I have completed my 7.1 HTS setup now!

garnier

Finally, I have added a few more bass traps (a total of 6 more, 3 on the corner and 3 in front of blinds area) to my previous set-up in the living room. The bass is noticeably tighter and much clearer.

I believe that my set up is the best set-up for me. The sound is great, tight and very well focused in imaging. I strongly suggest anyone to spend a great deal of their HTS investment on acoustic panels too, because I think that it is like redirecting the sounds that are already flying around in your listening room to a more pleasing format to your ears. I know there are other areas that I can improve, like in better speaker wiring and preamplifier with XLR balanced pre-amplifier outputs (right now I am using seven 6-ft long RCA pre-amplifier outputs instead, from my Onkyo TX-SR805 recevier acting as a pre-amplifier/processor). But I am satisfied with my current set-up, and I believe that it is as good as the one that costs two or three times more than mine.

Thank you all for all of your informations. I started to build my HTS by asking you how I should spend $4,000 on speakers and amplifier earlier this year, just a few months ago; and after one advise leading to another, and finally to advising me to add acoustic panels, I am here tonight. It was a pretty long jorney that had begun actually last March in 2007 for me.

Here are how much I have invested on my HTS for your informations.

Sony 52" Bravia XBR4 LCD TV $4,300
Sony Blu-Ray Player BDP-S1 $650
Monster Power HTS 5100 MKII $500
Onkyo TX-SR805 Receiver $1,000
Outlaw 7700 7-Ch Amplifier $1,900
LSi9-Fronts $900
LSi9-Rear Surrounds $900
LSiC-Center $500
LSiFX-Side Surrounds $900
Velodyne DLS-5000R-Front Right $800
Velodyne DLS-5000R-Rear Left $800
17 ATS Acoustic Panels-24" by 48" by 4" $850
1 ATS Acoustic Panel-24" by 24" by 4" $40
2 GIK Acoustic Panel-24" by 48" by 4" with stands $270
1 GIK Acoustic Panel-24" by 48" by 6" with a stand $190
1 RealTrap Tri Corner $250
2 Monster Cable HDMI cables $260
2 Monster Cable Subwoofer cables $250
12 Gauge Speaker Wires with Connectors $140

And the Grand Total is........$15,400!!!

I did invest a lot of money on my system; so obviously, I should be very happy with what I have, and I am indeed!

Thank you again for all of your advice. I will now just enjoy my HTS!

BLACKHAMMERJAMM

Very, nice... I feel the same way. I started with a 46" LCDHDTV 2 months ago and after 15 or 20 K's of upgrades I'm just about done. I was just thinking 1.5k at first but the 52"xbr4 looks good with the BDPS200ES and so on and so on...then I got to listen to a 100k analog stereo system and now.....well.... I...I....I.. ... ... ...

mutelight

Looking great, man! Congratulations!

jjeckelxz5

how much of a difference does all those accoustic panels make?

garnier

It made a very noticeable difference for me. My living room was carpeted even before the acoustic treatment; so it was not as bad as if it were hard-floored. But these acoustic panels still made a huge difference in my living room that I can say that it has been probably the best money spent for my HTS set-up. I was not sure if it would make a difference at the beginning either so I just decided to get some just for the look if it turned out to make no difference in the end; but fortunately, it did make very appreciable acoustic differences and improved the sound quality to my satisfaction that I added more panels second time around. The difference between before and after the panels is as clear as black and white; it gives you that movie theatre environment feeling in sound quality. If I shout in the living room, I can hear that there are no reverberation, and that my voice ends from reaching my ears the moment I stop shouting, a very clear cut in the sound when the source stops sending.

SlowcarIX

Congrats! Impressive setup

hockeyboy

Looks great! I notice you only bought a single tri-corner from Real Traps. I am considering a pair of these ($500) or 4-ATS 4" ($200) panels for up front by my screen. I already run 4- 2" panels in the back of the room by the rears. Do you think the Real Trap is worth the extra dinero?

jayman_1975

is it just me or do those rear 9's look a little close together?

danger boy

jayman_1975 wrote: »

is it just me or do those rear 9's look a little close together?

it's just you!


looks good sir.

garnier

hockeyboy wrote: »

Looks great! I notice you only bought a single tri-corner from Real Traps. I am considering a pair of these ($500) or 4-ATS 4" ($200) panels for up front by my screen. I already run 4- 2" panels in the back of the room by the rears. Do you think the Real Trap is worth the extra dinero?

I can't say on your behalf, because I have added that after other panels that I do not know how much of improvement came just from that one RealTrap Tri-Corner. I think it was too expensive compared to ATS panels and think that they shouldn't charge no more than $150 for it. I bought just one because of my space limitation on the corners, and for its look mainly.

I really liked GIK's acoustic panels that I placed in front of the blinds area; they will work really well for the bass trap for me because they are all open-backed, and I have placed them some distance away from the reflection point in the back, the sliding door with blinds.

My rear surround LSi9's are configured to THX standards; so they are placed very close to each other, 1 foor away from each other. It is their ASA array configuration.

SlowcarIX

garnier wrote: »

My rear surround LSi9's are configured to THX standards; so they are placed very close to each other, 1 foor away from each other. It is their ASA array configuration.

could you have done a 6.1 setup using a single lsi9 in the back?

garnier

SlowcarIX wrote: »

could you have done a 6.1 setup using a single lsi9 in the back?

Yes, but I just went for 7.1 setup, actually 7.2 for me.

SlowcarIX

oops missed the other sub in the back

Hawkeye

Do you think the Real Trap is worth the extra dinero?[/QUOTE]

I have 2 Tricorners in the front on the floor in my system. I also have 2 HF minis on the wall directly behind my speakers. I plan on getting 2 more tri's for the ceiling front. I don't have the space to put traps straddling the corners as most people suggest.

The Real Trap stuff is more expensive than GIK/ATS. I can't comment on the GIK/ATS stuff because I don't own any. Real Traps are a very high quality piece of gear. They are nicely put together and the "look" is part of the equation also. I could not find a "Tri Corner" of this shape which allowed some air space behind the trap when installed.

It seems to me that traps are right there with cables and IC's. Cable prices are all over the spectrum as are traps. We need both cables and traps, but it is up to us to decide what and how much it/they are worth. If I could have found what I needed for less and it did the job I expected, I would have bought them. Just like when we buy a cable to tame a bright or whatever condition we're trying to fix.

Gordon

garnier

What kind of cable are you referring to to tame a bright condition one might try to fix? I do have a bright condition that I would like to fix too.

Hawkeye

Any of your IC's or speaker wires. On most forums, cabling is debated to no end. I do know I've tried numerous brands at different price points and composition, ie RCA/XLR in an attempt to achieve what I wanted.

Believe it or not, the only way I was able to tame my issue was to eliminate the tweeters by going to a different type speaker. My gear is known for a smooth, kinda laid back but accurate sound and I was not getting it. Once I went to Martin Logan, I got the sound I wanted.

I'm sure some of the guys with stuff similiar to yours can advise you on recommended cabling to try. Just be aware that cabling will not solve all issues and it may be that your other gear is just normally bright. I don't know if it is or not. Sometimes it can be painful to find out you don't like what you put together, I know, been there.

Gordon

cfrizz

Congrats, enjoy.

Face

garnier wrote: »

What kind of cable are you referring to to tame a bright condition one might try to fix? I do have a bright condition that I would like to fix too.

What are you using now? I found Signal Cable Analog II's on the warm side.

Hawkeye

My favorite right now is some Audioquest Vipers with RCA connectors 1 meter long. I have them between the cd player to pre to amps. My second choice is Mogami Gold with XLR connectors. The Mogami Golds for 1 meter are only about $40 from guitar center. Not a fancy looking IC, actually quite boring but the sound is pretty warm to me.

Gordon

garnier

I am using $20/50ft. 12 Gauge speaker wires I got from Wal-Mart, for 7 speakers. They are of course copper wires and look fine. Should I replace the speaker wires too?

zingo

I'm glad that the paneling you used blends in with the walls because it looks good. Congrats!

garnier

Thank you for your complement!

Face

Looks great!

Move your mains forward a little and they will sound better during 2 channel listening.

SlowcarIX

that was the same advice Face gave me too.

bring the 2 LSi9s forward 2 feet or so, aim the speakers at your main sitting position(lots of toe-in) then do the audyssey calibration with the mic on a tripod at ear level

the front LSi9 should disappear - voices/instruments will be pinpoint located between the 2 speakers. the soundstage will be so palpable - you can hear(see) w/ eyes wide open

msk_3254

Nice setup......apart from the cable everywhere. Can you DIY acoustic panels?

garnier

Yes, the tri-corner one was a bit, actually very, difficult to install for me. The ones that are standing are as easy as just **** in some nails. The ones on the wall, ATS acoustic panels, required a laser pointer to align them to the same height, a drill with a 3/16 inch diameter drill bit, some pencil markings on the wall, and some calculations as to how far I should place each panel so that they would be evenly placed after all hanged. There are numberous holes that I made on the wall by mistakes, or I just didn't like the reflection locations only after actually hanging them and slided the panels slightly next; but I uesed a hole-filler paste to fill those in. It took me a good 24 hours from unpacking the panels from the package to vacume cleaning the floor at the end, and some movements of the panels and some more vacume cleaning finally!

garnier

I am thinking of replacing my Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver with a Onkyo Pro PR-SC885P pre-amplifier/processor by the end of August. I will change all the wires, including HDMI cables and speaker wires, and replace RCA cables to XLR cables at that time too. My Outlaw 7700 is fully balanced, so I figured that I would get a benefit from having XLR balanced pre-amplifier cables, especially when they have to travel about 7 feet along with all the AC power cords that would cause the hums and distortions. It wil cost me another $2,500, $1500 for the pre-amp and $1,000 for the speaker wires and the HDMI and XLR cables, but then, it will be really over for the following 20 years, I hope! I would have spent about $17,000 just for my HTS by that time!!! It is Crazy!

garnier

Actually, being the person I am, I just decided to get everything done by the end of this weekends, and ordered a bunch of stuffs that I had mentioned in my previous thread that I would have, including such things as cables, wires, and an Onkyo Pro pre-amplifier, all for $2,500.00 more! So, I did end up spending a grand sum of about $17,800 for my entire HTS setup; but I will sell my Onkyo TX-SR805 on e-Bay for about $500.00. I guess I would receive the rest of my "last" stuffs by this Thursday or Friday, so that I can install and calibrate them again.

Tell me about it, but it is indeed exhausting to keep thinking about upgrading them, not to mention how much money I have poured into each upgradings (on average $1,000 each time, except on this supposedly final time)! I really wish that I could finally end this journey of "building a home heatre system" as soon as possible by this week!!! And then, I will keep what I have for the next 20 years, except a blu-ray player that I might get if Sony BDP-S2000ES comes down in price by half of what it is now (right now I have a Sony BDP-S1 that I got anew for $650 last summer)! I just don't see a reason to spend $1,300 now for a BDP-S2000ES when the only major difference with mine is its Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD bitstreams function. I would rather choose uncompressed PCM over Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD, or if uncompressed PCM is not offered, then just a regular Dolby Digital or DTS would still be fine with me!

I am not complaining, but I know I think about these too obsessively. Maybe I have a obsessive compulsive behavior on building an HTS! Anybody else suspects oneself of having the same problem as I do?

cfrizz

The enjoyment you will get over the next 20 yrs from your outstanding HT will make it all worth it.

I would say you will have gotten your money's worth out of it by the end of 20 years. And most of your gear (speakers, prepro, amp, accoustic panels)will still be going strong with no need to upgrade!

amulford

Now you need to build a 2 channel room...

cfrizz

If he can't totally enjoy 2 channel music on the gear that he has already bought then he did something wrong. Buy good gear to begin with & there is no need to have 2 systems.