Home Entertainment Systems

Component Stereo, with receiver, CD changer, and so help me, a Harmon/Cardon turntable. Planning to add cassette deck. Fairly important to me. If TV were, I would probably have one.

I see you've got a similar question a little farther down the list, Timber. If you don't like it, you can delete it as long as nobody posts on it.

I guess I should have added a "Stereo System Only" category ... I don't think I can now.

BTW, roger, I'm a "Vinyl Junkie" myself; several thousand 12" LPs, three turntables, one of which is brand new, replacing a much loved, but Uneconomical-to-Repair Early '70s-vintage unit.



timber


Addendum: I see I can add a category to the poll choices. Sorry for any confusion, this is my first attempt at this sort of thing. Its a lame excuse, I know, but the only one immediately at hand.

Ha! Thanks, roger ... I deleted it. And I'm representing myself as one to whom to look for assistance with site features and functions, huh? Doubly embarrassing.



timber

Oooo! Well.. I have a 5 channel surround sound reciever, CD Changer, Stereo VCR, DVD Player, Dual Cassette deck, 2 turntables, a 15" Reel-to-Reel and an 8-track tape player ( )along with my current 27" TV.

I've been looking at a large (55" or so..) HDTV, Wide-Screen format monitor to replace the 27" TV for the last few months.. Maybe next month.. The reciever is now almost 10 years old and should probably be replaced with a THX system (I looked at a nice Onkyo at lunch time today! Shhh.. Don't tell!).

I guess it's all semi-important.

fishin', to each his own, but I remain unimpressed by Projection TV technology, and intimidated by the prices of current Plasma Displays. My TV is a 36" HD-Capable Flatscreen CRT model ... about a 250 pound behemoth, capable of awesome picture quality, far better and more detailed than that afforded by any contemporary Projection TV (though some now are very good).



timber

I had a system that was controlled through computeria:

One computer's only responsibility was to process requests for music and hold the digital files. It had a surround sound card and the requisite speakers but I usually used a wireless headphone/microphone thingie so that I could command the puter to play the songs I wanted ("DJ, play genre classical" or "DJ, play artist Pearl Jam"). That computer had an AM/FM radio too but I never used it.

Another puter handled the DVDs (all regions) and had a big flat screen. It also had surround sound.

But the one I used the most was the one in my bedroom, it was just connected to a stereo system and only had a 17 inch monitor. But it had a bed nearby so it was my favorite.


Now I've sold/given away all of them and am wondering why I decided to return stateside.

I forgot, I also had a TV card but never used it.

The pic quality and the dropping prices on the plasma units are what's been keeping me from throwing money at a large screen thusfar. I looked at a 42" plasma unit today while I was out at lunch too but I'm not willing to part with $5,000 for that yet. The longer I wait the more the prices drop and as long as they keep droping I'm willing to wait it out.

My computers are essentially independent of my A/V equipment, and in a different room, though music may be wirelessly exchanged between them in either direction.

The "Main Computer" has a 5.1-capable soundcard which outputs to a modest surround-sound receiver and appropriate speakers,. There is a small TV situated on the computer desk for incidental watching while doing computer stuff, and there is a laptop in the livingroom with the main A/V suite for incidental computer noodling while doing A/V stuff. All the 'puters are networked; those in the office ethernetted, the laptop "802.11b"d to the main network.

I have been an A/V afficianado since The Eisenhower Era, probably to extent considered by some to border on obsession. By comparison, my involvement with computers is mere dabbling. I love my "Noise Toys".



timber

I have a 60" Mitsubishi TV with a Sony Digital Receiver, a Bose surround speaker system with an add on sub-woofer, DBX cassette recording/playback, three VCR's and a DVD/CD player. The reason for the extra VCR's is one is hooked up between the cable box and the TV ad one has a discrete input from the cable for time shift or overlap recordings. One is just an extra for copying and is in the same chassis as the DVD player. The VCR arrangement is really the only way one can record premium channels and watch another show at the same time. The only upgrade I would consider in the next several years is really a plasma wide screen TV (the cable company offers a HDTV tuner). I record a lot off of IFC and Sundance and the premium channels either to keep or just to watch later on. I have to say the home digital sound is better than in nearly any theater -- I was really astounded at sound on "The Fellowship of the Ring."

27" TV, Digital Cable, Receiver, Cassette, Turntable, DVD, 2 VCRs and R/L & Center speakers...its all pretty dang important to me...I happen to very much enjoy movies in good quality both visual and sound. Id do rear speakers but, I think its too small a room..tis loud enough as it is for the neighbors.
Im waiting for the prices to drop on Plasma myself...this old TV though is gonna need to be replaced before I think Ill be able to do that. With the room size though... another 27" will do for now.

Plasma prices are going to be dropping really soon!!
I just was out shopping for a new tv for my room,..I opted for a 34" widescreen Sony Wega HDTV,..it's great,..and I got a good deal.
While I was comparing prices in various stores, I came accross a 47" plasma screen for about $2500.00.
I almost bought it, but decided that it was too big for the bedroom, and want something larger for the TV room,...by the spring I expect to be getting a 64" plasma for that room,..and am sure that the price will be less than $3000.

When I said I wasn't satisfied with Projection Television I should have specified "Rear Projection Television". I have seen Front Projection Television systems capable of stunning, "better-than-theatric-film" visual performance, and staggering, industrial-grade cost.

I have multiple satellite receivers, including one which is also HDTV capable for both satellite and Off-The-Air. There is frustratingly little real HD program material being transmitted in either format, but that which is available blows away even the video quality of DVD. A recent "Back-to-Back" comparison of an HD Satellite broadcast of a movie played simultaneously from a DVD was eye-opening to even the least critical of viewers assembled for the occasion.

I have two VCRs, both S-VHS units with extensive editing capability, another satellite receiver which is also a PVR (though not HD-capable), a Dual-Well/Dual-Record Auto-Reverse Cassette Deck with Dolby "S" capability, a Hard-Drive/CD Burner combination, a dedicated 5-Disc DVD Carousel Deck, a 5-disc CD Deck which controls as well a 400-disc "Jukebox" type CD Player (to which another of the same could be slaved if ever wished). There are three turntables, one optimized for 33 1/3 rpm discs, another optimized for 45's and 78's, while the third is a linear tracking job which can detect and play selected cuts from an LP.
The engine of the system is a 7.1 channel, dual-room/dual source multi-format digital surround-sound receiver. There is no game console. Loudspeakers consist of timbre-matched Front Mains and Center, Bipolar/Dipolar Surrounds set to dipolar (direct sound) as sides and the same set to bi-polar (diffused sound) as rears. There is a main subwoofer at a front corner of the room, and two lesser subwoofers in opposite rear corners of the room assist the surrounds. The system is mains-powered by its own two dedicated circuit breakers, and is given both voltage regulation and surge protection bordering on overkill. A smaller TV's (9") signal can be antenna-supplied, or slaved to the output of any one of the VCRs or satellite receivers independently. The main TV is a dual-tuner type, with Picture-in-Picture, along with several separate video inputs. The satellite receiver which is also a PVR is dual-satellite-capable, and has its own Picture-in-Picture capability. Why I might want to I have no idea, but I could simultaneously display 4 different video sources in one room, while recording three other video programs and displaying another video program, with audio, in another room. Thinking about it, I could also record two different, independent audio sources at the same time as all the video silliness, supposing I was able to keep any of it straight in my head.

"The Rig" dominates a broad wall at one end of the room, and the speakers, if not the subwoofers (which are behind or beneath furniture), are more or less primary architechural features on every wall. There are numerous ancilary accessories, such as a large, noisy automated record-cleaner, assorted rewinders, an XM Satellite Radio dock, and a 15" Reel-to-Reel tape deck, among others, and much related paraphernalia. Mrs Timber hates it even though its wires are out of sight and its woodwork, including speaker cabinets, matches the woodwork of the room, and of HER piano, which shares the room. If we ever "Finish the Basement", it will feature a pretty nice Home Theater. The living room will feature The Piano. No currently active plan to effect this exists.
I may be in no hurry to get it done, but I'm always willing to discuss it with her.



timber

Oh my. I got rid of my (for the day) big t.v. a little over a decade ago, and moved to a smaller 19" screen. I've got a satellite - turn the t.v. on a couple of times a month. I've got a fairly decent audio system but couldn't tell you what 'brand' it is without looking - that kind of thing lost my attention once i left my 30's. I had a multi-disc c.d. player hooked up to it, but got mad at it one day, unhooked it and shook it. It's never been the same since. Now if i want to listen to c.d.'s i have to use the little boombox sitting on top of the paper shredder. Funny (?) how quality of sound lost it's value once I started listening to documentary radio vs. music stations.

I used to be so keen on the quality of my audio system that I could have cited every stat on the Telefunken system I bought in university and then the one that replaced it.

In typing this out, I realized that this is the first place I've ever lived in where I don't have speakers set up in every room. And that there are several sets of speakers still packed in boxes in the basement. Nice speakers too, as i recall.

As befits a half-hearted sort of a failed Luddite, I have a weeny TV in my bedroom - currently on loan to a sick friend, where it has been for the last 6 months - and a little CD/radio/cassette player also in the bedroom - never used...hmmmmm.

In the living room I have a biggish second-hand Phillips TV - with one channel not tuned in - doh - (I can get it through the VCR) - an eight year old VCR, and, NOT connected to the TV, an 11 year old Yamaha sound system - with Australian VAF speakers.

I am happy....

Oh - I will probably get a DVD player when my current bout of poverty ends...

oh, wah, I'm the ONLY one who entertains herself?

Well, I do find myself reasonably amusing when i am not pissed off at myself, Little 'k....

I was reading the ads for DVD players - was all keen to get one, and then wondered what i would actually do with one if i bought it.