99% of you guys are into boxing, so what kind of equipment are you running when watching the fights? Anyone into home theater? I was reading the horror movie thread so obviously many of you like to watch DVDs... just curious if anyone has a killer setup and how it sounds (and looks). I made a thread over a year ago about this when I first bought my TV but most of the people that replied aren't around any longer, so let's start over.

I'm a huge fan of DVDs that make a basic home theater setup shine and seeking out ones that excel has become one of my hobbies.

Below is the basic equipment that I'm currently running:

TV = Samsung HL-T5689S, 56" DLP. Upgraded to a LED set from a bulb set recently.

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/...LT5689SX/XAA%5b

Receiver = Marantz SR-8500.
http://www.audioholics.com/news/trade-show...r-8500-receiver

Speakers =

Front Pair: Cambridge Soundworks MC500's
http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/store/c...tem=c1mc50ce%5b

Center: Cambridge Soundworks MC500

Surround Channels: Cambridge Soundworks S300's

Rear Channels: Cambridge Soundworks S300's
http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/store/c...;item=c1s300zzz

Subwoofer = SVS PB12-Plus/2
http://svsound.com/products-sub-box-plus2.cfm%5b

LFE = Buttkicker LFE Kit. 1 shaker + 1 amp
http://www.thebuttkicker.com/home_theater/.../bk_lfe_kit.htm

I'm still running a conventional DVD player (Samsung DVD-HD960) and have not taken the plunge into the HD-DVD or Blueray world yet. Waiting to see what happens with those markets first.

From all that I have beard, Bose is the way to go. But my pocketbook is a shallow one, so I have a cheapo one that works very well for my living room. I am going to get a better one sometime in the near future, but for now I went out and got a Durabrand 80 watt system. It was only $40. CHEAP. Not the best quality, but definitely worth the $40 if you ask me. It has a subwoofer and 5 satellite speakers. It is pretty loud and is a hell of a lot better than no system. But my goal is the Bose.

Damn Brutal! I feel like a bum posting what I have after that shit you posted. I will be there some day. I only have a 32 inch LCD. I got the poe mans setup. lol

Southeast, whatever you do DON'T BUY BOSE! For the money you spend you can get MUCH better equipment.

Bose has a fantastic marketing plan of advertising more than anyone else and giving the impression that their products are far superior, but nothing could be further from the truth. Bose is the only speaker manufacturer to my knowledge that actually doesn't provide the consumer with specs on their products! Simple specs like power handling capability, frequency response, etc. Bose does not inform the consumer of. Very strange. From what I understand in their speaker systems there are huge gaping gaps in the frequency band (basically spaces where the speakers are unable to produce accurate sound) so you actually miss out on a lot of what you are supposed to hear. Anyway here is a thread over at the avsforum about Bose. Breeze through it and see what you think:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....;highlight=Bose

There's a WEALTH of knowledge over at the avsforum - real experts on home theater equipment. Every single piece of equipment that I have purchased myself I have read about on that forum and gone out and tested on the advise of unbiased people like you and me that have simply heard just about everything.

I got myself a bad assed set up....~ $20K worth.

Pioneer Elite 60" Plasma....which I will be upgrading one year into owning for the next gen Pioneer Elite Kuros 60". $6.5K

Yamaha RX-2600 Receiver/Amp - $1.5K

JM Lab Focal Elektra Floor Standing Speakers - $7K

JM Lab Focal Electra Center Channel - $3K

JM Lab Focal Electra Sub - $3K

Forget Bose.

I did a ton of due dillie. A great forum and site to check out...

http://www.audioholics.com

PS - Oh yeah, I got PS3 and XBOX 360 hooked up to it, and use their respective Blu-Ray and HD-DVD capabilites. Also run HDMI as opposed to component.

Thanks for the info on the Bose guys.

One day I am gunna match you guys' setups......hopefully. lol

Cool Method, sounds like a nice setup!

I HIGHLY recommend you add a Buttkicker LFE to your setup. I think anyone that has a setup greater than $5k or so in value NEEDS a Buttkicker LFE. It was the single greatest addition to my HT, and the LFE + amp costs under $400 combined.

Method is rich & I am poor.

I run a great porn set up though.

$15 DVD player hooked up by sticky taped av plugs into a mono 13" TV with no remote for the TV.

In my lounge room I have a 32" Panasonic LCD & my home theatre just died so I need to get a new one.

IMO you don't need to be rich to obtain a very impressive and satisfying home theater. For about $3000-$4000 anyone can put together a setup in their living room that will blow the doors off the picture/sound quality of their local movie theater. And that's with NEW equipment. If you go with used equipment you'll obtain just as good of a result for probably half the money, just no gaurantees on how long the stuff will last.

I used to go to the movies once a week or so, but for the last 2 years I've only been to the movies ONCE, and that was because my Samsung TV needed to be fixed under warranty. The movie experience sucked compared to my living room setup.

Shit if you go to the movies once a week for 2 years at $20 per trip ($10 per person and you go with your other half or whatever) that's about $2000 spent in 2 years and nothing to show for it.

My porn setup is this laptop. Download my porn from torrents and various messageboards. I don't think I will purchase another dvd again.

Also Brutal, I made a thread a few weeks back, but nobody besides Stevenski recommended me anything. Looking at a new TV later down the track. LCD or Plasma? Also what brands should I look for or avoid? I hear Sony and I think it was Panasonic or Sharp, can't remember make some nice ones.

Brute, WTF is that? To be honest, I don't have stan alone amps and what not becuase I live in a condo community on the beach and it would be a waste of power. My spot is only about 1500 sq ft, and my system is WAY too much for it.

A brand of Receivers and Amps I have been real interested in, and would recommend just from what I've read, even though I don't own, is Outlaw. They're cheap, relatively speaking, but are supposed to be very well made and very high quality.

I haven't purchased a stand alone, high end DVD or Blu-Ray player because, frankly, many of the compartments in my credenza are already occupied by equipment, and, I really don't watch all that many movies, so the functionality in both my gaming systems suffices my needs.

As for your TV question, Fitz, I have done a ton of due dilligence on it. I can tell you what I have, and why I have it, and go from there.

As mentioned, I have the 60" Pioneer Elite Pro Plasma (720p) in my living room, and the 50" Sony Bravia XBR3 LCD (1080p) in my bedroom.

From everything I have read about Plasma technology, Pioneer, Panasonic and Fujitsu are the names you want to consider (my research has been primarily on Pioneer and Panny), and Pioneer is the best of that bunch, but Panny giving the best P4P combo of price and quality. Basically, Pioneer is topps, but you pay up for it, and you'd have to be an A/V guru to notice any differences I guess.

I bought the Sony LCD because, bascally, I have a friend at Sony who got me a sick deal on it ,plus I read that that particular model was tops LCD at the time, and it was 1080p where my plasma was only 720p.

A lot of the pro's cons 'tween plasma and LCD are simplifies in the following...

You get deeper black levels with plasma, and the picture quality is a little better.

Burn is is over exaggerated, and, with the advancement of technology, not really an issue any longer, if at all.

With LCD, the colors are brighter, with the only knock being that when watching action sports, the refresh rates sometimes do not keep pace with the action, an hence sometimes there is blurred picture (really not that noticeable, IMO).

As for 1080P and 720P, be careful here. Yes, True 1080p is higher definition, but consider the signal of your source. If you have a 1080p TV, yet your cable or satellite provider's signal is 720p, guess what? 720 is the best you'll get regardless. As far as I know, and maybe JD8 can chime in, 720p is pretty much what these providers are shooting out.

That said, given that I have both technologies, I can tell you that I prefer my Pioneer Elite plasma to my Sony XBR3 lcd. I just think it's the better picture.

Some other LCD brands you might want to check out are Samsung and Sharp, but I recommend plasma technology and I'd go with Pioneer or Panasonic. If they have sound adcvice where you live, you can work those guys for deals.

Audioholics.com has a forum section dedicated to Displays, and you will get a ton of threads touching on various topics, including what you are interested in...

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=33

Thanks for that. The only thing that worries me about plasmas is that they don't seem as reliable. But you said the burning problem is exaggerated, so I am guessing they have fixed most of the problems they were getting in the earlier days?
What about the life on them? Are they supposed to have a lower life than lcd?
About lcd being brighter. The plasma does seem to have a more natural kind of colour and picture to it. So pretty much lcd is probably the go for gaming and plasma for sports and tv watching I guess. I think I know what you are talking about with the lcd when watching sports, you talking about the ghosting effect?

I forget exactly what the life of a Plasma is, but I remember when I was told it, and you do the math and divide it by the number of hours you actually watch TV in a day...it comes out to DECADES of life, so don't sweat that.

Also, I game on my plasma. Plasma's fine for gaming. Just don't pause a game and leav it on for days with the TV on...

P4P, I like my plasma better, and I plan on getting another for the other bedroom in my house, and a smaller one for my office.

Fitz just remember that in OZ we basically don't get any HD & Fox certainly does not broadcast in HD. 720P will be fine for gaming & the like + it is heaps cheaper now the 1080P sets are out.

Fitz you may also want to consider a DLP. Most everyone talks about LCD or Plasma but DLP's give you an excellent bang for your buck. I have the latest Samsung DLP (LED instead of bulb for much longer life) and when I have people over for PPV's and such I always get lots of compliments about my picture quality, and most of the compliments come from LCD and Plasma owners. I mean to each their own, but I highly suggest you at least demo a DLP at your local Best Buy or Circuit City just to see what you think. They are significantly less money than LCD's and Plasma's of course. Shit in many cases they are half price, and I honestly think the PQ is equal... and what I prefer about DLP's is the whiter whites and blacker blacks, and I don't have any problems at all with trailing/pixelation like Method was describing above.

Method, check out the Buttkicker link I provided in my post above. Of all my equipment the Buttkicker LFE was the single greatest addition to my home theater, and bang for the buck it was the greatest P4P upgrade.

My subwoofer is no slouch in and of itself... SVS makes incredible stuff and it's a HUGE box with dual 12" drivers with nearly 1000 watts of RMS power. Installing the Buttkicker LFE however EASILY made it "seem" like my subwoofer was providing twice as much action if not more.

Basically the Buttkicker LFE is a small transducer that you mount directly to where you sit. I mounted mine to the underside of my couch. The unit resonates at the exact same frequency of the bass your subwoofer puts out (it's musically accurate; it doesn't just "shake"). Where it really excels is in the LOW frequencies. Most subwoofers don't play much below 20hz... at least not with much authority... 16-18hz if you're lucky. The Buttkicker LFE plays down to 5hz which is so far below what a human can hear it's sick. It adds an entirely new element to the home theater experience. There are tons of movies encoded with bass in the 10-20hz range that even the best subwoofers have trouble accurately reproducing... and even if they can a subwoofer is transferring the bass energy through the air to your body where the Buttkicker LFE does it directly into the object you are touching so you are able to perceive it as being much more pronounced. If you want any other info man let me know, but I HIGHLY recommend one of these things to anyone that loves their home theater.

Fitz, my single favorite brand is probably Sharp - particularly the Aquos line. Earlier this year I purchased 5 TVs for my restaurant, 4 32" Sharp Aquos LCDs and 1 55" Sony LCD. I'd have to check at work to see the exact model numbers, I don't recall. Anyway the PQ on the Aquos sets is INSANELY superior to the Sony LCD. I have all 5 sets around my bar so you can sit there and look back and forth between the Aquos and the Sony and the difference is night and day... so much so that I occasionally have customers asking "why isn't the Sony in high def but the Sharps are?"

One HUGE factor that I think anyone needs to consider once they narrow it down to one or two brands that they are going to purchase is the warranty service available. When considering this I highly recommend that everyone visit avsforum.com, do a search and read some threads about the brand you are considering.

That said, ALL warranty service for virtually all the major brands (Sharp, Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Pioneer, Samsung, etc, you know the brands) is more or less equal; What is NOT equal is their level of service based on your location. Depending on where you live, you may only have one service center available to you for warranty service/repair or you may have a half dozen if you live in a major city like NYC, LA, etc. Usually service centers only deal with people within a 25 mile radius or so from their location. I had a huge issue with Samsung because I only had 1 service center available to me (like 18 miles away, the next closest was 30-something miles away) and that service center was backed up for weeks before they could even come look at the TV. To make a long story short I was without a TV for some 4 months that was ultimately replaced with a newer, better model due to service center BS and I talked on the phone literally about 50 times with different people during that time. Worst experience ever. I love the product and would recommend Samsung to anyone, but NOT anyone that lives around me.

I suggest that whatever you are considering buying, you find out ahead of time how many service centers you have available to you in your area. Then I'd further probe by placing a BS call to each of those service centers and get some info on amount of time to get an appointment, see if they are friendly or pricks, etc. If you read the threads on the avsforum there is at least one hate thread about ALL of the major TV manufacturers out there... and all of the hate stems from the same issue of service in that particular customers area being absolutely shitty. But, for every hate story there is a story of someone with the same exact TV in another state that had a wonderful success in having a brand new TV dropped off to them 4 or 5 days after placing their call that there was a problem. It really is a location-specific issue.

Sorry for the rant, but I think this is a HUGE problem that gets overlooked and can be easily avoided. I wish I knew then what I know now.

Thanks for the response guys.

The only other consideration you might want to make, assuming you have the right layout, is going projector.


I would have definitely gone projector if I didn't have a fucking ceiling fan hanging smack dab in the middle of my TV room. Yeah, you may have to deal with the potential headache/cost of replacing a blown buulb, but you can get a sick quality projector (720p/1080p) for ~$3k, and then get yourself a 100"screen and BOOM - you're playing with power. Try to get yourself a 60" Plasma and you're paying $6.5K (for high end) and anything bigger than 60" on Plasma OR LCD could run you north of $10K.

I've considered a projector as well, but I too have a ceiling fan in the middle of my room and the room is a little small at only 16x17 or so. I think projectors are great if you have a dedicated home theater room in your house, but for a typical living room usually isn't all too practical. Some day though...

My buddy from college had one in his apt living room in NYC. 100" screen in a small room. it was his main TV. SICK. Also played video games on it. It was THEE sickest.

Damn how big of a room? I think my eyes would bug out if I had a 100" screen in my living room where my 56" is now..

Don't know the dimensions, but it was NOT big. Fights were sick on that TV. I watched That camel jockey Prince Hamed get whet up by Marco Antonio on that thing.

Haha nice. They say with screen size that over time you'll get used to just about anything, and that 99% of people after a month or so of getting a TV will always wish they got a larger one. I know after getting my 56" initially I thought that would be all I ever wanted, but within weeks I was saying "why didn't I go with the 61" and today I'm thinking even bigger.

So I guess even a huge 100" screen would be something you'd grow used to over time.

EXACTLY. Initially, I had the Pioneer Eleite Pro 50"...as it turned out, there was a technical deficiency in that particular unit, which when my boy who works at sound advice came over and saw, he offered to replace the unit, and actually offered to upgrade me to the next gen 60" giving me full credit for my 50" and paying a little bit more. Now I got the 60" and it's as small as I can deal with in that room. My boy has a 50" in his apt (a layout similar to mine), and it's too small...lol....

But all kidding aside, I have that LCD 46" incher in my bedroom, and it's really too big....although I woke up at 5 AM this morning and watched the second half of TalladegaNights...

Yeah for bedroom viewing I couldn't see having something too big. I mean I guess the bigger the screen is the more work your eyes have to do to see everything, and usually in ones bedroom you're either going to sleep soon or just woke up and your eyes are sleepy either way.

Quite the opposite. The bigger screen makes it so much easier on the eyes. less you have to fouces. Would be a problem if I sat a foot in front of it, but Im a good 8-10 ft away.

What I meant by too big is, my lady usually falls a sleep earlier than I do, and wakes up later than I do. LCD's are pretty bright....hell, anything that big is gonna give off light....so sometimes the light is bothersome to those that need dark rooms to sleep comfortably.

I see. I got the impression you were closer than that or something. I guess both too small and too big would make it a little tough on the eyes depeding on the circumstances.