Dr. Strangesound Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love home theater

Nemesis

How my best friend and I built my HT.

Here's the story of how one high school senior went from a mediocre HTiB to a spectacular HT. Also how I spent over $600 bucks along a strange, rather comical to watch journey.

Closeout Calamity

It all started with a CompUSA flyer advertising clearance on many HT products. Included in the deal were Harman/Kardon AVR receivers (closing out the previous model year). HK simply were unique; they look the high quality sound gear that they are (I know looks have nothing to do with all important sound quality but… hey I love the look). My best friend Kyle had one (or his family did, I'm not sure exactly who paid) that sounded absolutely phenomenal; however, I was fine with my Samsung HTiB. I talked with Kyle about the sale and what I wanted for a HT experience. Yet for only $300... an AVR 130… in my 13x15 room. Not a bad idea. Plug the 5.1 array I already had (with new wire, obviously) and we’d be done. Didn’t need a monstrous number of connections, either. Sounded simple. Sadly it wasn’t.

I took the money out of my bank account and went to the local CompUSA. To my horror, they had already sold all of their 130’s. The offer wasn’t available online, either. If I wanted a great receiver right then and there I’d have to take either the $500 330 (which was the model I THOUGHT he had) or $600 430. Not bad, but really overkill for my room. Plus I didn’t have that kind of money with me. I know a bunch of you are screaming “Online! Online!” but we’ll get there in a sec.

So after school on a Friday Kyle, his little brother, and I went to the store to survey what was available. They only had the floor model 330 left, which we tried out first. The thing actually didn’t work right: it was glitchy, the cabinet looked discolored, and to top it all off some idiot had busted the company’s trademark halo volume knob. :mad:. That was immediately out. Next we looked at the 430’s: beautiful, but totally unnecessary. We looked at the others they had, but none were up to my (or perhaps I should say Kyle’s, as he basically was “translating” HT techno-ese for me) standards. The 2 Sony’s sucked (really poor sound quality on the same speakers as I tested the other receivers, ugly shell, hard to read LCD) and the Onkyo was ok but at $550 was not for me (sound clarity was a level below 130, looked like virtually every other receiver available, had more unnecessary hookups than Jenna Jameson). I had an employee check other CompUSA’s stock and none had the 130 (though I could have gotten the 330 in NH and not have had to pay the tax). So that’s were we stood.

Online Intervention

Kyle was going skiing for the weekend and he charged me with going around looking for prices/testing/etc. To make a long 2 day story of running around to 4 different Circuit City’s as short as possible, I narrowed it down to 3 rigs: AVR 135, 235, and 335. You can see that by this point I had given up on last years leftovers: if I’m only doing this once, then I’m doing it right.

Next pricing. My desire to buy new tacitly acknowledged that I’d have to buy online. Research, research, research. Decided that OneCall.com was best for me since they were one of HK’s “authorized dealers” (RE: you got the factory warranty) and had the lowest prices. High rating and mostly good feedback on Bizrate.com, too. New AVR 235 for $345? Incredible. Decided that was best for me: all the hook ups I needed (though maybe low for others) with room to grow (additional inputs, 6.1/7.1, HK’s online software upgrade program <yes once in a blue moon they release updates you download for your receiver’s guts>). Also had what I thought was the ultimate endorsement: Kyle’s. Turns out his incredible system has an AVR 230 at its heart, so I already had experience with similar in a “real world” situation. OK so speakers and sub were over what I would have but you get the idea. The receiver was just store floor smoke and mirrors.

About $30 bucks for FedEx later, the damage came to about $375. Dad let me put that big ol’ charge on his credit card and we off to the races. Ordered on a Thursday night, arrived Tuesday afternoon. 3 business days, as it was suppose to; considering that the Northeast was clobbered by that massive blizzard over the weekend, it was all I could have asked for right then and there (except the Pats beating the Steelers…).

“Great. So what can I hook up while you’re doing that?”

Kyle came over on that Friday to set this thing up. I had no clue how to do this stuff, so most of the real work was his. Immediately we (or more precisely he) ran into a snag: he/we used up most of my cable connecting ONE of the rears. “Oh, that’s weird.” :rolleyes: He completely underestimated how much cable my room needed. I had to make a run to Radioshack to pick up more Monster Cable.

“Eyegor, ready the Kites.” Once he had all the wire cut and the connections securely… ah… connected, it was time to fire the bad boy up. Should be a formality, right. Yes, and so should have been eliminating Saddam’s rule at the end of the 1st Gulf War. Sadly Kyle hadn’t asked what resistance my speakers were. Turn the Matrix on… 1st big boom moment… console retreats into safe mode. Repeat…repeat… hey at least it did not blow my speakers. You know you have a problem when your speakers are 6 ohms a piece but your receiver wants 8. Stupid, especially considering how during my HT research I read a *bleeping* article warning me about this problem.

“Putting on the Ritz”

Several hours of research later, I found that the best speakers I could get without putting another buckshot blast in my savings account were R-15’s. Circuit City $100/ pair. Once I tried in store on an HK receiver, I fell in love. Unbelievable clarity, natural sound, ok bass (hey that’s for subwoofer), and didn’t sound muffled (major complaint I had with bookshelves). I got a pair for my fronts (fine, laugh if you want…), Kyle did a trick hook up thing to put 2 speakers on 1 channel (thus doubling resistance) for rears, and gave me his old center channel. The center is actually doubles as a loud speaker and speaker for band practice; thankfully, it’s big horn is clear and has plenty of bass thanks to two 10 inch subs). I call it the Monolith and love it, though it (like my system as a whole) needs work.

But hey it works and sounds better than I could have possibly imagined. “It’s alive Eyegor! It’s alive!” So my monster is more than fully functional. And its got “an enormous transstucker.” Oh, I think I’m going to puke.

Frankenstein’s Monster Redux: Plans, Intentions, Secret Weapons…

1st need: retrofit Monolith. Needs new paint job, probably needs a whole new shell. More importantly, one of it’s 2 woofers was dead on arrival and I’m worried about the other one. Seems old… oh wait. That just died. What’s new? Did Eyegor get me something “Abby-normal” again? Are you sick of my half-cynical Young Frankenstein puns yet? I havn’t looked at the price, but I’m envisioning $50 for a pair of new woofers (ha, we’ll see if that’s even close).

2nd objective: build a subwoofer. Right now the one from my HTiB works fine looped in with the Monolith. But you know… I just want it. Pure luxury, but then again isn’t HT in the first place . Kyle and I would do this, though I’ve never held a soldering iron in my life. Thankfully he has (that’s an understatement, FYI). Save money, get something custom for my room. Plus, it would give me experience for…

Dillusion of grandeur #3: build front speakers. SO laughable I think I want floor standers. I feel sick again. If Fate should smile on me I’d kick the Polks to the surrounds or rears, which ever needs the “better” speakers. I’d run a 6/7.1 setup (laughable, but manual says for some unintelligible reason that 6.1 actually needs a 7.1 array. I didn’t build the stupid thing).

In Closing

It’s been fun. Ha. No really. I love my system, dead woofers aside. Once things are fixed, I’ll feel better. Oh and the idea of a subwoofer with my and Kyle’s last names (Davis and Cahoon) as the manufacturers is a riot to me. Just like this whole story.

danger boy

your CompUSA sells home theater receivers? mine here doesn't . only computer stuff and DVD's. it's cool i guess.

PolkThug

That story was too long, I tried to get through it.....;)

VR3

I read it all... LOL

Found it...interesting

As for redoing those Monolith cabs, look at Truck Bed spray lining

Nemesis

Maybe I should have posted a long winded warning up there.

Somebody suggested bed liner last week actually. It could have even been you Vr3MxStyler2k3. Yeah need to wait to spring before I need to do that.

UPDATE
Upon further experimentation the 2nd woofer was not in fact dead.:) Seems teh sound proofing stuff had got caught on the wires. Not sure how that is possible but it sounds better than the blasted Magic Bullet Theory. Actually its possible because it is so old it's flaking off or more precisely its disindegrating.

So I only need 1 new woofer and some new insulation.

organ

Quite an adventure you had there. It's never a pain when it comes to upgrading. It's fun to check out different stuff.

You know you have a problem when your speakers are 6 ohms a piece but your receiver wants 8. Stupid, especially considering how during my HT research I read a *bleeping* article warning me about this problem.

I'm thinking you got a short or something that time. H/K receivers have some serious balls. I had a pair of LSi9 hooked up to an AVR500 and it never activated the safe mode.

But glad to hear you're happy with everything now. And remember what Sean said eariler, "this is just the beginning of the sickness". This hobby will drive you mad!:D

Maurice

Nemesis

Mad you say? It's fun. Looking at speakers I can't afford. Reading people's posts chanting the benifits of Polk Speaker X that I've never heard of or seen before.

I'm thinking you got a short or something that time. H/K receivers have some serious balls.

Yes the 235 has serious balls like the rest of the family. It's not the receiver; rather, it's the fact that my Samsung speakers that I use for rears cost less to make than the price I paid for the Monster Cable they run on :rolleyes: .

Still i know it's all worth it when my Mom thinks the Medavac helicopter keeps buzzing over our house while I'm watching Black Hawk Down.:D