Aspect ratio dingdongs - gives me a headache

[Gewehr98]

Bogie's got better audio/video toys than I do.

Save for the too-short Toslink cable (see it levitating in there?) between HDTV and audio rack, it all cleaned up pretty good.  I've got a 12-foot fiber optic cable enroute to fix that, too.



That's the scene in "The Addams Family" where Wednesday Addams and her fellow indian braves take over the summer camp play and wreak havoc. 

[Vodka7]

Looks like you've got some terrible ghosting on that new TV, might want to get that looked into

[Brad Johnson]

Yeah, looks like it has terrible problems. Tell ya what ... I'll take it off your hands so you won't have to worry about it anymore.  Just let me know the address and I'll be by to pick it up.

Brad

[Gewehr98]

When you come by to get it, Brad, bring your checkbook. 

I "fixed" the ghosting problem when I took the next picture. 

[Matt-man]

So I ended up with a stand-alone Digital-to-Analog converter, which takes the fiber optic audio feed from the Hitachi plasma TV, then spits out the left and right RCA analog audio to the input of the Yamaha DSP-1, which decodes the Dolby signal and sends 6 channels to their respective amplifiers and speakers. 

I follow what you've got set up there, but I have to ask: Why not a standalone Dolby Digital processor that can accept the digital datastream and output six analog channels?  Even better, most good A/V receivers these days handle switching of video as well as audio, greatly simplifying the operation of the whole system.

[Gewehr98]

Ah, Matt-man, you forget.  See that thing on the top of the oak audio rack?  Yup, it's a vacuum-tube integrated amp.  $1,200 worth of tubes and transformers, probably the best audio investment I've ever made.  A/V receiver?  As in solid-state, integrated circuit shrill, harsh, clipping transistorized A/V receiver?  Icky-poo.

Kinda like Bose speakers, one eventually outgrows that stuff.  That tube amp gets straight-shot, unadulterated left and right front channel feeds from the CD/DVD player, the turntable, and now from the digital cable box by way of the DAC, then kicks it out as a nice warm sound, regardless of volume level. Life is good, and I've got more matched quads of tubes just in case.

Switching video is really easy with the Hitachi plasma - the darned thing has a bazillion inputs all selectable by the remote.  No big deal, there.

Dolby Digital 5.1 is indeed nice, and I'd love a standalone processor for it. Problem is, if you know your audio history, the Yamaha DSP-1 wrote the book on digital sound field synthesis, even if it's the older Dolby analog surround.  Every parameter of the surround sound fields created by the DSP-1 can be edited by the user, which is really nice because not all home theater listening environments are the same with respect to audio qualities - regardless of what Bose says and does. Bob Carver tried something similar with his Sonic Hologram Generator, to a lesser degree. The DSP-1 was a watershed invention for the day, and still quite collectible.  I like it because it left the input signal alone and fed it along to my tube amp for the front two channels, and does the digital wizardry with the remaining four channels via the Yamaha M35 4-channel power amp sitting next to it. I may get two more stereo tube amps for the surround channels eventually, but that's a lot of heat and rack space.

I'm actually bidding on another DSP-1 unit and 4-channel power amp for my Dad to use with his big Mitsubishi projection HDTV and Dish Network setup.  He was watching Discovery HD Theater with me the other day and loved the sound.   
Now if people would stop regarding it as a collector's item and keep the bid prices down... 

More on the Yamaha DSP-1 and why I keep it in my audio rack:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_DSP-1

[Brad Johnson]

A/V receiver?  As in solid-state, integrated circuit shrill, harsh, clipping transistorized A/V receiver?  Icky-poo.

Tube envy. 

Brad

[Matt-man]

Ah, Matt-man, you forget.  See that thing on the top of the oak audio rack?  Yup, it's a vacuum-tube integrated amp.  $1,200 worth of tubes and transformers, probably the best audio investment I've ever made.  A/V receiver?  As in solid-state, integrated circuit shrill, harsh, clipping transistorized A/V receiver?  Icky-poo.

Well, that's why I mentioned a standalone processor.  Seems like a lot of higher-end audio companies have gotten into the home theater game lately, and I'm sure there are processors out there that are up to the quality of amplification.  It just seemed strange to me to downmix the 5.1 signal into stereo and then pull the six channels out of that.

[Gewehr98]

I suppose, IF I were using the 5.1 Dolby Digital signal - which I'm not. Hell, they're up to Dolby TrueHD Digital 7.1 now...

I'm pulling down the older Dolby analog (Pro Logic) surround info, which is still very much alive and well in recorded media these days.  I'm having way too much fun with that, and it works better with my vacuum tube system. Maybe if I bought a couple more $1,200 2-channel tube amps for the extra 4 channels, but my current wife is already drawing the line at how much real estate my audio/video system can inhabit. Honestly, Dolby Digital 5.1 is wonderful, if you're set up for a separate subwoofer channel, center channel, and the four corners.  Think Bose AM-10 and newer (ick, gotta swig some mouthwash after that), where you have satellite speakers and a subwoofer hidden somewhere. Bose makes some wonderful noise-cancelling headsets (I had a pair when I was flying for the Air Force) but everything else is just a marketing triumph for old Amar Gopal Bose, now worth an estimated $1.5 billion. 

It may be old-school, but I believe my bass and treble should come from the same box, namely my ESS AMT1 monitors that run real 12" woofers, etc. You don't see them in the pics above because the woofers and passive radiators are off getting new surrounds installed, so a set of cheaper 2-way towers are doing standby duty.  Everybody is all googly-eyed over the little satellite and subwoofer box thing, but to my ears they offer absolutely nothing, with zero presence and midrange, and a horribly over-emphasized bass boom. I don't have golden ears, I don't even have tone controls on my amps, but when I have my system fired up and Stevie Ray Vaughan is playing "Little Wing" (or even Diana Krall's "I've Got You Under My Skin"), you can close your eyes and they're on stage right there in front of you, NOT coming from a bunch of little boxes scattered in a room.  I believe the audiophiles call that soundstage presence, but to me it means the combination of black boxes with neat lights, glowing vacuum tubes, and big wooden boxes are working together the way they're supposed to. Put a half-speed mastered vinyl version of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" on the turntable, ease the tonearm w/Grado cartridge down, and you'll HATE CD audio.     

I don't really suffer when it comes to home theater, either. When I watch my Apocalypse Now DVD, I run that same system, but I also fire up the Yamaha DSP-1 and M35 power amp, then drive 4 additional vintage Radio Shack Minimus 7 speakers so I can hear the bullets tear through the jungle canopy and helicopters move around overhead. 

Although, eventually I will have a set of Magneplanars like Bogie has. 

[Brad Johnson]

4 additional vintage Radio Shack Minimus 7 speakers

The Mini 7's RULE!  Got two of them for my L&R surrounds.  Mains are old Optimus Mach II's.  Used to run four of them (stacked two to a side) but the ex got two of them, plus the Minimus 11's from the bedroom system, when she left.  Dang. It's still good now, but the beach scene in "Saving Private Ryan" took on an entirely new dimension with four 15" subs driving the lows.

Brad

[zahc]

Gewehr98...you're a good man, that's all I got to say. I applaud your audio sensibilities.

I personally refuse to alter my stereo system, so I have a technics surround processor. I send the front channels to my stereo system, and the back channels to another stereo amp for the rears, and set the processor for phantom center. It works for me; I don't listen to multichannel music except in movies.

[Gewehr98]

I don't listen to multichannel at all unless it's DVD movies or coming across the HDTV cable box.  Otherwise, it's just the front two speakers, period.  I've burned through two quads of 6550 pentode tubes in the last 10 years, so I think I'm doing alright. 

But I did discover not too long ago that certain music CD disks actually have a Dolby Surround channel encoded.  Color me surprised!  (But not for Led Zeppelin, bummer...)