New Receiver

[[JiF]Mike]

With the insurance money we're unexpectedly getting from the car accident we decided to upgrade our Home Theater receiver. I still can't believe how much that car was worth! It should arrive today and I can't wait to get home tonight lol.

This is what I chose: Pioneer Elite VSX-21TXH
PDF with info

[[JiF]Djsmg]

I that that them hills will be shakin over in Mike's area a bit later.

Nice receiver! What speakers are you hooking up to it?

[[JiF]Mike]

Some old Yamaha speakers that came with the last system. They aren't bad speakers and should sound a bit better with a better receiver. We didn't wanna go crazy and spend all kinds of money on the home theater so we'll upgrade the speakers later. The first speaker upgrade will be a new powered sub, the one I have is a bit small. We'll see how everything sounds with the new receiver though...might happen sooner than later. lol

I went to a Best Buy with that Magnolia home center setup and they had this receiver along with a few others all setup. He was showing me how much better this sounded than some other lower end receivers. The speakers were the same as he switched back and forth from different receivers. I was shocked to hear the differences...never realized how much better a good receiver could make speakers sound!

[[JiF]Djsmg]

We are just putting the finishing touches on our home theater/basement, sad to say it's been a 7 year work in progress with us buying the receiver and speakers over a year ago and still to this day not having them hooked up except for a brief test to make sure everything worked before putting the wires behind drywall.

Don't quote me on this but I am now approximately two months to completion with just the flooring/molding left, and cabinets/sinks/toilet left to be installed, plus some miscellaneous millwork (benches/AV equipment stand to be built).

[[JiF]Mike]

I would love to have my home theater in the basement. Our living room is rather small for what we have in it...but someday we'll build a new living room lol. I have started renovating part of our basement to move our bedroom down there. Had to move the washer/dryer meaning hot and cold water plus the 220v for the dryer. I put in a sub floor and am framing out the new walls. I also had to move all my network/phone stuff to a new location which has taken a lot more time that I thought! My next challenge is moving the radiator that is down there to a new wall so I can frame the last wall. Then it will be wiring, insulation, and drywall. I also need to get some sort of suspended ceiling and replace the stairs...funny how these projects evolve. It's been fun and challenging but working on it after I get home from work has been draining. Tonight I will be playing with the new receiver! lol

[[JiF]Top321us]

Wow
Everyone working on the basements. I just got back from Home Depot with some insulation. Just finished running the speaker wires. Insulation and dry wall next. Should be all done in a month or so.
We moved a year ago so I am anxious to get the theater setup again. Been too long with a too large TV in a too small area....

[[JiF]Djsmg]

Been too long with a too large TV in a too small area....

Wish I had that problem.

We've just got one TV in the house (an old Sony Trinitron CRT that I bought when I was in college, no high-def, no digital reception), we decided we would wait until I finished the basement and then get a decent screen for down there. We've planned for a 58" for now and I have a large white cardboard cut-out taped to the wall in that location. I have to say it doesn't get very good reception and the picture quality is rather poor.

[[JiF]zougathefist]

Don't quote me on this but I am now approximately two months to completion with just the flooring/molding left, and cabinets/sinks/toilet left to be installed, plus some miscellaneous millwork (benches/AV equipment stand to be built).

Noooooo!!!!!

You've done it now DJ, ya put the jinx on the work and when you get in this evening you'll have a plague of locusts or something to deal with and it will take you 2 years to clean up....

[[JiF]Sgt. hUTCHIE]

Wow - I'm a bit jealous as this would fit very nicely into the Hutchie setup.

The ideal is no disks - all movies / recordings stored digitally and accessed over the network. All the movies and films are gradually being put onto a 6 TB Buffalo Terastation.

We used most of the budget on a 46" Samsung LED which is networkable. Found the DLNA service not up to stratch and bought a Cyclone MKV media player (Excellent piece of kit). Now for the sound - where are the RCA Phono connectors????? - Everythings gone digital so it appeared that I can't hook up my old but very capable Sony Amplifier.

Fortunately the media player has a couple of phono connectors and I also can get a SCART pass through connector with Phono outputs for the Cable box.
I have looked at Digital to Analogue converters but a good one is a lot of money. Not ideal and there is a few ms lag so the TV sound has to be off - lags everywhere you know !!

hUTCHIE.

[Sir Die-a-lot]

I am now approximately two months to completion with just the molding left.

Now, why would someone in their right mind put mold and mildew in a perfectly nice room ?

[[JiF]Mike]

Well I got this thing running last night. I fired up Star Wars Episode 1 in HD (from my digital library that lives in my basement ) at the pod racing scene, and quickly shook one of my speakers off the shelf. My old receiver never did that lol! The sound is so crisp and clear, and the MCCAC auto speaker setup was really amazing. The depth of field, the clarity of the sound, and the channel separation is just fantastic. I do need to a new sub woofer though, the one I have is just not up to the task and distorts and breaks up...but it was cheap and I've had it over 5 years, so I don't expect much.

It was really nice throwing all those extra optical cables and other stuff in the drawer! I now run HDMI from all my components to the receiver, and just one HDMI to the TV. I can even run standard def video to the receiver and it up-converts the signal and sends those to the tv via the HDMI. I never have to change the tv input again! lol I did run into a small problem though. The receiver is longer than my old one and the HDMI cables sticking out the back don't allow me to push it all the way in to close the door. I've gotta order some of those HDMI 90 degree adapters.

All in all I am very happy I upgraded, and I'm sure my wife doesn't notice any difference in the sound and is questioning why we spent $570 on this new receiver. lol

[[JiF]Djsmg]

Try monoprice.com for any hdmi cables/adapters you might need.

[[JiF]Mike]

Got a new subwoofer! OMG does it make a huge difference...shakes the house! This system sounds so much better that I've been re-watching movies every night. lol Now I just need to upgrade the speakers, but my wife hasn't been so supportive of that upgrade at this time. I told her she should have let me get the Bose system I wanted...woulda been cheaper than the system we'll end up with! hehe