



Actually it stands for
Friendly
Recoton
Entertainment
Device

It was a small box that you set up near the TV, ran a small wire (antenna) to the back side of the TV. The box would then create a Matrixed (Psuedo) Stereo signal that you could listen to through a receiver/preamp system. It came out right around the time stereo TV's first hit the market.