Calling All Home Theater Junkies...

[knight1fox3]

Reviving an old thread here to get advice on a good projector not necessarily for a home theater but potentially for work presentations and such. Any suggestions?

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Connects to any iPhone...

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Was at a presentation from one of our vendors and he used the mini projector above. You can find it here.

It's a bit pricey, not sure if you could get it at a better price somewhere else. He connected it to his laptop, not sure if it would work with iPads/iPhones etc.

 

[knight1fox3]

Thought I would re-incarnate this thread thanks to a post by @Dleg which I will copy below and then include my own specs.  STEREO WAR!!!  @Supe isn't allowed to compete though.........j/k 

Well I wouldn't call it a "home theater" because it's just in our living room and must fit in with the other functions of the living room, but here's the basics:

pre-amp: Outlaw Audio model 975 (new - sounds good but HDMI passthrough sucks so I've had to wire stuff direct to TV and send a separate HDMI from the bluray to the preamp))

Amplifier: ATI 1505 (150 W x 5 channels) - more than enough power.

Speakers:  NHT 2.5i towers (run on "large"), matching 3-way center, and some old Advent surrounds that the previous owner left installed on the wall (I am fairly well convinced now that the vast majority of soundtracks don't benefit from larger or more expensive surrounds, or 7.1, etc.)

Subwoofer:  Velodyne HGS-12

For the video side, I have a new Samsung UHD 65 inch TV, and an Oppo bluray player (a few years old now).

It all sounds great - plays loud enough that my ears are ringing after a movie, but no one notices how loud it really is during it because it's not shrill or otherwise unpleasant - it just sounds good.  I'll try to post some pics because our living room looks really nice now, especially with the custom wood blinds I installed last weekend. I really am turning into you people now...

Pre-amp:  Pioneer ELITE VSX-21TXH AVR (w/ HDMI pass-through) - 800W @ 0.09%THD (verified with Tektronix 2235 Oscilloscope)

Speakers:  Cerwin-Vega E-715 15" towers w/ on-board tweeter & mid-range control (#8 AWG copper wiring); C-V 13" bookshelves-rear; C-V center channel w/ dual 6" drivers; C-V LW-12 12" front firing powered sub-woofer (300W); Jensen JS-1000A floor-firing powered sub-woofer (200W)

EQ:  Yamaha dual 10-channel Equalizer

Amplifier:  Adcom GFA-5500; Two channel power amplifier; 200 w/ch RMS into 8 Ohms; Frequency response 10 Hz - 20 kHz plus 0, minus 0.25 dB; THD < 0.18%

Video:  Samsung 55" LED HDTV 240Hz and Samsung Blu-ray player (1080p/60, 1080p/24, 4K) complete with HDMI and 5.1/7.1 channel analog outputs

 

[csb]

We now own a projector and a ten-inch screen for backyard movie night. It's still cold outside, so we test ran it inside last night. I used some old computer speakers from 1999. 

 

[Supe]

That's one tiny screen!

 

[Supe]

I still lust after a serious two channel setup with some McIntosh tube amps, KF.

 

[knight1fox3]

That's one tiny screen!

Agreed.  Don't worry @csb, 10" is.........umm.....a good size.

 

[csb]

HA! Whoops. Ten FEET is the size of the screen. 

 

[Dleg]

Because we all knew 10 inches would never be enough for @csb ....

 

[Dleg]

Speaking of 10 inches, those are some big speakers, @knight1fox3!

 

[MA_PE]

she just loved my big 10 inch......record of my favorite blues!

 

[jeb6294]

Was everyone so consumed with screen size that nobody noticed that they were using a 10-foot screen to watch Teen Mom?

 

[Supe]

BTW, @knight1fox3 - what's an MC302 running for on the used market these days?  

 

[Supe]

Was everyone so consumed with screen size that nobody noticed that they were using a 10-foot screen to watch Teen Mom?

I didn't know it was Teen Mom, but the instant recognition sure tells us something about your viewing habits, Jeb...

 

[jeb6294]

I didn't know it was Teen Mom, but the instant recognition sure tells us something about your viewing habits, Jeb...

Wasn't hard to figure out...just Googled MTV and Leah.

 

[knight1fox3]

BTW, @knight1fox3 - what's an MC302 running for on the used market these days?  

I haven't seen them for less than $4500, new or used.  They are a premium item.  My neighbor has one and the thing is damn sweet.  He's also got an old pair of Klipsch towers that can really put the sound out.

I didn't know it was Teen Mom, but the instant recognition sure tells us something about your viewing habits, Jeb...

 

[Supe]

That's kind of what I had figured.  I think the original MSRP was about $5500.  But at the time, they were as good as you were going to get for 300 WPC.

 

[csb]

Wasn't hard to figure out...just Googled MTV and Leah.

Nice try. When you're ready, we're waiting for you in the Engineer Girls forum. 

 

[wilheldp_PE]

My 83 year old neighbor had the Best Buy Geek Squad come out and give him a quote for outfitting and installing his home theater.  He has a projector and wanted them to run wires in the walls for him so that he can mount the projector on the ceiling (he's finishing his basement and wanted this done before he drywalled the ceiling).  They quoted him over $5400 for equipment and labor.  He told them he didn't really want or need external speakers (he just uses the speaker built into the projector) but they quoted him a full set of Martin Logan speakers with a Denon receiver and a $300 Logitech RF remote.  They wanted $750 for a screen, $150 for a projector mount, $100 for a 5 meter HDMI cable, $90 FOR A 1 METER HDMI CABLE (the fuck!), and $80 for a surge protector.  All that plus $800 to install all that shit with an open ceiling. 

 
I just put in an Amazon order for a little over $150 for everything he actually needs, and I'm going to help him install it...should take a couple hours, tops.  What a fucking ripoff.