Home Theater Mega Thread

[red sky]

Originally Posted by cupofjoe

Apologies in advance to any Sharp owners, my distributor used to have a quattron on display and frankly it look pretty bad compared to pretty much anything else (They thought so too)

Sharp quality is pretty suspect in my opinion. So unless it is pretty cheap, I would look in a different direction.

Thanks. After some more thought I decided against it. Just too much risk that this things dies in the next year and I have no recourse.

[metallicat]

We are currently thinking of getting "something" to play music and the radio at home. We want to be able to play internet radio and apps like Spotify through some sort of external speaker. The variying degrees of technology is sort of overwhelming. Do we buy small cheap Bluetooth speakers to simply connect to our phones? Do we spend 650 bucks on a Sonos 5? I'd really rather not spend tons of money, but want to do something other than using the external speakers on our phones. Any interesting suggestions?

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by metallicat

We are currently thinking of getting "something" to play music and the radio at home. We want to be able to play internet radio and apps like Spotify through some sort of external speaker. The variying degrees of technology is sort of overwhelming. Do we buy small cheap Bluetooth speakers to simply connect to our phones? Do we spend 650 bucks on a Sonos 5? I'd really rather not spend tons of money, but want to do something other than using the external speakers on our phones. Any interesting suggestions?

Personally, if I was in the market for a new speaker, I'd go with the Sonos One. It's about $250. the sound is better than you'd get with a lot of speakers and it'll be compatible with Amazon echo and google home(rumoured in 2018).
So this gives you a good speaker for internet and Spotify radio now, and it future proofs you to integrate Echo and/or Google home for the future.
I don't know for sure, but the Echo already works in Canada via the internet browser app, so I don't know why the sonos wouldn't.
Also, don't mistake the Sonos one for the Sonos play 1. they'er different speakers, the Sonos play 1 does not have voice control.

[Kjesse]

I'm hoping someone with knowledge can help here. Hopefully cupofjoe can chime in.

Our family room receiver, a Sherwood Newcastle R-865, has an optical input issue and the right channel is dropping through that input on occasion. The receiver has a second optical input and I've plugged into that for now, but, that input for reasons I don't know, has a damaged receptacle (I think that's what its called, its the plastic female end which you place the optical male end into) such that I think to keep the cable in place for the long term I'd have to use glue or tape and I don't want to do that.

That receiver has served well for 15 plus years, and the sound is amazing, but its time to either fix or replace it. And these days its mostly used as a receiver for kids TV but still I would like whatever is in that room to sound great when its time to listen to music.

I don't need 4K switching or Dolby Atmos, I have switching handled elsewhere and have no need for Atmos in that room. This room is just 2.1 and no extra speakers will be installed.

All I really need is one optical input on the receiver. A dedicated RCA sub out would be nice but not necessary.

I prefer heavy, tested receivers with solid build. The Sherwood R-865 is almost 50 lbs and the sound quality backs that weight up which is why I'm convinced weight means quality inside components. I've also heard lighter receivers sound better, a recent Marantz in particular.

I see the options are:

-Send the old receiver into Bestech for a repair that will likely cost 150 to 500, I don't know. (The receiver was something like 2300 new at the time)

-Purchase a used receiver on kijiji. Someone is selling a NAD T751 for $175, and someone else a Cambridge Audio Azur 550A for $300 "firm". Both probably sound amazing also. I'm not sure how they compare to the R-865 I have however.

-Purchase a new receiver such as the Yamaha A-S301, looks like it will cost about $600 in Canada delivered but is damn nice looking, would be new, and has basic controls without complicated sound fields, which is what I use any other receiver for anyway.

Any advice from those who know would be welcome.

[Kjesse]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

TBQH you're better off not using any sound processing at all. If there's an acoustic problem, identify what's causing it and correct it at its source.

Good point, and this late response is because I didn't see it until I clicked back while putting a new post in this thread.

I found the Yamaha had too many options. And the base setup when we had it did not seem right. This was in an era of the bigger speaker the better, and it was connected to these huge Cerwin-Vegas. That might be part of it.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Kjesse

I'm hoping someone with knowledge can help here. Hopefully cupofjoe can chime in.

Our family room receiver, a Sherwood Newcastle R-865, has an optical input issue and the right channel is dropping through that input on occasion. The receiver has a second optical input and I've plugged into that for now, but, that input for reasons I don't know, has a damaged receptacle (I think that's what its called, its the plastic female end which you place the optical male end into) such that I think to keep the cable in place for the long term I'd have to use glue or tape and I don't want to do that.

That receiver has served well for 15 plus years, and the sound is amazing, but its time to either fix or replace it. And these days its mostly used as a receiver for kids TV but still I would like whatever is in that room to sound great when its time to listen to music.

I don't need 4K switching or Dolby Atmos, I have switching handled elsewhere and have no need for Atmos in that room. This room is just 2.1 and no extra speakers will be installed.

All I really need is one optical input on the receiver. A dedicated RCA sub out would be nice but not necessary.

I prefer heavy, tested receivers with solid build. The Sherwood R-865 is almost 50 lbs and the sound quality backs that weight up which is why I'm convinced weight means quality inside components. I've also heard lighter receivers sound better, a recent Marantz in particular.

Any advice from those who know would be welcome.

I'm no expert, but I'd suggest looking into the following because it helped me with a similar, though slightly different situation:

- PCM vs Dolby output codec issue (change the settings, easy fix).
- Bad cable (swap cable to a good one, easy fix)
- Dirt from 15 years causing overheating issues

Coincidentally, I was currently dealing with some grief on sound quality issues with my Vizio set up. Looking up your issue helped me "fix" the issue I was dealing with. No need to replace my set up, though I've been offered a pretty dang good deal from someone looking to replace their setup this Black Friday.

[cupofjoe]

Originally Posted by Kjesse

I'm hoping someone with knowledge can help here. Hopefully cupofjoe can chime in.

Our family room receiver, a Sherwood Newcastle R-865, has an optical input issue and the right channel is dropping through that input on occasion. The receiver has a second optical input and I've plugged into that for now, but, that input for reasons I don't know, has a damaged receptacle (I think that's what its called, its the plastic female end which you place the optical male end into) such that I think to keep the cable in place for the long term I'd have to use glue or tape and I don't want to do that.

That receiver has served well for 15 plus years, and the sound is amazing, but its time to either fix or replace it. And these days its mostly used as a receiver for kids TV but still I would like whatever is in that room to sound great when its time to listen to music.

I don't need 4K switching or Dolby Atmos, I have switching handled elsewhere and have no need for Atmos in that room. This room is just 2.1 and no extra speakers will be installed.

All I really need is one optical input on the receiver. A dedicated RCA sub out would be nice but not necessary.

I prefer heavy, tested receivers with solid build. The Sherwood R-865 is almost 50 lbs and the sound quality backs that weight up which is why I'm convinced weight means quality inside components. I've also heard lighter receivers sound better, a recent Marantz in particular.

I see the options are:

-Send the old receiver into Bestech for a repair that will likely cost 150 to 500, I don't know. (The receiver was something like 2300 new at the time)

-Purchase a used receiver on kijiji. Someone is selling a NAD T751 for $175, and someone else a Cambridge Audio Azur 550A for $300 "firm". Both probably sound amazing also. I'm not sure how they compare to the R-865 I have however.

-Purchase a new receiver such as the Yamaha A-S301, looks like it will cost about $600 in Canada delivered but is damn nice looking, would be new, and has basic controls without complicated sound fields, which is what I use any other receiver for anyway.

Any advice from those who know would be welcome.

Sorry, extremely busy week.

I am not sure of your sources, setup, budget and ultimate goal(s) but here is my advice.

Repaired via Bestech - They used to do all my service work for Denon's / Marantz. Absolutely brutal to deal with.

My last experience...

Me "When will this be ready?"
Bestech "4 Weeks"

4 weeks later

Me "How is this coming along?"
Bestech "Our technician should get a chance to look at it this week..then depending on parts blah blah blah another 2-3 it should be done"
Me "You mother#%$$@$%#^#$^ and your #@#$^% company ....."

Needless to say it was ready in just over 9 weeks. (replacement of HDMI board)

I have since switched to much more reliable Yamaha's and haven't had to deal with them since.

They are probably better with non-warranty work, but the bar is not set very high with them. Fixing used is always a crap shoot as sometimes you fix the problem and then a different one surfaces a couple months later.


Used on Kijiji - some deals to be had of course with all the usual used / kijiji caveats


Buy a new receiver - I personally really like the Yamaha R-N602 with musiccast but again not sure of your exact requirements or goals.

[scotty2hotty]

This question might be too vague, but I figured I'd give it a shot ...

I've got an LG Smart TV (4K). I simply want to use my Pioneer receiver as external surround sound speakers.

I figured it would be as easy as connecting HDMI to the ARC port on the TV and connecting to the receiver. I've done this and tried every setting I can imagine, but no dice. No sound from the Pioneer speakers.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Any additional details I can give you that would help?

Thanks!

[Fuzz]

Make sure you are using an ARC compatible cable, they are one directional as well.

[scotty2hotty]

Ah, so a regular HDMI cable wouldn’t work?

I actually have no idea what I’m using.

[Aegypticus]

My experience with ARC is that HDMI-CEC has to be enabled on both the TV and receiver for it to work. It’s aggravating as hell at my parents’ house because having CEC enabled will make the TV hijack the selected input about 20 seconds after everything powers up.

[CliffFletcher]

My 6 year old Samsung TV died on me, so I'm buying a replacement - the Visio M65. Also taking the opportunity to replace my Apple TV 3rd gen with the Apple TV 4K.

While I'm happy that I'll be streaming 4K and HDR, I was a bit choked to learn that my 6 year old Onkyo receiver doesn't support HDMI 2. What I'm not clear on is if that means the audio through the receiver will be inferior, or if it flat out won't make a sound at all.

So do I have to buy a sound bar (I'm not sinking money into a receiver again if it's only going to be good for 5 years), or is there a workaround?

Thanks.

[cupofjoe]

Plug HDMI from ATV to TV. Digital optical cable (Toslink) (TV digital audio out) from TV to receiver.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by cupofjoe

Plug HDMI from ATV to TV. Digital optical cable (Toslink) (TV digital audio out) from TV to receiver.

Thanks. So the TV will become my hub, and I'll run the ATV, Blu-Ray player, etc. all through it? And I won't have to change any channels/inputs on the receiver when I switch devices - the receiver will just output the audio for whatever is currently input into the TV?

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

While I'm happy that I'll be streaming 4K and HDR, I was a bit choked to learn that my 6 year old Onkyo receiver doesn't support HDMI 2. What I'm not clear on is if that means the audio through the receiver will be inferior, or if it flat out won't make a sound at all.

For audio, you shouldn't have any problems even with an older HDMI 1.4 receiver.

[photon]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Thanks. So the TV will become my hub, and I'll run the ATV, Blu-Ray player, etc. all through it? And I won't have to change any channels/inputs on the receiver when I switch devices - the receiver will just output the audio for whatever is currently input into the TV?

Yup, I did the same with my older Onkyo, even before switching to 4K because I forgot how to program it and didn't want to look up the manual.

[stang]

So I have started my home theater research with the plan to start framing in the next week or so. Been doing a ton of reading over at AVSforums, but would like some input on people in the know from Canada.

I know next NOTHING about surround sound. I have a sony surround from a box in my upstairs and only use it as 2.1

The room is going to be 13' by 22' inside wall dimensions.

Here is what i am thinking.
130" screen (Homemade)
Projector.
Recliner sofa in front
Couch on riser behind
Bar/counter with bar stools behind the couch
7.1 surround (maybe go Dolby Atmos as it seems I just need 2 ceiling speakers)

This is our basement plan.


The theater room door will be moved down along the door about 3' from the corner.

I did a drawing in sketchup.


I guess some questions are. If I am doing multi rows of seating is it a good idea to have 2 speakers of side fill in the surround? Or should I just knock it down to one set like normal and have some non ideal setup. I do have to have at least one pillar on the wall to cover up a sewer pipe, but its not in a really ideal spot, as its a little in front of where the first row of seating will be, which would make it terrible for the second row.

Also I have NO idea what I should be using for stereo system. Budget isnt going to be big by no means as we are building the whole basement. I am thinking some towers as seen in the sketchup with 4 side fills in the pillars and 2 rears just hung in the back corners. Kind of just looking for whats out there on FB marketplace or kijiji right now. Some polk stuff on sale at Best Buy as well.

Any advice on my plans? Framing starts in a week or two hopefully.

Thanks in advance

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by metallicat

We are currently thinking of getting "something" to play music and the radio at home. We want to be able to play internet radio and apps like Spotify through some sort of external speaker. The variying degrees of technology is sort of overwhelming. Do we buy small cheap Bluetooth speakers to simply connect to our phones? Do we spend 650 bucks on a Sonos 5? I'd really rather not spend tons of money, but want to do something other than using the external speakers on our phones. Any interesting suggestions?

We are pretty integrated with the sonos system. We have two sonos 3's on the main floor. It's a large open space and the 3's work really well. We had two sonos 1's previously and moved those, one to the office and one to the master bedroom. Honestly, the 1's were good enough. The three's give a little more bass, and sound better when cranked, but we rarely do that. For the tv room, we have a sonos soundbase. It's awesome. I really like it. If we have a movie night, we can move the one's in to add more sound to the system.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by stang

This looks amazing. I am stealing it and sending it to my dad, whose room is basically identical.

[stang]

I can get more angles lol