Steve KJ’s Home Theater Story
When it came time to put together an audio system for my home theater, I was faced with a lot of choices. To narrow down the playing field, I decided that I was going to go with separate components for preamp/processor and power amplifier, and at the time I was looking at 5.1 channels of audio (there are a lot more now!)
Preamp/Processor
I looked at several choices for a preamp/processor, and read all the reviews I could find. I considered quite seriously the Lexicon MC12, and to a lesser degree the Sunfire and Theta offerings. Then to cut costs I looked around for used units for sale, and found someone selling a Myryad MDP500. Reviews of this unit were very favourable, although it is somewhat lesser known than the more popular (and more expensive) brands such as Lexicon or Mark Levinson (which are generally considered to be more or less top of the line). So I bought one of those. I have not been able to compare it with similar or more expensive units in an A/B fashion, so I am not qualified to judge its sound quality, but it has all of the features I want (except for a balance control (!) - these seem to have gone out of fashion generally). It is upgradeable to 7.1 channels including DTS/ES and DD EX decoding, with an appropriately priced hardware upgrade, should I choose to go that route.
Amplifier
Next I needed a power amplifier to drive whatever speakers I ended up selecting. Models I looked closely at included the Cinepro 2k6 and Sunfire Cinema Grand (I’ve always liked Bob Carver’s maverick approaches to audio, and got a big kick out of an early Sonic Holography unit). However, going the used parts route again, I quickly found a Bryston 9B-ST for sale, and it didn’t take much research to conclude that I wasn’t going to regret buying a Bryston. So I went with that unit. It was back-breakingly heavy and it dimmed my lights whenever I switched it on, until I wired it up with a dedicated circuit. (I strongly recommend this for any power amplifier, along with another circuit just for the rest of the home theater gear.) But it does the job and sounds to my ears to be about as close to acoustically transparent as you can get.
Speakers
Finally, the most interesting and performance-affecting part of an audio system: the speakers. Initially I was looking at Linns, since my friend Henning had some, and they sounded (and looked) great for a reasonable price. But then I was tipped off to the idea of magneto/electrostatic speakers, and how no one who has ever listened to this type of speaker will ever go back to a box speaker if they have a choice. So I had to check those out. I also like being different in interesting ways, so I was naturally inclined to try something other than traditional boxes. (At first I was all over the idea of plasma speakers, such as the Magnat Blue Flames, but those are no longer available.) I read lots of reviews of the Magnepan line, and some of the Martin Logans. I liked Magneplanar’s design better, largely due to not having a big heavy bass driver tacked onto a mid/high-frequency electrostatic panel (there’s that idea of separates again), so I chose the MG 1.6/QR for my main speakers, a curved CC1 for the center channel and MC1’s for the surrounds. Some reviewers recommended using MC1’s (relatively smaller surround speakers) for the front channels in a Home Theater installation, but the salesman at the store I was examining the speakers in did not recommend that at all. I don’t believe he was acting in a purely self-interested financial sense either - MC1’s have limited midrange and no midbass at all, making them unsuitable for non-theater stereo listening, or even for any sort of movie that contains more than just dialogue.
With the speakers I chose to buy new rather than used. Most speakers probably require some period of break-in to soften up the cone fabric, surround rubber, etc., but Magneplanars are supposed to be especially bad right out of the box. The Mylar backing sheet needs to be worn in a great deal in order to develop enough fine “cracks” to become truly pliable. I have not noticed any difference in my speakers as they break in, but the process is sufficiently gradual that I would not expect to. I would probably have to compare an old and new pair side-by-side to hear a difference.
The fellow who sold me the Bryston claimed that Bryston amps are particularly well suited to driving Magneplanar speakers. He may have been making that up, although I have no specific reason to believe that he was.
Subwoofer
For a subwoofer I chose a Paradigm Servo-15. This was again based on Henning’s recommendation. Some people say that a subwoofer of that size is too big (and therefore too slow) to match up properly with a speaker that responds as fast as a Magneplanar. But on the other hand, the servo feedback mechanism should help a lot with the response time. I have not noticed any specific lag issues.
Miscellaneous
Aside from these components, I have tried to get reasonably good quality interconnect cables, but I have not yet done anything in the area of power conditioning/regulation/isolation, mechanical isolation of the components, etc. Some people swear by these accessories, and it is possible to take this type of upgrade to the nth degree. At some point I do plan to get some type of power conditioner, but probably not special rubber feet, etc. I am also planning to perform some of the standard aftermarket modifications to my Magneplanars - building custom mounting brackets, removing the (apparently audible) fuse from the audio path, and setting diffusers behind them. My other intention is to get a parametric equalizer for the subwoofer, to try to correct for room nodes. Subwoofer placement and room treatment for bass response is the subject of quite a lot more extremely lengthy articles!
Need a display for your home theater? Check out the HDTV Blog for ideas.
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 am
Steve is, of course, a friend of mine, and graciously put together this post for me (I added the heading titles). He actually had it done before I did mine! But seeing as this is my site, I had to get my HT story up first!
So thanks Steve, and I look forward to a follow-up article when you choose a display.
To everyone: I am looking for more home theater stories. If you wanna tell us about how you put together your home theater, or just how you came to just a particular component, I’d be glad to put your story up here. Please contact me.
April 3rd, 2006 at 11:45 am
After reading Henning’s HT story, which now magically predates mine, I can probably add a few tidbits about my previous HT systems. Prior to the Myryad/Bryston combination, I had a couple of different Yamaha integrated amplifiers. One of these was the DSP-A1000, one of Yamaha’s first serious surround-sound pre/pro amplifiers. I had that driving a pair of Realistic Mach Two’s (love those 15-inch woofers and 40-kHz tweeters) and some cheap PSB center channel and surround bookshelf speakers. For video I had a Toshiba 33-inch CRT, which was quite impressive for its time (1993 or so), and still serves me well to this day, after a quick repair to one of the flyback transformer solder joints. This is slated to be replaced by a front projector at some point (once I get my new theater room built).
Prior to the DSP-A1000 I had another Yamaha integrated amp (this one didn’t have any surround-sound processing in it, just preamplifier and power amp). None of my amplifiers/processors have contained a radio tuner of any sort. I have always firmly believed that a radio tuner belongs in a completely separate component, and there is no conceivable reason why you would want to put one of those (as opposed to, say, a tape deck, or a CD player, or what have you) into the amplifier. I have a Yamaha TX-100 (-ish) for radio receiving purposes.
The TX-100 has its own story: this unit is remote-control-ready, but did not include a remote control. (!) I think the remote was an optional extra accessory. Anyhow, I also had a Yamaha CD player and a tape deck, along with one or more of the above-mentioned amplifiers, and each one had its own remote. So with a bit of work, I rigged up an infrared transceiver with a parallel port (TTL) interface. This allowed me to record the infrared signals from the remotes, and then play them back from the computer (giving me script control of my electronics, among other things - great fun!) Recording and playing back the signals was straightforward, requiring only a sufficiently high sampling rate (this was on an Amiga, so the sampling rate wasn’t that high, but it didn’t need to be). Then, the next trick was to analyze the signals. I decoded each signal into a component byte and a command byte, and noticed that the command bytes had common denominators between components, while the component bytes were fairly predictable as well. So then, with a little bit of inference and a little bit of luck, I constructed a component byte for the TX-100, and some basic command bytes, and presto - instant remote control!
On a slight diversion, I also designed and built a light switch control box with its own TTL interface. So with my computer having control of the lights and the electronics, I could have had a really nice automatic Home Theater! However, this was in university, and I had other things to worry about, like controlling robotic train tracks and writing ray tracers. As it was, I didn’t spend a lot of time playing with the automated control possibilities of these gadgets. I still have them, though - perhaps with my new setup it is time to dust them off again.
April 24th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Steve, who ever told you that Brystons work well with Magnepans was dead right. I sold my McIntosh amp to buy a Bryston 4B for my Magenpan IIIa speakers many years ago, and it was a night and day difference. I bet the system sounds great!
Fred