Yesterday I mentioned Mr. Greenway’s Part 1 about Bose. Now he’s delivered part two.

He talks about the cost of Bose systems, the sound quality of Bose systems, and the fact that Bose doesn’t allow retailers to compare Bose systems to other systems in the store. Nice! Definitely worth a read if you’re considering Bose. Here’s a snippet:

Many, if not all, of my friends know I’m in the consumer electronics industry and from time to time they’ll ask me questions like, “What kind of surround system should I get, Bose?” One particular time I was asked this question and I grimaced much like when someone shows you a picture of their newborn and asks isn’t he/she so cute? You’re trying to muster a yes when all you’re thinking is, oh gosh that’s an ugly baby. It’s quite an uncomfortable feeling. This is exactly how I felt recently when a friend was looking for my affirmation on their potential Bose purchase.

Home Theater Blog - What about Bose? Part 2

One day I plan to finish my basement and have a room that is devoted to my home theater and my computer station. However, I’m still not sure how theater-ish I want it to look. I still want to use the room for playing video games, watching TV, and playing with my kids. I’m still leaning towards a look that says “I’m a really nice rec room, and guess what, I have a great home theater here too.”

But if I ever do decide to go more theater-looking, then this is one of the sites I’ll definitely inspect for inspiration. Lots of the shown home theaters don’t look multipurpose enough. But others like this one look more to my taste (except for that honkin big projector hanging from the ceiling).

Good inspiration, either way.

[via MatrixRevolutions]

Home Theatres - A Selection of Impressive & Interesting Setups

I’ve never been a big fan of Bose, especially since I saw specs for the frequency range the cube system could put out. Remember that what you really want in a home theater is for your speakers to reproduce the 20Hz to 20kHz range as accurately as possible. The cube system, first of all, started way above 20Hz and stopped way below 20kHz. Then, there was a big gap where the “subwoofer” leaves off and the satellite cubes took up the sound. So you could be listening to music or watching a movie, and you just plain wouldn’t hear some of the recorded sounds in the material!

Anyway, Bose has a bad rap in audiophile circles, and mostly for good reason. They are a marketing machine that makes a lot of money through brand awareness alone. I kind of equate them to Microsoft in my mind!

Anyway, Mr. Greenway over at Home Theater Blog is doing a series about Bose, and his experiences working in the industry are a lot more relevant than my opinions, so maybe you’d like to take a look at what he has to say.

Home Theater Blog - What about Bose? Part 1

I’m always excited to get something interesting in the mail, and last night that something was the HDMI-DVI cable I ordered from MonoPrice. I was in for three surprises, two bad and one good.

The good surprise was that it just worked! I was expecting to have to fiddle this, switch that, or whatever. But none of that was needed. I plugged the DVI end into my TV, then plugged the HDMI end into my SA8300HD PVR, and presto blamo, my TV said “Digital In” where previously it had said “YPbBr” (or whatever).

But this is where things went wrong. First of all, I discovered that my television shared input one between the DVI and component connections. I was hoping to free up the component input by using the DVI input, but I can’t do that. Which throws a wrench into my plans to finally hook up my DVD player via component video instead of using its S-Video connection. Grrrr…

Second, the picture quality was not as good using the HDMI-DVI connection. It was like there was a soapy film over the whole picture. I may be able to calibrate this away, but it was disconcerting to say the least. So now that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’d like to get a good picture working with the DVI input, because eventually I want that to be my only connection to the TV. Or at the very least, I’ll be using it for my PS3 later this year. I guess I’ll need to find a way to switch several component video sources without spending a lot of money.

I’m a sci-fi buff. Just the other night I watched War of the Worlds. Afterwards I watched Battlestar Gallactica. Smallville is my favourite TV show. Star Wars is my favourite movie. I’m currently reading a military science fiction book.

So when I saw Ultimate AV’s article on Sci-Fi TV on DVD, I perked up. Let’s see, what shows does Ultimate AV talk about… Star Trek: Enterprise was first. Whatever. Not a good show in my mind. Next was some X-Files stuff. Never really got into X-Files, gotta admit. Space: Above and Beyond. Hey, I liked that series. Too bad it didn’t last long. And I wasn’t the only one that liked the series - it seems to have gotten a good following. Now it’s on DVD. Cool. Next? Stargate. Whatever. Never really got into that. Then Farscape. Bah! Never liked the stupid looking aliens in that one.

Hmm, for a sci-fi buff, there doesn’t seem to be many sci-fi shows that I actually like. I say that’s because most sci-fi on TV is crap, and I’m sticking to it. Remember the premiere episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Crap. I stopped watching half way through. How can anybody like that stuff? I want my Firefly back! Now that was good!

Anyway. Where was I?

Battlestar Gallactica. Now there’s a show! I really liked the original as a kid, but even though I watch it, there’s something about the new show I don’t like as much. Actually, it’s a couple things. One, the stupid stupid camera. Are they trying to nauseate me? Is this show an experiment to see how much abuse I can take? Please please stop with the handycam footage, and shoot this thing for real!!! Two, the lack of hope. I always finish watching an episode of Battlestar Gallactica with a feeling of hopelessness. Why do I want that in my life? But I put up with it anyway, because other than that (and the camera) I think it’s a good show. Too bad the feed I get on my local TV station is crap. The show looks terrible. I’ve recently given up on watching it (we get it late here in Canada) and decided to rent the DVD’s through zip.ca. Hopefully the picture quality will be better.

Ah, such is the state of sci-fi on TV today. Firefly was a much better show than anything in recent memory, yet it was canned after just a few episodes. Why, oh why? There is no justice in this universe…

Ultimate AV - Sci-Fi TV on DVD: The New Generation

How would you like to send and receive video over Bluetooth? Could happen. Wouldn’t need any cables at all between components. Wouldn’t that be nice? Get a new BD or HD DVD player, bring it home, plug in the power cord, pop in a disc, and voila! Beautiful picture. Nice….

The Bluetooth special interest group (SIG) said it hopes to develop a new Bluetooth specification that will allow wireless video streaming from one device to another, via ultra-wideband (UWB), to be in consumer products by early 2008.

The new version of Bluetooth would allow users to wirelessly transfer large amounts of data as well as high-quality video and audio for portable devices, multimedia projectors and television sets. At the same time, it will continue to allow the wireless connections of low power devices such as mice, keyboards and mono headsets, “thereby offering the best of both worlds,” said the group.

The Bluetooth SIG estimates that a specification will be finalized in 2007, with prototype samples ready towards the end of 2007 and the first products offering the new Bluetooth bandwidth in early 2008.

TWICE - Bluetooth May Enable Video By 2008

My Boombox

Even as a kid I was big into audio. I have to admit that my brother is the one who got me onto it, and I would spend a lot of time browsing stereo stores wishing that I could actually afford to buy something there. I listened to my music tapes on a handheld mono tape player. Then my big purchase when I was eleven was a $300 ghetto blaster. Man, I was so proud of that thing. It was an Aiwa TPR-955 (scroll down to bottom of page), and it actually sounded quite good. It also had many audio inputs on the side for connecting other sources like a record player or whatever. I used those quite a bit.

First Stereo System

When I moved out of the house after university, I went to Ottawa for my first full-time real job at Corel. Of course I had to buy a nice stereo, and I found it at Dewar’s Audio and Sound Advice. My parents had previously bought a music system comprising of Yamaha electronics and Paradigm speakers. (Of course, they did this shortly before I moved out, so I didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy it.) So I was partial to Paradigm. I bought a pair of Paradigm speakers. I forget the exact model number, but I’m pretty sure it had a 7 in it! Series 7 or something like that. I also bought a Harmon/Kardon stereo receiver from Dewar’s. They convinced me not to bother with a surround sound receiver because (duh) I didn’t have surround sound at the time.

Surround Sound, Baby!

Eventually I did move up to surround sound and a new line of speakers. I traded in my Paradigm speakers for some new Paradigm speakers! I went up to the Paradigm Reference series, buying a pair of Studio/80’s for front left and right duties, and I used a Studio LCR 450 as my center channel. These speakers all sounded much better than my previous ones - the difference was amazing. Boomy bass? Gone! Clear details? Wonderful! My surrounds continued to be Paradigm Atom speakers, because I couldn’t afford to upgrade to Studio surrounds. (This became the story of my life.) I also traded in my receiver at Dewar’s Audio for a HK AVR-20 receiver, which I later upgrade to a HK AVR-25. I had a problem with that one and they gave me an HK AVR-500 instead, which I still use to this day. This receiver is the weak link in my system right now, and I want to upgrade to better electronics one day, preferably separates. But with my funds the way the are, I don’t know how that will go.

My Pride - Linn!

Then I upgraded my speakers once again. Even though the LCR450 speakers are supposed to match the Studio/80’s, I didn’t think they matched that well. I bought myself some used Linn 5140 speakers for left and right duties, and a matching Linn 5120 for the center speaker. (There’s no way I could afford these new.) Now the front soundstage was a lot more coherent. (Though my friend who I sold my speakers to never complained. I even told him why I didn’t like my speakers, and he bought them anyway. He’s quite happy.) I later purchased some demo Linn 5110 surround speakers.

My Paradigm Atom speakers are now used in a second system (for audio only) with two zones - one B&W set of speakers and then the Atoms. So I replaced the Atoms in my home theater with Paradigm Titan speakers, and so I have 4 surround speakers, even though the two left and two right speakers each get the same signal. I did this because I have a big room and I wanted to fill in the sound behind and around me. It works to a degree, but the open-concept living space doesn’t help. Once I my basement is finished I’ll have a room with a door that I’ll optimize for my home theater experience. (More money!)

I drive my extra surround speakers with a HK PA5800 which I got a really good deal on, new. ($300US from J&R, in a closeout sale.) One of the channels don’t work, however, so I have to wonder about that deal! The amp’s other two channels I use to send music upstairs.

I’m starting to think that my approach to speakers has been all wrong. I should really have bought identical speakers all around, or especially across the front. Then the soundstage would be truly seemless. Maybe my next speaker system will be seven Paradigm Signature S2 speakers (±2 dB from 52 Hz – 22 kHz), plus a couple good subs.

Subwoofer

Speaking of subwoofers, mine is the excellent Paradigm Servo-15. I got about 20% off when purchasing this thing, and when I helped my friend Steve to buy one too, he got 25% off. So don’t let people tell you that dealers aren’t allowed to discount Paradigm speakers! Even though the sub sounds great, I do have a problem with it. When someone stands up or sits down in the chair next to it, it often makes a low crackling sound. I don’t have any cables running by the chair, so I don’t know what to do about that.

Televisions

I don’t even remember the make of my first television. It was a Hitachi or Sanyo 27″ television, I think.

I took my wife shopping for a new television, and I really had my eye on a 27″ or so Sony XBR television. She saw the 35″ version sitting there and asked “Why don’t we just get the bigger one?” Bless her heart! So we bought the Sony 35XBR48, and I have to say it’s the most wonderful television I have had or seen. It’s still in use in a spare room, but unfortunately it’s not HD. That was my next step.

Now my television is a Hitachi 57T500, which I bought late summer 2004. I did a lot of research into what the best televisions were, and it led me to the high-end lines of the Toshiba and Hitachi products. Unfortunately, both of those companies were starting to de-emphasize CRT technology and were starting to put cheaper parts into their televisions. So even though I could have got a 2005 model with newer features, I got a 2004 model with better optics. It’s quite a nice television, but I don’t like the bad internal reflections. I’ve heard internal reflections are a problem with all RPTV’s, but I’m not so sure. I talked to someone who has a Sony WEGA LCD RPTV, and he doesn’t notice any problems of this sort. I’d really like some feedback in this area. Also, my particular television seems to have a problem with resolution. This is not a Hitachi 57T500 problem, but rather just a problem with my set. It isn’t capable of displaying a resolution it’s supposed to be able to. Which sucks.

Onward

So, what are my next steps? This fall I’ll be getting a PS3, which will give me HD gaming and movies. I’m quite excited about it and have a site about the PS3.

After that, I think I’ll have to wait until my basement is done before doing any upgrades. I’d like to upgrade my electronics, get a front projector, and get a cohesive set of speakers, in that order. It all takes a lot of money, so it’ll take a lot of time.

-

Don Lindich over at Scripps Howard News Service responded to a question about some common things to keep in mind when setting up a home theater. Mr. Lindich covers off four topics that are often missed by people when bringing home their first home theater system.

1. Speaker Placement
2. Speaker Loudness/Delay Setup
3. TV Calibration
4. Properly Arranged Lighting

Good advice. Changing your speaker placement has a large effect on what you hear. And of course, you need to make sure each speaker has the same loudness to your ear as the other speakers, when being driven with the same signal. Keeping these things in mind will really improve the sound quality of your HT. You might also want to watch that subwoofer placement. You’ll want to minimize boominess, and maximize even-ness. This can often be done by getting two subwoofers and placing each in the middle of two adjacent walls. If you don’t have that luxury, you might try placing your subwoofer on your seat, then crawling around on hands and knees while playing a bass sweep. Try to find the spot in your room where the bass sounds the most even. Then place the subwoofer there.

Getting yourself a test DVD and calibrating your TV is vitally important too. Sometimes some THX DVD’s even have the required test patterns for you to set up your TV properly. However, I’ve found the explanations for setting up brightness and contrast to be rather problematic sometimes. After calibration the other day at my friend’s house, for example, the brightness was obviously set way too high. And I mean obvious. So don’t be afraid to twiddle the settings a bit after calibration. You might also want to consider getting the colour temperature of your set professionally ISF calibrated, for more accurate colours than just fiddling with the user controls can give you. Just do a search on the internet for ISF.

And arranging lighting is also obviously important. I think you’d notice right away if a bright lamp is shining right on your screen, or causing you problems. So I’ll forgo an explanation of this one!

Scripps Howard - Four tips for setting up a home theater

There are lots of annoyances in the world. All the way from having your least favourite political party gain office all the way down to getting a pebble stuck in your shoe. But my HT receiver, an HK AVR500, has an annoyance that goes way beyond any of those. I mean, this is a top-quality, 100% Certified “True Annoyance”.

The receiver does not remember my OSD setting. I know! It’s awful! So if I’m watching a DVD and see “DD 5.1″ or “Volume -32″ in nice white letters on my display, I can turn that off by hitting he OSD button on my remote. But the next time I turn on the receiver, it’s back! There’s no way to turn this off permanently! And this is why I’ll never buy another HK receiver again, because I’m pretty sure they haven’t fixed this problem. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) I know it sounds like a little thing. But when you’re CONSTANTLY going into the AMP menu of your remote to fix the stupid OSD, it gets to be a bit much.

What’s annoying about your receiver or pre-processor? Maybe we can put all these annoyances in one post, and manufacturers will take note and actually fix these things. And by “annoyance” I don’t mean things like missing features that are available in higher end models, or things like that. I mean operational annoyances that the manufacturer should have fixed.

I know this site is new, and so I don’t have many readers yet. But I know there are some of you out there, so please drop by and leave a note!

c|net takes a look at Denon’s AVR-4306 receiver. As far as function-packed receivers go, this one is pretty affordable at $1999. (Unfortunately for us Canadians, Denon’s markup here is pretty bad, so the list price is $2790Cdn when it should be closer to $2350Cdn.) Either way, though, Denon has a reputation for making good stuff, and c|net definitely found that out, giving the receiver a score of 9/10.

This beast has three HDMI inputs, and converts incoming analog video to digital, and upconverting to 720p or 1080i over the HDMI connection to boot! It even passes 1080p signals! It has iPod and USB MP3 player connectivity, and a touch-screen remote (yuck). You can even stream music from your PC using a built-in ethernet port. This receiver is rated at 130W per channel.

A great feature of this receiver is its auto-setup routine with room equilization. The reviewer complained that too much user interaction was needed, requiring you to move the microphone to six room locations and interacting with the setup process the whole way. Personally, I think this is a bonus, because it sets things up exactly just for your room, to give you the best possible sound quality. Why complain about that? At the end of it all, they say “On the upside, the extra work was worth it: the equalization firmed up our speakers as well as the subwoofer’s bass; dialogue was more articulate; and the sense of spatial depth of the soundstage was increased. The Audyssey MultEQxt Room EQ autosetup system’s calibration accuracy was spot-on.” See? Good stuff. All in all, c|net found the sound quality of this receiver to be quite good.

Unfortunately, no mention is made in the review of the bass management of the 5.1 analog inputs. This is important for listening to many SACD and DVD Audio players. Plus, it will become more important again with HD DVD and BD players that have hi-res soundtracks that the Denon can only receive on analog.

On the minus side, and this is something I haven’t seen anywhere else so I don’t know how much of a minus it is, this receiver can’t decode the new DD+, DD TrueHD, and DTS HD formats coming down the pike on the BD and HD DVD formats.

This receiver definitely goes on my “to recommend” short list.

c|net - Denon AVR-4306 A/V receiver

I watched War of the Worlds last night. My wife doesn’t like these kind of movies, so I experienced the movie solo. I’ve heard some not-so-nice things about the pic, so I have to admit that my expectations were low. And I don’t know if that’s the reason or not, but I quite enjoyed the movie. It is one of the most tense, suspenseful movies that I’ve seen in a long time. Something interesting was always happening, and I always wanted to know what happened next (which many movies fail on).

The movie takes the view of a non-combatant (played by Tom Cruise of course) in the war between humans and aliens. And it does this very well, showing the wonder and terror of everything to do with the alien invasion. The special effects were quite good, and the movie had a very good cohesiveness to it.

I have to say that I disliked the ending for two reasons, but I can’t really tell you without giving it away. The movie had a lot of death in it, so it’s not for the faint of heart.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the movie and was pleasantly surprised. The little kid could have screamed a little less though.

Mark Johnson over at Audioholics had a problem - his wife. You see, Mark and his wife bought a new home and Mark got his wife to concede to his wish for a home theater in their living room. Just one catch - no wires could be visible. Now I have to say, if my wife made this request of me I’d be in a lot of trouble. But Mark was game, and found himself a nice HDMI cable at Blue Jeans Cables. It cost him $115 for a 7 meter cable. I guess I shouldn’t point out that at MonoPrice.com you can get a 25′ HDMI cable (slightly longer than 7 meters) with gold plated connectors for $27.95. Hmmm. I just visited the Blue Jeans Cables website, and see a 25′ HDMI cable for $51.75. Why did he pay $115? Hmmm…

Anyway, Mark gets it all set up only to get fouled by the fact that his DirecTV box’s HDMI connection cannot be passed through an HDMI repeater (an his Yamaha receiver acts as one) on the way to the destination. This is a problem with many tuners. So he has to either get a separate HDMI switcher (not the same as a repeater) or connect the DirecTV directly to his display. Which is really annoying. This is something that consumers should really complain about. We want our stuff to work! Not being able to be routed through a receiver is terrible.

Audioholics - A Practical HDMI Cable Solution & Installation

P.S. No, I still haven’t received my DVI-HDMI cable in the mail. I’ll tell you about my experiences once it gets here.

What do these terms mean? People new to home theater and home audio are often stumped by the many terms used in the industry, and “receiver”, “amplifier”, “pre-amplifier”, “tuner”, “integrated amp”, and “preamp/processor” are some related terms that need to be understood.

Tuner

First, what is a tuner? A tuner is something that tunes in radio stations. It grabs radio signals from the air and puts them out for use by a different audio component. Normally, you hook up an antenna to a tuner to improve its reception. Typically a tuner is part of another piece of hardware and is not sold separately, but that is not always the case. Sometimes a standalone tuner is required.

Amplifier

An amplifier takes a line-level signal (like the one coming out of your CD player or tuner) and amplifies it. Hence the name. It amplifies the signal for use by speakers. Conceivably, you could hook up your CD player’s outputs directly to an amplifier, then hook up your speakers to the amplifier, and you’d hear your music. The problem is that you would have no way of controlling the bass, treble, volume, or anything else. The Linn 5125 is an amplifier.

Preamplifier

A preamplifier (or preamp for short) goes in front of the amplifier in the signal chain, hence the name. It goes between your CD player and the amplifier. The preamp has a volume control, bass and treble controls, and allows you to switch between different components like your CD player, tuner, tapedeck, or whatever. A preamp is typically an audio-only affair, though it doesn’t have to be.

Preamp/Processor

A pre/pro is basically a preamp, but because preamps today typically do a lot of signal processing for surround formats like Dolby Digital and DTS, the name preamp/processor has come into vogue. Pre/pros often do video signal processing and switching as well. The Anthem D2 is a good example of a preamp/processor.

Integrated Amplifier

An integrated amplifier is just a preamp and and amp stuck together into the same piece of equipment. Most integrated amps are rather simple, allowing you to switch between several audio components, change the volume, bass, and treble, and does little else. I have one with my computer setup, so that I can listen to music or my computer easily. I don’t listen to the radio at home, so the lack of a tuner isn’t missed. Conceivably, I could buy a tuner and hook it up to my integrated amp, should I want to listen to the radio.

Receiver

A receiver is just a tuner, a pre/pro, and an amplifier all stuck together into the same piece of equipment. Basically, it’s the alternative to buying a separate integrated amp and tuner. Typically, receivers these days include many preprocessor functions like decoding home theater surround formats like DTS and DD (Dolby Digital). The Denon 4806 is a good example of a receiver.

So that’s it! If you have any other home theater or home audio terms you’d like clarified, please contact me. See also Steve’s comments on Henning’s HT Story for more about pre/pros and amplifiers.

Last night I drove over to Mike’s place in my new car. (I’m still enjoying my new Mazda3, though I still haven’t gotten the hang of quick starts from a stop with a manual transmission.)

Anyway, Mike has some equipment that his brother-in-law is lending him, so I helped set it up. The DVD player wasn’t hooked up, and the cable box was connected straight to the TV.

First I had to fix a problem he was having with hiss, which was simple enough. I set the cable box’s audio output to fixed. Then I turned the receiver’s volume way down. The problem was that he was amplifiing a really weak signal.

Then we routed the component video outputs on the DVD player and HD cable box through the receiver. The receiver did the switching of both video and sound.

Now that the DVD player was hooked up, we calibrated brightness, contrast, and sharpness using a test disc.

Digital sound was a problem, because the Yamaha receiver’s coaxial digital input was assigned to CD, not cable. So it actually took some time to figure out how to fix that, because for some reason we didn’t have an on screen display. Mike fiddled with the remote and looking at the receiver’s little display while I read the instruction manual. “Yeah I/O input! That’s the one. 1A. Change that. Yeah. No. Uh. Sorry.”

Then we fixed the audio mode, which also wasn’t very intuitive. For some reason the Yamaha was saying “6 Channel Stereo”, or something like that, when we were listening to DTS surround. So I fiddled with the remote until I got that fixed. The key was the DD/DTS button.

We watched some DVD and noticed that the brightness was off. So much for calibration! The problem with these calibration discs is that they say something like “increase brightness until you see X”. Well, what should you do if you never see X? So we adjusted the brightness to make the picture look nicer.

Lastly, there was a problem with the cable box and HD channels. I didn’t think of it until I was driving home (in my Mazda3), but now I think that the box wasn’t even putting out HD at all! I think something needs to be fixed in its configuration.

Anyway. I’ll have to go back to Mike’s place sometime, and we’ll fix the HD problems and calibrate the audio.